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Tulsa
at Houston - Top QBs will face off Tulsa's Smith, UH's Kolb are best
in Conference USA Tulsa will try to do today what Oklahoma State could not do six weeks ago. The Golden Hurricane will try to win a football game at Houston, where OSU lost 34-25 Sept. 23. "They're the most talented and complete team that we've played so far," said Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe, whose Golden Hurricane have won six straight games since a 49-24 loss at BYU. Today's UH homecoming game at Robertson Stadium will likely decide the West division champion in Conference USA. Tulsa is the only unbeaten (4-0) team in the conference standings, and Houston (4-1) is the only team with just one C-USA loss. If Tulsa (7-1) wins today, the Golden Hurricane would have a two-game C-USA lead with three games to play. The team with the best league record will host the C-USA championship game Dec. 1. If Houston (6-3) wins today, the Cougars would have the best conference record and only two games remaining, at SMU (3-2) and at Memphis (0-4). "You don't have to be a mathematician," Houston coach Art Briles said, "to figure out the winner of this game is going to come out in pretty good shape." Today's game will match the two best quarterbacks in the conference, junior Paul Smith of Tulsa and senior Kevin Kolb of Houston. Kolb ranks fourth in NCAA total offense and ninth in passing efficiency. He rallied the Cougars to a 30-23 win last year at Tulsa after trailing 13-3, though Smith passed for more yards (283) than Kolb (276) in that game. In the win over OSU six weeks ago, Kolb threw four touchdown passes and completed 21 of 28 attempts for 313 yards. He leads all active major college quarterbacks in career passing yards and total offense. Kolb stands 6-foot-3, weighs 225 pounds and has 4.6 speed over 40 yards. Kragthorpe compared him to Drew Brees, a player he scouted as an NFL assistant. "I think he's probably as productive or more productive than Drew was in college," Kragthorpe said. "He's bigger and throws the ball harder. He can throw the deep ball better. I would compare him to guys I've evaluated or guys I coached in the NFL more than guys I coach presently." C-USA team ratings indicate a classic matchup today: While Houston is first in scoring, passing and total offense, Tulsa is first in scoring defense, pass defense and total defense. "We control we," Briles said. "We haven't asked anyone to loan us money or give us some gas for our car. We've got gas in the car and we know where we are going. We control where we end up." Today's winner will, most likely, host the C-USA championship game four weeks from now. |
