Thursday, November 3
Houston, Texas
6 p.m.
Rice University
vs
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UTEP
Photo by: Maria Lysaker | Rice Athletics
Game Nine: Rice vs. UTEP
11/2/2022 8:01:00 PM | Football
Owls and Miners Meet Under the Thursday Night Lights
Game #9
Who: Rice (4-4, 2-2 CUSA) vs. UTEP (4-5, 2-3 CUSA)
When: Thursday 6:00 p.m. CT
Where: Houston, Texas
Stadium: Rice Stadium (47,000)
Television CBS SN Carter Blackburn (PxP), Tom Herman (Analyst)
Where to Find the Game: Watch Online/Channel Finder
Rice Radio: JP Heath (play-by-play), Jason Metko (analyst)
Audio Streaming: RiceOwls.com, Rice Game Day App, Varsity Network
Live Stats: Riceowls.com
Digital Game Program: Game 9: Rice vs. UTEP
Series Information: Rice leads 15-9
Full Game Notes
Series Notes
• This is the 13th meeting between the schools at Rice Stadium, with Rice holding a 9-3 lead and the 17th as members of C-USA (Rice leads 11-5)
• The 11 wins vs. UTEP overall and the six wins at Rice Stadium since 2005 are the Owls' best vs. C-USA opponents.
• UTEP won last year in El Paso, 38-28, outscoring Rice 24-7 in the second half.
• The last time Rice lost in consecutive years to UTEP was in 2004 & 2005.
• Rice's last win in the series came in El Paso in 2019 as the Owls outscored the Miners 16-0 to close the season on a three-game winning streak.
• The Owls' last win at Rice Stadium came in 2016 (44-24)… UTEP won in 2018 and the game in 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic.
• Jeremy Eddington's 97-yard kickoff return at the Sun Bowl in the final regular season game of 2012 sealed a 33-24 win for the Owls. The win also capped a streak of five wins over the last six games to clinch a berth in the Armed Forces Bowl.
• Chase Clement was responsible for 8 touchdowns and earned a helmet sticker from ESPN after engineering an improbable 56-48 win over the Miners in 2007, leading the Owls to 28 points in the 4th quarter to overcome a 20-point deficit.
Thursday Night Lights
Rice will be playing a Thursday night regular season game for the fifth time since joining Conference USA. The Owls last played on Thursday night to open the 2016 season at WKU and had been scheduled to open the 2020 campaign at Houston before the game was canceled during the pandemic. This will be their first in-season Thursday assignment since the Owls split a pair of Thursday night contests in 2013. In each of the previous three in-season Thursday assignments, they were coming back on a short week having played the previous Saturday. Rice dropped a 28-16 decision at North Texas on Halloween (the only conference loss for the Owls that season) then came back to defeat UAB in overtime two weeks later. Rice and Houston played on a Thursday in 2011 (10/27) with the Cougars re-taking the Bayou Bucket. The Owls have also played one C-USA game on a Wednesday, but were coming off an open week and won at Southern Miss, 31-29 on 10/3/07 to present David Bailiff with his first win at Rice. Dunlevie Family Head Football Coach Mike Bloomgren's last Thursday night coaching assignment came while on the staff at Stanford in 2015, when the Cardinal blasted UCLA 56-35 on 10/15/15..
Pressurized
Ikenna Enechukwu, Josh Pearcy and Trey Schuman have combined for 56 quarterback pressures this year according to PFF. Enechukwu leads the team with 23 on 194 pass rushes, Schuman has 17 on 94 rushes and Pearcy 16 on 161 plays. FAU. Pearcy and Schuman have recorded career highs in sacks, with Pearcy leading the team with 5.5 sacks and Schuman second with four while Enechukwu is one shy of his career-best of 4.5.
Two If By Air
• Luke McCaffrey and Bradley Rozner have combined for seven 100-receiving efforts through eight games. The last time Rice had at least seven individual 100-yard receiving games was in 2008 when James Casey (7), Jarett Dillard (4), Toren Dixon, and Corbin Smiter (2 each) combined for 15, 100-yard receiving days.
• McCaffrey has done it three times in eight career games as a wide receiver while Rozner has a total of eight in 21 career games, the most since Jordan Taylor had eight in 41 games from 2011-14… The last Owls with more than eight career games over 100 yards were Dillard (12 from 2005-08) and Casey (10 from 2007-08).
• Rozner has seven touchdown receptions this year to move into a tie for ninth on the Rice single-season list and McCaffrey needs two to join him and if he does, they will become the first teammates at Rice to do so since Mario Hull had eight and Jordan Taylor had seven in 2014
• McCaffrey (613 yards) needs 183 yards this season to enter the season top ten at Rice, Rozner (579) is right behind with 217 yards to go… The only teammates to enter the Owls' single-season top 10 in receiving yards were Casey (1,329) and Dillard (1,310) who rang up the top two seasons in school history in 2008.
• Rozner has scored on plays of 78 and 75 yards this year and is the first Owl with two scoring receptions of at least 70 yards since Taylor in 2013.
• Rozner ranks seventh nationally with an average of 21.4 yards per catch (27/579), average is the best by an Owl with at least 30 receptions since Bill Howton averaged 22.6 (33/747) in 1951.
