Robbie ‘Mighty Mouse’ Rouse, out for a leisurely stroll against one of the worst football teams in human memory. (AP)

Our weekly highlight show of lesser FBS luminaries. Non-AQs and independents, be welcome.

Soooo remember last week, when we were all “Robbie Rouse is 79 yards away from becoming Fresno State’s all-time leading rusher, isn’t that swell?” We all know by now what happened next. So while we’ve got Mighty Mouse up on a pedestal, let’s put some of his teammates up there with him.

Video game football doesn’t begin to cover what Fresno State did to Colorado in Week 3; this was more akin to watching a cartoon. Were you aware … 

•  Rouse’s 94-yard touchdown run, the one that made him Fresno State’s all-time leading rusher, wasn’t even the Bulldogs’ longest scoring play of the game? On Fresno State’s prior possession, Derek Carr and Isaiah Burse combined for a 97-yard pitch-and-catch touchdown run.

•  Carr recorded his 300 passing yards and five touchdowns all in the first half?

•  Fresno State’s defense recorded four interceptions and four sacks?

•  Safety Phillip Thomas was responsible for three of those interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns?

•  Even the Bulldogs’ punter, Andrew Shapiro, got in on the rout with a career-long 69-yard punt? 

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ULM quarterback Kolton Browning edged the Warhawks past Arkansas and into history. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)

Our weekly highlight show of lesser FBS luminaries. Non-AQs and independents, be welcome.

• HAIL TO THE SUN BELT, SURE IS A FUN BELT, RA RA RA! What could top Utah State’s thrilling Friday night victory over Utah? Nothing short of Louisiana-Monroe taking a top 10 SEC team to overtime, on the road, and pulling out the win on a fourth-down quarterback dash. Said quarterback, Kolton Browning, has since been named Davey O’Brien Quarterback of the Week and a Walter Camp National Player of the Week honoree. Browning accounted for 481 of ULM’s 550 yards of offense, and four of the Warhawks’ five touchdowns. The Warhawks have their first win over a ranked team since leveling up to FBS, and to round out the weekly awards, have been named Week 2′s Tostitos Fiesta Bowl National Team of the Week. Last week it was Ohio. (A moment of cynicism: We love the attention being bestowed on non-AQs more than just about anybody right now, but this Tostitos shout out is pretty adorable considering how nigh-impossible it would be for the Bobcats or the Warhawks to actually make it into the Fiesta Bowl.)

• It is barely Week 3 and we are already out of poll puns. Idle in Week 2, Boise State is unranked in both major polls for the first time in four years. BYU is the only ranked team in this week’s AP Poll at No. 25, with Boise State, ULM (whee!), Ohio and Utah State also receiving votes. The Aggies’ lone vote is the program’s first since 1966; the Warhawks’ 23 are their first in team history. We hesitate to even mention the Coaches’ Poll for fear of helping its continued legitimacy, but teams receiving votes from disinterested voting SIDs include Boise State, BYU, Louisiana Tech, Ohio, Nevada and ULM.

• EA Sports loves USA, after all. EA Sports personnel have been spotted in Mobile, making preparations to incorporate South Alabama into the next edition of NCAA Football.

• The best news. Tulane’s Devon Walker is reportedly “alert and responsive” following spinal surgery. Tulane has set up an assistance fund in his name; for more ways to support the Walker family, click here.

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Meet the new Boise. Same as the old Boise? If Joe Southwick has anything to say about it… (AP)

The return of our weekly highlight show of lesser FBS luminaries. Non-AQs and independents, be welcome. (Not you, Notre Dame; more on that at the bottom.)

• Time chasers. We mentioned this last week, but games we would most like to see played in other times: Boise State-Michigan State at the end of last year and Arkansas State-Oregon at the end of this one. The Broncos’ opening-week win streak was snapped, but not for a lack of effort on the part of Boise’s almost entirely rebuilt team. That Sept. 20 date with BYU is looking like appointment television about now. And we’re eager to see how Ryan Aplin and the Red Wolves develop offensively under Gus Malzahn as the season progresses against competition that’s more on their level. (Not included in this category: Memphis in Week 2. What do y’all reckon that score will look like?)

• ALL HAIL THE LORDS OF EARLY SEPTEMBER. Great show, Ohio. Now do it again, 11 more times. The Bobcats’ remaining regular season schedule, we remind you, consists of New Mexico State, Marshall, Norfolk State and eight MAC teams that finished with losing records in 2011. But this is MACtion, where accidents happen with a frenzied glee.

• HOUSTON. LOOK AT YOUR LIFE. LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES. We liked Houston. We really, really did. We agreed with noted football robot Paul Myerberg that the Cougars looked like a good bet to take the West, and look where that got us. Either Dennis Franchione has quietly built a program capable of winning in its first year of FBS competition, or Houston is flailing its way to a 2012 face plant. Or, heavens forfend — both. We know, at least, what Tony Levine thinks.

