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Written by Travis Pulver
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Monday, 02 January 2012 13:55 |
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 Many of the doubts about the Houston Cougars were put to rest Monday afternoon when the Houston Cougars dominated the No 22 Penn State Nittany Lions 30-14 to win the 2012 TicketCity Bowl in Dallas, Texas.
Case Keenum and the Houston offense wasted no time getting in front of Penn State by taking less than two minutes to score, a 40-yard pass from Keenum to Patrick Edwards. The duo connected again late in the half on a 75-yard touchdown pass to go up 24-7 at the intermission.
Penn State was able to hold Houston’s offense out of the end zone in the second half, holding them to just a pair of field goals, but they were not able to get much offense going themselves. The Cougars defense gave up a 69-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter, but they also recorded three interceptions in the second half.
 By the end of the game, Keenum had put on a passing clinic against the No 4 pass defense in the nation lighting them up the Nittany Lions by completing 45 of 69 passes for 532 yards and three touchdowns. Keenum was named the MVP for the game.
"I couldn't ask for much better right here," Keenum said of the way he wanted his career to end. "In the Cotton Bowl with all my friends, my teammates, a great U-of-H crowd, it's a great day. I'm going to remember this for a long time."
The knock on the team the entire season was that the Cougars did so without playing any real competition. Losing to their only ranked opponent, than No 24 Southern Miss, in the Conference USA Championship game didn’t help. After handling Penn State, a strong Big Ten team, Keenum thinks that they proved the loss to Southern Miss was the fluke, not the 12 wins.
"You look at a Big Ten team, one of the best in their conference there, top-10 defense in the country and look what we did," said Keenum. "You can't deny that."
With the win the Cougars finished with their first 13-win season. New head coach Tony Levine became only the second head coach in school history to win in his debut; Kevin Sumlin had already departed to take over the program at Texas A&M. The victory also assured the Cougars of a top 25 finish for the first time since 1990.
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Last Updated on Monday, 02 January 2012 23:51 |
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