Rice routs UNLV in opener

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by John Fredland

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Talk about sticking with the script. The Owls accomplished all three in opening the season with a 38-0 victory over Nevada-Las Vegas last Saturday at Rice Stadium.

Starting with Warrick Franklin's interception return for a touchdown 16 seconds into the game, Rice forced the Rebels into six turnovers.

Offensively, the Owls used their spread option offense to gain 333 yards on the ground.

Because of defensive depth, Rice was able to compensate for losing star linebacker Joe Davis to a foot injury, and the Owl second-team defense capped the shutout with a goal-line stand in the final minute.

The result was the first opening-day victory for the Owls since 1991, and the biggest margin of victory for Rice since a 42-0 victory over Virginia Military Institute in 1970.

"The hardest game played for anybody is that first weekend," Hatfield said. "It doesn't matter who you play. All aspects of the game showed great things."

Franklin started Rice strong out of the blocks by intercepting Rebel quarterback Jared Brown's pass on the second play of the game and returning it 22 yards for a 7-0 lead.

"Last year I was a little tentative on the reads," Franklin said.

"Coach Hatfield had wanted me to be a little more aggressive. I made a great break, and, fortunately, was able to make the play. It was a great tone to set for the defense."

The interception was the first of four for Rice -- one short of the 1994 Owl season total -- including a second by Franklin, who was named the Southwest Conference's Defensive Player of the Week by the Associated Press , in the second quarter. The Rice defense forced six turnovers on the evening, which led to 17 points.

Although the spread option offense started slowly, the Owls wore down the UNLV defense on a humid evening with a balanced running game.

Yoncy Edmonds, seemingly recovered from the ankle injury which hampered him last season, followed Franklin's second interception by running up the middle for a 75-yard touchdown at 10:05 of the second quarter. This boosted the Owl advantage to 14-0.

Edmonds finished with 106 yards on only seven carries. Jamey Whitlock added a 63-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter and gained 71 yards on four carries.

Byron Godfrey, starting his first collegiate game, picked up 60 yards on nine rushes. Quarterback Josh LaRocca, looking more comfortable with running the option, contributed 48 yards on eight attempts.

"It was a great team effort," Edmonds said. "We all ran hard. In this offense, if the backs don't block for each other, we're not going to get many yards. We know how important it is to block hard."

"We didn't execute the option quite as well at times, but we made some big plays off it," Hatfield said. "We had some great runs off fresh runners."

The unsettled state of the Owl offensive line made the success of the running game all the more impressive. Chris Cooley, an All-America candidate at left guard, was, for the most part, unavailable because of a triceps injury. Other injuries -- to guards Paki Nelson and Brian Lyssy -- forced Rice to shuffle its offensive line.

"We had some good individual efforts in creating some holes," Hatfield said. "But we would take turns missing assignments or going the wrong way, just enough to keep us going the wrong way."

The Owl backup defenders preserved the shutout, the only one by an NCAA Division I-A team in the opening weekend.

Substituted out of necessity -- Davis and defensive end Ndukwe Kalu were sidelined with first half injuries -- and luxury from the big lead, the reserves were instrumental in limiting UNLV to 273 yards of total offense, including 77 the final drive of the game.

On that drive, they stopped the Rebels on four plays from the Rice one-yard line to clinch the first Owl shutout since a 34-0 victory over Tulane in 1993.

"I thought our defensive team effort was very good," linebacker Larry Izzo said. "We had a lot of our guys play and several of our newcomers, like Thomas Benford and Rashad Reynolds, stepped up and adjusted to the speed of the game."

"On defense, we were around the football well," Hatfield said. "I was very proud of the way our defense hung in there all night."

Hatfield was able to use the big lead as an opportunity to give some of the younger Owls some game experience. Rice played 14 true freshmen and 10 redshirt freshmen.

"In certain places, we have a little more depth," Hatfield said. "I thought those guys played well."

The Owls are off this week. They host Tulane University on Sept. 16.

With the week off, Hatfield is hoping to have Cooley and Davis, as well as other Owls who were banged up in the opener, available for full-time use in the Tulane game.

"It's a good time to have a week off," Hatfield said. "It will give us a chance to heal."

Rice will be looking to return the favor on a 15-13 defeat at the hands of the Green Wave last season. The last-second triumph was Tulane's only victory in a 1-10 season.

"It's not so much revenge, but remembrance," Hatfield said.

"They were good enough to beat us. They kicked five field goals -- whatever it took. Luckily, it's a team we've played against, not somebody we didn't know much about, like UNLV."

This item appeared in the Sports section of the September 8, 1995 issue.

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