They get the benefit of the doubt because they were contenders most years in the Pac 12, Whittingham is well regarded as a coach, and they usually have what is perceived to be a pretty salty team. Also, they got a big boost at the start of the season by beating the shit out of UCLA on the road, but we all saw how quickly that became fools gold. They weren't going to drop in the polls until they lost, though.
Anyway, they looked bad because we made them look bad, for the most part. Their O-line is legitimately good and so is their defense. They have at least 2 projected first rounders on their O-line and our front seven absolutely destroyed them from start to finish. I don't really know where the Dampier hype came from, though, he was mediocre at UNM and somehow was supposed to be a Big 12 level QB at Utah?
I'm not overly concerned about Houston, they'll likely go up to Oregon State and win a close-ish game against a dookie opponent and we'll get some nice rest on our bye week before rolling into a stadium that'll be half Tech fans and collecting the same result that happens every time Houston thinks they have a good team and are totally gonna beat Tech this time.