Rice beats UTEP 45-7 to qualify for bowl

By Dan Elledge     10/28/13 7:00pm

The Rice University football team played one of its best games of the season with a 45-7 win at home against the University of Texas, El Paso. With the win, the Owls are now bowl-eligible for the second straight season. Rice is looking to attend back-to-back bowls for the first time since 1961, a span of 52 years.

One of the major plays of the game came when redshirt sophomore running back Jayson Carter got the first carry of his career in the fourth quarter. The 4-foot-9-inch player ran the ball for 1 yard to a standing ovation from the Rice faithful.

Carter said that even though it was the first carry of his career, it felt just like any other play. He said the Owls had run the play multiple times in practice, so he knew what to do.

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"Getting on the field was just like getting on in practice," Carter said. "We run that play at least five times within one practice. It was basically just remembering the fundamentals and waiting for the snap count."

Bailiff said Carter deserved the carry. He said Carter had earned it and that no one could take it away from such a hard-working individual.

"He has a valuable role on the football team, as he helps get the defense ready to play, and he comes over here every day and is ready for work," Bailiff said. "He works hard, and he wants to get treated like one of the guys. He does when he comes over here."

Rice faces a short week before a Thursday night showdown in Denton against the University of North Texas. The Mean Green are 5-3 this season and 3-1 in Conference USA play. They are coming off an impressive 55-14 win against the University of Southern Mississippi. UNT has one of the stingiest defenses in the league, allowing only 58 points in four conference games.

Bailiff said the offense needs to be ready Thursday night since UNT's defense will be aggressive. He said UNT's defense might be the best Rice will face in conference play all season.

"[UNT is] top in the conference defensively," Bailiff said. "They just sound and play extremely hard every snap and are very opportunistic as they wait for you to make a mistake."

Redshirt junior wide receiver Jordan Taylor said Bailiff was on point. Taylor said the Owls will have to be efficient offensively since the game will not be as easy as Saturday's game against UTEP.

"Like [Bailiff] is saying, they have a sound defense," Taylor said. "They play hard - the right way - and they create a lot of turnovers, so we are going to have to take care of the ball and start fast. That's one of the things we will work on this week. We will have to come out firing."

Even though a lot of focus is on the offense, redshirt senior defensive end Tanner Leland said the defense needs to continue stepping up like it has over the past few weeks.

"I think we enjoy being relied upon now, and expectations are higher defensively," Leland said. "It's not OK to give up so many points, and there is a sense of urgency defensively where we feel that we need to stop the offense and do our jobs."

Bailiff said that unlike previous games, the Owls have to be on point for all 60 minutes. He said Rice and UNT are relatively evenly matched and that this will be a football game that might not only decide the conference title race, but also be one to remember.

"We have just got to try to outperform them for four quarters, and they have a mature football team with a lot of returning starters - as do we," Bailiff said. "This is going to be a great football game."

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