Football outfights Army 38-31

By Meghan Hall     11/13/08 6:00pm

The football team turned its bowl eligibility into a cemented bowl berth last Saturday with a 38-31 homecoming win over Army at Rice Stadium. The victory improved the Owls' record to 7-3, which ensures that they will play in a bowl game for the second time in three years. The team also set a new single-season Rice scoring record. "It used to be that when we got a win we were excited," senior quarterback and Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week Chase Clement said. "We're striving for so much more. We have such a talented team. We've done so much, we've come so far that just winning isn't enough. We want to get better so we can continue to win."

Though Army scored a quick touchdown to open the game, Rice came back and scored 31 straight points. Army managed a field goal just before the halftime whistle blew, and the Black Knights also put the first points of the second half on the board with a touchdown. The Owls scored again to increase their lead to 38-17, but Army got two more touchdowns to end the game with a close score of 38-31.

"It's one of the things we're learning - that you can't go to sleep," head coach David Bailiff said. "It doesn't matter how many points you're up. Those guys are a good solid team and they're going to play hard for four quarters. I think we grew up tonight. We learned that, and we got out of here with a win."

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The team is learning as they progress that teams are playing against them differently and they must prepare for such situations.

"We're in situations where we're not the old Rice, we're the new Rice," Bailiff said. "People are gunning for us now. People are playing hard for four quarters trying to beat us. I think there's a learning curve that programs have, and we got hit by it today."

Clement was once again the center of the Rice offense-he passed for three touchdowns and ran for one more, breaking former University of Houston quarterback Kevin Kolb's C-USA record for total touchdown passes with 87. Clement threw for 384 yards, and the team rushed for 133 yards, 87 of which came from Clement. He became the first Rice player in history to top 10,000 yards with his 471 total yards on the day.

Senior wide receiver Jarett Dillard was Clement's target twice in the second quarter, with passes of 80 yards - the duo's longest scoring play of the year - and 10 yards. Dillard has 57 career touchdown catches and only needs three more to tie the all-time Conference USA record. This week Dillard was also named as one of ten semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award, which recognizes the best receiver in college football.

Dillard has now surpassed 1,000 receiving yards on the season, and sophomore wide receiver James Casey joined him at that mark with his six catches for 61 yards.

Clement's third passing touchdown came in the third quarter, when junior wide receiver Corbin Smiter took a 54-yard pass to the end zone. Smiter finished the game with a career-best 104 yards.

The Owls balanced their pass offense with a running attack, as well. In the first quarter, Clement ran for a career-long 61-yard score. Rice's other touchdown was a nine-yard run by junior running back C.J. Ugokwe in the second quarter.

The Rice defense was able to hold the Army offense to only 31 passing yards, but the Black Knights were able to net 461 yards rushing.

"I'm excited that they only had 31 yards passing, but we've got to do something about that rushing," Bailiff said. "Most of that was missed tackles, and most of it was the fact that we had to move some young men into the linebacker position that have not been there. Those kids did as best as they could. We will continue to improve our tackling."

The Owls have an off week this week but will resume play next Saturday with a conference matchup against Marshall at 2:30 p.m. in Rice Stadium. The game will be televised by CBS College Sports.

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