Football defeats archrival Houston to capture coveted Bayou Bucket

By Meghan Hall     12/4/08 6:00pm

The football team's senior class was honored before the Owls' final regular season matchup against The University of Houston on Saturday. As they stood before a record crowd of over 35,000 fans, the players were faced with one final chance to capture the Bayou Bucket, one of the few previous historic imprints the squad had been unable to make. After one of the most meaningful Bayou Buckets in recent history, the bowl-bound Owls crossed that accomplishment off the to-do list. For the first time in four years, Rice brought home the trophy with a convincing 56-42 win over their cross-town rivals.

The contest held major Conference USA title implications: Coming into the game, Houston was in control of its own destiny, since a win over Rice would have sent the Cougars to the Conference USA Championship game against East Carolina University. Even Rice could have gone to the championship had a win over Houston coincided with a University of Tulsa loss to Marshall University the same day.

Unfortunately, news of Tulsa's victory over the Thundering Herd came in as the rivalry game at Rice Stadium was coming to a close, but the Owls, who are currently on a six-game winning streak, had much to celebrate. Their nine wins represent the most by an Rice squad since 1953, and the Owls went undefeated at home for the first time since 1949.

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Rice earned their fifth consecutive win at home two weeks ago against Marshall. The Owls and the Herd were tied 7-7 at halftime, but Rice accumulated more than 300 yards of total offense in the second half to blow the game open and take a 35-10 victory. The offensive star of that game was senior quarterback Chase Clement, who threw for four touchdowns and ran for a fifth.

Their sixth win tallied an official attendance of 35,534, the most at Rice Stadium in eight years, and was the tenth Rice victory in 32 games of the Bayou Bucket series.

The Rice offense fired all day long, and the Owls' 56 points were the most ever in a matchup against Houston. This was largely due to more heroic efforts from Clement, who threw for 381 yards and five touchdowns; he also ran for one more. However, happy fans also had to thank sophomore tight end James Casey, who was responsible for his own share of the scoring.

Casey rushed for Rice's the first touchdown of the game and then threw a touchdown pass to junior tight end Taylor Wardrow for the final score. Casey - who finished with 172 receiving yards, three throwing yards and 10 rushing yards - also caught three of Clement's touchdown passes.

"I am very thankful to have [Dillard] on the other side of me all the time," Casey said. "I probably couldn't do much if [Dillard] wasn't over there drawing so much coverage. Everything I do is because of him and how good of a player he is."

Casey had 12 receptions, enough for him to break the single-season C-USA record with 104. He was also named C-USA Offensive Player of the Week.

"Chase Clement, Jarett Dillard and James Casey - talk about guys just continuing to make plays when we need them," head coach David Bailiff said. "And the other teams know they're coming. They just keep making [plays], and just keep playing harder. The amazing thing, too, offensively and defensively, is that we get better each week. We're into week 12 and our football team continues to improve."

The scoring went back and forth at the beginning of this high-octane affair, which saw Houston finish with 634 total yards of offense and Rice with 591. The Owls began to pull away with a three-touchdown second quarter and took a 35-21 advantage into halftime. Rice let up slightly after building the rest of a convincing lead, scoring its last touchdown in the first four seconds of the fourth quarter before Houston came back to score two more touchdowns and close the final gap to seven points.

Junior running back C.J. Ugokwe was the rushing leader with 110 yards, his third 100-yard game of the season.

"Everybody was into the game across the board," Clement said. "We had several guys getting the ball and being a part of the offense. It was a complete effort and it was awesome to see us play four quarters."

Rice broke several records during the last regular-season game of 2008. Clement is now in first place on the C-USA career lists for both touchdown passes and total touchdowns. He also stands in 13th place on the NCAA all-time touchdown pass list.

For Dillard, who caught four passes for 43 yards, it was only the second game of the season in which he did not catch a touchdown pass. He needs one more to overcome DeAngelo Williams of Memphis for the overall C-USA touchdown record.

The game was also remarkably free of turnovers: Senior linebacker Brian Raines, who just returned from a forearm injury, intercepted a pass from Houston's Case Keenum in the second quarter, and the Owls recovered a Houston fumble in the fourth.

"I saw the quarterback throw the ball and then saw it was tipped, and then I caught it," Raines said. "I was shocked. And then the next thing was "Run!", so I took off and then they pulled me down out of bounds. Couldn't catch one with two arms, but I catch one with one. I couldn't believe it."

The Owls got to see the actual Bayou Bucket after the game as it returned to Rice.

"It was awesome to be able to hold that trophy up and bring it back to Rice in my senior year," Clement said. "We all had high aspirations. Looking at last year and what that did in terms of motivating us after the bowl year. I think we all had high expectations and we knew coming into this year we could do something special if we got after it.

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