(12-07-2016 07:51 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(12-07-2016 07:46 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(12-07-2016 07:13 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(12-07-2016 05:56 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  This could be a winnable game. I was not impressed by Stanford other than McCaffrey, their other speedy RB (guessing he returns), and their secondary. Their WR's were not impressive at all, and that is the key to destroying the Rice defense. While they ran for a lot of yards, their O-line wasn't exactly dominating our D-line, in fact I though the entire front 7 held its own. With a healthier D-line than what we fielded the final game of the season (Thompson and Abrecrumbia hopefully healthy to start the year), and Ellerbee returning, their run heavy offense plays into the strength of our D. Our O-line held up OK against their defensive line, Tyner had plenty of time to pass and there were some holes for the RB's. It was their secondary that dominated our WR's and the game. If the Rice offense can make a big improvement (obviously a big "if") we have a chance to make it a competitive game.

Despite their very good profile, Stanford is not as bad a match up for Rice as say, La Tech, WKU, UH, and those schools that have wide open pass offenses with limitless speedsters at WR. Of course, we'll need huge improvement out of the QB position and special teams, but again, it's not as bad a match up as it may seem.

I much prefer if this game were at Rice Stadium, but as always we seem to sell out our home field advantage in these home and away series against good P5 programs like Texas or Stanford. Guess we don't have a choice but to take the money. It's a good idea and a good opportunity for the players and for Rice, I just think we're giving up the home field advantage that could make the difference between a competitive and a non-competitive game, assuming we improve, against a team like Stanford.

Can the rest of us get some of that Kool-Aid?

Same Kool-Aid that caused many on this board to predict a 6-, 7- or 8- win season this past year when based soley on returning, proven talent and schedule it was very heard to imagine us being better than 5-7 (absolute best case scenario, IMO).

Is it a different brand than the Omaha kool-aid?