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Rice University Athletics
Owls Head North to Marshall
10/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 25, 2007
Gameday Central | |
OWLS HEAD TO MARSHALL The Rice Owls (1-6, 1-2 C-USA) will make their longest trip of the 2007 season when they travel to Huntington, W. Va. for their first-ever meeting on the gridiron Saturday with the Thundering Herd of Marshall (0-7, 0-3 C-USA). Kickoff is slated for 3:30pm CT.
RICE RADIO Listen All Rice football games are carried on ESPN 97.5 FM The Ticket in Houston. Longtime play-by-play man Matt Musil back again behind the microphone. Joining him in the booth this year will be newcomer David Saltzman, who will also be the voice of Rice men's basketball. Jorge Vargas will again be the Owl's reporter on the sideline and rounding out the broadcast crew is veteran engineer Frankie Hicks.
BACK ON THE TUBE Saturday's game will be the fifth Rice game of the year to be televised, and the second on CSTV. They have appeared on FSN Southwest (Texas Tech), FSN (Texas), ESPN 2 (Southern Miss) and CSTV (Houston) so far this year. Tom Hart and Trev Alberts will call the game for CSTV.
C-USA--YEAR III The Owls head to Marshall looking to even their 2007 conference record. They have won seven of their last nine in the conference and stand 8-11 in their third year of league competition. Rice is 4-6 all-time on the road in C-USA, but have won four of the last five away from Rice Stadium, including a 31-29 win at Southern Miss earlier this year. When the Owls joined C-USA in 2005 season, the league seperated into two six-team divisions (East/West). In doing so, each C-USA squad plays all team in its division (five games) and three opponents form the other division. The three foes from the opposing division rotate every two seasons, so 2007 is a lineup change for the Owls. The previous two seasons, Rice played UCF, UAB and East Carolina from the East Division. It's the first time that the Owls will play Southern Miss, Memphis and Marshall on the gridiron. Rice had won four consecutive decisions against East Division foes before last week's 38-35 setback against Memphis.
OWLS AND HERD FOR THE FIRST TIME This is the first meeting on the football field between Rice and Marshall and the Owls first trip to the state of West Virginia. Rice has a 1-0 mark all-time against teams from the state, thanks to a 24-0 blanking of West Virginia in 1964 at Rice Stadium.
WEEK SEVEN: MEMPHIS 38, RICE 35 Chase Clement tied one school career record and moved closer to a second, while Jarett Dillard found the end zone three times, but it was not enough to prevent Memphis from taking a 38-35 victory at Rice Stadium. Clement threw four TD passes (to tie Randy Hertel's career record of 38) and ran for a fifth (raising his career total for TDs produced to 46, two shy of Tommy Kramer's school record). Dillard was on the receiving end for three of them, the fifth time in his career he has tied the school record with three TD receptions in a game. Brian Raines returned to action after missing the Houston game with an injury and he matched Vernon James for the team lead with 12 tackles. Andrew Sendejo chipped in a career-best 10.
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. In the last three games, the Owls have created 13 turnovers and the offense has converted them into 58 points. Overall, the Owls rank fourth in the conference in turnover margin (.29), but they are tied with UTEP for the league with an average of 2.7 turnovers per game. The Owls began their turnover push with seven 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.
THERE FOR THE PICKING Rice has picked off seven passes in the last three games after grabbing just one in the first four games. Brandon King picked off his second pass of the season against the Tigers and his fifth career pick, the most among the current Owls. They 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. 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.
SENDEJO CREATES THE TO'S Andrew Sendejo, an All C-USA Freshman honoree a year ago, has created seven of the Owls 19 turnovers this season (three interceptions, three forced fumbles, one pass deflection that was intercepted). He leads the Owls and is tied for the CUSA lead with three interceptions (in the last five 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. He leads 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 also leads the team with 39 solo tackles and is second with 51 total stops and four pass breakups.
THE BREAKUPS Gary Anderson Jr. broke up four passes against Memphis and leads the team with seven this season, all in the last four games. His seven breakups are the most by an Owl defender since Raymorris Barnes broke up seven in 2004. The last Owl to break up more than seven in a season were Patrick Dendy (12) and Jason Hebert (9) in 2001. Anderson also has an interception this year an is tied with Andrew Sendejo for the team lead with eight total passes defended.
BOOKEND YEARLINGS Freshmen Scott Solomon and Cheta Ozougwu made the start at the defensive end spots against Memphis and combined for 13 tackles. On the season, Solomon, who has made four starts this year, and Ozougwu (three starts), are the top two tacklers among the defensive linemen. Solomon has been credited with 28 stops and leads the team with 5.5 tackles for loss and is second with 2.5 sacks, despite missing half of the Texas game and all of the Southern Miss game with an injury. Ozougwu is second among linemen with 20 tackles despite missing the first two games with injuries.
NO WAITING AROUND Nine true freshmen were on the first two units when Rice met Memphis, including four in the starting lineup (Justin Hill, Chris Jones, Cheta Ozougwu and Scott Solomon). Overall this year, the Owls have had 16 starts in the first seven games by true freshman (Hill and Solomon-4; Ozougwu- 3; Joseph Leary and Jones-2, James Casey 1). Only two of the Owls 11 defenders have made all seven starts this season (George Chukwu and Brandon King).
THE RECEPTION STREAK CONTINUES Jarett Dillard enters Saturday's game at Marshall with at least two receptions in each game of his career, a streak of 31 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.
THE MIGHTY CASEY Freshman James Casey did not see action at as many positions against Memphis and Houston as he did at Southern Miss, but the 23-year old freshman still posted career-bests with five catches for 60 yards and his first career touchdown reception against the Tigers. He also posted a career-best with a 19-yard rush and completed his first career pass for a gain of 24 yards. The TD catch was his sixth score of the season, second only to Jarett Dillard's seven scores this year.
CHASE ON THE CHARTS With a 289 passing yards against Memphis, quarterback Chase Clement now has 3,740 career passing yards. He enters the Marshall game 155 yards shy from equalling Quentis Roper for the No. 5 spot in program history. His career-best and school-record equalling four touchdown passes against the Tigers allowed Clement to tie Randy Hertel 38 touchdown passes for the No. 2 spot. Clement also is now responsible for 46 touchdowns allowing him to pass Hertel for sole possesion of second place in program history. He is two touchdowns from matching Tommy Kramer for the top spot. His 28 completions against Memphis raised his career total to 336, good enough for fifth on the career list. The Alamo Heights native is seven shy of moving past Donald Hollas into the No. 4 spot. Clement also posted a career-best 330 yards of total offense against Memphis and moved into the No. 7 position with 4,399 yards on the Owls career chart. He needs 163 yards to move past Mark Comalader.
THE CHASE FOR 4,000 Chase Clement is 260 yards from becoming just the second Owl to throw for 4,000 as a junior. Randy Hertel finished his junior season on South Main with a total of 4,949 yards.
