Driphus Jackson distributed passes to five receivers in leading Rice to a Hawaii Bowl victory on Wednesday.

After picking up the Owls’ most valuable player award after the game, he sent much of the credit their way as well.

"I get a lot of praise for what’s going on, but I’m just doing my 1/11th as Coach (David) Bailiff always tells us to do and everybody else did their part and it came out the way it was supposed to," Jackson said.

Jackson completed 15 of 24 pass attempts for 318 yards, ran for 41 yards and threw three touchdown passes, the first two coming in a pivotal 19-second span late in the first quarter. He led an Owls attack that generated 463 yards in total offense to complement a defense that held Fresno State to 255 and denied the Bulldogs a touchdown.

"Driphus did an incredible job of not only managing the game but at times taking it over with his big plays and some of the reads he was able to do," Bailiff said after the Owls’ school-record third consecutive bowl appearance and their second win in that stretch.

"It seemed every time we really needed a play Driphus made one for us."

The most notable instance came after Fresno State kicked a tying field goal with 2:16 left in the first quarter.

On third-and-2 Jackson lofted a perfectly-placed pass deep down the left side to Dennis Parks for a 53-yard gain, then connected with Jordan Taylor on a 14-yard touchdown two plays later.

Rice cornerback J.T. Blasingame reeled in an interception on Fresno State’s next play from scrimmage and the Owls struck immediately with Jackson hitting Mario Hull on a 69-yard TD pass and the Owls took a 16-3 lead with four seconds left in the first quarter.

"(Fresno State does) a lot of rotating on coverage so I had to be on point when it came reading coverages," Jackson said. "But the receivers just did a great job of adjusting to balls. I get a lot of praise for the touchdown to Mario, but Mario made a great adjustment to that ball because it was short and he ended up making a play on it and making a guy miss."

Two of Jackson’s shorter passes of the second half also led to long gains as the Owls pulled away from the Bulldogs.

He threw a quick hitch to Parks, who got a block from Cole Hunt and busted through a tackle along the sideline on his way to a 40-yard touchdown.

Jackson also tossed a screen pass to running back Darik Dillard, who was alone in the flat and turned it into a 58-yard gain to the Fresno State 1. Dillard scored on the next play to cap the scoring for the night.

Parks finished with five catches for 109 yards and his first touchdown of the season, while Taylor also caught five passes and three more went to Hull as the Owls completed their turnaround from an 0-3 start to close the season at 8-5.

"It really was a game of momentum tonight and a game of runs," Bailiff said.

"I thought at halftime our coaches did a nice job of making adjustments and I thought our seniors did a nice job of reenergizing the football team. … We wanted to finish what we started."