Rice University Athletics
Owls Host Tulane
11/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 16, 2007
GAME 11
Rice (3-7, 3-3 C-USA) vs. Tulane (3-7, 2-4 C-USA)
2:00 pm • Rice Stadium • Houston, Texas
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NEXT UP: Rice closes out the 2007 season by hosting Tulsa at 2:00 next Saturday
C-USA--YEAR III
The Owls are 10-12 in their third year of league competition. Rice is 5-5 in their first two years of league competition at Rice Stadium and after dropping four of their first five, they have won four of the last five at home. Rice is 5-7 all-time on the road in conference play, with all their results coming in streaks. The Owls started conference play by losing the first five, then won four straight before dropping two straight and then closing out the road schedule with a win at SMU last week.
OWLS AND GREEN WAVE
This is the 30th meeting between Rice and Tulane, in a series that began in 1916. The Owls holding a 15-13-1 record against their Gulf Coast neighbors, 1-1 as members of C-USA. Rice has won three of the last four in the series, including a 42-34 Homecoming win at Rice Stadium in 2005 that was the Owls first victory in the conference. Tulane's 38-24 win over the Owls last season was their final regular season defeat before embarking on a six-game winning streak to end the year. The Owls hold and overall 10-5 lead in the series in Houston, including a 6-3 edge in games played at Rice Stadium.
WEEK NINE: RICE 43, SMU 42
Clark Fangmeier's 31-yard field goal as time expired capped another furious fourth-quarter Rice rally as the Owls defeated SMU 43-42 in Dallas. One week after scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter to defeat UTEP, the Owls outscored SMU 16-0 in the fourth on Saturday to earn the win. It was the second time in his career that Fangmeier has kicked a game-ending field goal, and they came nearly one year apart. He booted a 40-yarder to beat ECU on November 18, 2006 at Rice Stadium. Chase Clement broke one school record and tied a second on his way to his second straight game of nearly 500 yards of total offense to lead the charge. The Alamo Heights native threw for 364 yards and two scores and rushed for 124 more and two scores to finish the day with 488 yards in total offense, the second-best effort in school history after his 498-yard day the week before against UTEP. His two touchdown passes gave him 22 for the year to set a school season mark, while his 35 completions tied Joel Armstrong's output in the New Orleans Bowl for a school single-game mark. Jarett Dillard caught a career-high 13 passes for 124 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His 13 receptions vaulted him past Eric Henley for the Owls career receiving record (190). Brandon King and Andrew Senejo each returned interceptions for touchdowns. Fangmeier saw his school-record streak of consecutive extra points to start a career come to an end at 68 when he missed his first try of the day, but he converted his other four attempts to set a school single-season record with 37.
NEVER BEFORE
Chase Clement became the first player in NCAA history to record back-to-back games in which he rushed for more than 100 yards and passed for more than 300 yards after this 124-yard rushing, 364- yard passing effort at SMU. He ran for 103 and passed for 395 the week before against UTEP. Heading into the 2007 season, only 17 players had reached the milestone, with Michael Bishop (Kansas State) the only player to accomplish it twice. Both games were in 1998, but not in succession. Three other players have done it once this season, including Dan LeFevour (Eastern Michigan), Jake Locker (Washington) and Tim Tebow (Florida). Tebow did it last weekend at South Carolina.
DON'T LEAVE EARLY
The Owls have won two straight conference games, thanks to scoring 44 consecutive points in the fourth quarters of the two contests. After UTEP scored with 14:44 left in the game two weeks ago, the Owls ran off 28 consecutive points to take a 56-48 win. Last week in Dallas, the Owls outscored SMU 16-0 in the fourth to win 43-42. In the past two years of Conference USA play, the Owls are 9-5, winning four times on their last offensive play of the game (UAB, Tulsa and ECU in 2006 and SMU in 2007). In two other games, they took the lead for good in the final 4:00 (SMU in 2006 and UTEP in 2007) and needed a fumble recovery with 1:08 left to seal the win at Southern Miss this year. In their other two C-USA wins over the past two years, the Owls drove the length of the field to eat up the final 7:30 on the clock to preserve a 37-31 win at UTEP. The Owls largest margin of victory (11) in C-USA play came last year at UCF (40- 29), but the Owls only had a five-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.
CHASE IN THE FOURTH
Chase Clement has been at is best in the fourth quarters of C-USA games this season. In six conference games, he has completed 61% of his passes in the final frame (60 of 98) for 583 yards and six touchdowns. Clement also has rushed for 147 yards on 19 carries (7.7 per carry) and scored three times. He has been responsible for all nine Owls TDs in fourth quarter conference action this year. Over the last four conference games, he has hit on 66% of his throws (55 of 84) for 502 yards and six touchdowns, while rushing 14 times for 165 yards and three TDs.
