Well I was on the road traveling up north for Xmas but I was able to listen and watch a bit of a great bowl win. Now it's time to look ahead to the 2015 season. I'm just curious who will be back and who is likely for now to be our main candidates to replace some of our talented seniors who gave us a tremendous four year run.

Also, does anyone think we'll lose some coaches? If we do, I hope we contact Tony Levine who is a neighbor of David Bailiff, although I suspect Levine would only settle for a coordinator position.

I'm hearing coach Thurmond to Tulsa as the D.C. is a good possibility. .. I hope not though.

Wow I hope not. Give him a raise.

Am I missing something or do we still need to schedule one OOC game? I see Texas/Baylor/Army.

Did CUSA go to a nine game schedule and I missed it?

And ... I think Thurmond is a Tulsa grad.

I think we need 1 more OOC game to be scheduled. Probably a home game for us. And, hopefully NOT a top 25 team

How about South Alabama? They've lost their September 19 game (UAB), and Rice has an opening that weekend.

Boston College is open Sept. 5 and they already have three home games scheduled and need a road game.

Course that would make it three P-5's but I think they're beatable in Houston......

(12-25-2014 06:42 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  Am I missing something or do we still need to schedule one OOC game? I see Texas/Baylor/Army.

Did CUSA go to a nine game schedule and I missed it?

And ... I think Thurmond is a Tulsa grad.

That wouldn't make OwlMom very happy.

(12-26-2014 09:44 AM)Ricefootballnet Wrote:  Boston College is open Sept. 5 and they already have three home games scheduled and need a road game.

Course that would make it three P-5's but I think they're beatable in Houston......

I like this idea.

(12-25-2014 06:21 PM)NLOWL Wrote:  I'm hearing coach Thurmond to Tulsa as the D.C. is a good possibility. .. I hope not though.

It's strange to me because I don't view that job, a coordinator at Tulsa, as an upgrade from Rice. Why move to what is basically a lateral position when you could probably leverage another quality year or two at Rice into a coordinator position at a P-5?

(12-26-2014 09:44 AM)Ricefootballnet Wrote:  Boston College is open Sept. 5 and they already have three home games scheduled and need a road game.

Course that would make it three P-5's but I think they're beatable in Houston......

In early Sept. in Houston ... On the sunny side of HRS.

Can we say home field advantage?

(12-26-2014 09:44 AM)Ricefootballnet Wrote:  Boston College is open Sept. 5 and they already have three home games scheduled and need a road game.

Course that would make it three P-5's but I think they're beatable in Houston......

I think that is a PERFECT 'get' if we can work it out. Like Fresno (but even more so) BC has a reputation among the more casual fans.

(12-26-2014 09:59 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(12-25-2014 06:42 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  Am I missing something or do we still need to schedule one OOC game? I see Texas/Baylor/Army.

Did CUSA go to a nine game schedule and I missed it?

And ... I think Thurmond is a Tulsa grad.

That wouldn't make OwlMom very happy.

Having said that, coach Thurmond certainly increased his stock in Hawaii. I think he could do better than Tulsa though I understand he's a grad. He may not want to hitch his stock to a coach that may not be there long (for good or bad) unless he is in line to be the next HC.... and they rarely hire new HCs off of staffs that get let go. If he stays another year or two, he might get the HC slot.

(12-26-2014 10:01 AM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(12-26-2014 09:44 AM)Ricefootballnet Wrote:  Boston College is open Sept. 5 and they already have three home games scheduled and need a road game.

Course that would make it three P-5's but I think they're beatable in Houston......

I like this idea.

And a return road game in Chestnut Hill would give us a great New England fall weekend trip, as well...

Through games of December 20, I have Boston College at #45, while South Alabama is at #101. In my opinion, three P5 opponents in the "preseason" would be too much.

Thurmond prefers (it seems) man to man schemes over zone. That worked great with our CBs in '12 & '13, less so with safeties. In '15, DL play should be better, but Phillip and Bryce are graduated. Should we go zone, and can it be aggressive enough?

As great as Gaines and Callahan were at Rice, Blasingame, Banks, and plenty of the other available CB's need to be ready to step up. I saw more 3 CB use on defense against FresnoSt and I hope that continues in 2015 with Thurmond as DC!

(12-26-2014 09:44 AM)Ricefootballnet Wrote:  Boston College is open Sept. 5 and they already have three home games scheduled and need a road game.

Course that would make it three P-5's but I think they're beatable in Houston......

Also (from memory) a run heavy offense.

How about playing a conference game first week, then playing a good G5 opponent during mid season? I thought ECU, if they're available and willing to visit Houston

1. Why is there talk of firing DB?
The man has won bowl-won conference-won bowl in three seasons. Let's fire the coach that has turned Rice into a winning program for three seasons in a row. That's logical.

