The Bucket List III
10/12/2010 10:50:00 PM | General, Blog
With the latest edition of the Bayou Bucket set for this Saturday at Rice Stadium, the R Blog will spend this week looking back at some of the Owls' memorable moments in the series with the Cougars since it began in 1971.
In our third installment, we take a look back at the Owls' inspired response to a blowout loss to the Cougars the year before.
November 28, 1980
Rice 35, Houston 7
The Astrodome
Two days shy of a full year after absorbing a 63-0 blistering at the hands of the Cougars on their hallowed home field, Ray Alborn's Rice Owls engineered a 91-point turnaround, shocking Houston and a regional television audience tuned in to ABC with a 35-7 victory.
The game was moved up to a kickoff time just before noon, but if the early start time had made the homestanding Cougars a bit sluggish, it had little impact on the Owls.
Quarterback Randy Hertel, who completed 15 of 25 passes for 226 yards and threw three touchdown passes to set a Rice career record with 38 and David Darr, who personally accounted for four turnovers as the Owls completed the year 5-6.
Alborn dipped into his bag of motivational ploys early, announcing to his team early in the week that someone had broken into their equipment room and stolen their game jerseys.
But as the team entered their Astrodome locker room, they discovered new jerseys, complete with "Rice Owls" on the front and each player's name on the back.
During pregame, the inspired Owls were handed even more inspiration when the Cougars ran through their stretching lines as they entered the field. Whether it was the result of miss-aligned pregame routines or a deliberate attempt to intimidate a team they had blasted so easily one year earlier soon became moot as the Owls raced out to a 21-0 lead at the half and never looked back.
Any attempt by the Cougars to mount a comeback was thwarted by Darr, who picked off a pair of passes and also recovered a pair of fumbles.
With the win over the Cougars, the Owls completed a season that had seen them beat LSU at home, and TCU, Texas A&M, Arkansas and Houston on the road.