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Rice University Athletics
C-USA West Title On the Line
11/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 23, 2007
GAME 12
Rice (3-8, 3-4 C-USA) vs. Tulsa (8-3, 5-2 C-USA)
2:00 pm • Rice Stadium • Houston, Texas
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VIDEO
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RADIO
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Matt Musil • Play-by-Play; David Saltzman • Color Jorge Vargas • Sideline
SENIOR SALUTE
The 15 seniors on the 2007 Owls squad will be honored prior to start of the Tulsa game. They will be introduced individually and join their parents at midfield prior to the arrival of the remained of the Owls. The seniors who will be honored against the Golden Hurriccane are: Justin Abt, Gary Anderson, Joel Armstrong, Scott Austin, Lute Barber, Bio Bilaye-Benibo, Jonathan Cary, George Chukwu, Bubba Heard, Robby Heos, Luke Juist, Eric Neuhaus, David Perkins, Jon Turner and Aubrey White.
C-USA--THE WEST CROWN RUNS THROUGH HOUSTON
Saturday's game will determine who will represent the West Division in the Conference USA Championship game on Saturday, December 1. With a Rice victory, the Houston Cougars will make a return trip to the title game, while Tulsa will earn the right to play in the game with a victory. Rice will be looking to even its conference record at 4-4, and finished at .500 or better for the second consecutive year. The Owls last posted back-to-back conference marks of .500 or better, in 1998-99 as members of the WAC.
C-USA--YEAR III
The Owls are 10-13 in their third year of league competition. Rice is 5-6 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 six 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 GOLDEN HURRICANE
Saturday's game is the 12th meeting between Rice and Tulsa, in a series that began in 1937 with a 0-0 tie. The two schools did not meet again until 1996 as members of the WAC. Rice leads the overall series 7-4-1, after a 41-38 Rice victory in double overtime in Tulsa last year. Jarett Dillard's 25-yard touchdown catch on the first play of the Owls' second possession snapped a three-game Tulsa winning streak over Rice. The Owls hold a 4-1 lead in games played in Tulsa, but the schools have split the four meetings at Rice Stadium. Tulsa will bring a two-game Rice Stadium winning streak into Saturday's game.
WEEK 11: TULANE 45, RICE 31
Chase Clement broke the Rice single-season total offense record and threw for four touchdowns, but the Owls could not overcome Tulane's ground assault in a 45-31 loss at Rice Stadium. Clement threw for 345 yards and rushed for 26 more to push his season total to 3,311. He completed 34-of-54 throws on the day, completing passes to nine receivers. Two of his scoring tosses went to Jarett Dillard, who caught nine passes for 87 yards. Dillard's two TD catches give him 39 in his career, matching Davone Bess (Hawai'i) for the lead among active NCAA receivers and move him into a tie for 7th on the NCAA career list. James Casey also caught a pair of scores, including a 61-yarder which is the longest scoring play for the Owls this season. Casey finished the day with a career-best 113 yards to lead the team and also completed his only pass of the day. Vernon James and Andrew Sendejo each finished with 11 tackles to lead the defense, while Clark Fangmeier converted all four of his PAT attempts to move past Froggy Williams into third place on the Rice career list with 76.
RE-WRITING THE RECORD BOOK
The Owls offense has already set a season records for completions (271) and are within striking distance of several other team marks heading into the final game. They have scored 334 points this season in 11 games and need to score 17 against Tulsa to break the record they set last year in 13 games. The Owls also have thrown for 2,976 yards this year and would need 362 yards passing to break that season mark.
MAKING THE TURNOVERS COUNT
Rice has scored 89 points in seven C-USA games off a total of 19 turnovers. Those 19 lead Conference USA, one more than ECU and UTEP. 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.
THE FOLLOW UP
Through 11 games of his All American campaign last year, Jarett Dillard had caught 76 passes for 1,031 yards and 17 scores. This year, he has caught 73 for 968 yards and 13 TDs. He caught nine passes for 87 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Tulane, to move within 32 yards of his second consecutive season with more than 1,000 receiving yards. He set the Owls season record last year with 1,247 yards in 13 games. Dillard, who just missed his third consecutive game with 10-or-more receptions, finished the day with 199 career catches.
FAMILIAR TERRITORY
Jarett Dillard's 39 career touchdown receptions are tied with Davone Bess (Hawai`i) for the active career lead and are tied with Bess, Braylon Edwards (Michigan) and Greg Jennings (Western Michigan) for seventh on the NCAA career list. The San Antonio native is two shy from matching Dwayne Jarrett (USC) for the sixth spot. After being shut out in the first two contests of the season, Dillard has found the end zone 13 times in the last nine games, which is tied for the conference lead. His 13 TD's 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. 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 against Tulane gave him 224 points. It ranks second to Trevor Cobb (260 points and 43 touchdowns) on the Owls career list. After being held to a career-low 14 yards receiving at Southern Miss (a pair of seven-yard TDs), Dillard has caught 51 passes for 701 yards in the last six outings, including double figure reception and 100-yard receiving days (11-for-168 versus UTEP, 13-for-124 at SMU) in two of his last three games. He has caught a touchdown in 16 of his last 17 conference games and in 22 of his last 26 overall.
THE RECORD CHASE CONTINUES
Chase Clement has already established Rice career marks for touchdown passes (52) and touchdowns produced (65), which both rank 12th nationally among active players, and season marks for touchdowns (34), touchdown passes (26) and total offense (3,311). Clement ranks fifth in the nation in total points produced. He also has set new personal marks for season totals in attempts (442), completions (260) and yards (2,846). 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 12 yards to reach 1,000 career rushing yards. Clement threw for 345 yards against Tulane, his fourth game with better than 300 yards passing this year and his seventh straight game over better than 280 yards passing, to raise his career total to 5,125 yards, the third best total in school history. Clement is the first Rice quarterback to top 5,000 yards passing as a junior. Randy Hertel threw for 4,949 yards in his first three seasons for the Owls. Clement's 2,835 yards passing this season are second only to Tommy Kramer's 1976 total of 3,317. His 34 completions against Tulane raised his career total to 466, third-best in school history. His 35 completions at SMU tied the school record , set by Joel Armstrong in the 2006 New Orleans Bowl against Troy. Clement's 260 completions this year rank second on the Owls's single-season list, 10 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 371 yards of total offense against Tulane allowed him to become the first Owl to top 6,000 career yards in his junior season. He has now has produced 6,113 yards of total offense, good for second on the Rice career list. Tommy Kramer holds the school mark with 6,336. Clement's set the school single game mark with 498 yards against UTEP. Clement's total of 3,311 yards bettered Kramer's season mark of 3,272.
