Rice rolls over Western Michigan in Texas Bowl

Rice rolls over Western Michigan in Texas Bowl

BY MARK PASSWATERS
Special to the Rice News

The Rice
Owls have a one-game bowl-winning streak, and coach David Bailiff is the
first coach in Rice history to take a Gatorade bath after a postseason
victory.

Ending a 54-year drought, Rice notched a bowl victory
in record-breaking style, hammering the Western Michigan Broncos of the
Mid-America Conference 38-14 in the Texas Bowl Dec. 30.
Dominating on both sides of the ball, the Owls (10-3) jumped out to an
early lead — their first lead in a bowl game since 1961 — and were
never seriously challenged.

With the game being played at Houston’s Reliant Stadium, literally down
the street from the Rice campus, Owl fans had one last opportunity to
see the most prolific quarterback-receiver combination in NCAA Division
I history in action. Western Michigan’s first look at Chase Clement and
Jarett Dillard, on the other hand, was not a pleasant one for the
Broncos.

Clement
threw for a bowl-record three touchdowns, ran for one and caught
another on a pass from Dillard to make the score 31-0 in the third
quarter. Clement, the game’s MVP, played a style of football with which
Western Michigan was unfamiliar. He put the Owls ahead 7-0 with 5:21 to
go in the first quarter with a 26-yard keeper. It capped a six-play,
67-yard drive that came entirely on the ground. The Owls took advantage
of a huge Western Michigan (9-4) blunder, when wide-open Bronco wide
receiver Juan Nunez dropped a sure touchdown on the previous drive.

Western
Michigan would never get a chance to get back in the game, as the Owl
offense scored at will. A Clark Fangmeier 30-yard field goal made the
score 10-0 at the end of the first quarter. Rice put the game out of
reach in the second quarter, with Clement throwing a two-yard touchdown
pass to Toren Dixon and a 45-yarder to James Casey. Dillard’s 13-yard
touchdown pass to an uncovered Clement capped a nine-play, 64-yard
drive and made the score 31-0 with 3:09 to go in the third quarter.

Clement
returned the favor, hitting Dillard for the receiver’s Conference
USA-tying 60th career touchdown with an 18-yard strike with 9:38 to go
in the game. The touchdown catch put Dillard alone in the NCAA record
book, as he became the only player in history to score 20 or more
touchdowns in two seasons.

The record-setting duo left
the field together for the last time with less than 5 minutes to go to
the cheers of an overwhelmingly pro-Rice crowd of 58,880.

The
Owl defense, meanwhile, harassed Bronco quarterback Tim Hiller all
night long, holding the quarterback with the ninth-most yards in
Division I this season to a mere 198 yards on 19-of-42 passing and
intercepting him twice. Western Michigan could only muster 278 total
yards, almost all of which came after the game was out of reach, and
didn’t score until 6:33 remained in the game. The Broncos would only
convert three of 14 third downs; Rice, on the other hand, converted 13
of 20.

The defense’s stout performance helped the Owls tie their
largest-ever margin of victory in a bowl game, equaling the 38-14 win
over Colorado in the 1938 Cotton Bowl.

The Owls would rack up
455 total yards of offense, with Clement finishing his Rice career by
completing 30 of 44 passes for 309 yards; he ran for 72 more on 12
carries. Dillard ended his sterling Rice career with 86 yards on eight
catches and the first touchdown pass — not to mention completion — of
his career. Casey caught seven passes for 112 yards, while Dixon added
58 yards on a personal-best eight receptions.