SMU21TCU10 wrote:I dont think we beat Rice. We are Rice's rival, but as the above poster mentioned, we dont play it like a rivalry. Didnt we lose like 10 straight in Houston?
To be fair we had, or have lots of those streaks against lots of teams after 25 years of half-assed administrative support for the program.
This team knows where it stands. And Rice stands in their way. Taking care of business against USM will put added pressure on Rice. And now that GG can run and has shown he can, it will increase the pressure on Rice.
We get out to a strong start (something we have done lately) and wee could put this team away fast.
Thought Pony Fans would like a scouting report on Rice. Big game as IMO don't think SMU beats Tulsa and thus both teams need W to get to a bowl game.
Both teams frustrated w/ their results and disappointed with their coaching this year. Expectations on both sides were much higher than where we find ourselves in mid-November.
Although it may be too late, Owls playing much better last month or so. Combo of lesser competition and some legitimate on field improvements. Off-week was big to get some guys healthy, especially some of the offensive playmakers. We should have been up 42-3 against Tulane at halftime in last game and stupid penalties and charity let them back in the game. Owls not used to being in that position.
Offense McHargue is key. Can throw and run. He separated his non-throwing shoulder earlier in year and has been playing hurt and staff has not called pre-determined QB run plays (e.g., speed option) until Tulane game. His injury cost us the Marshall, Houston, and Memphis games (not to mention a much closer UCLA game). Extra week should really have helped him. Expect to also see Freshman Driphius Jackson get some snaps as well who is promising talent but green. McHargue really at his best when pocket breaks down and can scramble for big yards.
Nice stable of RB's with three or four different guys that will get touches and rotate in to stay fresh. All big guys who run hard but none have breakaway speed. Rice is 28th in FBS in Rushing. Would expect to see 5-10 plays w/ the 'Wild Owl' where one of those RB's (ex HS QB) takes the snaps w/ two of the other guys next to him.
Am excited to see all the receivers on field this week. Jordan Taylor is best receiver, McGuffie (slot) is fastest guy on team, and expect to see the big 6-5 TE's who spread out (Willson and McDonald) get touches this week as they are finally both healthy.
OL is bigger and more athletic of years past but young/inexperienced. Have played better last few weeks.
Defense DL is thin but seems to have made some improvements of late. Lost one guy to NFL (Solomon) and three others hurt in pre-season and been playing catch-up all year. Younger guys have developed last few weeks but still the biggest positional weakness on the team.
LB's are average. Nwosu is leader. LSU transfer (Prater) looks the part but yet to see him live up to his resume and physique.
Two of best DB's (Callahan and Frazier) are out. A pleasant depth surprise as young guys have played better than expected filling-in for them while Philip Gaines at CB best cover guy ranked in top 5 in FBS in pass breakups. DB's much better than prior years on not giving-up big plays.
Special Teams Both Rice and SMU are close to bottom of FBS in net punting. We lost our All-American punter to graduation and now have a TE punting. Punts ball really high but really short.
We have one of best kickers in country (Boswell). He is on Lou Groza list and been getting some nice national attention.
Our return team stinks. Can't remember last time Rice had a return for a TD (been over a decade?)
Coaching/Intangibles Most Owl fans want to see a coaching change. Although Bailiff is a nice guy who gets Rice and gets Texas recruiting, he is in year six and program has not gotten over-the-hump so debate goes back and forth on how much 'getting Rice' vs. just 'W's' matters. Expectations are higher than where things are at and now patience is running thin. There is talent on the field and guys who will be playing on Sundays. Rice is the youngest team in all FBS w/ only seven seniors on the entire team which gives some hope and potentially Bailiff some additional rope. Similar to SMU, Rice plays well at home and bad on the road. I think the extra week to prepare will make a big difference against unique wrinkles of SMU offense. Rice has also shown an unusual/uncharacteristic tendency this year for stupid penalties.
IMO, game will come down to turnovers (Rice is ranked #35 in net turnover margin and SMU is #10) as both teams have used that as a strength. Also, if Rice can tackle (which it does not do well) the dink/dunk game and Z. Line, D should be fine given SMU is #80 in offense.
I don't think either team looks at this as a rivalry game like SMU does for TCU and Rice does for Houston. I think both teams desperately need a W and will be both ready to play this Saturday and as both teams think they are better than the other. Will be close game. Good Luck..
I respect Rice - a stellar academic school who is trying to compete athletically. I respect that. We have to come out playing harder than we've ever played before or we will lose. HUGE game obviously.
We probably need to beat Rice to make a bowl game. I don't think we can beat Tulsa this year but anything can happen in C-USA. If GG plays well we win this game but that is asking a lot. I don't have a good feeling about this game though. I guess my confidence is shaken a bit in this team watching the inconsistent offense all year. Our defense has been great for most of the year (holding A&M to no points for 1 1/2 quarters), shutting out UTEP on road, and one of the leaders in getting turnovers. Defense needs to get some takeaways and offense needs to get more consistent to win. It is C-USA so anything can happen. Let's see if June can earn his money this week. We paid him a lot of money to win these-type games.
Yes, this is a very, very important game. I'd like to come out and beat Rice decisively. That sends a message to Tulsa that they're walking into a buzzsaw next week at Ford.
The Rice message board (Parliament) is full of same rants... Regardless of thread topic, there is no thread that can escape some connection back to the one or more of the following posts:
- Fire the Athletic Director - Fire David Bailiff - Marketing stinks and is inept
The only thing that may be a bit different is that rants on players are not allowed. Sometimes they are actually deserving of some criticism but if a player drops a ball, it is somehow David Bailiff's fault that he dropped it.
Will be evenly matched game this week and toss-up who wins or loses. What I do know is that going to losing team message board after the game is going to be very, very ugly.
I see it as being pretty simple. Rice is obviously dangerous, and we have all been emotionally scarred by previous Rice games, especially in Houston, but the bottom line is that we have to win.
GG has been playing with far fewer errors over the past four games, and is completing 62.5% of his passes, has discovered a QB-keeper option and is no longer (touch wood) throwing many picks, none in the last three games. Zach is still a stud.
But DJ needs to get back to catching the ball, the run-D which failed so miserably at UCF needs to be back on its game, and our special teams need to avoid errors and win the field-position battle.
One thing of note is that we should know the result of the Tulsa-UCF game before this one kicks off. That may have some effect on the players. If Tulsa wins, then they have nothing except record to play for the following week here, if they lose, then it is obviously a huge game for them, but only if we win.
Our kids need to focus. Play our best game and we beat Rice comfortably. Let them hang around and I, for one, will need medicating by the end of this one.
I posted this on the "Do We Win Both " Thread. I'm too lazy to make a new post, but it also applies here.
We win both. Most thought we would lose in UTEP, because of our past games there ... we'll we took care of business. Now the Rice game has the same folks predicting doom ... we win in a solid performance. Coming off the "MO" from that game and bowl eligibility, we come out in the Tulsa game hunting for bear .... esp with a UCF victory this weekend.
They have been playing for bowl eligibility and a conf championship sense day 1 and so has the staff … that has always been the goal and still is. The Hawaii bowl comment has been taken out of context. The comment was based on the premise; we win Conf Champ and we will chose to go to the Hawaii bowl. The error may have been assuming that the Conf Champ could opt out of the Liberty bowl, and/or that the SMU admin would let us do so. I know enough of the players, and have asked enough of the players to know this is the objective.
