Rice University
0-4
Texas
4-0
No. 7 Texas Hands Rice 58-14 Defeat
9/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 22, 2007
Texas quarterback Colt McCoy passed for 333 yards and three touchdowns to lead No. 7 Texas to a 58-14 win over Rice on Saturday night, closing out the Owls non-conference slate.
"Texas is absolutely the best, most athletic, biggest, fastest and strongest football team we are going to play all year," Rice head coach David Bailiff said afterward.
The Owls missed a golden opportunity to break out on top in the game, when Joseph Leary picked up a Jamal Charles fumble on the second play of the game and returned it eight yards to the Texas 19. But the Longhorns defense pushed the Owls back to the 33 and Clark Fangemeier's attempted 50-yard field goal sailed wide.
"When we did not capitalize on the turnover it definitely hurt a little bit," Quarterback Chase Clement said. "We got a turnover right at the beginning of the game and the momentum was on our side. We needed to make something happen and come out showing that we were ready to play. When we did not, it hurt the momentum," he added.
Clement threw for 220 yards, completing 18 of 32 passes, becoming the eighth Rice quarterback to throw for more than 3,000 yards in his career. He has thrown for better than 200 yards in each of the last three games.
He connected with Toren Dixon on an 18-yard scoring strike just before halftime to give the Owls their first points of the game. Dixon led all Rice receivers with five catches for 61 yards. James Casey added the Owls second touchdown on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter.
The Owls will have 10 days to prepare for the start of Conference USA action on October 3 when they travel to Hattiesburg, MS to meet Southern Miss in a nationally-televised game on ESPN.
Team Stats
RICE 0, UT 7
UT - Cosby, Quan 17 yd pass from McCoy, Colt (Bailey, Ryan kick) 13 plays, 67 yards, TOP 5:20
RICE 0, UT 10
UT - Bailey, Ryan 43 yd field goal 5 plays, 40 yards, TOP 1:33
RICE 0, UT 17
UT - Charles, Jamaal 2 yd run (Bailey, Ryan kick), 2 plays, 50 yards, TOP 0:13
RICE 0, UT 20
UT - Bailey, Ryan 52 yd field goal 5 plays, 36 yards, TOP 2:46
RICE 0, UT 27
UT - Sweed, Limas 52 yd pass from McCoy, Colt (Bailey, Ryan kick) 1 plays, 52 yards, TOP 0:08
RICE 0, UT 34
UT - Charles, Jamaal 5 yd run (Bailey, Ryan kick), 6 plays, 65 yards, TOP 1:30
RICE 0, UT 41
UT - Sweed, Limas 24 yd pass from McCoy, Colt (Bailey, Ryan kick) 1 plays, 24 yards, TOP 0:07
RICE 7, UT 41
RICE - DIXON, Toren 18 yd pass from CLEMENT, Chase (FANGMEIER, C. kick) 3 plays, 45 yards, TOP 0:47
RICE 7, UT 48
UT - Charles, Jamaal 2 yd run (Bailey, Ryan kick), 9 plays, 54 yards, TOP 2:51
RICE 7, UT 55
UT - McGee, Vondrell 9 yd run (Bailey, Ryan kick), 8 plays, 80 yards, TOP 2:43
RICE 7, UT 58
UT - Bailey, Ryan 19 yd field goal 8 plays, 59 yards, TOP 2:44
RICE 14, UT 58
RICE - CASEY, James 1 yd run (FANGMEIER, C. kick), 8 plays, 56 yards, TOP 3:50
