Southern Miss's Frank Gore Jr. runs for 329 yards to break NCAA-bowl record

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Frank Gore Jr. ran for an NCAA bowl-record 329 yards and accounted for three touchdown to help Southern Miss hold off Rice 38-24 on Saturday night in the Lending Tree Bowl.

Gore scored on a 64 yard run in the second quarter, threw an 18 yard touchdown pass in the third and ran for a 55 yard touchdown in the fourth. He ran 59 yards for a touchdown.

Gore broke the record for the most rushing yards in a bowl game by a single player. Gore broke the Southern Miss record in 1982.

Will Hall said that he is a special guy. He knows how to be a leader. He has embraced the responsibility of being Frank Gore Jr., and he has learned how to handle it.

I'm really proud that he was able to have a performance like this on a national stage, where a lot of people could see it. Like his coach, he has a chip on his shoulder.

The Rice quarterback threw for 295 yards and three touchdown in the third quarter to help the Owls take a brief 24 17 lead. He threw two touchdown passes in the third quarter to give Rice a 24-17 lead.

Gore's 18-yard touchdown pass to Ty Mims tied it at 24 at the end of the third quarter. The Golden Eagles took the lead for good on the second play of the fourth quarter when Lowe threw a touchdown to Brownlee.

"We did a lot of good things in that third quarter, but you have to take your hat off to Southern Miss that they were able to run the ball the way they did," he said. The show was similar to Frank Gore's. We knew what kind of back Frank Gore Jr. was. He was amazing tonight. We didn't tackle well and we didn't make plays on offense to win the game.

Gore met his father on the field before the trophy presentation. Frank Gore's career-best rushing total was 212 yards for the San Francisco 49ers against Seattle in 2006

The younger Gore told him about the record when he came on the field. They got me into the secondary thanks to my O-line. The first person to tackle me was rarely the one who tackled me. That leads to a lot of big plays.

Gore was not the only one on the field. The son of a former Denver Broncos player and a brother of a San Francisco 49ers player caught seven passes and ran for 11 yards.

He was a quarterback at Nebraska before moving to Rice. He became a receiver this year.

The AP contributed.