THE RECORD BOOK CHASE CONTINUES
Chase Clement has already established Rice career marks for touchdown passes (48-17th among active passers) and touchdowns produced (61-15th) among active players) and has set new personal marks for season totals in attempts (388), completions (226) and yards (2,491), while setting a school season mark for TD passes (22). The Alamo Heights native also continues to move up on a number of school career and season lists and at the same time, needs just 38 yards to reach 1,000 career rushing yards. Clement threw for a career-high 365 yards at SMU, his third game with better than 350 yards passing this year and his sixth straight game over better than 280 yards passing, to raise his career total to 4,780 yards, just 31 yards from surpassing Mark Comalander for third on the career list. Clement also is just the second Rice passer to total over 4,000 yards in his junior year and needs just 220 to become the first to surpass 5,000 yards as a junior. Randy Hertel threw for 4,949 yards in his first three seasons for the Owls. Clement?s 2,491 yards passing this season are second only to Tommy Kramer?s 1976 total of 3,317. His 35 completions at SMU tied the school record and raised his career total to 432, third-best in school history. The previous single game mark was held by Joel Armstrong in the 2006 New Orleans Bowl against Troy. Clement?s 226 completions this year rank second on the Owls?s single-season list, 44 away from Tommy Kramer?s mark of 269 completions in 1976. Clement?s 388 attempts this season also rank second, 114 from surpassing Kramer?s mark of 501 in 1976. Clement?s school-record 498 yards of total offense allowed him to become the first Owl to top 5,000 career yards in his junior season. He has now has produced 5,742 yards of total offense, good for third on the Rice career list. He is just 10 yards from passing Hertel (5,751) and moving into second. Tommy Kramer holds the school mark with 6,336. Clement?s total of 2,941 yards this season rank as the second, best total in school single-season history and he needs 332 yards in the final two games to break Kramer?s season mark of 3,272.
BETTER THAN AVERAGE
Rice averaged 7.0 yards per carry at SMU (181 yards on 26 carries), matching the fifth best rushing average by a Rice team in a game. The Owls averaged 7.0 yards per carry in 2003 against UTEP (450 yards on 64 carries). The school record is 8.3 yards per carry versus New Mexico in 1996.
MAKING THE TURNOVERS COUNT
Rice has scored 89 points in six C-USA games off a total of 18 turnovers. Those 18 turnovers match ECU for the most in conference play, but the Pirates have played one more conference game. 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 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.
TAKING TWO BACK
Andrew Sendejo and Brandon King, who lead the Owls with four and three interceptions respectively, each picked off a pass and returned it for a touchdown at SMU. It was first time in almost exactly 15 years that the Owls have scored multiple touchdowns in a game on interception returns. Sean Washington returned two pickoffs for scores against Texas Tech (Nov. 7, 1992). It was Sendejo's fourth pick of the year and his first return for a touchdown, while it was King's third interception of the year and his second career return for a score. He returned one 41 yards for a score against Tulsa in 2005. King is the Owls' active career leader with six career interceptions, two shy of cracking the Rice career list. The Owls have 10 interceptions this season, one shy of their total from last year, including a season-high four 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.
DILLARD ADDS RECEPTION MARK
One week after he eclipsed the Rice career mark for receiving yardage, Jarett Dillard established a Rice career mark for receptions at SMU. Dillard, who finished the day with a career- best 13 receptions, broke the mark with his 10th grab of the day. He now has 190 career receptions, four better than Eric Henley (186 from 1988-91). Dillard ranks sixth among active receivers with his 190 catches, and tenth in career receiving yardage (2,652).
JD'S FAMILIAR TERRITORY
Jarett Dillard has found the end zone 11 times in the last eight games, after being shut out in the first two contests of the season. His 11 TD's match are the second-best season total in Rice history, behind this 21 last year. He is the only Owl to reach double figures in touchdown receptions in a season. Kenneth Roy caught nine in 1976 and held the school season record until Dillard caught 21 last season. Dillard's 37 career touchdown receptions rank second among active receivers (Davone Bess of Hawai`i has 39) and rank 12th all-time in NCAA history. Next up for Dillard are Clarkston Hines (Duke) and Marcus Harris (Wyoming) who share 10th with 38. Bess is now tied for seventh with Braylon Edwards (Michigan) and Greg Jennings (Western Michigan). His three TD catches against Memphis marked the fifth time in Dillard's career he has caught three in a game, matching the school record that had been done only twice before in Owls history.). His two scores at SMU gave him sole possession of second on both the Owls career scoring chart with 212 points and on the career touchdown chart (37). Trevor Cobb holds both records with 260 points and 43 touchdowns. After being held to a career-low 14 yards receiving at Southern Miss (a pair of seven- yard TDs), Dillard has caught 43 passes for 614 yards in the last five outings, including back-to-back, double figure reception and 100-yard receiving days (11- for-168 versus UTEP, 13-for-124 at SMU). He has caught a touchdown in 15 of his last 16 conference games and in 21 of his last 25 overall.
THE OTHER STREAK
Jarett Dillard has caught at least two passes in each game of his career, a streak of 34 games, the second-longest streak of its kind. Davone Bess (Hawai`i) has caught at least two passes in all 34 games of his career. Overall, Dillard is tied with Casey Flair (UNLV) for the eighth longest streak among active NCAA receivers.
