Taysom Hill on stage as No. 25 BYU hosts Houston

Houston coach Tony Levine is well aware of how good BYU's Taysom Hill is.

''When you talk about dual-threat, if you looked up a dual-threat quarterback in a dictionary, they should have his picture there as an example,'' Levine joked.

The junior quarterback ran for three touchdowns last week and BYU shredded the Longhorns' defense 41-7, popping the Cougars into the AP rankings at No. 25. It was the worst Texas loss since 1997.

With the Longhorns taken care of, Hill and BYU (2-0) return home to host Houston (1-1) on Thursday night.

Hill threw for 181 yards and ran for another 99, including the three scores, to embarrass Texas at home. He even hurdled a Longhorns defensive back to score on a 30-yard run for his first TD.

Afterward, Texas defensive coordinator Vance Bedford said the 6-foot-2 Hill reminds him of Tim Tebow.

''He's a 235-pound guy with a strong, good arm. He's sitting back there, and if you don't get him down when you have your arms around him, he's going to come through and make plays, which he did,'' Bedford said. ''My hat's off to him. He did a tremendous job, and their coaching staff did a tremendous job also.''

Hill has been named the FBS Independents' player of the week after each of the season's first two weekends. He has rushed for five touchdowns and thrown for three more while accounting for an average of 342.5 yards in total offense in just two games.

BYU won its opener 35-10 over Connecticut.

Last season as a sophomore, Hill had six games with 100-plus yards rushing. He finished with 4,282 yards in total offense, fifth on BYU's single-season list behind Steve Young, Jim McMahon and Ty Detmer (twice).

Houston piled up 477 yards in total offense for a 47-0 victory last Saturday over Grambling State after Houston dropped its opener 27-7 to UTSA.

Here are some other things to consider when Houston visits BYU on Thursday night:

THE LAST TIME: The two teams met last season with BYU pulling out the win on Hill's 11-yard touchdown pass to Skyler Ridley with less than two minutes to go for a 47-46 win. Hill finished with 417 yards passing and 128 yards rushing in the game, making him one of just eight players in NCAA history to throw for at least 400 and run for at least 100 in the same game.

HILL'S HOUSTON COUNTERPART: Quarterback John O'Korn took over at Houston as a freshman last season when David Piland's career ended because of multiple concussions. He went on to throw 28 touchdowns to lead all FBS-level freshman QBs. So far this season he has thrown for 404 yards and a score, but he's got four interceptions.

LOOK OUT FOR MATTHEWS: Houston linebacker Derrick Matthews had a 29-yard interception return for a touchdown against BYU last year, along with one of three sacks on Hill. Mathews leads all active players nationwide with 371 career tackles.

PENALTY PROBLEMS: For all of the accolades going BYU's way right now, the team still has an issue with penalties. BYU has 21 total penalties for 190 yards in just two games this season. The team was ranked sixth in the nation for penalties last season.

SHORT CELEBRATION: Because of the short turnaround, BYU didn't get too much time to revel in the victory over Texas. BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall addressed it during the team's weekly media availability. Try to keep up: ''The natural tendency would be to try to feel good a little bit longer than we have time for,'' he said. ''As you all know yesterday was `Wednesday', today's `Thursday' and tomorrow is the day before the game. So it's hard even though we've done it a lot of times.''