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Rice University Athletics
Owls Welcome Memphis to Rice Stadium
10/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 19, 2007
• Gameday Central
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OWLS RETURN HOME TO FACE MEMPHIS The Rice Owls (1-5, 1-1 C-USA) return to their home field for the first time since September 22 when they host the Memphis Tigers (2-4, 1-1 C-USA) this Saturday. Kickoff is set for 2:00 at Rice Stadium.
HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS HIGHLIGHT BUSY WEEKEND Rice will honor its 2007 Athletic Hall of Fame class this weekend when the Owls host Memphis, capping a busy weekend of activities. Formal induction ceremonies will be held on Friday night, but the full class will be recognized during halftime ceremonies. 2007 Hall of Fame inductees include former women's track and field coach Victor Lopez, volleyball player Sammy Waldron, football player J.D. Smith, baseball player Mark Quinn and the members of the 1997 NCAA Women's Indoor Champion 4x400 meter relay team (Andrea Blackett, Melissa Straker-Taylor, Tanisha Mills, and Margaret Fox-Melton). At the same time, former Rice basketball player and current Board of Trustee's member Bobby Tudor will be presented the Distinguished R Award while longtime Owls supporter Bob Schlanger will be presented with the Honorary R Award. This weekend also is Families Weekend on campus and on Saturday, Rice's track and field stadium will be the site of the annual Marathon Kids kickoff event. The ceremonial start of the event kicks off the third annual program in which Houston area students (K-5th grade) pledge to run or walk 26.2 miles over the next six months. Over 5,000 of the nearly 20,000 local youths who have registered for the program are expected to participate.
C-USA--YEAR III Rice opens the home portion of their conference schedule with a threegame home winning streak against C-USA foes. Overall, the Owls have won seven of their last eight outings in league play and are 8-10 all-time in C-USA. At Rice Stadium, the Owls are 4-4.
IN PERSON OR ON THE NET Saturday's game with Memphis is the first of Rice's last four home games that will not to be televised, but will be available via webcast as part of Rice's All Access service, available at riceowls.com. Rice's game at Marshall on Oct. 27 will be televised by CSTV.
OR ON THE RADIO All Rice football games this season are broadcast on 97.5 The Ticket, with Matt Musil and David Saltzman in the booth and Jorge Vargas on the sidelines.
OWLS AND TIGERS This is the first meeting on the football field between Rice and Memphis. The Owls have met three other schools from the state of Tennessee, and are 4-4 all-time. They are 1-2 against both the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt and 2-0 against The University of the South (AKA Sewanee). Rice last faced a school from Tennessee in 1975 when Vanderbilt took a 9-6 decision at Rice Stadium. The Owls will play twice in Tennessee next year, visiting Memphis and renewing their series with Vanderbilt with a trip to Nashville. The Owls are 1-1 against first time opponents this season.
WEEK SIX: HOUSTON 56, RICE 48: The 31st edition of the Bayou Bucket was one for the record books as Rice and Houston scored 104 points and piled up nearly 1,200 yards of total offense in a game that took nearly four hours to complete. Chase Clement threw for a career-high 355 yards and finished the day with 391 yards of total offense (the fourth best total in school history) and Jarett Dillard caught a season-best seven passes for 133 yards, while the Owls defense created five turnovers that were turned into 27 points. However, the Cougar duo of Donnie Avery and Anthony Aldridge proved to be too much to overcome as the Cougars took home the Bayou Bucket trophy for a third consecutive year.
JD'S FAMILIAR TERRITORY Jarett Dillard has found the end zone four times in the last four games, after being shut out in the first two contests of the season. 
His TD catch against Houston increased his school record to 30 career catches, which ranks second among active NCAA receivers (Davone Bess of Hawai`i has caught 33). Dillard also moved him into fourth on the Owls career scoring chart with 180 points. He enters the Memphis game four points away from Brennan Landry (2002- 05) for the No. 3 position. After being held to a career-low 14 yards receiving at Southern Miss (a pair of seven-yard TDs), Dillard posted seasonhighs with seven catches and 133 yards receiving against Houston. His seven catches allowed him to move past David Houser in to second on the Owls career reception list (154). The San Antonio native needs 33 more catches over the next six games to pass Eric Henley (186 from 1988-91) as the career leader. His 133 yards against the Cougars raised his career total to 2,172, just 28 yards away from moving past Henley into second in program history. Houser hold the Rice yardage mark with 2,358.
THE RECEPTION STREAK CONTINUES Jarett Dillard enters Saturday's game against Memphis with at least two receptions in each game of his career, a streak of 30 games. Dillard is tied with Casey Flair of UNLV for the eighth longest streak among active NCAA receivers, but he is one of just three whose streak is based on catching more than one pass in each game of their college careers. Davone Bess (33) and Ryan Grice-Mullen (29) of Hawai`i have also caught more than one pass in each game of their streaks.
Dillard also has caught a touchdown pass in 12 consecutive conference games, and has scored in 18 of the last 21 games overall.
ANY TIME, ANY WHERE, ANY PLACE
Freshman James Casey did not see action at as many positions against Houston as he did at Southern Miss, but the 23- year old freshman still posted a careerbest four catches for 54 yards (including a 28-yarder). He also rammed his way into the end zone on a two-yard run, his team-leading fifth rushing touchdown of the season. Casey saw playing time at seven positions against Southern Miss (quarterback, running back, tight end, wide receiver, defensive end, special teams). He finished the game with 39 yards rushing (including his fourth touchdown), catching a pair of passes for 16 yards, throwing an interception on his only passing attempt, earning credit for a half-sack (as well as an additional tackle for loss) and three total tackles while playing defensive end as well as covering kicks on special teams, and holding on all the Owls placements.
