Conference USA Championship Game Review: Southern Mississippi 49, Houston 28

The Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles won their first Conference USA title since 2003 by stunning the Houston Cougars on the road. In many ways, that’s the storyline which should be celebrated and promoted after a wild final weekend in this non-BCS conference. However, it’s hard to deny the sense that what happened at Houston’s Robertson Stadium on Saturday will be remembered far more for what happened to the losing team, not the winning team. A great story turned into a nightmare, partly due to one of college football’s most unpleasant realities.

One should feel sad for Houston’s players, who lost a Sugar Bowl bid, a Heisman Trophy dance card for star quarterback Case Keenum, and a $17 million payday for Conference USA. So much was lost by the Cougars on one disastrous afternoon that carried long-term significance for a lot of people involved in the college sports industry. However, in the same breath, it’s hard to be too worked up about this loss in light of its effects on Houston boss Kevin Sumlin. The up-and-coming figure in the college football coaching community was unable to wait until after the regular season to scratch his coaching itch.

Sumlin became the latest coach who made inquiries about a bigger coaching job the week before the most important game of his team’s season. LSU coach Les Miles did this the week before the 2007 SEC Championship Game between LSU and Tennessee; Miles, of course, flirted heavily with Michigan before staying at LSU. Brian Kelly did this before Cincinnati’s 2009 season-ender against Pittsburgh, with a possible BCS title game berth on the line for Kelly’s Bearcats. It’s just a fact of life in college football that coaches – under pressure to bolt middle-tier jobs when a plum gig opens up somewhere else – are always looking to get out of town if they see a career-enhancing opportunity. The need to hit the recruiting trail and establish momentum at a new place of employment overwhelms the desire to finish a full season, especially a season that stood on the verge of a rich accomplishment.

It’s part of the business, but it’s just not right that Sumlin flirted with Arizona State and Texas A&M in the days before this game against Southern Miss, a team which clearly benefited from Houston’s altered emotional state on Saturday.

It’s impossible to deny the notion that Houston’s players – already excited because of the possibility of making the Sugar Bowl – were knocked off balance by reports of Sumlin’s conversations with Arizona State and Texas A&M. Houston’s players had their routines disrupted, their preparations thrown out of whack. Keenum, a potential Heisman candidate and icon of the Houston program, was given an extra load of pressure he never asked for or expected to receive. The cumulative weight of the moment was big enough to begin with; when rumors of Sumlin’s impending departure flourished in the 48 hours before kickoff, it’s impossible to deny the disconcerting effect those whisperings had on – and in – the Cougars’ locker room.

Houston’s whole team undeniably displayed the erratic qualities of an emotionally scattered team. Keenum was part of this dynamic, but his teammates succumbed to it as well. Houston receivers dropped at least five passes in the first half and continuously slipped when making open-field cuts. Keenum threw a devastating third-quarter interception on a play from the Southern Miss 1-yard line. Houston’s defense – which actually played a solid first half – fell apart in the second half after USM broke the game open thanks to a blocked punt scoop-and-score touchdown by all-name-team Hall of Fame inductee Furious Bradley. Once that special teams score was posted by the Golden Eagles, USM took a 28-14 lead. The mood inside the ballpark turned to complete and utter despair, and Houston’s athletes absorbed that feeling themselves. UH’s defense lost heart, and frankly, who wouldn’t have collapsed under the weight of an entirely new situation the Cougars had never faced before?

Southern Mississippi deserves all the credit in the world for playing a better game, an inspired game, after losing to Alabama-Birmingham a few weeks earlier. USM coach Larry Fedora has achieved what he set out to do when he became the Golden Eagles’ head coach four years ago. Everyone on the Southern Miss roster should bask in the glow of a hard-earned and well-deserved conference championship.

Nevertheless, it’s still plain as day that Kevin Sumlin’s coaching search undermined his team’s preparations for the biggest Houston football game since the 1985 Cotton Bowl against Boston College. Houston basketball had its moment of supreme pain against North Carolina State at the 1983 Final Four. Houston football now has its darkest hour: December 3, 2011, against Southern Mississippi. Kevin Sumlin will be able to move on from this game. His players might not be able to do the same.