Rice beats Southern Miss 41-23

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — Rice managed just 13.5 points a game in losses to Top 25 Notre Dame and Texas A&M to open the college football season.

The Owls appear to have found their offensive mojo now that they've entered conference play.

The defending Conference USA champions scored 42 points in a slugging-match-of-a-loss to Old Dominion and behind a balanced, opportunistic attack Saturday night, the Owls bounced back with 41-23 victory at Southern Miss before 24,756 at Roberts Stadium.

Running back Jawon Davis rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns, and quarterback Driphus Jackson threw for 178 yards and two more scores as Rice (1-3, 1-1) logged its first win of the season.

"I'm really proud of this football team, the way we've hung together since the opening football game at Notre Dame," Rice coach Dave Bailiff said. "We've just continued to work, continued to improve. Even though we weren't winning, we were getting better."

It was Rice's fourth win in five games with the Golden Eagles (2-3, 0-1), who lost their C-USA opener for the third consecutive season.

Southern Miss coach Todd Monken said his Golden Eagles had their chances, but couldn't come up with the big offensive play or big defensive stop when needed.

"The game was right there for the taking," Monken said. "We weren't mature enough in a lot of areas to take advantage of it.

"Give them credit. They made the plays when they needed to make the plays."

Like in the second quarter, after Southern Miss tied the score 10-10 on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Nick Mullens to Mike Thomas.

Brandon Hamilton returned the ensuing kickoff 43 yards to the Rice 44. Jackson ripped off a 43-yard run on the first play, and two plays later, Davis scored from 6 yards out to put Rice ahead for good.

It happened again in the third quarter after the Golden Eagles closed to 20-14 on George Payne's 1-yard run.

On third-and-8, Jackson hooked up with Mario Hull for 34 yards, and on third-and-13 moments later, Jackson found Hull again for a 40-yard touchdown and a 27-16 lead.

"That gave us momentum," Bailiff said. "From that point on, we settled in offensively. Defensively, we made plays."

Davis, who averaged 4.5 yards on a career-high 29 carries and accounted for a career-best 169 yards from scrimmage, provided the pile driving in a balanced offensive attack that racked up 217 yards on the ground.

Mullens completed 24 of 45 passes, throwing for career-high 283 yards and a pair of touchdown passes. But he was sacked three times and turned the ball over twice on an interception and a fumble.

All told, Rice forced three turnovers and limited Southern Miss to 40 yards rushing. The Owls also broke up a season-high eight passes.

The Golden Eagles also botched a 39-yard field goal attempt on the last play of the first half and missed an extra point in third quarter.

"It is silly," Monken said. "It is bad football."