(01-05-2015 03:54 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  The best thing about the Hawaii bowl was DOMINATING somewhat of a 'name' opponent, even in a down year for them... and doing it early so that by the time the playoffs are over, all anyone will remember is that Rice STOMPED Fresno. Heck, half of them won't even remember in a year that Carr had graduated the year before... but they WILL remember that the Raiders starting QB came from Fresno, and that Rice stomped Fresno in Hawaii.

By STOMPING them, the 4th quarter became a 'love-fest' for the school and out coaches/program. Time to put in guys like JC... time to talk a lot about the new facility... time to talk a lot about guys in the NFL or guys coming back. While a close nail-biter might have been more fun to watch and/or drawn better... NONE of those things would have been mentioned.

and when recruits come to visit, they will hear about Hawaii... and not Birmingham or Albuquerque or even New Orleans... nice towns to be certain, but places all of these kids can and most have been to.

I finally had time to watch the game. Christmas Eve evening game time was impossible for me to watch live. The Christmas Season being busy these past few weeks, couldn't really break away and sit for hours to watch the replay on the net. Now that Christmas Season is almost over, nearly back to normal and have more free time in the evenings to catch up. Have to put the decorations away until next Christmas Eve this Sunday.

1. I agree with the poster who said that all things being what they were, the Hawaii Bowl was the best situation for Rice considering the alternatives available due to our performance this season. The truth is that barring an access bowl slot, the only real chance for possible signature wins for CUSA teams will be via in-season OOC scheduling of Top P5 teams.

Fortunately, Rice still sees fit to schedule one or two a year. Hope that does not change, but hope we can branch out beyond mostly Texas-heavy team scheduling and teams we've played recently a bit more. Easier said than done, I understand. Glad JK helped getting Stanford scheduled. Would like to see GA Tech on schedule sometime. I'd prefer less bowls and more shots at P5-G5 match-ups like just a few years ago.

2. Man, Fresno was putrid this year compared to past teams, at least in this game they looked terrible. But I agree with Hambone above, in a few years, the most anyone but us will remember is that Rice beat Fresno pretty good in a bowl, and many will likely think Fresno was better than they were because of their name and familiarity to college fb fans unless perhaps they see the season records displayed with the score.

3. First quarter I was thinking "here we go again" until the last few minutes. Once again an early timeout seemingly thrown away for little reason, in my opinion. Eventually things got better. Rice with lots more penalties than Fresno but in this game it didn't hurt us too much. Glad we didn't blow it and Fresno certainly helped us out, so very thankful for their play, or lack of it.

4. Last several games our first play from scrimmage has been a pass. Different from last few years, I believe.

5. Shocked to see Bailiff yelling at officials in 1Q. Yes, he got the challenge call wrong, but I can see he or his coaches upstairs saw two FS players sprinting off field to sidelines and thought for sure they had too many men. Even announcers initially agreed with him until they ran the replays back several times.

Some might perhaps say football coaches don't need to display like this on sidelines. I feel, in my opinion, when you play a game where you have large 200 and 300lb players slamming into each other across the field all game, a little emotion is perhaps warranted on all fronts to get the mojo going and keep people's energy up. I was happy to see that, and first time I ever recall seeing it from DBD myself, though I haven't seen every game.

6. DJ looked better/healthier, and I imagine the few weeks off gave him some time to heal a bit. Hope he can have a good off-season and be at 100% for his senior year. We most likely will need him to be at his versatile best to have a shot at running the table and an access bowl slot.

7. Losing this game had a far bigger downside for Rice than winning it had upside, but DBD did what he had to do here, so credit to him and the staff for following through this time.

8. Players certainly looked like they had a good time and experience. A new bowl to cross of the list for Rice in any future Bowl Bingo games.

9. Not sure how many people nationally actually watched the entire game as it was not too competitive at the end and Christmas Eve evening precludes a lot of people from watching for family and religious reasons, but happy announcers had time to plug Rice's upcoming EZF and progress under JK and DBD to what audience was left.

10. In my opinion, a win here was nice, but certainly nothing earth-shaking. To really progress, Rice has to take a big step up finally. 2015 will be a prime year to do so with a relatively easy schedule and two games against "name" programs, albeit familiar ones for Rice. Will DBD finally live up to the challenge of playing a full season start to finish for keeps, or will he settle for 6-6, 7-5 or 8-4 again? I'm rooting for 11-1 or 12-0 finally, hopefully with an access bowl win on top to erase any first-timer doubts, but we'll see if this past season was truly a step or a plateau for DBD in upcoming Year 9.

