2011 C-USA Championship
Week 14, Southern Miss at Houston
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National
Rankings
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H |
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S |
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1st |
Total Offense |
15th |
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60th |
Total Defense |
26th |
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1st |
Scoring Offense |
15th |
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30th |
Scoring Defense |
25th |
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55th |
Rushing Offense |
24th |
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77th |
Run Defense |
20th |
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1st |
Passing Offense |
32nd |
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44th |
Passing Defense |
55th |
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7th |
Turnover Margin |
65th |
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Position Rankings
relative to each
other
5 Highest - 1 Lowest |
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H |
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S |
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5 |
Quarterbacks |
4.5 |
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3 |
RBs |
4 |
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5 |
Receivers |
4 |
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4 |
O
Line |
4 |
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4 |
D
Line |
4 |
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4 |
Linebackers |
4 |
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4 |
Secondary |
3.5 |
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4.5 |
Spec
Teams |
4.5 |
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4 |
Coaching |
4 |
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Southern Miss 49 … at Houston 28
CFN Analysis: COMING
(AP) HOUSTON -- Austin Davis threw four touchdown passes and No. 24 Southern Mississippi ruined Houston's perfect season and Bowl Championship Series hopes with a 49-28 victory over the Cougars (No. 6 BCS, No. 7 AP) on Saturday.
It was star quarterback Case Keenum's last home game for Houston for sure, and could've also been the finale for coach Kevin Sumlin, who has been mentioned as a top candidate for virtually every higher-profile job opening.
Houston (12-1) was poised to impress a national-television audience and representatives from the Orange and Sugar Bowl, who attended Saturday's game. Keenum could've also made one last case for an invitation to next week's Heisman Trophy ceremony.
Instead, the Golden Eagles (11-2) turned it into their big day, shackling Houston's high-powered offense and striking with several big plays of their own to win their first league title.
Tracey Lampley caught two touchdown passes and the Golden Eagles became the first team to hold Houston, averaging more than 50 per game, below 35 points this season.
Keenum completed 41 of 67 passes for 373 yards and two touchdowns. He became the first quarterback to reach 5,000 yards passing in three seasons, one more record to tack onto his magnificent career.
The sixth-year senior bounced back from a torn knee ligament last season to become the Football Bowl Subdivision career records for total offense, yards passing and touchdown passes this year.
The only goal left to reach was to carry the program to its first undefeated season and first BCS berth. Now, all the Cougars have to look forward to is a disappointing, lower-tier bowl and an uncertain future without Keenum and, maybe, without Sumlin.
Speculation intensified this week when Mike Sherman was fired at nearby Texas A&M, where Sumlin worked as an offensive assistant for R.C. Slocum in 2001-02.
The Cougars nimbly played through the groundswell of rumors in recent weeks, and vowed that they wouldn't lose their focus leading up to the biggest game in program history.
But it was obvious from the start on Saturday that the Cougars were off-kilter.
Southern Miss jumped to a 14-0 lead before Keenum finally started clicking midway through the second quarter.
Charles Sims gained 31 yards on a screen pass, and Keenum found Justin Johnson for a 9-yard touchdown pass with 7:48 left in the half.
Keenum went 3 for 3 on the next series, hitting Johnson in stride down the middle for a tying 50-yard touchdown.
Houston's defense is vastly improved from last season, but it never got a handle on Davis, who also rushed for 47 yards.
Davis found Dominique Sullivan for a 69-yard touchdown to put Southern Miss up 21-14 at the break.
The Cougars looked just as shaky after halftime.
Southern Miss' Furious Bradley blocked Richie Leone's punt, scooped up the loose ball and took it 11 yards for a score to make it 28-14.
Deron Wilson intercepted a Keenum pass in the end zone, but the Cougars got it right back, when Houston's Philip Steward picked off a deflected pass and returned it to the Southern Miss 5.
Michael Hayes scored on the next play to cut the deficit to 28-21, and a Houston rally seemed to be coming.
