Rice and Houston Set to Battle for the Bucket

Oct. 12, 2007

GAME SIX

Rice (1-4, 1-0 C-USA) vs. Houston (2-3, 1-1 C-USA)
2:30 pm • John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium • Houston, Texas

Television: CSTV
Tom Hart • Play-by-Play; Trev Alberts • Color
All-Access PPV

Radio
Rice Radio Network (ESPN 97.5 FM The Ticket)
Matt Musil • Play-by-Play; David Saltzman • Color Jorge Vargas • Sideline

NEXT UP: Rice returns to home to host Memphis at 2:00 on October 20th as part of Families Weekend.

OWLS SET FOR RENEWALL OF THE BAYOU BUCKET SERIES
After a second straight extended period of preparation, the Rice Owls will make their shortest road trip of the year driving the short distance to Robertson Stadium to meet the Houston Cougars in the 31st edition of the battle for the Bayou Bucket. Kickoff is set for 2:30 and the game will be televised nationally on CSTV with Tom Hart and Trev Alberts calling the action. This is the first time in the series that the Bayou City rivals meet in the month of October.

C-USA--YEAR III
Rice enters its third year of Conference USA competition with a seven-game conference winning streak. The streak is the seventh longest in league history. The Owls had lost nine of their first 10 C-USA games before closing the 2006 season with six consecutive wins, including three straight road triumphs. Rice is 8-9 all-time in C-USA action, including a 4-5 mark in conference road games.

OWLS ON THE TUBE
The Houston game will be the fourth of five Rice regular season football games that will be televised in 2007. The Owls' final televised regular season game will be on October 27 at Marshall.
OWLS AND COUGARS
Houston leads the all-time series 24-9, including a 23-8 advantage when playing for the Bayou Bucket Trophy, presented by the Touchdown Club of Houston and the brainchild of Fred Curry, who played guard for Jess Neely at Rice, and who was the president of the club in 1974. The two schools met for the first time in 1971 and played twice more before the first battled for the bucket in 1974. The series continued through 1995, when the two schools played the last game in the history of the Southwest Conference, with Houston taking an 18-17 win at Rice Stadium. The schools then moved to difference conferences (Houston to C-USA, Rice to the WAC) and the Bucket was not contested again until 1999 when the Cougars took a 28-3 win at home. Houston has won the last two meetings, and has won three of four games played at Robertson Stadium. The Owls lone win at UH's campus facility came in 2001 when they took a 21-14 victory, retaining the trophy with back-to-back wins for just the second time in the series history. In 2000, Rice won the only overtime game in series history, 30-27, at Rice Stadium.

WEEK FIVE: RICE 31, SOUTHERN MISS 29 (OCT. 3)
Jarett Dillard scored a pair of touchdowns and Justin Hill topped 100 yards in just his second career start, but it took a career night from fifth year senior Aubrey White to secure David Bailiff's first win as the head coach of the Rice Owls, 31-29 over Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles had stormed back from a 31-7 deficit to trail by just two and had the ball with less than a minute remaining when White registered his second sack of the night, causing Southern Miss quarterback Stephen Reaves to fumble. Jonathan Cary recovered the ball and the Owls registered their seventh straight win in C-USA play, and their fourth straight conference road win. The fumble was one of seven turnovers forced by the Owls on the night (four interceptions, three fumbles), which the offense turned into 24 points. The seven turnovers were the most for the Owls since they caused eight in a 37-7 win over Houston in the 1993 Bayou Bucket (five interceptions, three fumbles). The offense's only points to not come off an turnover came when Hill, starting in place of C.J. Ugokwe for the second straight week, burst up the middle for a 54-yard touchdown run. Dillard was held to a career-low 14 yards in the game, but made them count, grabbing a pair of seven yard scoring tosses from Chase Clement.

TWO-BY-TWO
Jarett Dillard enters Saturday's game against Houston with at least two catches in every game of his college career, a stretch of 29 games.

FAMILIAR TERRITORY
Jarett Dillard has found the end zone three times in the last three games and in 17 of his last 20 outings after being shut out in the first two contests of the season. His two TD catches against Southern Miss increased his school record to 29, and moved him into fourth place on the Owls career scoring chart with 174 points. Brennan Landry is third with 184 from 2002-05. Dillard was held to a career-low 14 yards against Southern Miss, but made them count, scoring on both receptions. He ranks third on the Owls career reception yardage chart (2,039) and career receptions (147). He needs six catches to move past David Houser and 161 yards to pass Eric Henley into second place.

TURNOVER TRIUMPH
After leading C-USA in 2006 with 29 takeaways and finishing second with a +8 turnover ratio (29 for, 21 against), Rice entered the Southern Miss game with just six total turnovers in the first four games (5 fumbles, 1 interception) and had not converted any of the miscues into points. The Owls surpassed their season total, forcing seven turnovers against the Golden Eagles and converted those chances into 24 of their 31 points in the win. The seven turnovers were the most for a Rice defense since the end of the 1993 season, when the Owls forced eight (five interceptions, three fumbles) in a 37-7 win over Houston in the Bayou Bucket.

THERE FOR THE PICKING
Rice intercepted a total of four passes against Southern Miss, the top effort by the Owls since 2004, when they intercepted four passes at San Jose State in a 70-63 defeat. Free safety Andrew Sendejo led the way, picking off a pair of passes, becoming the first Owl to pick off more than one pass in a game since Dan Dawson tied the school record with three picks vs. Hawai`i on 10/21/00 at Rice Stadium. Defensive end Will Shoppa started the pick parade, dropping into coverage to pick off a pass and returning it 58 yards to the 10-yard line. His return was the longest of an interception by an Owl since Andray Downs returned one 72 yards for a touchdown against Army. Cornerback Gary Anderson Jr. grabbed a deflected pass and returned it 36 yards, while Sendejo returned his two picks for a total of 31 yards. The Owls actually picked off a fifth pass, as defensive back Carl Taylor foiled the Eagles attempt to tie the game on a two-point conversion, but no interceptions are credited on untimed downs.

SENDEJO PICKS `EM AND PICKS UP AN HONOR
Andrew Sendejo was named the C-USA Defensive Player of the Week after picking off a pair of passes, breaking up a third and forcing a fumble in the Owls' 31-29 win at Southern Miss. He leads the Owls with three interceptions (all in the last three games), the most for an Owl in a season since Terry Holley picked off three in 2004. The last Owl to pick off four in a season was Jason Hebert in 2001. Sendejo is second on the squad with 33 total tackles, but leads the team with 29 unassisted stops.

ANY TIME, ANY WHERE, ANY PLACE
Freshman James Casey saw playing time at six positions against Southern Miss (quarterback, running back, wide receiver, defensive end, special teams) The Azle native finished the game with 39 yards rushing (including his team-best fourth touchdown of the season). He also caught two passes for 16 yards, threw an interception on his only passing attempt, earned credit for a half-sack (as well as an additional tackle for loss) and recorded three total tackles, while playing defensive end as well as covering kicks on special teams. He served as the holder on all the Owls placements.

CLEMENT MOVES UP THE CHARTS
With 67 passing yards at Southern Miss, junior quarterback Chase Clement now has 3,098 career passing yards and moved into seventh place surpassing Bert Emanuel on the program's career list. The Alamo Heights native needs 356 yards to equal Bruce Gadd for the No. 6 position. His nine completions against the Golden Eagles raised his career total to 284, good enough for seventh on the career list, and four shy of moving past Bruce Gadd into the sixth spot. Clement also moved into 10th on the Owls career chart for total offense (3,651 yards) and he needs 70 yards to move past Greg Henderson into ninth.

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