Well, admittedly, you cannot spell S H IT without IT, so you are correct that he HAS to bring 'it' What we NEED him to bring is a quality defense. I posed the question after week one about whether Army sucked or whether Rice actually had a defense. Army won that game by a score of 14-7. THEN, a few days ago, they generally held meatchicken in check, forcing an overtime that SHOULD have seen Army win the game. Instead, meatchicken wins 24-21. We ALSO watched Texas get carved up in a manner that has become all too familiar in recent years. I don't believe this will be the snoozefest we saw a few years back at NRG, but I also don't believe we see the game produce all manner of offensive highlights. I just hope we don't see offensive defense from Texas. I see Rice putting up 23-27 points in this one, helped by Texas leaving the middle of the field open and our secondary showing their prowess at tacking air and a failure to wrap up on tackles. I believe we saw Ehlinger develop some rapport with receivers in the slot and that we will not see the passing game rely so heavily on the deep ball. I also believe we have finally seen the RB of the next few years in Roschon Johnson. The binder says we want to turn this into a ball control game and you do that with a steady dose of pounding the ball at those 280-300 pound nerds who play in front of a band that is worth the price of admission. Throw in (pun intended) some passes 12-15 yards downfield and I believe Texas controls the time of possession battles, with the offense being on the field for 38-40 minutes. This leaves Rice sucking wind even in the air conditioned confines of NRG (which probably has the roof closed) as the 4th Quarter rolls around. Texas takes advantage in those final fifteen minutes, adding 17 points in that final frame. I'm calling this one as a Rice cover but with Texas taking the W on the strength of that final quarter of play. Texas: 38 Rice: 24
New year, new tradition on my picks LOL! After all...one never knows when we might start getting extra credit...or when people start taking my fragments of cogent thought to bet with
We could really use an early blowout and lots of reps for Casey at QB (and maybe even some for Roschon at QB after Casey gets plenty).
This one is hard to call. Texas should run all over Rice, which means they probably won't cover. I'll go: Horns - 41 Hooters - 10
One plus from the 1994 game was that the LHB probably drew more laughs for their halftime show than the MOB did. As I recall, they opened the show with the announcer stating that the LHB would salute Rice by playing a tune that was popular the last time the Owls beat the Longhorns. The LHB played the opening bars of Beethoven's 5th Symphony and then segued into Louie Louie (and the crowd laughed and laughed. Little did we know …). The other big laugh-getter had the LHB playing the introduction to the Aggie War Hymn and then transitioning directly into the Mickey Mouse Club song (I think this was in tribute to the time the MOB caused the FTAB to fall apart in the middle of a halftime by blowing whistles that sounded exactly like the ones used by the FTAB drum majors, thus throwing off the FTAB musicians and causing them to make their turns at the wrong time).
I say the game will be closer than what most think: Texas 34 Rice 16 We score a TD with 3 minutes left. Ehlinger plays the whole game.
Rice's defense will yield 17 points. Texas's defense will yield 7 points, but will score 14. Final score: Texas 31 Rice 7