Game One: Rice vs. Sam Houston

Game #1
Who: Rice (0-0) vs. Sam Houston (0-0)
When: Saturday 6:00 p.m. CT
Where: Houston, Texas
Stadium: Rice Stadium
Tickets: RiceOwls.com
Television ESPN+ Chuckie Kempf (PXP); Doc Holliday (Analyst)
Rice Radio: JP Heath (play-by-play), Nate Griffin (analyst), Jason Metko (sidelines)
Audio Streaming: RiceOwls.com, Rice Game Day App, Varsity Network
Live Stats: Sidearm.com
Digital Game Program: Game 1 Rice vs Sam Houston
Series Information: Rice leads 16-1

Full Game Notes
Series Notes

This is the 18th meeting between the two schools in a series that began on November 9, 1912, when Rice won 20-6 in the first intercollegiate football game for both schools.
The schools played continuously from 1922-31 and again in 1936, 1939, 1941, and 1948 before pausing the series until a pair of games in 1992 and 1993.
This is the seventh time the schools have met in a season-opener (1922-24, 1928, 1941 & 1948) while they met in the Owls' home opener in 1992.
The Owls' 22-6 win on October 4, 1924, was Hall of Fame coach John Heisman's debut as head coach at Rice.
Rice leads the all-time series 16-1 and has won the last four, including a 14-13 thriller at Rice Stadium on September 18, 1993, as Rice rallied from a 13-0 deficit in the third quarter with a pair of touchdowns in the last half of the third quarter and held SHSU scoreless the remainder of the game thanks in large part to nine sacks.
The last 17 games have been played on the Rice campus after the initial game was played in Huntsville.
Rice is 1-0 in Huntsville, 2-0 at Rice Stadium, and 13-1 at old Rice Stadium.
Sam Houston Athletics Director Bobby Williams was a two-year letterman as a wide receiver at Rice, and caught a TD pass in the Owls' 35-7 win over Houston to capture the Bayou Bucket in 1980. His father, Bobby, was a starter on the Owls' 1957 Championship squad that defeated No. 1 Texas A&M at Rice Stadium and later coached defensive ends at Rice from 1978-83.

Season #113
Saturday's game against Sam Houston opens the 113th football season for Rice. The Owls own a 57-53-2 record all-time in season openers but have dropped 13 of their last 15. This is the 73rd time that Rice will open the season at home. The Owls are 51-20-2 when opening the season at Rice Stadium, but this is the fifth time since 2008 that they have kicked off a season at home.

Notable

Rice heads into 2024, looking to earn a third consecutive bowl berth for the second time in school history. The Owls played in Armed Forces, Liberty, and Hawai'i Bowls from 2012 to 2014.
The Owls increased their scoring average for the third consecutive year (21. 5 in '21, 25,2 in "22, 29.5 last season), and their 29.5 points per game was their largest since they averaged 29.6 on the way to the Conference USA title in 2013.
They had 50 pass plays of at least 20 yards, their most since they had 61 in 2008, and their 20 rushing plays of 20 yards or more were the most since they had 26 in 2004.
Rice's 29 touchdown passes tied for the second-best total in school history and the Owls have posted three of the top seven all-time totals over the past three years.
The Owls threw for 3,282 yards last year (4th best) and have posted three of the top seven passing yardage totals in the last three years.
Defensively, Rice held opponents to 28.1 points and 364.7 yards per game, the lowest totals since 2013 (24.4/364.1).
Quarterback EJ Warner will make his Rice debut in 2024. Still, he enters the season second to Memphis' Seth Henigan in career passing yards and passing touchdowns in conference games among active AAC players. He has thrown for 4,543 yards and 31 touchdowns in two seasons of AAC games; Henigan has 6,879 and 47 in three years, and 4,764 and 31 TDs in the last two seasons.

Fifth Year Starters
Five Owls will be looking to earn starts for a fifth consecutive year in 2024. Coleman Bennett, Izeya Floyd, Sean Fresch, Josh Pearcy, and Gabriel Taylor all made their collegiate debuts with at least one start in 2020, and all made at least one start in each subsequent season.

New Face to Open the Season
Rice will take the field vs. Sam Houston on August 31st with a quarterback making his first career opening game start for the Owls for the seventh time in the last nine seasons:

2023 JT Daniels @Texas
2022 Wiley Green @USC
2021   Wiley Green @Arkansas
2020   Mike Collins vs. Middle Tennessee
2019 Wiley Green @Army
2018   Shawn Stankavage vs. Prairie View
2017   Sam Glaesmann vs. Stanford
2016   Tyler Stehling @ WKU

Up Next
Rice will be back in action at Rice Stadium next Saturday when the Owls host Texas Southern at 6 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Coleman Bennett

JT Daniels

Izeya Floyd

Sean Fresch

Josh Pearcy

Gabriel Taylor

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