Kudos to Mike Price, coach of the UTEP Miners, for knocking off a Houston team that was expected to ride roughshod over Conference USA after beating not one, but two Big 12 South powers (well, second-tier powers). After all, his Miners played two Big 12 teams too, Kansas and Texas, but lost to them by a combined 98-14. This game became one of motivation as it was a lot easier for Price to get his charges fired up for a game that could turn around their season than for Houston coach Kevin Sumlin to stop his players from reading their press clippings and forecasts for “running the table.”
The notion that Houston’s performances against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech would force the teams that knock heads with them annually in conference play to surrender to them without a fight was always odd. The talent level at UTEP and Houston is roughly the same. Playing at home and with the motivational advantages listed above make this “upset” not much of a stunner.
But of course that is what makes becoming the darling of the non BCS crowd so difficult. You have to schedule up and then win those games to get noticed, but then once noticed make sure that you take care of business in conference play. Every year we see teams get noticed in September with an upset win, begin to get written about by some pundits, and then fall to a rival or two. It happens all the time yet some pundits still fall for the illusion. If Houston is good enough to beat teams we have heard off, then they must be good enough to crush guys from El Paso or Tulsa. It will be a lot of fun if they can then travel to Mississippi State next week and knock off another team from a BCS conference.
But the main concern for the Cougars must be the Conference USA West race. They are 0-1 and not only trail 1-0 UTEP, but 1-0 SMU and more importantly 2-0 Tulsa. They do not play the Golden Hurricane until November 7, but that game is on the road. Good luck, but then again you have traveled to The Sooner State once before this season and returned with a win.
Meanwhile, Houston QB Case Keenum may have seen his long-shot Heisman race go up in flames despite throwing for 536y and 5 TDs against the 11 guys considered defenders by UTEP. It would have taken a miracle for Keenum to win and any loss will cost him the little attention he was getting. A good performance next week will not hurt, but with so many of the voters having a prejudice against guys from beyond the BCS, he is in trouble.
The notion that Houston’s performances against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech would force the teams that knock heads with them annually in conference play to surrender to them without a fight was always odd. The talent level at UTEP and Houston is roughly the same. Playing at home and with the motivational advantages listed above make this “upset” not much of a stunner.
But of course that is what makes becoming the darling of the non BCS crowd so difficult. You have to schedule up and then win those games to get noticed, but then once noticed make sure that you take care of business in conference play. Every year we see teams get noticed in September with an upset win, begin to get written about by some pundits, and then fall to a rival or two. It happens all the time yet some pundits still fall for the illusion. If Houston is good enough to beat teams we have heard off, then they must be good enough to crush guys from El Paso or Tulsa. It will be a lot of fun if they can then travel to Mississippi State next week and knock off another team from a BCS conference.
But the main concern for the Cougars must be the Conference USA West race. They are 0-1 and not only trail 1-0 UTEP, but 1-0 SMU and more importantly 2-0 Tulsa. They do not play the Golden Hurricane until November 7, but that game is on the road. Good luck, but then again you have traveled to The Sooner State once before this season and returned with a win.
Meanwhile, Houston QB Case Keenum may have seen his long-shot Heisman race go up in flames despite throwing for 536y and 5 TDs against the 11 guys considered defenders by UTEP. It would have taken a miracle for Keenum to win and any loss will cost him the little attention he was getting. A good performance next week will not hurt, but with so many of the voters having a prejudice against guys from beyond the BCS, he is in trouble.
Winning your own conference is one of the toughest things to do. Just ask Oklahoma the year they went to the National Championship game yet lost the conference championship game to Kansas State (I'm still upset that was allowed to happen). Yet "the voices/experts" (outside of you guys)of college football seem to forget about the intensity of instate and in-conference rivalries unless it involves a top 10 team
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