HATTIESBURG — The 10th installment of the Southern Miss and Rice football rivalry returns this Saturday when the Golden Eagles travel to Houston to face the Owls in a 12 noon C-USA West Division game.

The game will be streamed live through ESPN+, and can also be heard on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sport Network from Learfield IMG College, along with the Southern Miss Gameday App.

The Owls (0-7 overall, 0-3 C-USA) opened this series by winning four of the first five games, but the Golden Eagles rebounded by capturing the last four contests between the two schools.

Over the current four-game winning streak for Southern Miss, they have averaged 48 points while the Owls has managed 23.5 points per tilt.

Usually when the two teams meet, it is an offensive explosion for the winning squad. The winning team in this series has scored 40 or more points in nine of the 10 meetings.

Southern Miss scored the most points in the series in a 65-10 win in Houston during the 2015 campaign. Nick Mullens threw for 386 yards and five touchdowns in that contest as they produced a school-record 35 points for a quarter in the second period to put the game out of reach.

During the next chapter in 2016, Mullens threw for a school-record 591 yards and hit Allenzae Staggers for touchdown passes of 75, 81 and 83 yards as the wide receiving notched a school record of his own with 292 receiving yards en route to a 44-28 triumph in Hattiesburg.

In the first-ever meeting in 2007, the Golden Eagles rallied for 24 points over the final quarter at home against the Owls, but the Southern Miss comeback fell just short as a two-point conversion late in the game to fall 31-29.

After losing the next season at Rice Stadium 45-40 despite 461 yards and four touchdowns from Austin Davis and 221 yards receiving from DeAndre Brown, the Golden Eagles captured their first win in the series in 2011 with a 48-24 win at The Rock.

Down 24-20 early in the third quarter, the Golden Eagles scored 28 unanswered points the rest of the way, including Davis with touchdown passes to Kelvin Bolden (45 yards) and Ryan Balentine (23 yards) to pull away at the end.

When the two teams meet again this weekend, expect more fireworks in what proves to be another offensive showdown.