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October 5, 2007 > Sports > Owls hold on for Bailiff’s first win

Owls hold on for Bailiff’s first win

By Nathan Bledsoe | Thresher Editorial Staff

Sometimes, being successful is all about timing. And the football team could not have picked a better time to win its first game of the year.

Rice (1-4, 1-0 Conference USA) weathered a fourth-quarter eruption from the University of Southern Mississippi (2-3, 1-1 C-USA) to earn its first victory of the season 31-29 in the team’s conference opener Wednesday night.

The Owls will not play again until Oct. 13, when they face the University of Houston at Robertson Stadium. The defending conference champion Cougars (2-2, 1-1 C-USA) narrowly defeated Rice last year by a score of 31-30 in a game that proved the difference in deciding the C-USA Western division champion. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m., and the game will be televised on CSTV.

Although the Owls will have time to revel in their first win, it did not come quite as easily as they might have hoped. Rice led 31-7 with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter when Southern Miss tallied 22 unanswered points. However, the Owls’ defensive breakdown should be attributed at least partly to a rash of injuries suffered in the final minutes.

“We were missing a lot of people but were still able to get out of here with a win,” head coach David Bailiff said.

Injuries to sophomore defensive backs Gary Anderson and Andrew Sendejo did not appear to be serious, but junior linebacker Brian Raines was taken to the locker room on a cart after injuring his knee on a punt play. His status is still unknown.

Turnovers defined the game. Defensively, the Owls forced seven total turnovers — four interceptions and three forced fumbles. Sendejo had two of the interceptions, along with one forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

“It felt good to start getting takeaways,” Sendejo said. “That’s what we’ve been trying to get all year long. When we can set up our offense with a short field it definitely helps them.”

The Owls were able to capitalize on the Golden Eagles’ miscues, scoring 24 of their 31 points off of turnovers. Rice mustered only 236 total offensive yards compared to the Southern Miss’ 422, and threw for just 68 yards.

However, no stat line was stranger than that of freshman James Casey’s, who lined up at five positions — quarterback, receiver, running back, tight end and defensive back — during the course of the game. In the end, he ran the ball 12 times for 38 yards and a touchdown, caught two balls for 16 yards, threw an interception, recorded half a sack, and recorded a tackle on the punt coverage team.

While playing so many positions may seem daunting, Casey said the coaching staff has tweaked the playbook to keep his responsibilities manageable.

“I feel pretty confident going into the games,” he said. “When I’m in the game I don’t have the full set of target options, I have my own special packages. I don’t have the whole playbook at quarterback or slot receiver, so I’m pretty confident.”

Rice’s defense continually pressured Southern Miss quarterback Stephen Reaves for the first three quarters. Reeves, originally not slated to play due to a strained oblique muscle, was forced to enter when Martevious Young injured his ankle on the Eagles’ first possession.

“We saw some holes in the protection and were able to get some pressures on the quarterback, and as the game went on we just outworked them,” Bailiff said.

Winning this game sparked memories of last season for the Owl squad. In 2006, the Owls similarly started their season 0-4, then finished 7-1 to earn a berth in the New Orleans Bowl. This year’s team, just like last year’s, views the conference schedule as a clean slate.

“As a team, we recommitted,” Sendejo said. “We kind of looked at it like starting a whole new season. You can lose all your preseason games and then win all your conference games, [and] win the conference championship.”

End of article

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