Finally, over on Cullen Avenue, the University of Houston has endured the most disheartening start of the college football season. But with that disappointment comes a fascinating challenge.

The disappointment is the college career-ending injury to QB Case Keenum, who had one of the best seasons in college football history last season and who was primed to improve on that performance this season.

After directing UH to two easy wins against overmatched opponents, Keenum blew out a knee attempting to make a tackle in the third game against UCLA and – “Poof” – the collegiate career of one of the best college QB’s of this era was ended.

To make matters worse, a hard-hitting UCLA defense subsequently ended the career of Keenum’s backup – Chase Turner – about a quarter later. That leaves a good UH team with no experienced QB going into the meat of their schedule, which is not remotely where the Cougars expected to be after four games this season.

In addition to being a fine young man and a team leader, what made Keenum so much fun to watch was his uncanny field presence. He was literally a coach on the field during the game.

UH opponents often dropped eight defenders into coverage in an attempt to slow down the Cougars’ high-flying passing attack, so Keenum simply checked-off at the line of scrimmage and unleashed Houston’s formidable rushing attack. Then, when opposition defenders crept closer to the line to stop the run, Keenum scorched them with quick-hitting passes to over a half-dozen different receivers.

With a quick release, excellent reading skills and a commanding field presence, Keenum may be that special combination of talent – similar to Drew Brees – who can overcome physical limitations (he is just a bit over 6 feet tall) to make it in the NFL. Everyone in Houston will certainly be pulling for him.

But aside from Keenum’s future, there is an interesting subplot arising from the Cougars’ troubled start.

Cougars head coach Kevin Sumlin – one of the top up-and-coming coaches in the college game – now faces the toughest challenge of his three year head coaching career.

That’s not to suggest Sumlin hasn’t faced difficult challenges before. In his first season as UH coach (2008), he somehow kept his team and coaching staff together when Hurricane Ike pummeled the Houston area and a clueless UH athletic administration inexplicably forced the Cougars coaching staff and players to play two road games while their families were dealing with the difficult aftermath of that devastation.

After enduring that, Sumlin gamely guided the Cougars to a successful season and their first bowl victory in almost 30 years, primarily on the back of Keenum and Sumlin’s innovative variation of the Spread offense. Sumlin’s scheme continued UH’s legacy of being an incubator for creative football offenses that began with Bill Yeoman’s Veer 50 years ago, then Jack Pardee and John Jenkins’ version of the Run n’ Shoot in the late 1980’s and early 90’s, and more recently, Art Briles’ idiosyncratic version of the Spread.

Houston’s successful campaign in Sumlin’s first season set the stage for last season’s even better UH team that was one of the best non-BCS teams in the nation. The Coogs beat three teams from BCS conferences, two of which (Texas Tech and Oklahoma State) ended up in post-season bowl games. Even though the season ended on down note with a close loss in the CUSA championship game and a dispiriting loss in a meaningless bowl game, Sumlin had reason to expect big things this season with Keenum and many other offensive stars returning.

Alas, with Keenum’s injury, those high expectations have been downsized considerably. Sumlin and the Cougars now must face the remainder of their schedule with two true freshman QB’s, Terrance Broadway of Baton Rouge and David Piland from the Southlake Carroll QB factory near Dallas.

Broadway got the nod in UH’s first post-Keenum game this past Saturday against Tulane and the results were about what you would expect from a freshman making his first collegiate start. Broadway generated about a third of Keenum’s usual production and had three turnovers in a 42-23 Cougar victory over a team that would probably rank about 110th out of the 120 major college teams.

To make matters worse, UH’s schedule gets much tougher quickly with SEC opponent Mississippi State coming to town next Saturday. In fact, the Cougars will probably be favored to win only two (Rice and Memphis) of their remaining eight games.

Thus, the Cougars have gone quickly from the expectation of a 10+ win season to one in which four or five wins is a distinct possibility if their freshman QB’s struggle. Moreover, Sumlin was already dealing with other issues before the injury to Keenum.

For example, Sumlin is in the initial season of working with a rearranged coaching staff. After losing talented offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen to Oklahoma State after last season, Sumlin decided to replace his defensive coordinator, John Skladany, who specialized in coaching up undermanned defenses such as the one that Sumlin inherited at UH from the Art Briles coaching staff.

Although Sumlin’s replacements are all experienced coaches (Jason Phillips and Kliff Kinsbury on the offensive side, Brian Stewart on defense), Sumlin must now also replace an effective on-field coach in Keenum with an inexperienced freshman. And three years of recruiting defensive players and the hiring of Stewart has not yet produced any better defensive performance than what Skladany generated for the Cougars with inferior talent to what the Coogs have on defense now.

Accordingly, it’s reasonable to ask whether there is any hope for the Cougars this season?

Well, except for the UCLA debacle, the Coogs’ offensive line has played capably in the first four games. As a result, the Cougars RB tandem of Bryce Beall and Michael Hayes has been quite effective. Moreover, Houston’s receivers – who also man the Cougars’ formidable kickoff and punt return positions – remain one of the fastest and most dangerous groups in all of college football. And maybe, just maybe, the Cougars defense will finally start to realize some of the potential that Sumlin and his staff have recruited over the past three years.

So, the Cougars are not without weapons. But without an experienced triggerman, will Sumlin be able to figure out a way for the Cougars to harness those weapons effectively?

The answer to that question may well be the defining moment in Kevin Sumlin’s bright coaching future. Yet another reason why this football season is shaping up as one of the most interesting in years.