.png&type=webp)
Rice University Athletics
Football: Practice Report #16
9/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 7, 2005
Houston - The long wait is almost over for the Rice football team.
Rice will be one of the last colleges in the nation to begin its season when the Owls meet UCLA Saturday night at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. (9 pm CDT). "We just need to play," is how head coach Ken Hatfield puts it.
"We've been working on UCLA for so long," he said after Wednesday's workout. "We've just been giving them refreshers, getting them back to the fundamentals and the things they've been coached."
The Owls welcomed redshirt freshman linebacker Vernon James and senior running back Joe Don Wood back to practice this week after they had missed time with ankle and hamstring problems, respectively. Conversely, Rice will open this weekend without probable starters David Perkins at center (ankle) and Mike Falco at running back (knee).
Redshirt freshmen Austin Wilkinson at center and Tommy Henderson at H-back will probably get the starts against the Bruins.
Saturday's game will be telecast on Fox Sports West 2 and Fox College Sports/Pacific. The telecast will be shown on Houston Time Warner's channel 109 as a free preview of FCS.
