Houston, Keenum join the national conversation

Posted by ESPN.com’s Graham Watson

The non-AQ’s continue to prove that they are not a Week 1 wonder.

A week after BYU upset No. 3 Oklahoma in Dallas, Houston took down No. 5 Oklahoma State 45-35 in their first road win over a Top 10 team in 25 years.

This was quarterback Case Keenum’s coming out party.

He completed 32-of-47 passes for 367 yards and three touchdowns. After Oklahoma State took the lead at the end of the third quarter, Keenum kept his team composed and led it on two scoring drives. A pick-6 by cornerback Jamal Robinson sealed the victory with 3 minutes remaining.

“We knew offensively that we still didn’t have anything to lose,” Keenum said in a phone interview after the game. “We wanted to be in a close game at the end and just have the ball in our hands. Offensively, we just did what we did. We didn’t change anything up. We had good tempo and converted on some big plays and got lucky there a few times and it worked out.”

Now, the race to be the BCS buster has taken an interesting turn. Both BYU and Houston are undefeated with wins over teams ranked in the Top 5 of the national polls. Both teams have a couple other big-name opponents on their schedules to further their resumes and tough conference schedules to look forward to.

Houston is currently carrying the banner for Conference USA after East Carolina’s loss to West Virginia. It has a bye this week, which will allow the team to digest one of the biggest wins in program history before they host Texas Tech.

“We just move on to the next game,” Keenum said. “We go week-by-week, that’s what we do… It’s definitely early in the year. We’re going to enjoy it and then see what’s in store for us the next two weeks.”