San Jose State and Rice went beyond football late Saturday.
If you want to call the Spartans' incredible 70-63 victory basketball on grass, go ahead. San Jose State outscored its basketball team, which averaged 61.3 points, by almost 10 in the highest-scoring regulation I-A game in history.
"The conventional rules of football did not apply," San Jose State coach Fitz Hill.
Ready for the jump ball? Here are the highlights:
- Rice ran 100 plays, piling up 634 yards. Eighty-five of the plays were runs out of Ken Hatfield's option offense.
- The Owls' 63 points were the most ever in a regulation loss.
- The game fell one point short of the overall record for total points. Arkansas beat Kentucky 11 months ago 71-63 in a seven-overtime game. The total was three points short of the record for all divisions, 136 points accumulated in North Park's 104-32 victory over North Central (Illinois) in 2001.
- San Jose State ran just 49 plays and had the ball for less than 18 minutes. It had 211 yards on kickoff returns.
- Third-string Spartans quarterback Dale Rogers passed for 359 yards on only 10 completions. He did it with a hyper-extended left knee and a large cut on his chin. Rogers was forced to play because of injuries.
- A I-A record 19 touchdowns were scored. The average length of those touchdowns was 36.7 yards.
- Only 4,093 saw it. San Jose State has been close to dropping its program in the past and has to resort to gimmicks to increase attendance. It scheduled I-AA Morgan State this year to lure fans to see the school's famous band.
Basketball on grass? Rice won both WAC head-to-head meetings on the court last year (61-55, 82-49) but didn't approach Saturday's point total in football.
