Rice football slaughters TSU for biggest win in over a century

By Andersen Pickard     9/10/24 11:55pm

Rice Football avenged its opening week loss with a 69-7 victory over Texas Southern University on Saturday evening. 

“We wanted to get the taste out of our mouth,” redshirt sophomore safety Tyson Flowers said. “We know we didn’t play to the best of our ability [in Week 1].”

Saturday marked one of the most dominant wins in program history. The 62-point difference is the Owls’ largest margin of victory since Nov. 17, 1916 — over a century ago — when they cruised to a 146-3 win over Southern Methodist University.

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17,760 fans were in attendance to watch history be made at Rice Stadium, representing a slight 2.7% increase from football’s Week 1 attendance. 

Saturday’s game theme centered around residential college pride. Players had their residential college’s decal affixed to their helmets, and Rice Rally Club held a competition to see which residential college had the most students in attendance. Duncan College was declared the winner.

Elsewhere in the stadium, several campus groups — including RiceVotes, the Kelley Center for Government Information and voter registrar volunteers — hosted a voter registration booth. They encouraged students and other fans to cast a ballot in this November’s general election.

The buzz from the stands was mirrored by energy on the field as Rice stormed out to a quick 7-0 lead on a five-yard touchdown run from senior running back Dean Connors.

Redshirt sophomore kicker Enock Gota converted Rice’s extra point, marking a personnel change. The Owls had previously relied on redshirt senior Tim Horn as their kicker, but he went just 8-for-12 on field goals last year and missed a 37-yard attempt in Week 1. Gota had previously only attempted one kick in the NCAA — a successful extra point against TSU on Sept. 16, 2023. 

“It’s difficult because Tim Horn does everything in our program right,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said. “But at the end of the day, Enock [Gota] has been really consistent. It just reached a point where it was time to give Enock a chance.”

TSU went three-and-out on their next drive, and their ensuing punt was blocked by redshirt freshman defensive back AJ Stephens. Armed with favorable field position, the Owls drove down the field and once again added seven points, this time courtesy of a four-yard pass from junior quarterback E.J. Warner to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Braylen Walker.

Walker made an adjustment while facing heavy coverage in order to haul in the touchdown pass.

“We’re seeing the best we’ve ever had of Braylen in terms of his attention to detail and the game plan, but that kid’s got some unique ability and we’ve got to continue to use it,” Bloomgren said while also crediting Warner for placing the football into a small window. 

Rice forced another TSU punt and, within one play, struck for a 34-yard touchdown pass from Warner to graduate wide receiver Matt Sykes. Less than one minute later, Flowers intercepted a pass and returned it 34 yards for a touchdown. This was Rice’s first interception return touchdown since Sept. 10, 2022, against McNeese State University.

On the next drive, senior wide receiver Kobie Campbell set up Rice in scoring position with a 40-yard carry. Connors, lined up at fullback, bounced outside for a five-yard touchdown. The Owls tacked on three more points off the leg of Gota and went into halftime with a 38-0 lead.

Rice picked up right where it left off in the second half as Connors took the opening carry 71 yards for his third touchdown of the day. He finished with nine carries for 113 yards on the ground and an additional four catches for 34 yards through the air.

Gota added a field goal on the next offensive drive, and the Owls got the ball back following an interception by redshirt junior safety Marcus Williams. With a 48-0 lead, Rice began pulling its starters to preserve their health and give valuable opportunities to some of the depth players. 

Freshman quarterback Drew Devillier took over the offense from Warner and led three scoring drives while draining the clock. Rice and TSU also agreed to a shortened 12-minute fourth quarter.

Freshman running back Taji Atkins capitalized on his chances to touch the football, breaking free for 91 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries. Graduate running back Coleman Bennett added a rushing score of his own from 22 yards out.

It appeared Rice might pull off its first defensive shutout since a 20-0 win over #15 Marshall in 2020, but TSU moved down the field and found the end zone with 14 seconds remaining. 

Despite the last-second blemish, Rice took pride in its biggest victory in over a century.

“You want the shutout, but at the end of the day, we won the game,” Flowers said.

Rice’s defense delivered four sacks and 11 tackles for loss in the win. Their offense converted ​​24 first downs compared to TSU’s nine. Most glaring of all was the total offense battle, with Rice tallying 533 yards to TSU’s 87. 

Even after defeating TSU, the Owls won’t ignore some of the mistakes that need to be addressed.

“That was by no means a flawless game,” Flowers said, emphasizing the Owls’ need to build on the positives from Saturday. “There’s stuff that we’re going to find when we watch the film that we need to correct.”

Now 1-1 on the year, the Owls will turn around and prepare for next Saturday’s Bayou Bucket at the University of Houston. Rice won last year’s crosstown showdown in thrilling fashion with a 43-41 home victory in double overtime. The Owls haven’t won back-to-back matchups against Houston since 2000-01. 

The Bayou Bucket series returns to TDECU Stadium with the Cougars still looking for their first victory of 2024 under new head coach Willie Fritz. The matchup kicks off at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

“This is an opportunity for us to go out there and earn this Bayou Bucket for the second year in a row,” Bloomgren said. “That’s a big deal. I know this team is going to be excited for this next week. This is going to make us hungrier than ever.”

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