Rice will have to face Notre Dame without the one player it could least afford to lose.
Running back Quinton Jackson was injured in the Owls’ Week 1 win over Houston Christian, and head coach Scott Abell said Tuesday that the setback is “significant” and will keep him out for a while. That makes his status against the Fighting Irish all but settled before Saturday afternoon even arrives.
Jackson’s injury came in the most unfortunate way possible for Rice. He was hurt while scoring his second touchdown of the day early in the fourth quarter of a 31-3 win, and Abell said, “His last play, as he scored a touchdown, and it does appear right now a pretty significant injury,” Abell explained.
“We’ll probably talk more about that as we meet with more medical professionals, unfortunately for him. But other than that, we don’t have a whole lot of updates.
I think really he’s probably the only injury coming out of Week 1. Unfortunately for him.”
Rice’s offense can lean on the run, and it did exactly that in the opener. The Owls ran the ball 70 times for 465 yards and completed just 4 of 10 passes for 28 yards in their four-touchdown victory. But Jackson was still a central piece of the plan, finishing with 10 carries for 61 yards and leading the team with two scores.
That’s what makes this such a tough loss for Rice. Jackson wasn’t just another runner in the mix last season.
He piled up 889 yards and 6 touchdowns in his breakout year, earned team MVP honors, and also played a major role on special teams with 262 kick return yards and another touchdown. A captain last season, he spent 2025 in a different spot too, moving from tailback to the slot to serve as a pitch option in Rice’s shotgun-based option offense.
The injury is especially painful because Jackson was looking forward to his fifth and final season with the program. Earlier this spring, he said, “I want to finish it the right way. Coming out, we haven’t been on the winning side all my five years here, and that’s something I want to do, just go out the right way.”
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