Memphis blues: Rice falls to Mississippi State in Liberty Bowl

C-USA champions were the first to score in Liberty Bowl

After creating a turnover on Mississippi State’s (MSU) first possession and scoring first in the 55th AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Rice had its hands full the rest of New Year’s Eve as the Bulldogs dominated the Conference USA champs on MSU’s way to a 44-7 victory over the Owls.

The weather was a sunny “chamber of commerce day” for the 57, 846 people in attendance for kickoff at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn. Rice won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball first. The Owls, who donned a special white helmet with blue wings, gained two first downs before having to punt and pinned the Bulldogs down at their own 11.

MSU started off with two first downs and had a nice drive underway when quarterback Dak Prescott’s pass to Robert Johnson for another potential first down ended in a fumble. Rice’s James Radcliffe forced the fumble and Phillip Gaines made the recovery.

And then the Owls struck first in the Liberty Bowl.

The Owls started off at theBulldogs’ 45 but were faced with a quick fourth down at the Bulldogs’ 36. Rice head coach David Bailiff elected to keep his offense on the field, and on the next play Luke Turner took off for 13 yards down to the MSU 23. On the next set of downs the Owls needed to convert on a long third down and 10 to keep the drive going. Rice quarterback Taylor McHargue found receiver Dennis Parks for 18 yards on the second key offensive play of the drive, and the Owls were first and goal at the Bulldogs’ five-yard line. Two plays later Charles Ross scored from the two-yard line, and with the Chris Boswell extra point, the Owls were leading the Liberty Bowl 7-0 with 6:41 left in the opening quarter.

After that the rest of the first half belonged to Mississippi State.

MSU found the end zone on their next four possessions of the half, with the only flaw being a blocked extra point. Prescott found LaDarius Perkins on a 10-yard pass, Ashton Shumpert rushed one yard and Prescott found Malcolm Johnson for 13 yards and Artimas Samuel for four yards. But the biggest headache the Owls faced was covering MSU wide receiver Jameon Lewis; Lewis had six catches for 181 yards.

At the half, MSU was ahead 27-7.

And Mississippi State didn’t let up in the third quarter. Prescott found the end zone on two quarterback keepers of five and 11 yards, making it 41-7 for MSU. After the last Prescott touchdown and Rice’s third possession of the half, McHargue fumbled on a rush up the middle on third and one. The turnover set MSU up at the Rice 29-yard line.

On the drive, which carried over into the fourth quarter, MSU chose to go on fourth and goal from the Rice two-yard line. The Owls held the Bulldogs out of the end zone by breaking up a jump pass.

The Owls went three and out on their next possession and punted the ball back to MSU, giving the Bulldogs good field position.

MSU used four minutes and added a field goal to make the score 44-7 with 4:45 left in the game, which remained the final score.

Photo courtesy: Tommy LaVergne/Rice Universtiy

“We knew coming into this game that we were going to have to play our best to win it, but obviously we didn’t,” said Rice head football coach David Bailiff. “Hats off to Dan Mullen and the job his staff did with his football team. They did a fabulous job getting their team ready to play. This one falls on me. We were not ready to play and that’s the head coach’s responsibility. We didn’t play well offensively or defensively, but I’m extremely proud of this football team and this season — to win 10 games, have a 100 percent graduation rate and to win Conference USA.

At the post-game news conference, Bailiff was asked about saying goodbye to 23 of his seniors.

“You know what? Nineteen of them I’ve been with for five years,” Bailiff said. “There were a lot of tears in that locker room, not from the loss, but from young men who have invested so much and done everything that we have asked them to do since I have gotten here. It’s tough. It’s hard. We have 19 to 23 seniors that are never going to put on their Rice Owl football jersey again. There are tears in that locker room when the journey is over. You have these young men and they become your family. It’s like you have 105 sons.”

In case you missed them, be sure to read all the great stories about the road to the Liberty Bowl at https://news2.rice.edu/55th-autozone-liberty-bowl-central.