HATTIESBURG (AP) — Southern Miss really, really likes to play Rice.

Nick Mullens threw for 591 yards and four touchdowns and Southern Miss set a school record with 702 yards of total offense in a 44-28 win over Rice on Saturday night.

On Nov. 15 last year against Rice, Southern Miss (4-1, 2-0 Conference USA) set the previous school record for total offense with 682 yards.

“It makes us a balanced football team because we can throw it and we can run it,” Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson said of his team’s offensive explosion. “That’s always a good thing when we can be dangerous at both and that’s what we’re striving to be.”

Mullens broke Austin Davis’ previous school record of 461 passing yards in a game — which, coincidentally, he set against the Owls in 2008.

Allenzae Staggers had six receptions for 292 yards and touchdowns of 75, 81 and 93 yards. His yardage total broke the previous school record of 260 that Kendrick Lee set against Houston in 1996.

Staggers’ 93-yarder is the third-longest TD reception in school history and put the Eagles up 27-14.

“It was nice to see that, for sure,” Hopson said of the big plays. “If you wear the black and gold that was really nice to see but those guys did a great job, Nick and Allenzae. Those were big plays in the game and it was a tremendous job there.”

Southern Miss’ defense also shined. It had seven sacks, its highest total since 2009, with Dylan Bradley collecting 3 1/2.

“Execution. We executed at a high level. It was nothing too special. No one was super mad, we were just out there playing as a unit,” said Bradley, who also finished with seven total tackles. “It was a team effort, that’s all I can say. Guys next to me rushing off the ball, (Ja’Boree) Poole and Xavier (Thigpen) and (LaDarius) Harris who was inside with me. The new guys did a great job and the linebackers were blitzing and made the quarterback step up and I had to be in the right spots. Those 3 1/2 sacks wouldn’t have happened without my teammates.”

Tyler Stehling threw a 7-yard TD pass to Samuel Stewart to give Rice (0-5, 0-3) its only lead of the game at 7-3.

Stewart had 19 carries for 132 yards and two scores. Rice had 344 yards of total offense, including 180 on the ground. Stehling threw two touchdown passes — his first career multiple-touchdown game — but Rice fell to 0-5 on the season heading into a bye week.

“We’re going to break down everything we’ve done to date. None of us started the season thinking we’d be 0-5 right now,” Rice coach David Bailiff said. “We’ve got to go back to Rice and regroup, refresh, get some of these injured guys back and finish this season strong. I think there’s still a lot of wins still in this football team.”

Southern Miss will play at Texas-San Antonio next Saturday at 11 a.m.