the Rice Thresher

Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Mark Anderson / Ricefootball.net Sophomore tight end James Casey vaults over a Tulsa defender during last Saturday's 63-28 loss to the Golden Hurricane, while another defender looks on. The Owls are now 3-3 overall for the season, with this weekend off. Rice resumes play Oct. 18 against the University of Southern Mississippi at 2 p.m. at Rice Stadium.

Unfortunately for the Rice football team, it was the University of Tulsa's turn to beat an opponent by a truckload's worth of points. Just one week removed from trouncing the University of North Texas 77-20, the Owls fell hard to the Golden Hurricane's merciless offense and effective defense, losing by a 63-28 score. The two games shared a few characteristics - in both games the score was close at the beginning, and Jarett Dillard set a major wide receiver record.

Despite Rice's defensive efforts, the score only stayed close for a half. The Owls and the Golden Hurricane exchanged scores for the first 28 minutes of the game to work a 14-14 tie, but Tulsa sneaked in one more touchdown with less than two minutes to play and headed into the break with a 21-14 lead.

"At halftime, we thought we were going to go back out there and win," head coach David Bailiff said. "We had had a missed field goal and a turnover in the red zone, and we really thought we could be up."

Though Rice stayed steady with its offensive production and scored 14 more points in the second half, Tulsa's offense - ranked first in the country - took off for 42 points in the last 30 minutes of the game.

"We didn't tackle well, and we didn't execute what we had called," Baliff said.

During Rice's game against North Texas, quarterback Chase Clement threw his 40th touchdown pass to Dillard, and the duo moved to the top of the list to become the most prolific quarterback-wide receiver combination ever. Near the end of the second quarter against Tulsa, Dillard caught his 51st touchdown pass to break the NCAA record of 50 touchdown catches he had shared with Troy Edwards of Louisiana Tech.

"It's just amazing to have a guy like Jarett Dillard," Bailiff said. "To have a guy who has that record is an amazing tribute to him and to his team. The offensive line blocks its tail off. The record has Dillard's name, but they really feel like they're part of it. That's how he handles it, too, like it's a team award."

Continued...

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