Instead, Lampley started the Golden Eagles' next series with a 28-yard run and Southern Miss took more than four minutes off the clock before Desmond Johnson scored on a 17-yard scamper.
The Cougars' secondary broke down again in the final minute of the third quarter, when Davis found Lampley open down the sideline for a 61-yard touchdown and a 42-21 Southern Miss lead.
Sumlin called his players together and gave them a fiery pep talk between the third and fourth quarters, but that changed nothing.
Southern Miss linebacker Ronnie Thornton intercepted a Keenum pass and returned it 26 yards for a score with 2:41 left. As the Golden Eagles celebrated, Keenum unstrapped his helmet and slowly trudged off the field.
The victory should fuel more rumors about Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora who, like Sumlin, is another hot name linked to various jobs. Fedora, completing his fourth season with the Golden Eagles, is a former offensive coordinator at Florida (2002-04) and Oklahoma State (2005-07).
Southern Miss (10-2) at Houston (12-0) Dec. 3, 12:00, ABC
Here’s The Deal … Welcome to the bigs, Conference USA. Be sure to enjoy your stay, because this journey doesn’t happen routinely.
It’s been a banner year for Houston, one of two remaining unbeaten programs. It’s been a pretty special season as well for Conference USA, that eclectic league with the uncertain future. Throughout much of this fall, Commissioner Britton Banowsky has had to endure the incessant rumors that a chunk of his membership was about to flee, mostly in the direction of the Big East. Many still might bolt, which is even more of a reason to enjoy this fall while it lasts.
All indications are that the conference might not enjoy a level of national notoriety and prominence again for some time. You see, Conference USA has never been home to a BCS bowl participant the way the Mountain West and WAC have in recent years. That dynamic, though, could change by Saturday afternoon.
If this week’s game isn’t the most important in Houston history, it’s sure in the top 5 all-time. With a victory, the Cougars will lock down one of the ten coveted BCS openings, a boon to the program on so many levels. The nation’s No. 6 team is built around record-setting QB Case Keenum, the conductor of the country’s highest scoring offense. The sixth-year senior has delivered a triumphant return from a knee injury that curtailed his 2010 season, guiding the program to 12 straight victories, most by lopsided margins.
Yes, the schedule is feather-light compared to other top 10 outfits, with UCLA being the only household opponent, but the Cougs haven’t won a game by fewer than 30 points since Sept. 29. And people have started to pay attention to this year’s primary BCS-buster.
Southern Miss is the final hurdle standing between Houston and a BCS bowl game. While the Golden Eagles fell off the radar with an inexcusable loss to UAB on Nov. 17, it’s important to note that this team was ranked prior to its trip to Birmingham. And riding an eight game winning streak that included a defeat of 8-4 Virginia in Charlottesville. This is fourth-year head coach Larry Fedora’s best team, a balanced squad that can prevail in myriad different ways.
There’s no single way to solve USM, which is what makes them so darn tricky to play. It’s the Eagles’ lapses, though, that can be maddening for the staff and the fans. How does the school that wins 10 games for the first time since 1988 also lose to Marshall and UAB? It’ll arrive at Robertson Stadium with a chip on its shoulders, needing to hand Houston its first loss of 2011 in order to elevate its own national profile.
The lights are brighter. The stakes are infinitely higher. The coach, Kevin Sumlin, is about to be targeted for a promotion. How will Houston handle the pressure that comes with being on the brink of a seminal moment in its history? The Cougars have achieved plenty this fall, but wholesale respect as a bona fide national contender is not one of them. For that to occur, they’ll first need to qualify for a game in January, where their toughest opponent of the year will be waiting.