2. We need to schedule BC then cancel Baylor. Then fill the remaining open date with Texas Tech/Houston/SMU/Texas State/Tulsa. All very winnable games, wherever we would play them.

Let's face it, if we played PERFECT football we would still lose to Baylor by 3 TDs. It would be Thermopylae but with 3 Spartans instead of 300. We play PERFECT football against UT and we win. BC, Army and any of those teams are winnable without absolutely perfect games.

Don't get me wrong, I put my blood, sweat and tears into Rice football and would love for them to beat Baylor. But at the end of the day let's be reasonable. Try to put Rice in the best positions to win. We don't need 3 P-5s on the schedule and I'd rather play BC than Baylor. Baylor is way more likely to cause injuries, physically and morale-wise on a team. Not to mention we could beat BC.

(12-26-2014 12:48 PM)Ricefootballnet Wrote:  And a return road game in Chestnut Hill would give us a great New England fall weekend trip, as well...

+1

(12-26-2014 12:50 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Through games of December 20, I have Boston College at #45, while South Alabama is at #101. In my opinion, three P5 opponents in the "preseason" would be too much.

Why? I understand you're comparing USA and BC, but the season isn't one game. What difference would it make playing #45 BC or #31 Marshall? I'd like to ASSUME that they wouldn't make our cross-over game be the best team in the east again.

Best I can tell, they have 15 grad students and 15 seniors whom I would presume are all graduating. I don't know if that means they are more likely to be #35 or #55 next year or not... and UT finished at 40. I don't know if they'll be more likely to be #30 or #50... and La Tech finished at 41... again, will they be #30 or 50 next year? Duke was 44, and I think we were generally pretty happy in the past to schedule them.

I think Marshall proved that you don't do yourself any favors scheduling a dozen wins... if you can't beat teams ranked in the 30's-50's... and obviously we should have no problem getting to 6 wins in conference alone so we should be bowling again...

Baylor is the only game I'm not happy about... I think all the others MIGHT create an opportunity for the ever-elusive 'signature win'... and losses to UT or BC wouldn't be a drag on our reputation (imo) if we otherwise take care of business.

I get what you're saying... but there is a difference between playing #45 BC AT HOME or Texas and playing top 10 A&M, Notre Dame and Baylor on the road. I realize that ND and A&M 'fell from grace', but that doesn't mean they weren't good when they played us. They both beat some darn good football teams in addition to beating us.... and we're talking about a Boston team AT HOME in Texas in September.

Frankly, I think that #45 area is the 'sweet spot' for us. I don't think those p5 teams are actually worthy of those rankings but they are living off of their SOS and playing rivals closer and an occasional upset than they might otherwise be capable of (like we did in the SWC in the 80's)... meanwhile I think g5 teams in the 40's are actually much better than that... losing the occasional rivalry upset and drug down by the far weaker SOS

We just don't often get many shots at arguably beatable 'name' p5 programs, especially in a year where we hope to be pretty good.. Far too often we are relegated to far less beatable ones. In 2008 we had a great team (by our standards) and got #1 UT.

Obviously I'd defer to the administration... I just think that if BC is expected to be in the same area where they finished this year, we should put them on the schedule. Beating USA does nothing for us and we don't want them to be next year's 'oops'.

(12-26-2014 02:02 PM)RiceOwl53 Wrote:  1. Why is there talk of firing DB?
The man has won bowl-won conference-won bowl in three seasons. Let's fire the coach that has turned Rice into a winning program for three seasons in a row. That's logical.

I would guess that <1% of people who read the Parliament think Coach Bailiff should be replaced. The whole idea has been blown out of proportion, mostly because some people who continue to express concerns are being cast as people who think Bailiff should be fired. Some of them were 2.5 seasons ago. I was one of them 2.5 seasons ago. After the UH and Memphis losses in 2012, I think "Fire Bailiff" was an eminently reasonable position for a fan to take. And lets be honest, I would bet that 90% of FBS schools would have fired Bailiff at least by the Memphis loss, if not earlier.

That said, the past is the past. Most of us who felt that way have backed far off that position. I certainly have. I am happy Coach Bailiff is the head coach at Rice. I still have some concerns, but I would much rather see Coach Bailiff get more resources to see if he can allay my concerns than start over with an unknown. And if Coach Bailiff gets those resources and continues improving the program, then I hope he stays forever.

I do hope some people who used to be in the "Fire Bailiff" crowd would be a little less strident in expressing their concerns. I also hope the people that love Bailiff and have always been in his corner can understand the frustrations a lot of us felt in mid-2012 and that quite a few still harbor concerns about certain aspects or decisions ... But that it doesn't mean peoe think he should be fired or that the program would be better off without him.

Kumbaya.