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PRAIRIE VIEW'S BECK EARNS ALL-AMERICAN HONORS

PRAIRIE VIEW, TEXAS (December 26, 2009) Prairie View A&M senior defensive back Anthony Beck added another honor to his resume this past Wednesday as he was named to the 2009 Sports Network Football Championship Subdivision All-America Third Team.

A four-year starter at safety, Beck capped off an impressive career at Prairie View as he holds the school record for interceptions returned for touchdowns (3) in addition to picking off 11 passes and tallying over 160 tackles. The Houston native, who played at Channelview High School, also was named to the 2009 All-SWAC Football First Team for the second straight year along with earning preseason All-American honors by The Sports Network and Consensus Draft Service.

A construction science major, Beck also has aspirations of furthering his playing career as he recently participated in the inaugural Russell Athletic HBCU Bowl last weekend in Montgomery, Ala. During the week of practice leading up to the game, Beck had the opportunity to showcase his skills in front of scouts from the NFL, UFL, Arena Football, and Canadian Football Leagues.

UH Defeats Rice to Win Bayou Bucket
By Robert H. Kelly
Copyright 2009 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (November 28, 2009) With a crowd of 28, 243 in attendance, the Houston Cougars (10-2 overall, 6-2 Conference USA) overwhelmed a struggling Rice Owls team (2-10 overall, 2-6 in Conference USA), defeating their cross-town rivals 73-14 at Robertson Stadium to win the Bayou Bucket.

The Cougars, who bolted out to a 24-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and increased their lead to 59-0 at the half, never was challenged by Rice in winning the Conference USA West title.

Houston’s junior quarterback Case Keenum, a finalist for the Davey O’Brien Award, went 24 for 31 and 323 yards in the air with two touchdowns. He also rushed for 8 yards and scored one touchdown on a 1-yard run with 10:10 to go in the first quarter.

Keenum left the second half to his backups, Cotton Turner and Austin Elrod. Turner went 6 for 8 and 52 yards passing with 1 touchdown; while Elrod rushed for 16 yards on 3 carries.

Houston tallied a total of 684 yards total offense (221 yards rushing and 463 yards passing) while holding Rice to 377 yards (243 yards rushing and 134 yards passing).

Rice never seemed to get into the offensive end of the game until the second half, when the Cougars virtually cleared their bench to allow players down on the depth chart a chance to play.

In fact, Houston ran off a string of 66 unanswered points before Rice could get on the board. Rice finally scored with 9:00 left in the 3rd quarter on an 11-yard run by Charles Ross to take the score to 66-7.

Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin was quoted in saying his players knew how important the game was. “Everyone knew what was at stake here tonight from a big-picture standpoint. The more you can reduce things to feelings about rivalry games, the more I think it helps the guys focus a little better. Our guys came out today and showed how important this game is to them.”

Sumlin was further quoted “This was one of our primary goals – to win the West. We haven’t been perfect but we’ve gotten better and have gone through quite a bit but our guys keep fighting,” Sumlin said. “They have put our team in a position to win a championship and as a coach and program, that’s where you want to be. The only way to do that is to win games. These guys have fought to do that and that’s where we’re at right now but the season isn’t over yet.”

Now it is off to Greenville, North Carolina to face the East Carolina Pirates (8-4 overall, 7-1 Conference USA) on Saturday, December 5 at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for the 2009 Conference USA Football Championship.

Keenam Leads Cougars to 50-43 Win Over Southern Miss
By Robert H. Kelly
Copyright 2009 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (October 31, 2009) The chances for the Houston Cougars to win the Conference USA Championship may have been dashed if not for a 28-yard touchdown pass from Case Keenam to Patrick Edwards with 21 seconds left in the game to give the Cougars a 50-43 victory over rival Southern Miss.
Southern Miss tied the game 43-43 with 57 seconds left on the game, giving Houston one last possession to get the ball into the end zone.
Case Keenam showed why he is one of the top quarterbacks in the country, passing for four plays and covering 77-yards to give in 36-seconds to secure the win. He threw for a career high 559-yard, completing 43 of 53 passes with one interception.
In a strictly offensive battle, the Cougars and Golden Eagles virtually traded scores the entire game in a game that saw a total of 1,358 yards of combined total offense from both teams.
Southern Miss got on the scoreboard first on a 6-yard run by Damion Fletcher at the 13:38 mark in the first quarter. Justin Esten’s kicked was blocked to make the score 6-0.
The Cougars quickly answered back on a 31-yards run by Charles Sims and a successful Matt Hogan kick to take the score to 7-6.
Southern Miss quarterback Martevious Young came back with 1:00 left in the quarter, hitting Gerald Baptiste on a seventy yard pass play to take the lead by one.
Houston came on like gang-busters in the second quarter, scoring 23 points against nine points for the Golden Eagles.
The Cougars added a field goal in the 3rd quarter to take their lead to 33-22 with 15 minutes to go.
Baptiste added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to tie the score at 43-43.
Then Keenan put on the 36 second show that brought down the curtain on Southern Mississippi.
Keenum had one of the best games of his career; throwing for five touchdowns while only being sacked once. His 557 yards was the highest ever thrown against a Golden Eagles’ team. The previous high was Eric Zeier from Georgia who threw for 544 yards in 1993.