08 UTEP game page

X
Front Page
RiceOwls.com
Rice Forum
CUSA Forum
Chronicle
Rice roster
Schedule
Quicklinks
Last Update
Email us

About Rice
Owlinfo
Owlopinion
Ye Old
College Inn

'08 Rice-UTEP game page

Rice 49, UTEP 44
Casey, Clement lead Owls to another comeback nail-biter
Rice now bowl-eligible at 6-3, 5-1

08utepo12runssomemore_edited-1.jpg (182370 bytes)
THOR BEING THOR -- Rice's James Casey put on an even more spectacular performance than usual, depressing the Miners and their fans with his feats of strength and acrobatic moves (PTH photo)

08utepo28run2vx4_edited-1.jpg (71113 bytes)

AND THEN THERE WAS C.J. -- Rice running back C. J. Ugokwe picked up his second straight 100-yards-plus rushing game this week against the Miners (PTH photo)

EL PASO (Nov. 2) Let's talk "Bowl eligibility" (now that we're free to do so).

The Rice Owl offense showed Saturday night, in its execution, precision, maturity and skill, that, far from being a mere worthy bowl participant, it is a serious league championship contender and a formidable foe for any bowl opponent, BCS-level or not.

But then there's that Rice defense and special teams -- ah, those defenders and special teamers.

Rice had better pick an afternoon bowl game to play in this season because, from what they showed on the floor of the Sun Bowl against the University of Texas-El Paso, the aforementioned two departments are clearly not ready for prime time.

UTEP quarterback Trevor Vittatoe evaded Rice rushers and tossed four touchdown passes in the first 20 minutes of the game here Saturday, a contest which saw the Owls rally from an early deficit and gamely hold on for a 49-44 win by just being damned sure they kept on scoring at least one touchdown more than the other guys.

Fortunately, two of those 'touchdown' passes were dropped by wide-open UTEP receivers.

Meanwhile, the Rice special teams gave up four kickoff returns that were sufficently lengthy to put UTEP's cannon-toed place-kicker, Jose Martinez, in position for immediate points. The second of them even went for the distance.

Again, expeditiously for the Owls, the first two of those returns were nullified by UTEP penalties.

Thus, when the Owls trailed, 17-14, early in the second period, it was a fortunate thing, indeed, that the three-point deficit was able be placed in the category of "only." For if the Miners hadn't dropped those two passes, and if the one kickoff return that went all the way would have counted, it would have meant the Owls would have been looking at a 38-14 hole to climb out of before the second quarter was halfway done.

But a couple of UTEP imperfections was all it took for the Rice offense to be able to saddle up the entire effort on its shoulders and head back to the barn.

"I honestly believe this is why we're winning," Rice head coach David Bailiff said afterwards. " Our defense isn't playing very well. We're struggling with our kickoff coverage team. But, you know, on the sideline nobody's complaining," Rice coach David Bailiff said. "You've got Chase and Dillard and Berken and those guys saying, 'You know what? We're going to take care of you right now until you guys can get it going.'

"There's no complaining. There's an unbelievable attitude; an unbelievable chemistry. And that's how they're able to achieve what they've done."

Owls climbed right out of 17-7 hole

Instead, owing to a well-called offensive play series and precision offensively by all, the Owls climbed out from a 17-7 first-quarter deficit and turned it into a 28-20 halftime lead.

But oh, were things looking grim for the first few minutes of the game. "In our first ten defensive plays, we gave up 200 yards of total offense," Coach Bailiff said. "That's not what I call getting off to a good start."

UTEP took the opening kickoff and from the onset made it clear that its offensive mindset was the diametric opposite of the one the Owls so easily handled from Tulane the week before.

Instead of bunching things up and trying to overpower the Owls, the Miners used their spread offense to good effect by constantly pushing downfield on open throttle, including a pretty much constant barrage of 30-yards-plus downfield passes.

To-wit, on UTEP's first possession, Vittatoe hit his receiver Jamar Hunt for 33 yards downfield to the Rice 34. But from there, Chris Ptaszek forced a quarterback hurry on second and five, and again on third down.