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Ryan Aplin and Arkansas State are cute, sure … until you feed them after midnight. (US PRESSWIRE)

Now that Boise State has become a household name to the college football set and TCU and Utah have joined power conferences, it’s time to identify the next generation of busters. Will one or more of the below mid-major squads pop up in a premier bowl over the next few seasons? Stranger things have happened (like the existence of Nachos O’Brady).

A note on conference realignment: For the moment, we’re ignoring teams with rapidly approaching mid-major exit dates, which, in addition to a bowl ban to be served this season or next, is why you don’t see the highly-regarded 2012 UCF team on this list.

Arkansas State

Last year: The Red Wolves shouldered early losses to Illinois and Virginia Tech and defeated every mid-major team they faced, by widely varying margins. They earned a postseason bid and wrapped the season with a loss to Northern Illinois in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. They also hired Gus Malzahn to replace Hugh Freeze. You might have heard.

Key returning contributors: Malzahn, for one, who could make some noise in the Sun Belt if he chooses to stick around in Jonesboro that long. He’ll be working his quarterback whispering on Ryan Aplin, who ran a top 20 passing offense last season without Malzahn and can take off running when called upon. Aplin will need to rely on his own skills after losing a lot of experience on the line.

Games to watch in 2012: It will probably be over very early for Arkansas State, polls-wise. Voters are notoriously unforgiving to mid-major squads with even one loss, and the Red Wolves travel to Oregon for their season opener and to Nebraska in Week 3. Western Kentucky and FIU lurk in Weeks 4 and 5. The Red Wolves can practically coast downhill the last half of their season (notable exception: That road trip to Lafayette in October), and will need every gimme game they can get to erase memories of September flailings if things go that badly in Eugene or Lincoln. But wouldn’t it be something if we saw a real shootout between Malzahn and Chip Kelly on the first Saturday of the season?

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Boise got shut out of the BCS despite finishing No. 7; the Broncos play ASU in Las Vegas. (US PRESSWIRE)

The week in lesser FBS luminaries:

• Bowltyme! We’ve kept score of non-AQ teams’ record against programs from Big Six conferences all season (final score: 18-92). But even in the postseason, where part of the attraction is seeing non-traditional opponents face off (I’ve gotten emails from Georgia fans who’re mad because they played Michigan State in the CapOne three years ago), have vs. have-not matchups are hard to come by. The New Mexico, GoDaddy, Potato, New Orleans, Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, Poinsettia, Hawaii, Military and Armed Forces Bowls will all feature two non-AQ conference teams or independents, although the GoDaddy.com pairing of Northern Illinois and Arkansas State might end up being the sleeper hit of the postseason. Four teams that will get to strut their stuff versus AQ squads: Western Michigan versus Purdue in the Little Caesars Bowl, Boise State versus Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl, Houston versus Penn State in the TicketCity Bowl and SMU versus Pitt in the BBVA Compass Bowl. Click here for our full bowl lineup and TV schedule.

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Take that bag off your head, FAU fan. Your team won a game! (ZUMAPRESS.com)

• State of the states tenuous confederations: With one sort-of week of the regular season remaining, three of the conferences covered in this space already have champions all but coronated. Four Mountain West games are slated for Week 14, including contests featuring TCU and Boise State, but none will impact the top of the conference standings — the Horned Frogs lead the pack with a 6-0 league record and can’t lose the lead at this point. The Sun Belt still has three games to play, with Arkansas State also holding a perfect conference record and insurmountable advantage. (Trailing the Red Wolves, improbably, is … Western Kentucky?) Over to the WAC: Four games to go, with none featuring conference leader Louisiana Tech, untouchable at 6-1. Among the independents, Air Force has already secured the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy with wins over Army and Navy, who’ll meet in Washington on December 10 to slug it out for second place.

To the still-competitive larger leagues: Ohio and Northern Illinois will compete Friday night for MAC supremacy at Ford Field, while Houston and Southern Miss will play Saturday in Houston for the Conference USA title.

• Bowltyme! As mentioned yesterday, five non-AQ programs have already accepted postseason bids. In chronological order:

• Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Utah State
• New Orleans Bowl: Louisiana
• Poinsettia Bowl: Louisiana Tech
• Armed Forces Bowl: BYU
• GoDaddy.com Bowl: Arkansas State

Case Keenum Pinballin’ Hi-Score of the week

Houston’s generation engine dispatched the most formidable regular-season opponent with relative ease, completing 33-of-46 pass attempts for 457 yards and five touchdowns. Just Case Keenum, doin’ Case Keenum things. The latest record he helped set this week was one for the program: It’s the school’s first-ever 12-0 season and ties its longest-ever win streak.

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Ed Wesley and TCU have powered their way to a share of the Mountain West title. (Ray Carlin/Icon SMI)

The week in lesser FBS luminaries:

• Bowltyme! As reviewed Saturday, natural non-AQ predators Houston, Boise State and TCU are all hovering at proper cruising altitude to finish the season ranked in the BCS standings. Where will this land them in the postseason? According to SI.com’s latest bowl projections, the Cougars will grab the brass ring of an at-large bid to the Sugar Bowl, and with Oklahoma State’s loss bumping Alabama up to BCS No. 2, their newest extrapolated opponent in New Orleans would be … Michigan! Denard Robinson and Case Keenum would make an interesting pair. By land or by air, scoreboards will quail.