CLEMENTS CLIMBS THE CHARTS
| Clement on the Rice career charts | |
| Touchdown passes | |
| 38 | Randy Hertel, 1977-80 |
| 37 | Tommy Kramer, 1973-76 |
| 34 | Chase Clement, 2005- |
| 27 | Mark Comalander, 1984-87 |
| 26 | Michael Calhoun, 1981-82 |
| 23 | Quentis Roper, 1985-88 |
| 23 | Josh LaRocca, 1991-95 |
| Attempts | |
| 1,121 | Randy Hertel, 1977-80 |
| 1,036 | Tommy Kramer, 1973-76 |
| 753 | Mark Comalander, 1984-87 |
| 643 | Quentis Roper, 1985-88 |
| 606 | Donald Hollas, 1987-90 |
| 580 | Bruce Gadd, 1970-72 |
| 575 | Chase Clement, 2005- |
| 450 | Josh LaRocca, 1991-95 |
| 401 | Robert Hailey, 1965-67 |
| Completions | |
| 561 | Randy Hertel, 1977-80 |
| 507 | Tommy Kramer, 1973-76 |
| 391 | Mark Comalander, 1984-87 |
| 343 | Donald Hollas, 1987-90 |
| 308 | Chase Clement, 2005- |
| 301 | Quentis Roper, 1985-88 |
| 287 | Bruce Gadd, 1970-72 |
| 230 | Josh LaRocca, 1991-95 |
| 212 | Bert Emanuel, 1992-93 |
| Yardage | |
| 6,197 | Tommy Kramer, 1973-76 |
| 6,161 | Randy Hertel, 1977-80 |
| 4,810 | Mark Comalander, 1984-87 |
| 4,039 | Donald Hollas, 1987-90 |
| 3,895 | Quentis Roper, 1985-88 |
| 3,454 | Bruce Gadd, 1970-72 |
| 3,451 | Chase Clement, 2005- |
| 3,079 | Bert Emanuel, 1992-93 |
| 2,876 | Robert Hailey, 1965-67 |
| 2,472 | Josh LaRocca, 1991-95 |
| 2,332 | Kyle Herm, 2000-03 |
His three touchdown passes against the Cougars allowed Clement to move within three scoring strikes of matching Tommy Kramer's (1973-76) 37 touchdown passes for the No. 2 spot. Clement also is now responsible for 41 touchdowns allowing him to pass Trevor Cobb for sole possesion of third place in program history. He is one touchdown from matching Randy Hertel for the No. 2 slot.
His 24 completions against the Cougars raised his career total to 308, good enough for fifth on the career list. The Alamo Heights native is 36 shy of moving past Donald Hollas into the No. 4 spot. Clement also posted a career-best 391 yards of total offense at Houston and moved into the No. 8 position with 4,069 yards on the Owls career chart. He needs 167 yards to move past Bert Emanuel.
INSIDE THE 20
Punter Luke Juist is seventh in the conference with a 40.4 average thanks to a 45.5 average on six kicks at Houston. He has put 13 of his first 37 punts inside the op¬ponents 20. Last year, the Owls downed only 10-of-64 punts inside the opponents 20, with Jared Scruggs being credited with nine and Chase Clement the 10th on a pooch kick.
TURNOVER TRIUMPH After leading C-USA in 2006 with 29 takeaways and finishing second with a plus eight turnover ratio (29 for, 21 against), Rice entered conference play at Southern Miss (Oct. 3) with only six total turnovers in its first four games (5 fumbles, 1 interception) and had not converted any of the miscues into points. In the last two games, the Owls have created 12 turnovers and the offense has converted them into 51 points. Overall, the Owls rank fifth in the conference in turnover margin (.50), but they lead the league with an average of three turnovers per game. The Owls 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. In this year's battle for the Bucket, the Owls turned five turnovers into 27 points.
SENDEJO CREATES THE TO'S 
Andrew Sendejo, an All C-USA Freshman honoree a year ago, has created seven of the Owls 18 turnovers this season (three interceptions, three forced fumbles, one pass deflection that was intercepted by a teammate). He paces the Owls and is tied for the CUSA lead with three interceptions (in the last four 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 also headlines the league and is tied for fifth nationally with three forced fumbles and recovered a fourth and is also tied for third in the league with seven total passes defended (four breakups, three interceptions). The Canyon Lake native leads the team with 29 solo tackles and is tied for the team lead with 41 total stops and four pass breakups.
THERE FOR THE PICKING Rice has picked off six passes in the last two games after grabbing just one in the first four games. Brandon King and Carl Taylor each picked off a pass against Houston. It was King's fourth career pick, the most among the current Owls, while it was Taylor's first official interception (he had intercepted a two-point conversion attempt the week before at Southern Miss to preserve the Owls 31-29 lead). The Rice defense intercepted a total of four passes against Southern Miss (Oct. 3), the top effort by the Owls since 2004, when they intercepted four passes at San Jose State in a 70-63 defeat. 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. Hawaii on 10/21/00 at Rice Stadium. 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. 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 Carl Taylor foiled the Eagles attempt to tie the game on a twopoint conversion, but no interceptions are credited on un-timed downs.
NEXT UP:The Owls head back on the road when they travel to Huntington, WV for their first-ever meeting with the Marshall Thundering Heard next Saturday. They return home on November 3, hosting UTEP for Homecoming.
