With Notre Dame as heavy favorites in Week 2 against Rice, even if star running back Quinton Jackson were healthy, his performance might not have played into the final result. However, with Jackson out against the Fighting Irish, the Owls have an even bigger hill to climb on Saturday afternoon.
Rice head coach Scott Abell addressed the media on Tuesday and previewed his game against Notre Dame. Among the topics he mentioned was the bad news that Jackson suffered an injury in their Week 1 game against Houston Christian. While Abell didn’t say what the injury was, he told the media that Jackson had a “significant” injury and would be out for a while. That Jackson is out against the Irish seems all but assured.
The worst part about Rice not having Jackson against Notre Dame was that the back suffered the injury while scoring his second touchdown of the day early in the fourth quarter in Rice’s 31-3 victory.
“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.”
Notre Dame football catches major news with Rice star Quinton Jackson injured
To some degree, the Owls will be able to work around Jackson’s absence in their run-heavy “Gun Choice” attack. They rolled to that four-touchdown win last Saturday by running the ball 70 times for 465 yards while completing just 4 of 10 passes for 28 yards.
On the other hand, Jackson contributed 10 carries for 61 yards and led the Owls with two scores. Rice might be looking to spread the running game around, but it certainly would have helped against Notre Dame if he were around, considering he’s coming off a team-leading performance in 2025.
Jackson ran for 889 yards and 6 touchdowns in his breakout season. Jackson, also a captain last season, earned team MVP honors and contributed as a special teams ace, logging 262 kick return yards while scoring another touchdown. After playing a tailback role last season, he moved into the slot to be a pitch option and take on more responsibilities in Rice’s offense, which is a variation of an option offense run out of a shotgun formation.
Jackson's apparent left knee injury after his second touchdown is especially painful, given his excitement about his fifth and final year with Rice. Earlier this spring, he talked about how he wanted 2026 to be different: “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.”
Needless to say, he would have loved to help the Owls try to upend Notre Dame for a massive upset.
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