2014 Rice Football Schedule
Aug. 30 Notre Dame South Bend, IN
Sept. 6 Open
Sept. 13 Texas A&M College Station, TX
Sept. 20 Old Dominion Rice Stadium
Sept. 27 Southern Miss Hattiesburg, MS
Oct. 4 Hawaii Rice Stadium
Oct. 11 Army West Point, NY
Oct. 18 Open
Oct. 25 North Texas Rice Stadium
Nov. 1 FIU Miami, FL
Nov. 8 UTSA Rice Stadium
Nov. 15 Marshall Huntington, WV
Nov. 21 UTEP Rice Stadium
Nov. 29 Louisiana Tech Ruston, LA

Thanks to JD for posting it on twitter. Has the 4th OOC game as TBA.

edit: UTEP game is 11/21, Friday.

@ND

(02-03-2014 02:11 PM)d1owls4life Wrote:  Thanks to JD for posting it on twitter. Has the 4th OOC game as TBA.

So the home game against New Mexico State is no longer?

The Coogs are still looking for their fourth opponent, and they are showing open on September 6.

(02-03-2014 02:24 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(02-03-2014 02:11 PM)d1owls4life Wrote:  Thanks to JD for posting it on twitter. Has the 4th OOC game as TBA.

So the home game against New Mexico State is no longer?

The Coogs are still looking for their fourth opponent, and they are showing open on September 6.

They are looking for a home game so they can make more money with their new stadium. So, that isn't happening.

edit: And, yes, the NMSU game is off for this year.

Rice Release

Quote:Currently, the Owls 2014 schedule consists of 11 games. The Owls had been slated to host New Mexico State on September 6, but the Aggies recently dropped out of the game due to scheduling requirements as they move into the Sun Belt Conference. The Owls are currently in negotiations to secure one additional non-conference home game to be played on one of three open dates on the current schedule.

Hard to know exactly what to expect from the team next year, but I'd group the games like this:

Likely to win: Southern Miss, Army, FIU, UTEP, whoever we find on short notice
Closer but still should win: ODU, La Tech
Winnable: UNT, UTSA
Toughest: Notre Dame, A&M, Marshall


I will say I think it's reasonable to expect 7 wins from that schedule

East Division
FIU, Florida Atlantic, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, UAB and WKU

West Division
Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Rice, Southern Miss, UTEP and UTSA

(02-03-2014 02:48 PM)07owl Wrote:  Hard to know exactly what to expect from the team next year, but I'd group the games like this:

Likely to win: Southern Miss, Army, FIU, UTEP, whoever we find on short notice
Closer but still should win: ODU, La Tech
Winnable: UNT, UTSA
Toughest: Notre Dame, A&M, Marshall


I will say I think it's reasonable to expect 7 wins from that schedule

I'd say at least 7 from how you have it divided there.

If (and it is a big IF) we can get our QB situation settled, I don't see why we can't win the West again. Obviously, we have defensive issues as well we need to address (replacement for Gaines, need quality play from DE position), but we could mask them with better QB play. Not ready to step up and say we will win the West. So much time left until August.

Can't wait to see the Monarchs play the defending CUSA champions! Hopefully some ODU alums make the trip to Houston. This is going to be an exciting season!

Wow, currently 1 home game on the schedule in the first 8 weeks of the college football season (4 road, 3 open, 1 home). Easier to understand why Rice is looking to fill one of the open spots with a home game instead of @UH or a game at Reliant. Hard to continue building momentum and fan support with this kind of schedule (barring an upset @ND or @A&M). Need to depend on a reasonably good start so there is some excitement for the home games 10/25 - 11/21. Helps me understand why the administration is considering Southeastern Louisiana. Not an ideal opponent (tough FCS team), but only having 1 game at Rice Stadium for the first 8 weeks of the college football season would be nuts.