That's all I got on the Bowl game. Chose not to nitpick plays etc... Some good, some bad. Most will be forgotten anyway for a minor bowl game. Focused on big picture to Rice football. I also agree that the silver lining of this early bowl was not having to be just a constant promo for the CFP bowls and Champ game.

(01-09-2015 02:17 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  5. Shocked to see Bailiff yelling at officials in 1Q. Yes, he got the challenge call wrong, but I can see he or his coaches upstairs saw two FS players sprinting off field to sidelines and thought for sure they had too many men. Even announcers initially agreed with him until they ran the replays back several times.

Some might perhaps say football coaches don't need to display like this on sidelines. I feel, in my opinion, when you play a game where you have large 200 and 300lb players slamming into each other across the field all game, a little emotion is perhaps warranted on all fronts to get the mojo going and keep people's energy up. I was happy to see that, and first time I ever recall seeing it from DBD myself, though I haven't seen every game.

I guess this is personal preference, but I prefer people who are calm and collected under pressure. perhaps an occasional calculated display might help, like a baseball coach getting himself thrown out of a game to ignite his team. But in general, I prefer the Tom Landry type to the hysterical guy running up and down the sidelines getting in everybody's face. Bailiff is more animated than Landry, and I like that, but he still is a long ways from Bobby Knight or Woody Hayes, and I like that also.

(01-09-2015 02:17 AM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(01-05-2015 03:54 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  The best thing about the Hawaii bowl was DOMINATING somewhat of a 'name' opponent, even in a down year for them... and doing it early so that by the time the playoffs are over, all anyone will remember is that Rice STOMPED Fresno. Heck, half of them won't even remember in a year that Carr had graduated the year before... but they WILL remember that the Raiders starting QB came from Fresno, and that Rice stomped Fresno in Hawaii.

By STOMPING them, the 4th quarter became a 'love-fest' for the school and out coaches/program. Time to put in guys like JC... time to talk a lot about the new facility... time to talk a lot about guys in the NFL or guys coming back. While a close nail-biter might have been more fun to watch and/or drawn better... NONE of those things would have been mentioned.

and when recruits come to visit, they will hear about Hawaii... and not Birmingham or Albuquerque or even New Orleans... nice towns to be certain, but places all of these kids can and most have been to.

I finally had time to watch the game. Christmas Eve evening game time was impossible for me to watch live. The Christmas Season being busy these past few weeks, couldn't really break away and sit for hours to watch the replay on the net. Now that Christmas Season is almost over, nearly back to normal and have more free time in the evenings to catch up. Have to put the decorations away until next Christmas Eve this Sunday.

1. I agree with the poster who said that all things being what they were, the Hawaii Bowl was the best situation for Rice considering the alternatives available due to our performance this season. The truth is that barring an access bowl slot, the only real chance for possible signature wins for CUSA teams will be via in-season OOC scheduling of Top P5 teams.

Fortunately, Rice still sees fit to schedule one or two a year. Hope that does not change, but hope we can branch out beyond mostly Texas-heavy team scheduling and teams we've played recently a bit more. Easier said than done, I understand. Glad JK helped getting Stanford scheduled. Would like to see GA Tech on schedule sometime. I'd prefer less bowls and more shots at P5-G5 match-ups like just a few years ago.

2. Man, Fresno was putrid this year compared to past teams, at least in this game they looked terrible. But I agree with Hambone above, in a few years, the most anyone but us will remember is that Rice beat Fresno pretty good in a bowl, and many will likely think Fresno was better than they were because of their name and familiarity to college fb fans unless perhaps they see the season records displayed with the score.

3. First quarter I was thinking "here we go again" until the last few minutes. Once again an early timeout seemingly thrown away for little reason, in my opinion. Eventually things got better. Rice with lots more penalties than Fresno but in this game it didn't hurt us too much. Glad we didn't blow it and Fresno certainly helped us out, so very thankful for their play, or lack of it.

4. Last several games our first play from scrimmage has been a pass. Different from last few years, I believe.

5. Shocked to see Bailiff yelling at officials in 1Q. Yes, he got the challenge call wrong, but I can see he or his coaches upstairs saw two FS players sprinting off field to sidelines and thought for sure they had too many men. Even announcers initially agreed with him until they ran the replays back several times.

Some might perhaps say football coaches don't need to display like this on sidelines. I feel, in my opinion, when you play a game where you have large 200 and 300lb players slamming into each other across the field all game, a little emotion is perhaps warranted on all fronts to get the mojo going and keep people's energy up. I was happy to see that, and first time I ever recall seeing it from DBD myself, though I haven't seen every game.

