Rice senior Chase Clement might not be the best quarterback in C-USA, but he’s easily the best at beating Texas-El Paso.
Clement moved to 3-0 as a starter against UTEP with Saturday’s 49-44 win in El Paso. As usual, he had his way with the Miners’ bedraggled defense.
Clement completed 28 of 41 passes for 372 yards and five touchdowns with zero interceptions, and he ran for another score. Saturday’s performance marked the fourth time this season he has thrown five or more touchdown passes and the second consecutive time that he has done this against UTEP.
Last season, Clement torched the Miners for six touchdown passes and two rushing touchdowns to help the Owls turn a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit into a 56-48 win.
Thanks to Clements’ latest outing against UTEP, Rice (6-3, 5-1 C-USA) is well on its way to notching its second postseason appearance in three seasons.
In four games (three starts) against UTEP, Clement completed 85 of 135 passes (62.96 percent) for 1,083 yards and 15 touchdowns against only three interceptions (all coming in last season’s game). He also rushed 37 times for 158 yards (4.27 yards per carry) and three touchdowns.
For the season, Clement has thrown for 2,732 yards and 29 touchdowns against only six interceptions. He’ll set a new career-high with one more touchdown pass and further add to his legacy as one of Rice’s most prolific quarterbacks.
"When you’re a senior it seems like the game does slow down," Clement told The Houston Chronicle. "Being in this offense for a second year and this system for a third, you start to see the same looks over and over. The game starts to slow down a lot.
"Not only that, we’ve just got such great players. I don’t need to look to J.D. (senior receiver Jarett Dillard) on my first look every time. We’ve got such good receivers all the way across the board," Clement said.
Avery shines
Former Houston wide receiver Donnie Avery is starting to turn heads in the NFL.
After the Rams’ first eight games, Avery, a rookie, has caught 23 passes for a team-high 363 yards and two touchdowns. His breakout performance came in a 23-16 loss to the New England Patriots on Oct. 26 when he caught six passes for 163 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown reception went for 69 yards.
This is even more impressive considering he played little at the start of the season.
"Whenever they dial up my number, I try to do some things," Avery told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Although Avery was the first receiver taken in this year’s draft (No. 33 overall, second round), a lot of people probably didn’t expect him to make such an impact this early in his career. But with a 4.24-second 40-yard dash speed and the chance to play alongside veteran wideout Torry Holt, more good things are likely in store for Avery.
"I wasn’t in a big conference, so everybody didn’t know I could do what I’m doing right now," Avery told the AP. "I know I can do it."
Not even close
Alabama-Birmingham picked a bad time to face a struggling Southern Miss team.
Southern Miss jumped on the Blazers early and often Saturday, rolling to an easy 70-14 win in Hattiesburg, Miss. The Golden Eagles (3-6, 1-4 C-USA) snapped a five-game losing streak and set a few records along the way.
Their nine rushing touchdowns tied a team record, and they set a school record for the most points in a first half (49). Redshirt freshman quarterback Austin Davis rushed for a school-record five touchdowns, and junior running back Damion Fletcher went over 1,000 yards for the season, making him the first player in program history to rush for over 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons. Fletcher also became the first Southern Miss back to surpass the 4,000-yard mark.
"It feels good to get that taste out of our mouths," first-year head coach Larry Fedora told the Hattiesburg American. "We did the same thing every single week and stuck with it. We didn’t do anything different in practice. The guys reached down for a little more and started early. I’m most proud of the way we came out in the second half and competed."
Extra points
Houston senior defensive end Phillip Hunt has 10 sacks and is second in the nation in sacks per game (1.25)…. Southern Miss has never lost to UAB in nine all-time meetings…. Rice junior running back C.J. Ugokwe rushed for 103 yards against UTEP on Saturday, becoming the first Owls back to record back-to-back 100-yard games since Quinton Smith in 2006…. Rice is 5-1 in conference play for the first time since 1960…. Southern Miss became the third C-USA school to score at least 70 points in a game with Saturday’s 70-14 whipping of UAB. … Tulsa senior quarterback David Johnson had only one touchdown pass in Saturday’s 30-23 loss to Arkansas, the second consecutive game that Johnson has thrown only one touchdown pass.
