Owls Host Huskies to Open 115th Season

Game #1    Rice (0-0) vs. HCU (1-0) 6:00 p.m. CT
Stadium: Rice Stadium
Television: ESPN   Chris Elliott (Play by Play), LaDarrin McLane (Analyst)
Rice Radio: JP Heath (play-by-play), Nate Griffin (analyst), Luke Mauro
(Sidelines)
Audio Streaming: RiceOwls.com, Varsity Network
Live Stats:   Statbroadcast
Series Information: First Meeting
Game Sponsor: Houston Methodist
Countdown to Kickoff:

3:00 Tailgate Owley Opens
3:30 Pregame Show
3:45 Owl Walk
4:00 Kyle Garrett Band
4:30 Rice Stadium Gates Open
5:00 Team Warmups
5:43 MOB Pregame Show
5:59 Coin Toss
6:02 Kickoff

Series Notes

This is the first meeting between the schools in football, one of two first-time meetings for the Owls this year (Temple on 11/10).
HCU is the 123rd collegiate opponent to face Rice in football since 1912.
The schools have met most often in baseball (41 games), followed by men's basketball (18), volleyball (12), soccer (8), women's basketball (7), and men's & women's tennis (4 each).

Openers

Rice is 26-18 when opening the season at Rice Stadium, but has dropped the last two after beating Prairie View in 2018 and 42-33-1 in their first home game since the stadium opened with a 27-7 win over Santa Clara in 1950.
Scott Abell is looking to become the first Owls head coach to win his first two season openers since Fred Goldsmith, who defeated SMU 35-6 in Dallas in 1989, his debut as a head coach, and then dropped Wake Forest 33-17 at home the following season.
15 current Owls have made one career start in a season-opener, but none have started multiple games to kick off a campaign. Koa Aiku, Scott Becker, Matthew Aribisala, Leo Bluhm, Dillan Botts, Chris Clark-Jolivett, Zack Cody, Stone Combs, Daveon Hook, Quinton Jackson, Luke Miller, Max Mosey, Joseph Mutombo, Patrick Valent, and Braylen Walker all have one career start in a season opener. Clark-Jolivett, Hook, Jackson, Miller, Mutombo, and Valent started for the Owls last year at Louisiana, while Walker started against Sam Houston in 2024 and the remaining players made their opening-game starts at their previous schools. • Rice is 17-22-1 all-time when playing in Fort Worth. • The Owls are 1-2 at the University of Florida (0-2 in Gainesville, 1-0 in Miami); 1-1 at UCF, 1-1 at FIU, 1-1 at FAU, and 0-1 at Florida State, Miami, and South Florida in addition to their Orange Bowl win over Tennessee.

Notable

In his first season on South Main, Scott Abell led the Owls to their most successful non-conference record since 2001, going 3-1 against four eventual bowl teams and facing a total of nine bowl teams while finishing 5-8.
The five wins matched the third-best mark by a Rice head coach in his inaugural season, and Abell was the second to reach a bowl game in his first season on South Main.
Rice ran for 2662 yards last season and finished 15th in the country with an average of 204.7 per game, the highest finish for the Owls in the NCAA rushing stats since they were 11th in 2005. It marked the first time the Owls had topped 2,500 yards on the ground in a season since they amassed 3,183 yards in 14 games in 2013.
Their 2,661 yards on the ground were their most since 2013 and marked just the third time since the Owls switched from their option attack to the spread in 2006 that they had gained more yards on the ground than through the air. They totaled 3,183 rushing and 2,495 passing on the way to the C-USA title in 2013 and finished with 2,244 on the ground and 1,736 through the air in 2017.
Quinton Jackson led the Owls with 889 yards on the ground, the most by an Owl since Jowan Davis ran for 956 in 2014.
D'Andre Hardeman's 325 yards on the ground ranked fourth on the team and were the most by a Rice true freshman since Samuel Steward finished 2017 with 388.

2006 Team Recognition
Rice will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Owls' return to bowl season as the Owls recognize members of the 2006 football team during the annual R Association Huddle Up event on Friday night and again on the field during Saturday's game. The Owls entered that season coming off a 1-10 season with a new head coach (Todd Graham), a radical shift away from the option offense that had been their staple for 12 years under Ken Hatfield, with little expectations for an upturn, and facing a schedule that saw only four games at Rice Stadium, a meeting with defending national champion Texas at Reliant Stadium and a non-conference road schedule that had them flying coast to coast (UCLA, Florida State and Army) in the span of a month. Rice stood 1-5 at the midpoint of the season, but would not lose again, twice winning with 03 on the clock, walking off another in overtime, and holding off a last gasp by SMU in the season finale to finish 7-5 and capture a berth in the New Orleans Bowl. Wide receiver Jarett Dillard thrived in the new offensive system, going from an unknown to an All-American and a Biletnikoff Award finalist. He set an NCAA record by catching a touchdown pass in 13 consecutive games during the season, twice scoring the Owls' only points. He finished with a C-USA record 21 touchdown receptions and went on to set the NCAA career record with 60 when he closed his career out in 2008. The core of that team, including Dillard's record-setting triggerman at quarterback (Chase Clement) and three-year captain Brian Raines at linebacker, would lead the Owls back to bowl two years later, capping off the second 10-win season in school history with a win over Western Michigan in the Texas Bowl.

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Players Mentioned

Matthew Aribisala

Scott Becker

Leo Bluhm

Dillan Botts

Stone Combs

Daveon Hook

Quinton Jackson

Luke Miller

Max Mosey

Joseph Mutombo

Patrick Valent

Braylen Walker

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