A few thoughts about Rice:
- The Owl offense is weak. They scored 7 points last week at Army with a total of 10 first downs and 243 yards.
- Rice's QB is RS freshman Wiley Green. He was 7 for 14 against Army with a total of 68 yards passing. Green played in 4 games last year completing 51% of his passes for 621 yards with 3 TDs and 4 picks.
- The focus on their offense appears to be running he ball. They did average 6 ypc against Army (helped by a 54 yard TD run), and they have an improved OL with a couple of grad transfers (one from Stanford and another from NC Central).
- Rice offensively is the opposite of Utah State. Slow tempo, run-heavy, conservative.
- Rice's defense steadily improved during last season as they held their last 3 opponents (which included LSU) to 27 ppg and 3.9 ypc after giving up 38 ppg in their first 9.
- The defensive progress continued against Army as they held the Black Knights to 14 points, 284 total yards and only 4.4 ypp.
- The defense returns the top 4 tacklers and most of the starters from the back 7.
- Rice has kicking issues as they missed two FGs against Army.
- Rice has Texas up next.
Rice will want to slow the game and ugly it up. WF will want a track meet. Rice's run D looked stout last week, but this week the Owl face a WF offense that will spread them out and test the Owl corners. Rice's offense is tepid. As long as WF can contain the Rice rushing attack, Rice will have problems moving the ball. If WF can get out to an early lead, things could get ugly is Rice if forced to throw the ball. Both teams are in look ahead spots with upcoming games against in-state rivals. WF is currently -19 and the total is 58.5, which projects to a 39-20 final. Think the game will be lower scoring than that. Think WF wins fairly comfortably, but not sure about covering the 19.