Players to Watch: While Houston has Keenum under center, Southern Miss has Austin Davis. While not nearly as prolific, the senior is every bit as valuable to his team as his counterpart on the other sideline. Davis is a playmaker, accounting for 103 career touchdowns in Hattiesburg, 77 as a passer, 25 as a runner and one as a receiver. Even more important, though, are what he does that won’t show up in a box score, such as bringing leadership to the field, and keeping his younger teammates centered. One of the wild cards joining Davis in the backfield will be junior Desmond Johnson. The starter when the season began, he missed seven games due to injury. However, not only has No. 7 returned, but he delivered the second 100-yard game of his career last week.
The biggest reason that Houston is perfect, besides Keenum and Sumlin, is that the defense has been quietly outstanding. Yup, they do play defense in Space City. And a disruptive brand of it, too. Unlike in recent years, when the D was the reason the Cougars squandered a game or two it shouldn’t have, this edition hasn’t skipped a beat. Fueled by a frenetic quartet of linebackers, Houston ranks third nationally in tackles for loss, and has yielded an average of just 16 points over the last seven games. Setting the tone are leading tackler Marcus McGraw and Sammy Brown, who has more stops for loss, 26, than anyone in America. Houston gets to the ball in a hurry, playing with a seek-and-destroy mindset.
Houston hasn’t surrounded Keenum with weapons; he has an artillery at his disposal. The Cougars boast three backs who’ve rushed for at least seven touchdowns, and three receivers with no fewer than 60 receptions. Southern Miss will be forced to play a pick-your-poison type of defense. And you can forget about DE Cordarro Law or Bandit Jamie Collins getting to the passer since No. 7 gets rid of the ball so quickly.
The Houston skill players most likely to keep Golden Eagles coaches up late at night are WR Patrick Edwards and backs Charles Sims and Michael Hayes. Edwards is a burner, with 18 touchdown catches and an average of more than 20 yards per grab. Sims and Hayes are a couple of jackrabbits, who are as pesky slipping out of the backfield as receivers as they are on handoffs.
Southern Miss will win if … it can produce non-offensive touchdowns.
To beat Houston in Houston, the Golden Eagles will need to go above and beyond since no one goes toe-to-toe with the Cougars in a traditional manner. It’s a good thing for Southern Miss that few FBS programs have been better this year at finding points from unconventional sources, scoring 11 non-offensive touchdowns. It can get pick-sixes from corners Deron Wilson or Marquese Wheaton, or tempo-changing returns on special teams from the elusive Tracy Lampley. The Eagles must tap into the persona that made them so dangerous during the regular season, swiping some momentum, and quieting the crowd on money plays from their defensive and special teams units.
Houston will win if … the defense doesn’t have a complete meltdown.
The offense will roll, meaning the only way the Cougars suffer their first loss is if the legs suddenly go out on the D. Houston has been challenged only three times this season, versus UCLA, Louisiana Tech and UTEP. In those games, it allowed 554, 444 and 538 yards, respectively, and had problems slowing down the opposing running game.
The best—and maybe only—way to curtail the Cougars offense is to milk the clock with long, ground-based drives that wear down the defense. Houston will only become vulnerable if the defense is on the field too long, as Keenum & Co. pace along the sidelines.
What Will Happen: Southern Miss is a quality program. Then again, so is Tulsa, and look what happened last weekend.
Blowing out the Golden Hurricane, which had been riding a seven-game winning streak, sent shockwaves that this is not your ordinary Houston program. This is a very different crew, one that can win with defense as well as offense. The Cougars will start slowly, maybe even excite a few at-large BCS wannabes, before taking flight en route to win No. 13 and a historic bowl berth.
The Golden Eagles can be a tricky bunch, especially when the running game is clicking, and the defense and special teams are making waves. However, Keenum is on a mission, a quest to parlay this sixth year of eligibility into more than just an assault on the record books. Oh, he’ll once again post gaudy numbers, but on this afternoon, he’ll be better defined as the first quarterback in Conference USA history to lead his team into a BCS bowl game.
CFN Prediction: Houston 41 … Southern Miss 26
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Click For Latest Line From ATS: Houston -13.5 O/U: 71.5
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