Owls Look to Retain Bucket

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Football

vs #22 North Texas

Nov 22

6:30 p.m.

Rice Stadium

Football

at South Florida

Nov 29

TBA

Tampa, FL

Game #3 43rd Bayou Bucket Classic
Who: Rice (1-1) @Houston (0-2)

When: Saturday 7:00 p.m. CT
Where: Houston, Texas
Stadium: TDECU Stadium
Tickets: UHCougars.com
Television ESPN+ Lowell Galindo (PXP); Fozzy Whittaker (Analyst); Tori Petry (Sidelines)
Rice Radio: JP Heath (play-by-play), Nate Griffin (analyst), Jason Metko (sidelines)
Audio Streaming: RiceOwls.com, Rice Game Day App, Varsity Network
Live Stats: Statbroadcast.com
Digital Game Program: Game 3 Rice @Houston
Series Information: Houston leads 33-12

Full Game Notes
Bayou Bucket Notes

This is the 46th meeting between Rice and Houston, the 43rd to decide possession of the Bayou Bucket, and will be played 50 years to the day the two teams first battled to take possession of the trophy, which had been created by the Touchdown Club of Houston to honor the winner of the series that began three years earlier.
Rice is 12-33 in the series after defeating Houston 43-41 in overtime at Rice Stadium last year.
Rice is looking to retain the Bucket for the third time in the series' history... The Owls won back-to-back in 1993 & 1994 and 2000 & 2001, with Rice winning at Houston each time to retain the trophy.
The matchup between Mike Bloomgren and Willie Fritz is the 22^nd different combination of head coaches in the series' history and the 21st since the inception of the Bayou Bucket.
The series began with two meetings at Rice Stadium in 1971 & 1972. From 1978 through 2003, the series alternated between each school's home stadium. Rice's home game in 2004 was moved to Reliant (now NRG) Stadium, and the series returned there in 2012 &13. The 2021 game at TDECU Stadium was canceled due to COVID-19.
Rice is 6-11 when meeting the Cougars in a non-conference game, 4-16 while both schools were members of the Southwest Conference and 2-6 as members of C-USA.

Short Haul Truckers
Saturday's game renews the meeting of the two FBS programs in closest proximity to each other. The two schools' stadiums stand approximately four miles apart or 7-8 miles of driving distance (depending on the route chosen).

Long Distance Dean
Dean Connors' 71-yard touchdown vs. TSU was the longest rush of his career and was the eighth of 30-or more yards (169 career attempts). He has three runs of 50 or more in his last seven games dating back to last year and is averaging 6.3 yards on the ground in his career, which would rank third in school history. His average of 6.37 last year was the sixth-best for a single season.

Like Father…
Tyson Flowers' 34-yard pick-six vs. Texas Southern was the first of his career and allowed him to match his father, former Arkansas defensive back Jeromy Flowers in that category. Jeromy Flowers was a four-year letterman at Arkansas from 1996-99 who played 43 games in his career and had seven career interceptions. His lone interception return for a touchdown came on 11/15/97 against Tennessee in Little Rock when he intercepted Peyton Manning and returned it 36 yards for a score. Jeromy later coached Tyson at Ft. Worth Southwest Christian.

Up Next
Rice will make its first trip outside the city limits next week when the Owls meet Army at West Point. CBS College Sports will carry the game nationally with kickoff set for 11 a.m. central.

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Dean Connors

Tyson Flowers

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