Think Rice is looking past SMU?

[Hilltopper]

Firing of SMU coach adds fuel to Pony fire

This is from the Rice University Football Webletter, whatever that is:

HOUSTON (Nov. 21) – Setting aside the omnipresent and unavoidable questions about bowl eligibility, his team’s chances for a bowl invitation, and the like, Rice head coach Ken Hatfield is trying his darndest to take some positives from last week’s blue-collar, 27-17 win over UTEP and use them to point his team toward what’s looming to be a tough, regular-season-ending bout with SMU in Dallas Saturday.

Besides the bowl buzz, there are other distractions galore, which which the Rice mentor must deal. First, there’s the little matter of the firing of SMU coach [deleted] Cavan earlier this week. Great! Just what the Owls needed -- a fired - up SMU squad just raring to "win one for the gipper" as a going-away present for their deposed head man.

"I’ve been there before," Coach Hatfield told questioners at the weekly media luncheon Monday. "You know I’ve been fired, right after the last game – even though we won that last game, still got fired."

"I’m especially disappointed that any firings of any coaches take place during the season. You wouldn’t expect any player on your team representing your university to quit two games from the end of the season. And so if you wouldn’t expect it from a player, why should you demand it of somebody else, unless there’s just something morally wrong?"

"But other than that, I think the timing of firing any coach during the season is inappropriate for the mission of a university, if you’re trying to demonstrate the values of leadership, and the values of commitment, I don’t think anybody ought to be fired during the season."

"After the season’s over, you evaluate everything, and you go from there. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a firing take place during the middle of the season that all of a sudden just ignited the team, and they’ve played so much better. I don’t know of an occasion where that’s turned out for the better."


One Owl team used coach's firing as rallying point

Sorry, coach, but we’ve got Exhibit "A" right here on South Main. In 1970 , Rice’s Bo Hagan, who’d succeeded the legendary Jess Neely a couple of year s before -- and struggled -- was fired seven games into the season, with the Owls at the time sporting a 2-5 record.

The Owls had a young team; the entire starting offensive backfield was filled by sophomores. Those youngsters took umbrage at the termination, feeling that the prgoram was about to turn the corner. So they went out out and, in three consecutive weeks, defeated Texas A&M, TCU and Baylor to finish the season at 5-5.

Ah, well, that was a long time ago. College kids are more sanguine ad sophisticated these days. Or are they?

"Well, it will be tough because all of their players will play hard, both for Mike and also for their futures, considering whomever the new coach will be," Coach Hatfield admitted. "So it’s going to be a very difficult environment going into the game."

That’s another thing – the Owls are three-and-three this year thus far at home. But going above five hundred on a road schedule that included Nebraska and Fresno State is just going to be tough, Coach said.

"Number one, we're playing on the road again. They've beaten us up there the last two times we've been there. We're playing for the Mayors' Trophy, so it will be a tough game."

Then there's the matter of the SMU defense. The Mustangs had Tulsa shut out for the first 56 minutes of play last Saturday in Tulsa. That was the same Tulsa team which laid 32 points on the Owls -- though mostly against reserves -- in Houston the week before.

SMU defense features returning veterans

"They have the number-one team in almost every defensive category in our conference, which is saying a lot because there area lot of great offenses in our league. They had 21 of the top 22 people back on defense that played last year, so they have a lot of experience, they’ve got a lot of strength, a lot of confidence. It will be a tremendous challenge to our offense, going into a game like that."

If the Owls can show the intensity they’ve demonstrated in their last two games, Coach Hatfield added, they have every good chance of ending the season with a "W". Don’t sell short the UTEP team that the Owls narrowly defeated last Saturday, he said.

"I think that we were very fortunate to win the ball game the other day," he said. "I was really concerned about UTEP. I knew that they were a physically strong team. I knew that a lot of things, especially offensively, came easily for us against Tulsa, we had a lot of big plays in the game, and I knew UTEP was going to be a very difficult game.

Of course the game didn’t start out that way, he reminded scribes. "We moved the ball on our two first drives and scored, then we got the ball in good field position again but missedthe field goal. If we had scored then, taken it in, I think it may have been a different game. But we let them hang around long enough and they came back and broke three long runs."

"Our defense played great, all except for those three long plays. That's all it takes, but I think we played more consistently than we had been playing on defense, before."

That Rice defense will have to at least equal the effort it demonstrated in the UTEP game, Coach Hatfield said.

"Hopefully, our defense will be playing its very best, and hopefully we can do something great in the kicking game."

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"[deleted] Cavan"? Nice work.
Hope they pay that much attention in the coaches' offices when they put together their game plan.