To most, that would have been four-down territory, but not to UTEP coach Mike Price, who sent in his Lou Groza-award finalist Martinez in for the field goal try from 46 yardsout. The senior from San Jose, Ca., responded by calmly booting the ball cleanly through the uprights with plenty room to spare -- the kick looked as if it easily would have been good from 60.

Rice responded immediately, however, needing only five plays to travel 76 yards and wrest back the lead. The last 31 came on a Chase Clement to Pierre Beasley pass where Pierre was at least 10 yards in the clear.

The game immediately took on the air of a track meet, however, when UTEP struck back with two straight TDs scored on long bombs. On UTEP's next possession after Rice's first TD, Vittatoe on the first play pushed a 41-yard reception downfield to his receiver Jeff Moturi. Two plays later, he hit Kris Adams from 37 yards out and the score. Thus it had taken UTEP only four plays and 1:20 to come back and take the lead away from the Owls.

Then, after a three-and-out by the Owls, Vittatoe struck again when, on second and two, he hit Jeff Moturi again for a 53-yard touchdown strike.

In each case, the taller Miner wide receivers used their height and speed to out maneuver the shorter Owl defenders. In defense of the beleaguered Rice defensive backs, however, it must be mentioned that the El Pasoans set up in what looked to be some sort of max-protection pass-blocking scheme and, to boot, Rice's most athletic (healthy) corner, Joseph Leary, appeared to aggravate his previous leg injury and had to head to the sideline the second play of the game.

Those two scores, which made it 17-7, UTEP, brought the house into a feeding frenzy as the 30,000-plus in attendance commenced to whoop and holler as if they were spectators at a WWF Smackdown. In fact, that's what UTEP fans remind one of -- so many orange t-shirt-clad wrestling fans.

Conversely, when the Rice offensive machine got cranked up and engineered four touchdown drives the remainder of the first half, in response to a single UTEP field goal, the place became as quiet as a church on a Sunday in the middle of summer.

But, as Michael Corleone once alluded, each time Coach Bailiff's crew was able to extricate itself from that boisterous scene, the Miners managed to pull them right back in -- and that went on right up until the final gun.

The Owls got the lead back by engineering two impressive, long drives -- the first one, in a hurry, and the second one, nice and slow. First, James Casey caught Chase Clement's pass in stride to score easily from 37 yards out to make it UTEP 17, Rice 14.

Then, next time they got their hands on the ball, the Owls styled a 13-play, 90 yard drive that was done almost completely on the ground, save for a key, 25-yard strike to Corbin Smiter, who made a circus catch along the sideline to get the first down. The rest of the real estate was gained by infantry on this drive, including a 20-yard, broken-field run by Jeramy Goodson. Chase Clement did the scoring honors, ducking into the end zone from three yard out on second and goal.

Nursing a 21-20 lead with only 1:37 to go in the half, the Institute Boys were not content to take the one-point margin into the halftime locker room with them, however. Instead, Chase Clement fashioned another 90-yard drive, this one taking nine plays, during which time Chase used every component of the two-minute drill, right down to spiking the ball on first down to buy time.

Jarett Dillard scored on a classic pitch-and-catch from eight yards out as the second-quarter clock expired, and the Owls went into the halftime locker room seemingly in great shape after starting off so perilously.

Owls punched it in on second half opening possession

To boot, the Owls came out and took the second-half kickoff and picked right up where they left off. More specifically, Ja’Corey Shepherd got off his niftiest kickoff return of the season, threading his way through heavy traffic out 45 yards to the Rice 43.

From there, the Big Three took over, Chase with three scrambling runs for first-down yardage, James Casey with a couple of key short-yardage receptions, and Jarett Dillard’s reception of a key first-down pass in double coverage slashing across the middle. That play set up the Owls at the lip of the cup, and from there, Rice lined up in the Thor Package and Casey took it in from the two.

That made it 35-20, Rice, with the crowd quieted and the Miners starting to get that hang-dog look. But once again, lax coverage and poor execution on the ensuing kickoff return breathed new life into the opposing team right from there, as UTEP's Jeff Moturi took the kickoff and returned it 58 yards to the Rice 31.

