By Sanderson “Snuffy” Smith

Game #13
Who: Rice (6-6) vs. Texas State (6-6)
When: Tuesday 4:30 p.m. CT
Where: Dallas, Texas
Stadium:  Gerald Ford Stadium
Television: ESPN: Dave Neal (PXP); Aaron Murray (Analyst); Morgan Uber (Sidelines)
Where to Find the Game: ESPN
Rice Radio: JP Heath (play-by-play); Nate Griffin (analyst); Jason Metko (sidelines)
 Audio Streaming: RiceOwls.com, Rice Game Day App, Varsity Network
Live Stats: Statbroadcast.com
Digital Game Program: Game 13 Rice vs. Texas State
Series Information: fifth meeting

Full Game Notes
Series Notes
•Rice and Texas State meet for the fifth time in history, the first in a bowl game and the first with school since it became known as Texas State.
• This will be the fifth meeting in which Rice is the home team.
• The schools split the previous four meetings, all of them on the Rice campus., while the Owls are the designated home team in the First Responder Bowl.
• The series began on 11/19/20 with a 48-0 Rice win.
• The Bobcats won the next two meetings, 19-6 on 10/27/23 and 31-6 on 9/20/86 before Rice took the most recent meeting, 38-28 on 9/26/87.
• The Owls are 2-4 all-time at Ford Stadium and have lost the last two.   They fell to SMU 27-24 in their most recent appearance in 2011… The Owls’ last win on SMU’s home field was a 43-42 win in 2007 as Rice rallied back from a 15-point deficit to win it on Clark Fangmeier’s walk-off, 31-yard field goal.

Bowling Back-to-Back
• Rice has earned a bowl berth in consecutive seasons for the third time in school history.
• The Owls played in two bowls in 1961, playing in the Sugar Bowl on January 1 after the 1960 season and the Bluebonnet Bowl at the end of the 1961 campaign.
• Most recently, they played in the 2012 Armed Forces Bowl, the 2013 Liberty Bowl, and the 2014 Hawai’i Bowl.
• Mike Bloomgren is the third coach to lead the Owls to consecutive bowl berths, joining Jess Neely (1961) and David Bailiff (2012-14). Neely led the Owls to six bowl games in his career and Bailiff to four.  Jimmy Kitts (1938 Cotton Bowl) and Todd Graham (2006 New Orleans Bowl) each took Rice to one bowl.

Bowling Bits
• Rice will be playing in its 14th bowl game with eight of those in Texas and six of those eight in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
• Rice played in the Cotton Bowl in 1938, 1950, 1954 and 1958 and in the Armed Forces Bowl in 2012 prior to this year’s First Responder Bowl.
• The Rice roster includes 18 players who are returning home to the DFW area for the bowl game (DJ Arkansas, Andrew Awe, Moh Bility, Jack Bradley, De’Braylon Carroll, Tre’shon Devones, Tyson Flowers, Izeya Floyd, Quinton Jackson, Joseph Mutombo, Trace Norfleet, Juma Otoviano, AJ Padgett, Landon Ransom-Goelz, Clay Servin, Jeremiah Williams, and Plae Wyatt).
• AJ Padgett will become the second Owls QB  to start in consecutive bowls, joining Taylor McHargue, who started in the 2012 Armed Forces and 2013 Liberty Bowls.  Padgett tied a Rice Bowl record with three TD passes in his first bowl start last season in the LendingTree Bowl.
• This will be the sixth time Rice has played a bowl game on the home field of a conference rival, with five of six coming on SMU’s home field (1938, 1950, 1954, and 1958 Cotton Bowl, 2023 First Responder Bowl).  Rice faced Troy in the 2006 New Orleans Bowl at the SuperDome in 2006.
• Rice is 4-1 in bowls in the DFW area,  but the Owls have lost their last three games in the area, losing at North Texas in 2018, 2020 and 2022. Their last win in DFW was over UNT in 2015.

Down the Stretch
• In winning its last two games to earn a berth in the First Responder Bowl, Rice held Charlotte and Florida Atlantic to an average of 218.5 yards per game (Charlotte 158, Florida Atlantic 279).
• The last time the Owls held consecutive opponents to less than 437 yards total offense was in 1994 when they held Texas Tech (223) and Texas (179) to a combined 402 yards.
• The Owls held a Charlotte offense that had averaged 411 yards on offense in the previous two games to just 158, the fewest yards allowed by Rice to a conference opponent since holding Tulane to 123 in 2013.
• The 84 yards rushing by Charlotte were the fewest allowed by Rice since they held North Texas to 75 in 2019 while the 74 yards passing were the fewest for a non-service academy vs. Rice since the Owls held Vanderbilt to 71 in 2008.
• Charlotte’s seven points were the fewest by a conference opponent since the Owls’ 20-0 shutout at No. 17 Marshall in 2020.

Diving Into the Numbers        
• Rice has thrown for 3,170 yards this season and the Owls’ average of 264.2 per game is their highest since they averaged 327.2 in 13 games in 2008.  The Owls have averaged better than 230 yards just twice since 2008 prior to this year (232.9 last year; 231.3 in 2014).
• The Owls have scored 48  touchdowns, the most since they scored 48 in 2014 (13 games).
• JT Daniels (21) and AJ Padgett (7) have combined for 28 touchdown passes, the most for the Owls since Chase Clement (44), James Casey (2), Jarett Dillard and Jeremy Goodson (1 each) combined to set the school record with 48.
• Rice is tied for 13th nationally in fourth down conversions (16/24; 66.7%), the Owls highest ranking since they finished ninth in both 2012 (12/17; 70.6%) and 2010 (13/18; 72.2%).  The 16 conversions match last year’s total (in 27 attempts) and are the most since they converted 16 of 29 in 2021. Rice converted 18 of 30 attempts in Mike Bloomgren‘s first year with the Owls in 2018.
• On the defensive side, the Owls are tied for 15th nationally in fourth down defense (.385, 10/26), but rank seventh among teams who have defended at least 25 fourth down attempts.  (Oklahoma State .240, 8/26; Memphis .300, 9/30; Michigan .321, 9/28; Troy .345, 10/29; Alabama .360, 9/25; Eastern Michigan .364, 12/33).
• Rice is tied for 37th nationally with 47 pass breakups this season on 349 pass attempts. The Owls have broken up 13.5% of all pass attempts this season, their highest mark since they broke up 14.5% in 2014 (60/414).

Streaking
• Luke McCaffrey has caught a touchdown in seven consecutive games, the longest streak by an Owl since Jarett Dillard had an 11-game streak covering the final four games of 2007 and the first seven of 2008.
• Dillard set an NCAA record by catching a touchdown in all 13 games of the 2006 season and in a total of 15 straight from 2005-06, which is the second-longest streak in NCAA history.
• He ended his career by setting NCAA record for games with a touchdown reception (38) and for career touchdown receptions (60).

COURTESY RICE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS