• Box score

The road has been a little taxing for the Houston Cougars the past two weeks. So they made their return to Robertson Stadium especially sweet.

The Cougars dominated Georgia State in almost all facets Saturday night, destroying the Panthers 56-0 before a crowd of 32,005.

The victory puts the Cougars at 4-0 for the first time since 2006 — the last season in which they won the Conference USA championship — and it marks UH's first shutout in 12 years.

The last time the Cougars' defense posted a zero was Sept. 18, 1999, in a 45-0 rout of Louisiana-Lafayette.

"Our goal was to come out and improve and really gain some confidence this week," UH coach Kevin Sumlin said. "I've seen us get better I know a lot of people don't think so statistically. The last two weeks our offense has put our defense in some bad positions.

"I thought we tackled well and handled two different offenses tonight with the two different quarterbacks (that Georgia State played)."

Georgia State (1-3), a Football Championship Subdivision squad, couldn't muster much against the Cougars' defense. The Panthers recorded just five first downs and 89 yards on 32 plays in the first half. Their first red-zone trip didn't come until midway through the third quarter and even that was stonewalled by the Cougars when senior linebacker Marcus McGraw intercepted a tipped pass.

The Panthers, who are in just their second season of existence under coach Bill Curry, finished with just 241 yards.

"Each week we have improved," McGraw said of the defense. "To put up a goose egg is great. It's a big confidence booster for us heading into conference (play)."

For the last two games, the Cougars were unable to kick their high-powered offense into gear until the second half. But by the second half Saturday, the Cougars had hit fifth gear and then some and were able to dial up cruise control for the rest of the night.

UH scored on three of its first four possessions and rolled up a 35-0 lead by halftime. By time the third quarter was over, quarterback Case Keenum (29-of-34, 415 yards, two touchdowns) was on the sideline with a baseball cap while the second-teamers were getting in some work.

The Cougars rolled to 732 yards, 621 of which came in the first three quarters. Keenum went to receiver Justin Johnson early and often, finding him for two of UH's three first-quarter touchdowns.

Johnson, who had a career-high 100 yards receiving last week against Louisiana Tech, finished with six catches for 83 yards and two scores.

"I've still got a lot of room for improvement, but I'm definitely more confident than I was from day one to now," Johnson said.

The UH trio of running backs — Bryce Beall (64 rushing yards), Michael Hayes (58) and Charles Sims (26) — each got some work, combining for 23 carries and each scoring a TD, with Beall tallying two.

With a short turnaround before they open up Conference USA play against UTEP at 7 p.m. Thursday, the Cougars feel good to be 4-0.

"You couldn't really ask for any better," Keenum said. "We've obviously done some good things. I think we have a lot of better football to be played. And that's really important to us. We executed things, but we still have some room to grow."

sam.khan@chron.com

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