At that point, the Owl defense stiffened considerably as Cheta Ozougwu nailed UTEP’s Donald Buckram for scant yardage on first down and then Scott Solomon forced a hurried Vittatoe throw, so UTEP had to settle for a 41-yard Martinez field goal. But the fact of the return breathed new life into the crowd and appeared to bolster attitudes on the home sideline as well.

An aroused Miner defense sent the Owls three and out on their ensuing possession, and, after a 44 yard Kyle Martens punt pinned UTEP back at its 32, the Miners roared back downfield. First play, J. Thomas took the option pitch and skipped 32 yards down the sideline. After that, the Miners were beneficiaries of a questionable pass interference call that gave UTEP a first down at the Rice 39. The Miners kept it on the ground from there to until Vittatoe hit Moturi again from seven yards out to bring the El Pasoans to within 35-30.

But once again, Chase Clement and his merry men weren't about to allow the egos of their defensive cohorts to get further bruised. Each time UTEP landed a punch, the Rice offense came out and delivered one right back, with greater ferocity.

First, how about an 80-yard, 13-play drive that took over 6:30 off the clock. James Casey was wide open in the end zone on second and goal from the UTEP four, and that made it 42-30, Rice.

But like a bloodied but unbowed boxer, UTEP came back flailing away after an attempted squib kickoff flew right into the hands of Miner up-back Jeff Amato who got the ball as far as midfield before Jarrett Ben wrestled him down.

The short field made it problematical for the Owls to keep UTEP out of the end zone, and they didn’t. Another ‘iffy’ pass interference call set up the Miners at the Rice 35 and from there they dinked it steadily down the field, Buckram running it in from seven yards out.

So at that point it was 42-37, Owls, with ten minutes left in the game – time for the Rice offense to get cranked up once again.

This time it was 80 yards in ten plays, and the encouraging aspect of this drive lay in the fact that six different Rice receivers caught balls on the way to paydirt – J.D, C.J., Pierre Beasley, James Casey (a huge 30-yarder in which he unicycled a Miner defender for several yards downfield), Roddy Maginot, and Toren Dixon. The coup de gras was a 12-yard touchdown reception by James Casey on third and eight, wherein Thor exercised unreal physical contortionist ability by staying on his feet seemingly for several seconds as he gathered in a rifle shot from Chase as Case’s ankle resolutely dug into fair territory, just an inch or so from the out-of-bounds line. Bowing to the howls of the home crowd, the gendarmes reviewed that one, but they’d gotten it right the first time.

Receiver options an embarrassment of riches

After the game, Chase Clement just had to shake his head in amazement at the receiving options he’s now been given. "We've just got such great players.," he said. "I don't need to look to J.D. on my first look every time. We've got such good receivers all the way across the board."

Leading 49-37, with 5:36 to play, the Owls should’ve been able to grab their lunch buckets, punch out and head for the house – and it looked as if the Rice defense was going to do just that.

The Miners made it to midfield, but from there Bencil Smith performed the ‘two-second drill’ to rush in and sack Vittatoe. Wouldn’t you know it, on the next play, the UTEP QB found Evan Davis for 28 yards to the Rice 32.

Soon enough, UTEP faced fourth and eight from the Rice 30, and Vittatoe just barely managed to evade a host of Owl defenders in the backfield, but darned if he didn’t manage to scramble for 19 and a first down.

Again, on third and eight from the Rice nine yard line, Vittatoe threw incomplete in the general direction of Kris Adams in the end zone, but the Owls were flagged for a really cheesy interference penalty – the ball was uncatchable and the Owl defender was lying flat on his back.

When UTEP’s Moturi caught a two-yard touchdown pass the next play, it was 49-44, with 1:23 remaining. So if the Miners could pull off a successful onsides kick, a miserable loss for the Owls was in the offing.

But Rice has its "hands" team – and you know who that is: James Casey. Martinez caromed a picture-perfect high bouncer but Thor jumped up about four feet in the air to haul it securely in. That, at last, was it, and the Owls had their victory.

As it is, the Owls have now finished the road portion of their 2008 campaign -- at least the regular-season part-- with a respectable 3-3 road record, 6-3 overall, and look foward to their last three contests of the season taking place in the friendly confines of Rice Stadium .

--P.T.H.