(02-03-2014 03:41 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Wow, currently 1 home game on the schedule in the first 8 weeks of the college football season (4 road, 3 open, 1 home). Easier to understand why Rice is looking to fill one of the open spots with a home game instead of @UH or a game at Reliant. Hard to continue building momentum and fan support with this kind of schedule (barring an upset @ND or @A&M). Need to depend on a reasonably good start so there is some excitement for the home games 10/25 - 11/21. Helps me understand why the administration is considering Southeastern Louisiana. Not an ideal opponent (tough FCS team), but only having 1 game at Rice Stadium for the first 8 weeks of the college football season would be nuts.

Well, whoever the fill in will be is going to be in those first 8 weeks, so it will be two home games in that 8 week period. It isn't ideal but not sure what we could do about it. We decided a money grab against A&M on the road was better than playing a non-P5 or FCS team at home.

Not sure if the NMSU situation could have been handled any better. We could guess an issue would arise there with the Sun Belt. But, until they officially raised the issue to us and bailed out, it would have been hard to negotiate with anyone else because it would all be provisional at that point and if you are trying to schedule for 2014 this late in the game, you are desperate. I've been told the deal with SLU is far from done. Not sure what we stand to gain by scheduling them as the FCS team.

(02-03-2014 03:41 PM)mrbig Wrote:  Wow, currently 1 home game on the schedule in the first 8 weeks of the college football season (4 road, 3 open, 1 home). Easier to understand why Rice is looking to fill one of the open spots with a home game instead of @UH or a game at Reliant. Hard to continue building momentum and fan support with this kind of schedule (barring an upset @ND or @A&M). Need to depend on a reasonably good start so there is some excitement for the home games 10/25 - 11/21. Helps me understand why the administration is considering Southeastern Louisiana. Not an ideal opponent (tough FCS team), but only having 1 game at Rice Stadium for the first 8 weeks of the college football season would be nuts.

Yeah, imperative that the other game is at Rice Stadium. Hopefully in future schedules we can actually have half of our games at home.

I will say that we got about a best-case scenario for conference opponents we play at home for drumming up some local attention. Getting the 3 other Texas schools at home gives us a chance to get some people in to HRC. That's something positive!

Rice v. UTEP on FRIDAY Night. Otherwise all Saturdays.

Does anyone know of anybody realistic that needs an opponent and has October 4th open? In some ways that would be better than Sept. 6th as it gives us a week off in between ND and A&M.

FIU has eight home games. We will have five at most. Sad...

(02-03-2014 05:16 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  FIU has eight home games. We will have six at most. Sad...

FIFY.

FIU worked their schedule well. They somehow got a home and home with UL and then this deal with Pitt was made 4 or 5 years ago that they are now reaping the home game from. Instead of going on the road, they are playing 2 FCS schools to try to pad their win total (granted, only one counts for bowl eligibility and they lost to Bethune-Cookman, who they host again, at home last year).

(02-03-2014 06:14 PM)d1owls4life Wrote:  

(02-03-2014 05:16 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  FIU has eight home games. We will have six at most. Sad...

FIFY.

FIU worked their schedule well. They somehow got a home and home with UL and then this deal with Pitt was made 4 or 5 years ago that they are now reaping the home game from. Instead of going on the road, they are playing 2 FCS schools to try to pad their win total (granted, only one counts for bowl eligibility and they lost to Bethune-Cookman, who they host again, at home last year).

No, D1. There are only 4 home games currently on the schedule, and 7 away games. Unless Rice hosts the CUSA championship game again (always a possibility) or A&M's stadium falls down while under construction this summer (not likely), there won't be 6 home games next year.

Well I really hope they can get a home game for that October 4th date. If so, it's not a bad schedule really. Especially the home games with ODU having a high profile senior QB and pretty pumped up about their CUSA debut, and then arguably our toughest two western CUSA foes in UNT and UTSA at home (both should draw well too). Plus a UTEP team which always brings a few folks too.

I like having an off week between Notre Dame and A&M, and I hope we have an off week before the UNT game. I don't want to see SE Louisiana for Sept. 6th but I guess that's the rumor. In any regard, they return a couple of high profile players of their own in the national FCS special teams player of the year and their starting QB, who is a transfer from Oregon. Plus they beat Sam Houston State twice so they're a much more formidable opponent than people might realize.