Commentary: Rice football finally sees the light

By Casey Michel     11/13/08 6:00pm

All hyperbole aside, we are living in historic times. Last week was one that will fill memory banks and scribbled diaries forever more-an era to be shared fondly with your children and maybe even yelled about to your grandkids. And unless you were standing in line to try some new BioBeer, you were lucky enough to be there in person.

Oh, you thought I was talking about Barack Obama?

Nope. Try Rice football.

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As 19,243 of you saw last Saturday, the outstanding Owls held on for a 38-31 homecoming gut-grinder against Army. With the victory, the Owls not only guaranteed a winning season, but they officially cemented their place as lecture material for John Boles, Rice's noted historian.

It's easy to see why, for this season has been remarkable on more levels than a Super Mario game. Most points scored in the program's history; most times head coach David Bailiff has been mistaken for a giant, grinning toddler.

But that's not all. Since there are six bowl bids allocated for Conference USA teams, Rice, which once seemed destined for a Division II demotion, is all but guaranteed a postseason berth.

Think about that for a second. Before 2006, no one could challenge Rice's decades of ineptitude, save for maybe the Chicago Cubs. Then Todd Graham, our crew-cutted commander, spearheaded a shot-in-the-dark run to the 2006 New Orleans Bowl. After a return to the cellar last year - our eighth losing season in the last 10 years - this year's squad brought back many of the same pieces to the gridiron.

And somehow, some way, we're going to a bowl game again.

I know Christmas doesn't come in November, but dang, it sure feels like it has.

So how did we get to this place? How did a team that was too small, too lanky and too brainy escape from the Bottom 10 and become a C-USA powerhouse?

The short answer lies with Rice's dynamic duo, the terrific twosome of Chase Clement and Jarett Dillard.

To call Clement and Dillard campus celebrities would be like saying that baseball coach Wayne Graham is starting to gray. These guys are idols, and rightfully so. I don't know them personally - I guess that explains the lack of postcards - so I'll let the stats do the talking.

Clement, the grizzled gunslinger, is a one-man offensive machine, long ago eclipsing most Rice quarterback records. On Saturday, he was the first Owl to reach 10,000 career yards, simultaneously becoming the first player in conference history to toss for more than 8,000 yards and rush for more than 1,500.

Meanwhile, Dillard has just about every receiving record fathomable for the Owls, and currently holds the record for most career touchdowns. No, not just at Rice - in the entirety of college football. Pardon me while I start a fund for his shrine.

And since these two are amazing by themselves, logic goes to show that they would be unstoppable together. With 48 touchdown connections between them - yet another NCAA record - Clement and Dillard are the most prolific pairing since Sid and Nancy, although it seems that our boys get along a bit better.

But the twosome couldn't have led Rice to the Promised Land by themselves. The offensive line is still standing strong after being run ragged by overuse. The running game, with C.J. Ugokwe as anchor, has finally found its feet after its milk-carton absence last season. And the defense, that little engine that could, has barreled through injury and inexperience to keep Rice within striking distance in almost every game.

Sadly, there's not a lot of international demand for televising Rice football. GameCast may illustrate how many centimeters our drives lasted, but those digitized lines just aren't the same as watching Southern Methodist University crawl away, sobbing, or seeing Tulane University do double-takes at Dillard all game. (But at least the GameCast crew made James Casey's dot more Hulk-ish than everyone else's.)

With three games left, the team's first 10-win season since 1949 is quite possible. And you, my friends, will get to see it. So go on, cheer history to completion. Watch it for yourself, for your kids and for those who are still discriminated against by international television. Go support the most talented football team Rice has had in decades.

Well, at least until the BioBeer is available.

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