Owls Welcome Golden Eagles to Rice Stadium

Photo by: Bobby McDuffie

Owls Welcome Golden Eagles to Rice Stadium

10/26/2019 6:02:00 AM | Football

Stretch Internet TuneIn Rice GameDay ESPN+ ($)

Rice hosts Southern Miss at noon

By: By Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)

Game #8
What: Rice (0-7/0-3) vs Southern Miss (4-3/2-1)
When: Saturday, October 26
Where: Houston, Texas
Stadium: Rice Stadium (47,000)
Television: ESPN+ David Saltzman (play-by-play), ND Kalu (analyst)
Where to Find the Game: ESPN+
Rice Radio: JP Heath (play-by-play), Nate Griffin (analyst), Matt Pederson (sidelines)
Audio Streaming: Stretch Internet, Rice Game Day App, TuneIn app
Live Stats: RiceOwls.com
Series Information: Southern Miss leads 5-4 (2-2 in Houston)

Series History
O3, 2007         W         31-29   Hattiesburg
O18, 2008       W         45-40   Houston
O 1, 2011        L          48-24   Hattiesburg
O 27, 2012      W         44-17   Houston
S27, 2014       W         41-23   Hattiesburg
N14, 2015       L          65-10   Houston
O1, 2016         L          44-28   Hattiesburg
N11, 2017       L          43-34   Houston
S22, 2018       L          40-22   Hattiesburg

Series Notes
• This is 10th meeting between the two schools (all as members of C-USA) and the sixth consecutive The first four were when the schools were in opposite divisions of the conference.
• Rice took four of the first five meetings, but Southern Miss leads the series 5-4 after winning the last four, including a 2-2 mark at Rice Stadium.
• The Golden Eagles last three trips to Rice Stadium have been on special commemorative days (Homecoming in 2015 & 2017 and Hall of Fame Weekend this year).
• The series debuted in 2007 in Hattiesburg on a Wednesday night on ESPN, as the Owls held on for a 31-29 win for David Bailiff's first win at Rice. Future NFL draftee James Casey was called upon to play seven positions for a depleted Rice squad during the game.
• The last eight meetings have seen the winning team score at least 40 points.
• Rice's 44-17 win at Rice Stadium in 2012 was the first of a five-game winning streak to close the year and earn the Owls a berth in the Armed Forces Bowl.

To the Nines
Brad Rozner and Austin Trammell became the first pair of Rice receivers to each catch nine passes in the same game in school history on Saturday vs. UTSA. Rozner set career-bests with his nine receptions and 138 yards while Trammell finished with nine receptions and 75 yards to become the 13th Owl to top 100 career catches and move into a tie for 10th on the Rice career chart with 103. It was the third time in his first seven FBS games that Rozner has topped 100 yards receiving. The last Owl to have three 100-yard receiving games in a season was Jordan Taylor, who had a total of four in 2014.

Settling in at Home
JC transfer Brad Rozner posted back-to-back 100 yard receiving days in his first two games at Rice Stadium (103 vs. Wake Forest, 100 vs. Baylor) and has 267 in three games on the home turf this year.   He is the first Rice receiver to twice top the century mark in receiving yards in the first four games of the season since Jarett Dillard and James Casey each did it in 2008. Casey had 208 yards at Memphis and 115 at Vanderbilt while Dillard had 105 at Vanderbilt and 158 at Texas.

Few Flags
Rice leads the nation in fewest penalty yards per game (25.4), being flagged 22 times for 178 yards. The school record for fewest yards in a season is 258 in 11 games in 1961 (23.5). Rice last averaged less than 30 yards per game in penalties in 1996 (46-305 yds. 27.2 per game).

For the Defense
Rice is seventh in rushing defense in Conference USA, allowed 155.2 per game and eighth in scoring defense, allowing 30.4 points per game. Each average is the Owls best since 2014 when they gave up 152.5 per game on the ground and allowed 28.5 points per game.

Debuting
25 players have seen their first action at the collegiate level in the Owls first seven games. 16 are true freshmen (Jake Bailey, Adrian Bickham, Jack Bradley, De'Braylon Carroll, Tre'shon Devones, Izeya Floyd, Hunter Henry, Zach Hoban, JoVoni Johnson, Hunter Jones, Zane Knipe, E.J. Lahlou, Joshua Landrum, Kirk Lockhart, Myron Morrison and Josh Pearcy). Four are redshirt freshmen (Derek Ferraro, August Pitre III, Brandon Suckley and Cameron Valentine), two are redshirt sophomores (Austin Conrad, Jonathan Sanchez) and three are junior college transfers (Myles McCord, Brad Rozner and Naeem Smith). Landrum and Devones made their debuts on the Owls kickoff coverage team at Army and combined on a tackle on their first play. In his first 19 games as the Dunlevie Family Head Football Coach, Mike Bloomgren has seen true freshmen gain 177 games of experience.

Next Up
The Owls will celebrate their 100^th Homecoming next Saturday at Rice Stadium when they host Marshall with kickoff set for 2:30.