Boxscore

Rice's unrelenting rushing attack and two early turnovers proved to be Louisiana Tech's downfall Saturday as the Owls took a 49-14 win over the Bulldogs at Joe Aillet Stadium.

The loss ended Louisiana Tech's season at 5-7 and 3-5 in the Western Athletic Conference while Rice closed things out at 5-7 and 3-5.

Rice had three rushers break the 100-yard barrier and totaled a school-record 672 ground yards on 89 carries. The Owls picked up 733 yards of total offense with an additional 61 yards through the air.

Tech's first fumble came three plays into the contest as Luke McCown hit D.J. Curry on an 18-yard completion to the Rice 32 yardline. But Rice's Lance Byrd forced and recovered a Curry fumble to give the Owls the ball at their own 20 yardline.

The Owls then marched on a 6-play, 70-yard scoring drive culminating with a 6-yard scoring scamper by Robbie Beck to give Rice a 7-0 advantage only 2:56 into the contest.

Things didn't go much better for the Bulldogs on the next series as Tech running back Ryan Moats coughed the ball up on the first play from scrimmage with Rice's John Syptak right there to pounce on it for the Owls.

This time Rice's scoring drive took just two plays to cover 19 yards and chew 50 seconds off the clock as Beck found paydirt from 12 yards out to give the Owls a 14-0 lead only 4:00 after the opening kickoff.

"Those turnovers killed us," Tech coach Jack Bicknell said. "The option is something that is hard to stop and you can't fiven them the ball like we did and expect to win. I felt like we could have made plays, but every time it seemed like we were going to make a play we would fumble the ball."

Rice had pulled out to a 28-0 lead early in the second quarter before the Bulldogs finally lit up the scoreboard on a 38-yard scoring strike from McCown to Moats to cut the Owls lead to 28-7 with 11:27 remaining in the first half.

Tech held the Owls off the scoreboard the rest of the half to head in at intermission trailing by 21. The Owls had already totaled 315 rushing yards and 376 yards of total offense by halftime while holding the Bulldogs to 179 first-half yards.

The Bulldogs' dreams of a second-half turnaround as Rice took the opening kickoff in the third quarter and marched downfield on a 10-play, 80-yard drive taking 4:06 off the clock as Beck scored on a 14-yard run to push the Owls' lead to 35-7.

Louisiana Tech's second score came with 3:05 remaining in the third quarter as McCown hit Chris Norwood on a 9-yard touchdown pass to cut the Rice advantage to 35-14.

The Owls' option offense added a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns as Rice set new Tech records for most rushing attempts given up (89), most rushing yards given up (672) and most rushing touchdowns given up (7).

Tech safety Lee Johnson said that playing against Rice's option run-game after playing in the predominantly pass-happy WAC didn't make things easy for the Bulldogs.

"It's real difficult after seeing so many pasing teams and then having to play an option team," Johnson said. "It's also entirely different seeing the speed that Rice runs their option with compared to the way our scout team ran it in practice. They pound on you and wait for the defense to make mistakes and then get the big play."

Tech kicker Josh Scobee was a bright spot as he became Tech's all-time scoring leader with 343 points after kicking a pair of extra points. Scobee passed former Tech wide receiver Troy Edwards with 342 career points. Scobee also finished as Tech's all-time leader in career field goals made (66), field goals attempted (92), extra points made (145), extra points attempted (153) and 50-yards or more field goals (6).

McCown hit on 18-of-30 passes in the contest for 242 yards and the two
touchdowns. He finished his Tech career with 12,666 passing yards, ranking No. 2 in school history and No. 4 in NCAA history. McCown also finished with 12,722 career yards, ranking No. 1 in Tech history and No. 3 in NCAA history. McCown's 87 career touchdown passes is tied for No. 9 in NCAA history.

Sophomore running back Ryan Moats picked up 37 yards on 11 carries to finish the season with 1,300 rushing yards, falling 52 yards shy of breaking Tech's single season rushing record of 1,351 yards set by Jason Davis in 1991. Moat's 1,300 yards is second-best in Tech single-season rushing statistics.

Moats led Tech receivers with seven catches for 88 yards and a score while D.J. Curry ended his career with a 34-game receiving streak and ranking No. 8 in Tech career receptions (174), No. 9 in career receiving yards (2,261) and No. 8 in career touchdown receptions (17).

Thomas Lott led Rice with 127 on 11 carries while quarterback Kyle Herm added 17 carries for 111 yards and a score. Beck was Rice's third 100-yard rusher with 108 yards oin 13 carries.

Herm hit on 2-of-3 passes for 42 yards while Greg Henderson hit on 1-of-2 attempted passes for 19 Rice yards.

Senior Maxie Causey came in to relieve McCown in the fourth quarter and connected on 9-of-18 attempts for 102 yards.