Owls Open C-USA Play By Hosting Southern Miss

Game #5
What: Rice (1-3) vs. Southern Miss (1-3)
When: Saturday, October 2
Where: Houston, Texas
Stadium: Rice Stadium (47,000)
Television: ESPN 3 Matt Pedersen (play-by-play), Chris Mykcoskie (analyst)
Where to Find the Game: ESPN 3
Rice Radio: JP Heath (play-by-play), Nate Griffin (analyst), Jason Metko (sidelines)
Audio Streaming: Rice mobile (App Store / Google Play). Subscribers of the previous version of the app will be able to upgrade to the new version using the same links. The game will also be available on RiceOwls.com
Live Stats: RiceOwls.com
Digital Game Program: Rice vs. Southern Miss
Series Information: Southern Miss leads 6-5 (3-2 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
O26, 2019     L            20-6     Houston
O31, 2020       W         30-6     Hattiesburg

Series Notes
• This is the 12th meeting between the two schools, all of them as members of Conference USA
• The 11 games are the second most for the Owls vs. any team in the conference since their debut in 2005 (UTEP 15). Four of the meetings were when the schools were in opposite divisions of the conference, but they have now met in seven consecutive years as members of the West Division
• Southern Miss leads the series 6-5 including a 3-2 lead in games at Rice Stadium after winning the last three.
• Rice took a 30-6 decision last year, snapping a five-game winning streak for Southern Miss.
• The teams have combined to average 62.7 points during the 11 games of the series, but only 31 in the last two.
• The teams first met in 2007 in Hattiesburg on a Wednesday thanks to ESPN, as the Owls held on for a 31-29 win for David Bailiff's first win at Rice. Future NFL draftee and current Bengals TE coach James Casey was called upon to play seven positions for a depleted Rice squad during the game.
• 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.

Conference Call
Rice opens its 17th season of Conference USA action on Saturday and this will be just the fourth season since joining Conference USA in 2005 that Rice will play eight consecutive conference games (2007, 2010 and 2019). Rice was scheduled to play its entire conference schedule after opening with four non-conference games in 2020 before the opening games of the season were canceled by the pandemic. The Owls are 5-11 in C-USA openers including a 2-5 mark at Rice Stadium. The Owls have lost their last three conference season openers at home, the last two in overtime (LA Tech, 23-20 in 2019; Middle Tennessee, 40-34 in 2020).

C-USA
Rice is 53-72 (.424) in Conference USA since joining the league in 2005. Rice has an overall mark of 30-31 in Conference USA at Rice Stadium, 0-1 at NRG Stadium and 23-40 on the road.

Explosive Efforts
The Owls fashioned 21 plays of more than 10 yards vs. Texas Southern, 10 came on the ground and 11 through the air. Seven of the 11 pass plays came in the first half while nine of the 10 rushing plays came in the second half. A total of 10 players either rushed or received a pass for a gain of at least 10 yards, including six on the ground (Luke McCaffrey 3; Ari Broussard & Jordan Myers 2; Jake Bailey, Khalan Griffin and Brendan Suckley 1).   Jordan Myers led the team with five total plays of 10+ yards, followed by Bailey (4), McCaffrey (3), Broussard and Cedric Patterson III (2) while Jack Bradley, Jaeger Bull, Griffin, Cameron Montgomery and Suckley each had one,

Notable Effort
Jordan Myers' career night vs. Texas Southern earned him honorable mention recognition from The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award as part of its National Player of the Week release this week. Myers was one of 10 players recognized in addition to weekly winner Sincere McCormick for his 160 yards rushing, four rushing touchdowns and 208 all-purpose yards vs. TSU.

Next Up
Rice returns to action in two weeks when the Owls open a two-game road swing by traveling to San Antonio to take on UTSA on October 16 followed by a game at UAB on October 23. They will celebrate Homecoming on October 30 when they welcome North Texas to Rice Stadium with kickoff set for 1 p.m.

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