Hats off to the 9-3 Rice Owls

While my weekend was partially spoiled by the OU/UT debacle, it couldn't touch the pride I had from watching my Owls lay a good old fashioned ass whuppin' on Cougar High this past Saturday 56-42. Now, the Owls are headed the 3 miles from South Main to the Texas Bowl in Houston to play. A few items of note:

• The 9 wins was the most wins for an Owls' team since 1953.
• After going 45 years without a bowl appearance from 1961-2006, Rice has now gone to two bowls in the past three years (2006 New Orleans Bowl).
• Rice Team Rankings:
• Points/game: 41.6 - 8th in the Country
• Passing yards/game: 327.8 - 5th in the Country
• Total yards/game: 472.3 - 10th in the Country
• Individual Stats:
• James Casey set a Conference-USA record for receptions in a season with 104 (in addition to 1,217 yards and 12 tds)
• Jarrett Dillard's senior year (79 catches, 1,224 yards, 19tds) gave him 4,052 yards and 59 tds for his career. FIFTY-NINE!! He's also only 5'11". Dude is a stud.
• Oh yeah, and that QB Chase Clement guy, all he did was throw for 3,812 yards and 41 tds and rush for 11 tds more.

So to say that this season has been a success has been an understatement. It's a testament to the senior leadership and the steady hand of Coach Bailiff's staff that a team can go from 3-9 to 9-3 and play so well doing it. In 2006 when the Owls were 7-5 they truly were fortunate to win over half of their games...but this year, if they had better special teams on the field against Vanderbilt, they easily could have been 10-2. UT was always going to beat them, and Rice just didn't show up against Tulsa. It's unfortunate when your worst game of the season happens against arguably the game your team wants to win the most (thanks to douchebag Graham), but it happens.

Still though, what a year! Rice heads into the Texas Bowl on a 6 game winning streak in which they have scored 265 points. Right now possible opponents include Notre Dame, Louisville (if they beat Rutgers this weekend) and possibly someone out of the ACC. To read the best analysis of Rice football (and all their sports) that the school has ever had in my opinion, check out Moisekapenda Bower with the Houston Chronicle.

Also, in Sports Illustrated's latest poll they have Rice at #28 in the country as well as their receiving 3 votes for the latest AP poll.