Tulsa Outlasts Rice - Rice University Athletics

Saturday, October 17

Houston, Texas

3:30 p.m.

Rice University

1-6 , 0-3

Tulsa

4-3 , 1-2

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Tulsa	0	21	3	14	38
Rice	7	10	0	0	17

Game Notes (PDF)

Photo by: Maria Lysaker | Rice Athletics

10/17/2026 8:45:00 PM | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery

Road trip to Florida next for Owls

By: Chuck Pool (cpool@rice.edu)

Houston: Rice traded blows with Tulsa in an explosive first half, but the Golden Hurricanes took control in the second half to down the Owls 38-17 at First Community Stadium on Saturday.

How it Happened: Rice opened the scoring by taking the opening kickoff and scoring a touchdown on its opening possession for the first time this season. Tyvonn Byars carried on four of the first five snaps as the Owls moved to midfield before Jacurri Brown raced the final 50, the first of two long-distance scoring runs in the first half. Tulsa responded with a drive of its own, moving from its own eight to the Rice one-yard line before the Owls' defense stiffened and on fourth down, Stone Combs knifed through the line to drop Hurricane quarterback Dexter Williams for a two-yard loss. Rice used that momentum to take the remainder of the quarter to set up a 32-yard field goal from Tommy Bauchiero on the opening play of the second quarter to give Rice a 10-0 lead. Tulsa responded with a seven-play, 75-yard scoring drive to cut the lead to10-7, but Brown answered with a 78-yard dash to put Rice back up by ten. Tulsa used a touchdown drive of its own and then capitalized on a fumble by Rice to score 14 points in the final three minutes of the half to take its first lead of the game into the locker room at halftime. The teams traded punts to open the third quarter before Tulsa extended its lead on a field goal midway through the third quarter and added two touchdowns in the final quarter to pull away and win for the sixth consecutive time against Rice in Houston.

Up Next: Rice travels to Boca Raton, Florida next Saturday to face Florida Atlantic with kickoff set for 11 a.m. (central).

Notes
Series

This was the 22nd meeting between Rice and Tulsa and the first in Houston since 2011.
Tulsa won for the sixth consecutive time to move to 7-3-1 all-time on the Owls' home field.

Team

Rice scored a touchdown on its first possession, the first time it scored on its first possession this season and the first time since November 22, 2025 vs. North Texas.
Jacurri Brown finished with 154 yards on the ground, the sixth time this season an Owl has topped 100 and the 11^th time in 20 games under Scott Abell.
Rice was credited with seven tackles for loss and has 16 in its last two games.

Individual
#11 QB Jacurri Brown

Brown tied his career-high rushing for 154 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
It was his third 100-yard game of the year and the fifth of his career.
Brown is the first Rice quarterback to have three 100-yard rushing games in a season since Kyle Herm in 2003.
Brown's 14.0 yards per carry tied the fourth-best single-game effort in school history.
Brown scored from 50 and 78 yards, the first Owl to have two carries of 50 or more yards in a game since Jumo Otoviano in 2018 vs. Old Dominion.
The 78-yard run was the longest of his career.

With his 78-yard run and Ben Grice 's 88-yard dash at Fresno State, Rice has two players with runs of at least 75 yards for the first time since 2004 (Marcus Rucker, 86 at San Jose State, Quinton Smith, 80 vs. Fresno State).

#19 WR Jordan Clark

Clark had three catches for 52 yards and added a career-best 29 yards on the ground to finish with a career-high 81 all-purpose yards.
His 38-yard reception in the first quarter was the longest of his career and he added a career-best 16-yard run in the third quarter.
#28 RB D'Andre Hardeman, Jr.

#94 DL Braden Bays

Bays made his first career start and matched his career high with five tackles.
Three of his five tackles resulted in a loss to set a carer-high and two of them forced fumbles.

#33 LB Stone Combs

Combs recorded a team-high 10 tackles to reach double figures for the second consecutive game and the fifth time in his career.
He's the first Owl with back-to-back double figure tackle totals since Antonio Montero in 2021 vs. Arkansas and Houston.

#54 LB Austin Harnetiaux

Harnetiaux recorded a season-high 10 tackles and joined his former teammate at Nevada (Combs) in reaching double figures.
The duo have combined for 40 tackles in the last two games.