Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

At the end of the first half of Thursday's game between Houston and UAB, I began to think that Houston's win over East Carolina was an aberration. Down 20-3 at home to a 1-5 UAB team, the Cougars were playing about as poorly as a team can play.

What a difference a couple choice words by coach Kevin Sumlin at halftime can make.

Houston was a different team in the second half. It looked like the team that defeated East Carolina two weeks ago and dropped the Pirates from the national rankings. And it looked like a team that's now, with its 45-20 win over UAB, is locked at the top of the Conference USA West with Tulsa and UTEP, though both teams play this weekend.

There wasn't a lot to dislike about quarterback Case Keenum in this game. He was quick, accurate and led his team to victory.

He told me earlier this week that he spent some time during last week's bye watching Texas quarterback Colt McCoy and the Tulsa and Rice quarterbacks, David Johnson and Chase Clement. All are similar quarterbacks, and Keenum proved Thursday that he belonged in the conversation.

So now what?

Well, both UTEP and Tulsa have winnable games against Tulane and SMU respectively. They should stay at the top of the of the conference standings. Houston doesn't meet either one of those teams until November. But in the weeks prior to those games, there's no reason the Cougars shouldn't sweep the rest of the month. Their games are against SMU, Marshall and Tulane. Marshall might be the biggest hurdle of the group, but the Cougars should handle a one-win SMU team and a Tulane team that is severely banged up, though there's no telling what it will look like in three weeks.

Houston has all the tools to be in the hunt come November, but it will need to shore up its run defense during this month if it wants to have a chance against the better teams in the conference.