HOUSTON (AP) -It’s been 18 long years since the Houston Cougars were ranked and they are enjoying it.
Houston cracked the AP Top 25 this week at No. 21 after knocking off then-No. 5 Oklahoma State 45-35. They get an off week to enjoy the success, though they’ll need the extra prep time: They get the high-octane offense of Texas Tech on Sept. 26.
Coach Kevin Sumlin gave his team a few days to soak in the win. But said Tuesday was the last day they’d talk about it as they shift their focus to the Red Raiders, who face No. 2 Texas Saturday.
The Cougars were last ranked by the AP on Sept. 15, 1991 with David Klingler at quarterback and John Jenkins as coach. To find their last win over a top-five opponent one has to go all the way back to Nov. 10, 1984, when Houston beat No. 3 Texas 29-15 in Austin.
Sumlin has no problem with people throwing those kinds of numbers and facts at him, but he’s far too busy right now to sit back and ponder the historical significance of any of them.
“We’ll think about that when it’s over with,” he said.
getting some national exposure.
“Whenever there’s success that’s going to happen,” he said. “Just like there was some things that happened last year that were firsts, there will continue to be firsts if we do what we’re supposed to do, what we want to do.”
The players are clearly excited, talking about the reaction around campus and their inboxes overflowing with congratulatory text messages. It’s a good feeling, but they know that they’ll have to stay focused to beat Texas Tech.
“Everybody is starting to recognize us a little bit,” cornerback Jamal Robinson said. “But if we lose next week that recognition that we’ve been having means absolutely nothing.”
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“There’s a lot of people excited about football around here now,” said quarterback Case Keenum, who grew up watching the Red Raiders. “Texas people are always in love with football during football season, but to see a lot of people excited about Cougar football is neat.”
Sumlin is focused on what his team is doing, not what people are saying about it. He raved about the maturity the Cougars from Conference USA showed in coming back to win after the Cowboys erased a big deficit with 21 unanswered points.
ars led Oklahoma State early, but couldn’t recover after the Cowboys went on a scoring run and eventually got a 56-37 win.
“Saturday’s game was a huge barometer for me as a coach to handle that situation,” he said. “Last year, we didn’t handle it. We could have thrown down our chips in the third quarter very easily with the crowd screaming as we gave up a punt return in a play that seemed like nine missed tackles … for our guys to come back and score, be scored on and score again and just keep fighting, I thought it was great.”
The Cougars are likely in for another shootout when they host Tech in a nationally televised game next Saturday. Houston and Tech employ two of the most potent passing attacks in the country. Tech’s Taylor Potts ranks first in NCAA with more than 430 yards passing a game and Keenum is fifth with just more than 362 yards.
Running back Bryce Beall, who had a rushing and receiving touchdown against the Cowboys, is looking forward to the challenge of facing the Red Raiders.
“Playing another Big 12 team could help move us up higher in the polls, but we just have to go out every week and play the same way,” he said. “We don’t care who the team is, we’re going to respect them, we’re just not going to fear them.”
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