Owls Host Herd for 100th Homecoming

Game #9
What: Rice (0-8/0-4) vs. Marshall (5-3/3-1)
When: Saturday, November 2
Where: Houston, Texas
Stadium: Rice Stadium (47,000)
Television: Stadium on Facebook Chris Hasell (play-by-play), A.J. Hawk (analyst), Kristen Balboni (sidelines)
Where to Find the Game: Facebook
Rice Radio: JP Heath (play-by-play), Matt Pederson (analyst)
Audio Streaming: Stretch Internet, Rice Game Day App, TuneIn app
Live Stats: RiceOwls.com
Series Information: Marshall leads 4-2, Rice leads 2-1 at Rice Stadium

Series History
O27, 2007       L          34-21               Huntington
N22, 2008       W         35-10               Houston
O15, 2011       L          24-20               Huntington
S22, 2012       L          54-51^2ot           Houston
D7, 2013         W         42-24               Houston
N15, 2014       L          41-14               Huntington

Series Notes
This is seventh meeting between the two schools (all as members of C-USA) and the sixth in the regular season

Marshall leads the overall series 4-2, but Rice leads 2-1 at Rice Stadium.
The last regular season meeting at Rice Stadium was a wild, 54-51 double overtime win by the Herd in 2012. Taylor McHargue finished with 467 yards of total offense and led the Owls back from a 41-31 deficit in the final three minutes, but was injured on a 47-yard run to the Marshall two-yard line in the final minute to set up the potential winning touchdown. The Owls could not punch it in and settled for a Chris Boswell field goal to send the game to OT.
The teams returned to Rice Stadium the following year for the 2013 C-USA Championship game and the Owls captured their first outright conference title since 1957 with a 41-24 win. Luke Turner earned MVP honors by throwing a pair of TD passes, Jordan Taylor caught six passes for 131 yards and Charles Ross ran for 109 yards and two scores to lead the Owls, who piled up 487 yards on the afternoon.

Homecoming Centennial
Today's game will the be the 100th Homecoming football game in school history. While it began playing football in 1912, the tradition of Homecoming did not make its first appearance at Rice until 1919 when the Owls trounced Arkansas 40-7 to cap the first eight win season in school history (8-1). The first 10 Homecoming games were held on Thanksgiving Day and after not having a designated game in 1930, a football game has been the centerpiece of the annual alumni gathering each succeeding fall. The Owls have posted a 47-49-3 record in Homecoming games, including wins in 10 of the last 13 games. Here are a few of the more notable Homecoming games:

1958 Army 14, Rice 7. Eventual Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins breaks a 7-7 tie with a long TD reception for the 3rd-ranked Black Knights.
1959 Gordon Speer of Rice accounts for all the points on both sides in a 7-2 Rice win. His punt from the Owls goal line was blown backward for a safety for A&M, then took an Aggie punt back for a TD and converted the PAT.
1995 Rice and Houston play the last game in the history of the Southwest conference, with Houston taking an 18-17 win.
1996 Rice blows out 20th-ranked Utah, 51-10.
1998 Dan Dawson returns a fumble 100 yards for a score as Rice downs UNLV 38-16.
2005 Rice defeats Tulane 42-34 to pick up its first C-USA win.
2006 Clark Fangmeier hits a 40-yard field goal with :03 left to give Rice an 18-17 win over ECU, capping a nine point rally in the last five minutes to keep the Owls hope for a bowl alive.
2010 Vance McDonald's 25-yard TD reception in the 4th quarter brings the Bayou Bucket back to Rice.
2012 Rice University celebrates its Centennial as the Owls defeat UTSA 34-14.
2013 Charles Ross sets a school record with five rushing touchdowns in a 52-14 rout of LA Tech.
2014 Rice reaches bowl eligibility for a third straight year with a 17-7 win over UTSA.

Blaze in the Backfield
Linebacker Blaze Alldredge was added to the Nagurski Trophy Watch List after his standout performance over the first six games of 2019. He has reached double figures in tackles in two of the past four games, including matching his career-high with 13 tackles vs. LA Tech. He was credited with1.5 TFL vs. Southern Miss to increase his total to 14 (fifth in the nation and second in C-USA). His total is the most by an Owl since Brian Womac finished with 22 in 2017, the most by a Rice linebacker since Rashad Reynolds totaled 15 in 1997 and the third best by an Owl linebacker since TFL were first tracked in 1981. Alldredge has at least one TFL in each of the last seven games, including a career-best 4.5 against Texas which was the most by an Owl since 2014. In his last 11 games dating back to last season, Alldredge has amassed 97 tackles, including 14 for loss. He was credited with a career-high 4.5 vs. Texas.

Sharing the Workload
Chris Barnes and Adam Nunez are both ranked in the C-USA punting top 10, with Barnes (45.0) ranked third and Nunez (41.3) ninth. Nunez has punted 23 times, Barnes 22 and they have combined to put 42% of their punts inside the opponents 20 (19 of 45) and while they have a combined 10 inside the 10-yard line, they do not have a touchback this year. Rice ranks eighth nationally with a 42.8 net punting average, compared with a 40.1 mark last season with Jack Fox, who was the 2018 C-USA Special Teams Player of the Year. Fox had 39% of his punts inside the 20 and had 16% (13/80) result in touchbacks.

For the Defense
Rice ranks fourth in total defense in C-USA in conference games (357 per game), despite facing two of the top four offenses in the league through the first four games. Southern Miss is tied for second with Marshall at 470.8 but was held to 364 last Saturday and LA Tech is fourth at 456.2, but was held to 294 by the Owls. In all games, Rice is allowing 155.5 rushing yards per game and 29.1 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.

Next Up
The Owls will be off next Saturday and return to action in two weeks when they meet Middle Tennessee for the first time in football.

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Players Mentioned

Blaze Alldredge

Chris Barnes

Jack Fox

Adam Nunez

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