Abell Era Kicks Off on Saturday Night

Abell Era Opens in Lafayette
Rice Football kicks off its 114th season of college football on Saturday when new Dunlevie Family Head Football Coach Scott Abell makes his debut on the road vs. Louisiana. The Owls own a 57-54-2 record all-time in season openers, with their last win coming in In 2018, they defeated Prairie View 31-28 in Mike Bloomgren's debut. This is the 39^th time that Rice will open the season on the road. The Owls are 7-29-2 when opening the season away from their home stadium and have dropped their last 11 on the road since defeating Houston in the 2004 Bayou Bucket at NRG.

Game #1
Who: Rice (0-0) @Louisiana (0-0)
When: Saturday, 7:00 p.m. CT
Where: Lafayette, Louisiana
Stadium: Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium
Television ESPN + Dan McDonald (Play by Play), Eric Mouton (Analyst), Ben Schaefer (Sidelines).
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: Statbroadcast
Digital Game Program: Game 1 Louisiana
Series Information: Tied 3-3

2025 Rice Football Fact Book
Full Game Notes
Series Notes

This is the seventh meeting between the schools, with the series tied 3-3, and the third to open a season.
Rice took the most recent meeting, 33-21 in 2022 at Rice Stadium.
This will be the third time the schools have met to open a season.
The series began with a 54-0 win by Rice to open the 1921 season and resumed in 1982 when Louisiana won 21-14 in the season opener.
The Ragin Cajuns won the only previous meeting in Lafayette, 41-16 in 1988.
In the last meeting in Lafayette, Rice took. The opening kickoff and drove 93 yards to take a 6-0 lead and led 9-3 midway through the second quarter before Louisiana scored 21 points in the final six minutes (14 in the last three) to seize control of the game.
The series began with a 54-0 win by Rice on 10/1/21 and began again in 1982 when Louisiana won 21-14 in the season opener.
Rice is 49-69-6 all-time vs. teams from Louisiana, including an 11-33-3 record on the road, and is 0-2 in bowl games in Louisiana.

For Openers

Scott Abell is 1-1 in his coaching debuts at his first two head coaching assignments.
He lost to Franklin & Marshall 35-28 in his head coaching debut with Washington & Lee on 9/1/12. Six years to the day, he led Davidson to a 34-13 win over Brevard.
This will be the sixth consecutive season Abell has opened a season on the road.
Rice's previous 19 head football coaches were a combined 10-9 in their debut games.
with the Owls and interim head coach Pete Alamar won his debut last November
after taking over for Mike Bloomgren.
Abell will be the fourth Rice head football coach to make his debut on the road and the first since Fred Goldsmith, who defeated SMU 35-6 on 9/2/89 in Dallas. Phillip Arbuckle led the Owls to a 7-6 win over Houston High School in the Owls' inaugural game on 10/16/1912 while Bo Hagan lost at LSU 20-14 on 9/23/67 in his first game after replacing Hall of Fame coach Jess Neely.
Seven head coaches have made their Rice debut vs. schools from Louisiana (Jack Meagher vs. Loyola in 1929, Jimmy Kitts vs. Loyola in 1934, Jess Neely vs. Centenary in 1940, Bo Hagan vs. LSU in 1967, Ken Hatfield vs. Tulane in 1994 and David Bailiff vs. Nicholls State in 2007).

Who's Back?

Rice returns 35% of its game starts from last year on offense (46 of 132) and 27% on defense (36 of 143). Center David Stickle, who made his first collegiate start in the 2024 opener after transferring from Florida State, is the only returner who started all 12 games on either side of the ball. On offense, the Owls return 12 starts at wide receiver (Braylen Walker 8, Tyson Thompson 4), 11 at right guard in 2024 (Trace Norefleet 6, John Long 3, Weston Kropp 2), and one at quarterback (Drew Devillier) in addition to four from Micah Barnett at fullback (moved to tight end this spring)
On defense, Mike LB Andrew Awe and DT Blake Boenisch lead the way 10 starts from last season, followed by six combined at Viper (Blaise Tita 4, Marcus Williams and Plae Wyatt 1) and Free Safety (Daveon Hook 5, Peyton Stevenson 1), and four at Will LB (Ty Morris).
Based on the projected starters in the two-deep for the Louisiana game, Rice will have five first-time starters on offense (Chase Jenkins, Quinton Jackson, Luke Needham, Patrick Valent and Luke Miller) and have a combined total of 58 starts with 38 of them coming at Rice. On defense, there will be three first-time starters (Joe Mutombo, Michael Daley and Christopher Clark-Jolivet) and the combined two-deep has 61 career starts (39 at Rice).
While not technically a returning 2024 starter after missing all but the opener with
an injury, Plae Wyatt started all 13 games in 2023 at VIPER and was the Owls' leading tackler.
In addition, the Owls added three transfers who each started ten games last year at their previous schools (Tony Anyanwu, SFA; Ejike Adel, Dartmouth; Sean Sullivan,Yale). Ejike was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the year in 2024 for the Big Green.

Up Next
Rice opens the 2025 home season next Saturday when it welcomes Houston to Rice Stadium to once again determine possession of the Bayou Bucket. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. with coverage on ESPN+

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Players Mentioned

Tony Anyanwu

Andrew Awe

Micah Barnett

Christopher Clark-Jolivet

Michael Daley

Drew Devillier

Daveon Hook

Quinton Jackson

Chase Jenkins

Weston Kropp

John Long

Luke Miller

Ty Morris

Luke Needham

Peyton Stevenson

David Stickle

Sean Sullivan

Tyson Thompson

Blaise Tita

Patrick Valent

Braylen Walker

Marcus Williams

Plae Wyatt

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