With Todd Graham gone, Rice has hired Texas State’s David Bailiff to replace him as head football coach.

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Posted September 18th, 2006 by Brian
Filed under: Football

The final score against [tag]Rice[/tag] wasn’t close and the game was over by halftime, but picking guys as players of the game was surprisingly difficult. There were solid performances from multiple guys on both sides of the ball and most of the big guys only played about a half. As for the play of the game, with several big gainers in a game that got out of hand quickly I chose a play that could end up being a signal of what the offense is capable of.

Players of the Game

Offense – [tag]Jamaal Charles[/tag] even with only eight carries put up the biggest game Saturday, 110 yards with an average of a whopping 13.6 yards per carry and a TD is a hell of a day. He even ripped off the team’s longest run of the year with a carry of 46 yards. The team had three runs of over 35 yards, hopefully the big plays continue against some stiffer competition.

Defense – [tag]Tim Crowder[/tag] edges out a surprising Scott Derry. Crowder finished with seven solo tackles (eight total), seven tackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble, and he recovered a fumble for his first career touchdown. You can’t ask for a much better day out of defensive lineman. He was in the Rice backfield on seemingly every play and was a big reason the Owls finished the game with -12 yards rushing. He’s been a consistent force all season.

Play of the Game

The most important play against Rice wasn’t the most explosive play of the day and didn’t result in points, but does tells us a lot about the future of this offense this season. Here’s this week’s play of the game:

On the play [tag]Colt McCoy[/tag] hits freshman tight end [tag]Jermichael Finley[/tag] for a 22-yard completion on the first pass attempt of the game. McCoy makes a good read and throw to Finley who is running a 15-yard out. McCoy drops the pass in nicely and Finley makes a leaping grab on a ball a little behind him. It was the first completion to a tight end of the season and something I hope to see a lot more of. It’s important that the young quarterbacks have solid tight ends to rely on. Hopefully this isn’t the last time this season we see these two hook up.

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Huge promotion for [tag]Major Applewhite[/tag] as he was named as the next offensive coordinator at Rice University. After just a couple of years as a Graduate Assistant at Texas and one year as QB’s coach at Syracuse, the 27-year old former Horn will be taking over an offense that has been running the option for the last 12 years under former coach Ken Hatfield and will be asked to bring the Owl offense into this century.

Pretty tough job ahead for Major but it’s a great opportunity for him. I’ll defninitely be paying closer attention to [tag]Rice[/tag] games next season.

Hey look, a Major Applewhite and Chris Simms post in the same day. I hope this doesn’t create an ex-QB controversy.

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Posted September 17th, 2005 by Brian
Filed under: Football, Live

OU is about to lose to UCLA and start their season by losing two of their first three games. Is that a good thing or bad thing for Texas? Of course we still have to actually beat them. Personally I think it’s great for recruiting, and since we beat Ohio State in the Columbus last week all we have to do is win all of our games. We don’t have to worry about respect.

Tonight against [tag]Rice[/tag] we just need to stay sharp and stay healthy. They obviously can’t really compete with us, so start off strong early and things will fall into place. We need to make sure we’re not still enjoying last week’s victory as well as get ready for what should be a solid test in two weeks at Missouri.

First Quarter
  • I still don’t like the black shoes.
  • Good to see us throwing to David Thomas right off the bat, Ohio State was able to tak him out of the game last week. Fantastic grab on the first play of the game.
  • A lot of single back with Vince Young under center. That’s a first this season.
  • Not only is Jamaal Charles quick and shifty, but he’s got amazing balance as well. Doesn’t go down easy. Great 25 yard run for a touchdown. Nice way to start off things in your first career start.
  • I still love David Pino.
Texas 7, Rice 0
  • Greg Johnson instead of Richmond McGee. Not too deep, but at least it wasn’t a line drive. Good coverage too. Plus a penalty.
  • Tarell Brown can’t let the runner get outside of him on the option. He’s got to force it back into the middle and the linebackers.
  • An even worse job by Michael Griffin on the next play. He’s staring in at the dive fake and the QB and just let everyone get outside of him.
  • Griffin looks like he is slow playing it. Are we going to rely on just the corner to cover the pitch man? That’s a flawed plan. Griffin made the play that time just because he’s ten times the athlete the running back is.
  • I didn’t think you were allowed to just fall into the endzone downing a punt like that. I thought you had to keep the ball and your body from touching the line.
  • Henry Melton needs a nickname.
  • I thought VY was going to take that one 90+ yards. Great run but it was too easy. It kind of look like we didn’t even run a play, just told Vince to roll left and run for his life.
  • Seriously, the black shoes make us look like we’re jogging. They’re terrible. Charles just kind of wandered another 25 yards for the TD.
Texas 14, Rice 0
  • Okay that’s enough of that, let’s see if we can throw the thing around a little. If we get up too much we’re not going to be able to throw or it’ll look like we’re running it up. And for the 50th time, we need to get Ramonce Taylor the ball!
  • At least Johnson appears to be kicking the ball where he wants. Still would like to see more distance on it, but maybe there’s some wind.
  • Did we know Rice runs the option? We had a man on the running back that time but we waited back and took on the blocker instead of getting in there and blowing him up.
  • I don’t know why the Owls don’t just run the option until we stop it.
  • Come on Vince, you’ve got to make that throw. Limas Sweed is wide open and he tries to be too perfect. When he’s that open, lead him back into the middle of the field instead of trying to make the perfect throw to his outside shoulder.
  • Pretty good run by Charles considering we only had 10 men on the field.
  • Two pretty poor decisions by Vince on two plays in a row. 3rd and 15, he needs to throw the ball away or find Charles and dump the ball off instead of taking a sack. Every little bit of field position could matter in a big game.
  • Better showing by the defense, but that may be because they didn’t bother to try running the option even once.
  • There’s the Sweed we know. Just kind of let’s the Rice DB have the ball on a catch he should’ve easily had for a first down. Of course, moron national media who don’t actually watch any games will chalk up another interception for Vince Young and begin talking trash about his throwing ability again.

(more …)

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