Family Tradition at Quarterback Is Passed On at Houston : Southwest: Jimmy Klingler puts up numbers like his brother (613 yards, 7 touchdowns) in 61-34 victory over Rice.

David Klingler might be gone to the NFL, but the Klingler name lives on at the University of Houston.

Sophomore Jimmy Klingler, assuming the role his brother played last season, completed seven touchdown passes--four short of his brother’s NCAA record--as the Cougars spoiled Rice’s bowl hopes with a 61-34 victory Saturday.

Rice (6-5), assured of its first winning season since 1963, had hoped to parlay a victory over Houston into an invitation to the John Hancock Bowl. The Rice loss means Baylor (6-5) gets the berth opposite Arizona on Dec. 31.

Rice’s bowl hopes dissolved in a barrage of passes by Klingler, who completed 46 of 71 passes for 613 yards.

David Klingler set a national record of 48 completions against SMU in 1990. He passed for a record 716 yards against Arizona State later that season.

Houston (4-7) matched its 1991 record and beat the Owls for the sixth consecutive year. The Owls tied Texas for second place in the Southwest Conference with a 4-3 record, their highest league finish since 1958. Houston avoided a last-place SWC finish with a 2-5 record.

“After 29 years of losing, you come out with a winning season so that’s a success,” Rice Coach Fred Goldsmith said. “We had our opportunity today for a bowl and didn’t take advantage of it.”

Klingler, who started seven of Houston’s 11 games, fell eight attempts short of the Division I-A record, set by TCU’s Matt Vogler against Houston in 1990.

“It was a great display of execution,” Houston Coach John Jenkins said. “He (Klingler) was having his way out there. Being able to conclude the season like this is going to be something to build on. He can’t do anything but get better and better.”

The Cougars resisted going for the record. Klingler left the game with 8:38 to play.

“We talked about that and we decided to wait until early in the fourth quarter and see how close I got,” Klingler said. “I had 560 yards at the end of the third quarter, so we were just going to see what happened in the fourth quarter.”

Rice’s Bert Emanuel passed for a season-high three touchdowns, but the Owls couldn’t mount a serious comeback after falling behind, 31-14, at halftime.

“Today wasn’t our best offensive showing,” Emanuel said. “But you have to give Houston a lot of credit for that. They put pressure on me all day and it was tough to establish anything.”

Rice took its only lead early in the first quarter when Emanuel connected with Ed Howard on a 59-yard touchdown for a 7-3 lead shortly after Houston’s Trace Craft kicked a 27-yard field goal.

The Cougars then scored 28 consecutive points on Klingler’s passes of 18 yards to Keith Jack, 32 and 17 yards to Freddie Gilbert and Lamar Smith’s 19-yard run.

Emanuel ran 36 yards to the Houston 44, then completed a 44-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Lee with 3:24 left in the half to make the score 34-14.

After halftime, Klingler connected on touchdown pass plays of 29, nine and 42 yards to Ron Peters.

Rice scored in the second half on Emanuel’s 62-yard pass to Louis Balady and a 17-yard return of a blocked punt by Jay Lanny.

Trevor Cobb scored Rice’s final touchdown on an 11-yard run with 1:35 to play, giving him 121 yards in 23 carries. Cobb finished his career with 4,948 yards, 64 short of the SWC record by Texas A&M;’s Darren Lewis.

“Just because we lost today, it wasn’t a total disaster,” Cobb said. “We’ve got great players like Bert and Sean (Washington) to step up and be the team leaders next year.”

Houston’s Sherman Smith came into the game with 89 receptions, assured of winning the national receiving title. He finished with 14 catches for 83 yards, marking the sixth consecutive year a Cougar led the nation in receptions.

“This year, I was just getting into the offense,” Smith said. “I was nervous. Next year, it will be different We’ve got a young receiving corps so we got a few guys who got their feet wet.”