These projections have the Broncos and Horned Frogs relegated to the first week of December bowls, with Boise in the Las Vegas versus Arizona State (intriguing, actually) and TCU versus Nevada in the Poinsettia (not at all intriguing; not this year).

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Josh Boyce and TCU are back in the BCS Top 25 after knocking off Boise State. (Icon SMI)

The week in lesser FBS luminaries:

• One stage of your journey is over; another begins: Friday night, I lamented the loss of both Boise State and TCU from BCS contention. But rather than regretting the Horned Frogs dragging the Broncos down into the morass of one-loss teams, let’s celebrate what happened next: TCU’s return to the BCS Top 25. With one “good” loss and one of questionable quality, it’s where the Frogs deserve to be, and where they certainly would be were they already in an AQ conference. And they’ll both get to go out on garish high notes if they end up in the postseason where Stewart Mandel is projecting them: TCU against Nevada in the Poinsettia Bowl and Boise against UCLA in the Las Vegas both bode well for bitter blowouts.

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Case Keenum made NCAA history at Legion Field on Nov. 5. (Holly Anderson/SI)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The University of Houston’s athletic department has professed a reluctance to stage any cagey PR stunts in service of senior quarterback Case Keenum’s Heisman candidacy. There will be no billboards nor bobbleheads for the cause. The likely New York invitee and unlikely hardware winner would be hard-pressed to find humbler surroundings in which to stage his third major NCAA record-breaking performance of the season.

While a couple hundred thousand screaming faithful thronged Tuscaloosa to watch the SEC West division race come to a bitter head, an announced crowd of 13,909 (an estimation we’re going to charitably call “ambitious”) bore witness in decaying Legion Field to the fall of the all-time NCAA record for career passing yards by a player operating in just his third full season as a starter. (Keenum, devotees will recall, redshirted his first year with the Cougars and wasn’t named the full-time replacement for Kevin Kolb until more than halfway through his second season. After standout years in 2008 and ’09, he tore his ACL in the second quarter of the Cougars’ third game, a road date with UCLA, and was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.) Entering Saturday’s contest, Keenum already held the career total offense and touchdown passing records, and speculation that he might amass the 267 yards needed to pass Timmy Chang as the all-time passing yardage leader by the end of the first quarter wasn’t all that farfetched.

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Patrick Edwards caught five of Case Keenum's nine TDs in Houston's 73-34 win over Rice. (US PRESSWIRE)

The week in lesser FBS luminaries:

• Is it that time of year already? Entering the November home stretch, let’s pause to examine Houston’s and Boise’s chances of hoisting a certain crystal football in two months and one week. In the latest AP Poll, the Broncos still hover at No. 5, while the Cougars skip from No. 18 to No. 14. This still makes them the lowest-ranked undefeated teams, in Houston’s case by nine slots. The Cougars trail the next closest team, Michigan, by over a hundred votes in the AP Poll. (Would you not pay dearly to see Case Keenum and Denard Robinson scoring at will on the Michigan and Houston defenses in a bowl game?) We will not discuss the den of iniquity that is the Coaches’ Poll, but let’s hit the BCS. Boise falls from No. 4 to No. 5 following its most recent bye; Clemson plummeted out of the top five as well, while previous No. 6 Stanford assumed Boise’s former place. Houston’s all the way down at No. 13, up from 17, and separated from the Broncos by seven one-loss teams. We’re still projecting Boise into the Sugar Bowl, but Houston’s prospects for a big-time January game look desolate.

Is there a chance for hardware glory in other races, however? Check out Cory McCartney’s latest Heisman Watch for more trophy-grubbing intel on Keenum and Moore.

• Houston a billionty, Rice 34: From Friday: “Before rain even began to fall in earnest, Houston’s Tyron Carrier returned the Owls’ opening kickoff for a touchdown, his seventh such feat, tying a previous record set by C.J. Spiller at Clemson. Rice fired back with a strong running game, returned a soggy Keenum fumble for a touchdown and seemed quite determined to hang with the Cougars until three consecutive touchdown passes from Houston put the game out of reach by halftime, 38-20.” There really was enough action and pratfalling contained within that half alone for an entire game’s worth of entertainment, but that was before Keenum decided tonight was the night for a statement game. Behold his stats, O mortals, and weep.

• Last night’s MACtion from an alien perspective: Pleas enjoy this account of Northern Illinois-Toledo from a baseball die-hard who tuned in to ESPN to watch something called the Golden Gloves and instead found himself transfixed by Tuesday night football.

• Quote of the day, non-AQ edition: “We have sacrificed tradition, live crowds, and defensive backs for your entertainment.  We hope you enjoyed our exhibition of Rust Belt Calvin-ball last night.” — alert reader and MAC sympathizer DevilGrad

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