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Houston-UCLA Preview

Sep 14, 2010 - 5:50 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Houston (2-0) at UCLA (0-2), 10:30 p.m. EDT

While it's unclear whether Case Keenum will be under center for Houston, it may not matter given the way the Cougars ran the ball in their last game - and how UCLA's rushing defense has fared so far.

With Keenum's status up in the air, the 23rd-ranked Cougars travel to the Rose Bowl to face a Bruins team trying to avoid its first 0-3 start since 1971 on Saturday night.

Keenum - who threw for more than 5,000 yards in each of the last two years - was injured late in the third quarter of a 54-24 victory over UTEP on Friday. He was intercepted and tried to make a tackle on the play, and was slow to get up.

Houston coach Kevin Sumlin indicated that Keenum has mild concussion symptoms and is day to day. Cotton Turner replaced Keenum - whose streak of consecutive games with a touchdown pass ended at 31 games - and completed nine of 10 passes for 69 yards and a touchdown.

"Cotton was 9 for 10 throwing the football," Sumlin said. "So we'll look at it this week and see where Case is."

Houston (2-0) proved it has more than just a terrific passing game, and that could pay dividends if Keenum cannot play. Bryce Beall ran for a career-high 195 yards and scored three touchdowns to earn Conference USA offensive player of the week honors.

"Our backs are running hard, I couldn't be happier," Sumlin said. "A lot of this was made possible on the inside by our offensive line, but I'll say this, when you're breaking off long runs like this, there's some guys making blocks on the perimeter, so I have to compliment our receivers on that."

The emergence of the running game could be bad news for UCLA, which has allowed an average of 268.0 yards on the ground in its two losses to rank next-to-last in the Pac-10.

The Bruins began the 1971 season 0-4, and it appears likely this team could match that start.

UCLA lost the opener 31-22 at Kansas State and fell 35-0 at home to then-No. 25 Stanford last week. After hosting the Cougars, the Bruins travel to face No. 6 Texas next week.

"The schedule being what it is, we've got to do what we can, and not listen to the external forces that are saying we're terrible, because it doesn't help us," coach Rick Neuheisel said.

It's been a rough start for second-year quarterback Kevin Prince, who has gone 15 of 38 for 159 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Prince has not completed a pass longer than 35 yards, and hasn't been helped by a running game that has produced one play of more than 20 yards.

He was replaced by Richard Brehaut in last week's loss - the worst for UCLA at home since 1984. Neuheisel is sticking with Prince, who is expected to participate fully in practice this week after missing parts of last week's workouts to rest his arm and a sore back that kept him out for most of training camp.

"There's still reason for optimism," Neuheisel said. "There's no reason to throw in the towel. What other choice do you have? Goodness gracious, there's 10 games left. We still want to be optimistic."

These teams have split four matchups, and have not met since UCLA won 42-24 in 1998.