What? It’s 36 hours in to the official game thread window and no “official” AAC game threads yet? Could it be official what that say about the demise of the conference over in that “other” thread?

No! Fear not, AAC fans. Rice is here to save you from that pesky SBC. Cause we got the “college formerly known as USL” coming to town for a good old fashion owl-style beat down.

Known these days simply by their symbol, £ appears on most top-ten-of-the-G5 lists currently. Most folks would agree they are a legit contender for the oh-so-elusive access bowl bid that normally goes to the AAC champion.

Rice may not make the run this year to claim the NY6 bid for ourselves (I mean, we don’t even have the A on our jerseys-yet). Plus we still got Houston lying in wait on our schedule. But what we can certainly do is cull out the competition for the rest of you.

And if there’s one thing we can learn from history, it’s that no team has ever made the NY6 in the modern era* after losing to Rice.

So chin up Arescocrats and Aresquettes. We got your back on Saturday. Prediction: Rice by 2 (36-34)

Game time: 6:30 CT pm Saturday (7:30 ET for our fans on the coast).

Location: Historic Rice Stadium, University Blvd in Houston, TX, USA

Betting line: £ -12.0
ESPN FPI: Rice 20.7%
Coverage: ESPN+

All-time series: £ 3-2
Last meeting: 9/23/1989 USL 18, @Rice 3

Team notes: Currently holding the nation’s longest Winning streak at 15 games, longtime £ fans may remember another nation’s longest streak ending in this series, back in 1983 when Rice’s nation’s-longest losing streak was capped off by a 22-21 win against the Cajuns at Rice Stadium.

Players to watch: Rice backup QB TJ McMahon settled down from his shaky week one relief appearance by tossing 4 TD last week against McNeese. He’s expected to start again this week as Wiley Green heals up.

WR Luke McCaffery (and former starting QB prior to this season) has impressed at his new position, as has WR Bradley Rossner with two TDs last week. Still, the Owls are a run-first squad and managed to run for 137 ground yards in the first half against #7 USC. Cam Montgomery and Ari Broussard have both had outstanding games running the football this season.

Rice is 1-0 this season when recording a turnover differential of +5 or greater.
They are 0-1 with a differential of -4 or worse.

It really has been a Jeckyl and Hyde season so far. Let’s see which one comes out to play with the Cajuns Saturday night!

A couple quotes from £ Coach Michael Desormeaux’s Monday press conference…

Q: What is it about Rice that is going to present the biggest challenge for you guys?

Coach D: They’re the most multiple on offense and defense that we’ve played. They’re really really well coached. Those guys have a good scheme. Their players understand it, and you can tell that.

On offense, they’re more gap-oriented than they are zone-oriented and that’s a little bit different.
When a team plays with a true fullback in todays game that’s unique, you don’t see it a whole lot.

Defensively they’ve kind of changed their game, they’re pressuring a whole lot more. So we’ve got to be sound, be prepared to handle the movement, and be prepared to handle the pressures.

They’re the best team we’ve played so far, three weeks into the season.

Q. Lot of significant victories Saturday by the SunBelt, can you address that?

Coach D: Well to me, the most significant one was ours!

And… more great coach speak from the other sideline…
Rice Coach Mike Bloomgren:

“We have shifted our focus to a very good Louisiana team. A team that comes in here with the nation's longest winning streak, 15 games in a row. I think Billy Napier did an unbelievable job building that program in a lot of ways from the ground up, and it doesn't seem like they've missed a beat. They're right in here coming into our stadium 2-0. They have a lot of the same schemes on both sides of the ball. They're a little bit different on special teams, but, again, just doing a really good job on every phase of the game. It's going to be an outstanding challenge for us this week. It's one that we are excited about. It's one that we had an outstanding practice yesterday and I expect us to have an outstanding practice today in preparation for it."


Countdown to kickoff is now just under 48 hours… let’s go OWLS!

Has the Owlification of the AAC gone too far?

It’s Friday morning and the only two game threads out are Rutgers at the Owls and Cajuns at the other Owls.

Let’s go FAU (the other other Owls)… you’re the home team tomorrow against UCF and as official AAC-invitees should already have a green light to start an “official” thread here.

#OwlCity
#GoFutureAAC
#BeatFutureSBC_B1G_B12s

Pregame X-Factors for both teams, from At The Roost

https://attheroost.com/2022/09/11/rice-f...louisiana/

First, the SBC visitors:

Quote:Louisiana X-Factor | Corrall the pass

Rice football had a big day through the air against McNeese State, helping to unlock the run game and making the Owls’ offensive attack look as lethal as it has looked in quite some time. Rice is going to run the football and remains committed to the ground game, but forcing the Owls to rely solely on their running game and eliminating big pass plays is a must.

Louisiana allowed 4.3 yards per attempt in a 24-7 win over Southeastern Louisiana and 6.2 yards per attempt against Eastern Michigan. Rice averaged 9.0 yards per attempt in their win over McNeese this past weekend. Everything else was working when the aerial attack was pacing the offensive attack. What happens if it’s not working to that degree? Can Rice still create explosive plays and score?

Much better playing this game at 6:30 than the 3:00 kick-off our cross-town rivals got assigned. Who says the C-USA television contract is all bad?

Looking forward to a key game in historic Rice Stadium. Rice Fight Never Dies!

Oh and here’s the Rice X factors:

Quote:Rice X-Factor | Stay on schedule
Rice was faced with 16 third down attempts in each of their first two games. The Owls converted five of 16 against USC and then doubled their efficiency, converting 10 of 16 against McNeese State. It was no coincidence their point total exploded from 14 to 52 in that small two-game sample.
Scoring 50+ points a game isn’t sustainable, but for Rice, staying on schedule and controlling the football is part of the roadmap to get there. The Owls were able to generate explosive plays against McNeese State, but will be in for a tougher test against Louisiana. When those big plays are limited, they’ll need to find a way to move the chains.

Rice looked like they downed the punt at the two… refs called it a touchback. Let’s see if they review it..

Stadium looks good, crowd is good, team looks good. Keep it going Owls.

Rice up 3-0 after forcing the Cajun’s first turnover in 8 games(!)

Uh oh.
We just did something we did 3x two weeks ago but didn’t do any of last week.

3-7 after the pik six

Rice D playing stout tonight… stopped £ on 4th & 1

And then drive the length of the field. 10-7 Rice with a Niiice shoestring TD by McCaffrey

Long way to go, but looking good so far…

(09-17-2022 07:24 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  Rice D playing stout tonight… stopped £ on 4th & 1

Yes they are. 2020 D is back in the house. I am encouraged by what I see here.

.

Way to go, Owls. Nice way to end the half! One point game. Rice proving they can drive down the more than once.

--an fellow owls fan and owl fancier

.

(09-17-2022 08:08 PM)Milwaukee Wrote:  .

Way to go, Owls. Nice way to end the half! One point game.

--a general owls fan

.

Rice has played exceptionally well on defense, and has moved the ball effectively on offense *
* except for those three pesky INTs

Clean those up and we should be in good shape.

Another long TD drive coming out of the half for the Owls. Went for 2 (no good) but now up 19-14.

McCaffrey and Rozner outstanding at WR for Rice on the drive and all night.

(09-17-2022 08:40 PM)Milwaukee Wrote:  .

Another impressive drive by Rice, for a touchdown!

Hopefully, they can hold and build on this lead.

-go oooooowls!

Thanks!

After 3Q it’s still Rice 19-14 with the Owls in the red zone again threatening more…