6. DJ looked better/healthier, and I imagine the few weeks off gave him some time to heal a bit. Hope he can have a good off-season and be at 100% for his senior year. We most likely will need him to be at his versatile best to have a shot at running the table and an access bowl slot.

7. Losing this game had a far bigger downside for Rice than winning it had upside, but DBD did what he had to do here, so credit to him and the staff for following through this time.

8. Players certainly looked like they had a good time and experience. A new bowl to cross of the list for Rice in any future Bowl Bingo games.

9. Not sure how many people nationally actually watched the entire game as it was not too competitive at the end and Christmas Eve evening precludes a lot of people from watching for family and religious reasons, but happy announcers had time to plug Rice's upcoming EZF and progress under JK and DBD to what audience was left.

10. In my opinion, a win here was nice, but certainly nothing earth-shaking. To really progress, Rice has to take a big step up finally. 2015 will be a prime year to do so with a relatively easy schedule and two games against "name" programs, albeit familiar ones for Rice. Will DBD finally live up to the challenge of playing a full season start to finish for keeps, or will he settle for 6-6, 7-5 or 8-4 again? I'm rooting for 11-1 or 12-0 finally, hopefully with an access bowl win on top to erase any first-timer doubts, but we'll see if this past season was truly a step or a plateau for DBD in upcoming Year 9.

That's all I got on the Bowl game. Chose not to nitpick plays etc... Some good, some bad. Most will be forgotten anyway for a minor bowl game. Focused on big picture to Rice football. I also agree that the silver lining of this early bowl was not having to be just a constant promo for the CFP bowls and Champ game.

+1. My sentiments exactly. Winning was good, and the coaches and players did what they were supposed to do. But Fresno was awful. Yet if we go to the Access bowl next year, I will share the enthusiasm of the Bailiff backers once and for all.

(01-09-2015 03:16 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I guess this is personal preference, but I prefer people who are calm and collected under pressure. perhaps an occasional calculated display might help, like a baseball coach getting himself thrown out of a game to ignite his team. But in general, I prefer the Tom Landry type to the hysterical guy running up and down the sidelines getting in everybody's face. Bailiff is more animated than Landry, and I like that, but he still is a long ways from Bobby Knight or Woody Hayes, and I like that also.

I agree with this in general as emotion gets out of hand often. Now I have never been a Cowboy fan as when growing up I rooted for the usually pathetic Big Red, the St. Louis football Cardinals. You had to respect Landry. He had a deep faith and seldom if ever lost his temper. Yet his total concentration and intensity was quite apparent. He was ruthless in pursuit of victory and would never hesitate to bench a player either who displeased him or whose talent had been surpassed by the backup. You could always tell when the Cowboys lost. Tony LaRussa, though not religious, reminded me of Landry as he strove to make his teams relentless. He did lose his temper occasionally but it always appeared to be calculated.

David Bailiff, just from hearing him speak and watching him on the sidelines and on TV, appears to be in the Texas' coaches "good ol' boy" tradition ala Bum Phillips. This is a shallow perspective of course. I don't know how he is behind the scenes or in practices. And, of course, in Texas, this is a good fit.
Also, a college coach, unlike in the pros, should also be judged as a teacher, not just on the W and L record. He is apparently a winner in that area. Maybe some of our current and/or former players could comment on his intensity.,

(01-09-2015 03:16 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I guess this is personal preference, but I prefer people who are calm and collected under pressure. perhaps an occasional calculated display might help, like a baseball coach getting himself thrown out of a game to ignite his team. But in general, I prefer the Tom Landry type to the hysterical guy running up and down the sidelines getting in everybody's face. Bailiff is more animated than Landry, and I like that, but he still is a long ways from Bobby Knight or Woody Hayes, and I like that also.

If nothing else, I think it put to bed the occasionally repeated criticism that he is comfortable and doesn't care about winning.

(01-11-2015 06:42 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(01-09-2015 03:16 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I guess this is personal preference, but I prefer people who are calm and collected under pressure. perhaps an occasional calculated display might help, like a baseball coach getting himself thrown out of a game to ignite his team. But in general, I prefer the Tom Landry type to the hysterical guy running up and down the sidelines getting in everybody's face. Bailiff is more animated than Landry, and I like that, but he still is a long ways from Bobby Knight or Woody Hayes, and I like that also.

If nothing else, I think it put to bed the occasionally repeated criticism that he is comfortable and doesn't care about winning.

Again, there is only one or two posters on this message board that has leveled that specific criticism. Most of those critical of Bailiff (myself included) have raised on issue with his perceived (at least to us based on his public statements) tolerance for losing. As I've said before, these are two very different things. You can be tolerant of losing and still care very much about winning.