Up Next
Rice will travel to Bowling Green, Kentucky next weekend for the Owls' final scheduled appearance against WKU. They return to Rice in two weeks, hosting UTSA and celebrating Senior Day on November 19.
Who: Rice (4-4, 2-2 CUSA) vs. UTEP (4-5, 2-3 CUSA)
When: Thursday 6:00 p.m. CT
Where: Houston, Texas
Stadium: Rice Stadium (47,000)
Television CBS SN Carter Blackburn (PxP), Tom Herman (Analyst)
Where to Find the Game: Watch Online/Channel Finder
Rice Radio: JP Heath (play-by-play), Jason Metko (analyst)
Audio Streaming: RiceOwls.com, Rice Game Day App, Varsity Network
Live Stats: Riceowls.com
Digital Game Program: Game 9: Rice vs. UTEP
Series Information: Rice leads 15-9
Full Game Notes
Series Notes
• This is the 13th meeting between the schools at Rice Stadium, with Rice holding a 9-3 lead and the 17th as members of C-USA (Rice leads 11-5)
• The 11 wins vs. UTEP overall and the six wins at Rice Stadium since 2005 are the Owls' best vs. C-USA opponents.
• UTEP won last year in El Paso, 38-28, outscoring Rice 24-7 in the second half.
• The last time Rice lost in consecutive years to UTEP was in 2004 & 2005.
• Rice's last win in the series came in El Paso in 2019 as the Owls outscored the Miners 16-0 to close the season on a three-game winning streak.
• The Owls' last win at Rice Stadium came in 2016 (44-24)… UTEP won in 2018 and the game in 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic.
• Jeremy Eddington's 97-yard kickoff return at the Sun Bowl in the final regular season game of 2012 sealed a 33-24 win for the Owls. The win also capped a streak of five wins over the last six games to clinch a berth in the Armed Forces Bowl.
• Chase Clement was responsible for 8 touchdowns and earned a helmet sticker from ESPN after engineering an improbable 56-48 win over the Miners in 2007, leading the Owls to 28 points in the 4th quarter to overcome a 20-point deficit.
Thursday Night Lights
Rice will be playing a Thursday night regular season game for the fifth time since joining Conference USA. The Owls last played on Thursday night to open the 2016 season at WKU and had been scheduled to open the 2020 campaign at Houston before the game was canceled during the pandemic. This will be their first in-season Thursday assignment since the Owls split a pair of Thursday night contests in 2013. In each of the previous three in-season Thursday assignments, they were coming back on a short week having played the previous Saturday. Rice dropped a 28-16 decision at North Texas on Halloween (the only conference loss for the Owls that season) then came back to defeat UAB in overtime two weeks later. Rice and Houston played on a Thursday in 2011 (10/27) with the Cougars re-taking the Bayou Bucket. The Owls have also played one C-USA game on a Wednesday, but were coming off an open week and won at Southern Miss, 31-29 on 10/3/07 to present David Bailiff with his first win at Rice. Dunlevie Family Head Football Coach Mike Bloomgren's last Thursday night coaching assignment came while on the staff at Stanford in 2015, when the Cardinal blasted UCLA 56-35 on 10/15/15..
Pressurized
Ikenna Enechukwu, Josh Pearcy and Trey Schuman have combined for 56 quarterback pressures this year according to PFF. Enechukwu leads the team with 23 on 194 pass rushes, Schuman has 17 on 94 rushes and Pearcy 16 on 161 plays. FAU. Pearcy and Schuman have recorded career highs in sacks, with Pearcy leading the team with 5.5 sacks and Schuman second with four while Enechukwu is one shy of his career-best of 4.5.
Two If By Air
• Luke McCaffrey and Bradley Rozner have combined for seven 100-receiving efforts through eight games. The last time Rice had at least seven individual 100-yard receiving games was in 2008 when James Casey (7), Jarett Dillard (4), Toren Dixon, and Corbin Smiter (2 each) combined for 15, 100-yard receiving days.
• McCaffrey has done it three times in eight career games as a wide receiver while Rozner has a total of eight in 21 career games, the most since Jordan Taylor had eight in 41 games from 2011-14… The last Owls with more than eight career games over 100 yards were Dillard (12 from 2005-08) and Casey (10 from 2007-08).
• Rozner has seven touchdown receptions this year to move into a tie for ninth on the Rice single-season list and McCaffrey needs two to join him and if he does, they will become the first teammates at Rice to do so since Mario Hull had eight and Jordan Taylor had seven in 2014
• McCaffrey (613 yards) needs 183 yards this season to enter the season top ten at Rice, Rozner (579) is right behind with 217 yards to go… The only teammates to enter the Owls' single-season top 10 in receiving yards were Casey (1,329) and Dillard (1,310) who rang up the top two seasons in school history in 2008.
• Rozner has scored on plays of 78 and 75 yards this year and is the first Owl with two scoring receptions of at least 70 yards since Taylor in 2013.
• Rozner ranks seventh nationally with an average of 21.4 yards per catch (27/579), average is the best by an Owl with at least 30 receptions since Bill Howton averaged 22.6 (33/747) in 1951.
Up Next
Rice will travel to Bowling Green, Kentucky next weekend for the Owls' final scheduled appearance against WKU. They return to Rice in two weeks, hosting UTSA and celebrating Senior Day on November 19.
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