Nov. 10, 2008

Rice senior quarterback Chase Clement has been named the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in the Owls' 38-31 Homecoming win over Army last Saturday at Rice Stadium.

East Carolina grabbed the other two weekly honors after its 19-16 overtime win over Marshall, who will meet the Owls next Saturday. ECU freshman DB Emmanuel Davis won the defensive honors with two interceptions, while junior K Ben Hartman won special teams after booting his second straight overtime game-winning field goal.

Clement set one conference career mark, tied a second, broke a pair of school season records, recorded the longest run of his career and matched the longest touchdown pass of his career while leading the Owls to their fourth straight win and their seventh win of the year.

He threw for 384 yards and three touchdowns to break the conference career record for touchdown passes. He now has 87, two more than the previous record of 85 set by Kevin Kolb of Houston. He also scored on a 61-yard run (the longest run of his career) to finish with four total touchdowns on the day and tie that conference mark of 109, set last year by Paul Smith of Tulsa.

His first TD pass of the day was an 80-yard bomb to Jarett Dillard, which broke his school season record for both touchdown passes (finished the day with 32) and total touchdowns (finished with 41). He and Dillard also extended their NCAA record for touchdowns by a passing duo to 48.

This is the second time Clement has been honored this season, and the fifth time an Owl has earned a weekly honor from the conference in 2008. Clement shared the offensive honor with Dillard after the duo set the NCAA record for most career touchdown passes by the same passer and receiver against North Texas. James Casey has won the offensive player honor twice this year (vs. Memphis and UTEP), while Andrew Sendejo won the defensive honor after the Owls season-opening win over SMU. It is the fourth time in his career that Clement has nabbed at least a share of the weekly honor.