No. 13 Houston, Tulsa continue wild rivalry

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)—When Conference USA reshuffled its membership and divisional lineups a few years ago, a new rivalry was born—and predicting what’s going to happen when Tulsa and Houston get together can be an exercise in futility.

Kevin Kolb, destined to play in the NFL, led the Cougars into Tulsa two years ago and suffered a 56-7 defeat. A year later, Houston got revenge on its home field with a 70-30 rout of a Golden Hurricane team that had started the season 8-0.

With the wild history in the series, there’s no telling what Saturday night holds when the No. 13 Cougars (7-1, 3-1 CUSA) return to Tulsa.

“The bottom line: When we go into the offseason, we tell our kids, `If you want to win the Western Division, you’ve got to beat Houston. This is the game,”’ Tulsa coach Todd Graham said. “Before the season, I’m going to say we’re going to take it one game at a time and all of that. But this is the game. This is the game you’ve got to win.

“If you want to win the West, Houston’s got to beat Tulsa and Tulsa’s got to beat Houston. That’s the way it’s been in the last four years.”

Tulsa (4-4, 2-2) bounced back from last year’s loss to get into the Conference USA title game for the third time in the last four years, taking advantage when Houston fell in its regular-season finale at Rice.

“We’ve won the Western side three times and Houston’s won it once. So, I think the winner of this game is in the driver’s seat,” Graham said. “That’s the way we’ve approached it with our guys. Everything that’s behind us, you can forget about and just look at what’s in front of you.”

Even with the Golden Hurricane entering this year’s rivalry game on a three-game losing streak, Houston coach Kevin Sumlin doesn’t want his bunch feeling overconfident.

While the Cougars are leading the nation in total offense, they’re also giving up the seventh-most yards in the nation and needed a score with 21 seconds left to beat Southern Miss 50-43 last week.

Tulsa led the nation in total offense the last two seasons before taking a step back this year.

“They’re a good team and you can’t take them lightly,” Sumlin said. “They’re going to come out and play hard. I know some of their goals have been to beat Houston and it’s going to take a really good game for us to beat them.”

Houston quarterback Case Keenum, the nation’s leading passer, threw six touchdown passes in last season’s rout of Tulsa and is coming off of a career-best 559-yard performance last week.

“Case is special,” Graham said. “He’s just one of the best in the country. He’s just unbelievable, I think, and they’ve got great people around him. We’ve got to score points and we’ve got to keep him unbalanced. I don’t know that you stop him. You just have to keep him off-balance and you’ve got to make them earn everything they get and don’t give up cheap ones.”

Graham expects to have his starting quarterback, G.J. Kinne, back after he had to leave last week’s game with a concussion. Perhaps just as important, Tulsa could have its starting offensive line intact for the first time in weeks. The line has given up 31 sacks this season, third most in the nation.

“He’s been hit a lot this year, and he’s been a warrior,” Graham said of Kinne. “He’s had great courage and has done really well for us.”

AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken contributed to this report from Houston.