USM Beats Rice 43-34

HATTIESBURG, MISS - The Golden Eagles' football team achieves bowl eligibility after beating Rice University on the road 43-34. USM's head football coach Jay Hopson mentioned that he is proud of his team.

"Just a good win. I tell you, I was really proud of our offense," Hopson said. "I thought we played lights out. I thought again Ito and Tez did a great job running the ball. I thought Kwadra did a good job of directing our offense. Korey continues to have good games, he made some plays. It's great to see Tim Jones, the youngster, he came up there and made a big play early... big touchdown... to top it off, I thought our offensive line was the catalyst of it all."

The Golden Eagles will play Charlotte at The Rock on Saturday.