Texas is still the team everyone else in the country is chasing. The Longhorns kept their grip on the No. 1 spot in this week's US LBM Coaches Poll after grinding out a tight, white-knuckle win on the road, and they did it while collecting the bulk of the first-place votes — a clear signal that coaches still see them as the class of the sport. Georgia sits right behind at No. 2, with Notre Dame rounding out the top three. From there the poll gets a lot less settled, and that's where the Big 12 comes into focus.

Four Big 12 Teams, One Standing Above the Rest

The conference placed four teams in this week's Top 25, and BYU is the one carrying the banner. Sitting at No. 9, the Cougars are unbeaten and now officially the Big 12's highest-ranked team — a spot that comes with real playoff implications if they can keep it up. Texas Tech isn't far off at No. 10, having closed out non-conference play in workmanlike fashion, and Utah checks in at No. 13 as the league's quiet, steady climber.

Then there's Houston, sitting at No. 20 — and out of all four Big 12 teams in the rankings this week, none of them had a bigger week than the Cougars. Oklahoma State is knocking on the door just outside the rankings, and the conference has a handful of other programs picking up scattered support, but nothing close to cracking in. Overall, it's a league with real quality stacked several teams deep this fall, even if it's still working to plant a team at the very top of the national picture.

Houston Leads the Charge Back

A week ago, Houston was left out of the Coaches' Poll. A tough 28-26 road loss to Texas Tech had knocked the Cougars out of the poll entirely. This week, they're back — and they earned it the hard way.Head coach Willie Fritz took his team into Allen E. Paulson Stadium, the same stadium where he once built Georgia Southern into a Sun Belt champion, and walked out with a 42-28 win that pushed Houston to 3-1 and back into the rankings at No. 20. That's a six-spot climb from where the Cougars stood among the "also receiving votes" group a week ago.

The game had some drama in it. Georgia Southern kept pace with Houston through the first half and even pulled off a successful onside kick to tie the score at 14. But quarterback Conner Weigman took control from there, finishing with 239 passing yards, four touchdown throws and two more scores with his legs. Houston also converted 8 of 9 third-down chances and racked up 441 total yards, enough cushion to close the door in the second half.

There was a personal thread running through the whole trip, too. Fritz spent two seasons at Georgia Southern back in 2014-15 and went 10-1 at that same stadium before leaving for Tulane. On the other sideline was Clay Helton—a former Houston quarterback himself — coaching the program Fritz once built.

Zoom out, and Houston's season has been a genuine roller coaster: a strong season-opening win over Oregon State, a heartbreaking one-score loss at a ranked Texas Tech team, and now a bounce-back road win that put them right back in the national conversation. The road ahead doesn't get any softer — UCF comes to town next, followed by trips to Kansas State and Utah with home games against Oklahoma State and Cincinnati mixed in — but for a program trying to reassert itself in a crowded Big 12, this was exactly the kind of response that keeps a season alive.

Texas may be the clear No. 1 team in the country right now, but down in the Big 12, Houston just delivered a strong re-entrance ahead of its Week 5 match up at TDECU vs UCF for the Built For Houston game with kick-off set for 11 AM CT from Houston.