(05-19-2016 09:56 AM)WIowl Wrote: (05-19-2016 09:51 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote: (05-19-2016 09:49 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: It seems then that there are two choices:
1) We upset Baylor. If that happens we want to be on national TV.
2) Baylor murders us. In that case we hope the game is played at a secret location at 3:00 A.M. with the results kept secret.
I think there is a third option: We lose, but don't get murdered. Now I know we all have differing definitions of "murdered', but if we have a result that fits your personal "not-murdered", don't we want that on TV?
I feel like the outcome with the highest probability of happening is #2. When I first heard that the game would be on national TV, I was not thrilled - it means a bad day for football activities and a greater chance than not to be utterly embarrassed on a national stage with a lot of prying eyes.
Perhaps the only silver lining is we didn't hire a new coach - that would be an AWFUL way to start their tenure, if we do get slaughtered as I expect.
Mind you, I will still be just as hopeful that we can pull off a miracle as I always am, but boy do I wish we didn't have a national broadcast for this game.
Or a new coach could have energized the team, sort of like when Graham had his debut against UH (unlike Bailiff's Nicholls State disaster).
With Bailiff, #2 is very likely. With a new coach, optimism would still be present.
Few would expect a brand new Rice coach to beat today's Baylor, much less come close in an early game.
I agree with OO that his option #3 would be helpful if it is close, and I mean real close, where it can be "whew, we barely beat a good Rice team," instead of "they were within a few scores, but the outcome was never really in doubt."
Unfortunately, with where we are with a new QB, supposedly new schemes, etc... I think #2 is still the most likely at this point, and I agree that we just don't need more of that "same ol Rice" stuff on National TV to further bury any past progress in the national consciousness.
Of course, win the game, and even though it would be spun away, it would still be huge from where this team is right now.
....and the caveat to whatever happens is how we perform the next few weeks after. After Baylor, we have North Texas, South Miss and UTSA. Before Baylor we have a tough Army road game, and a WKU road game to open. While that should not be a very hard schedule for Rice, and 10 years in, the only game that should even be a question mark is the Baylor game, the reality is we are likely to be 1-4 or maybe 2-3 after that group (so losing to Baylor would make it 1-5 or 2-4 overall at that point), and another season lost to "same ol Rice" would likely progress to another middling record and perhaps another minor bowl game and on to year 11.
Remember, though it is at the end of the season, more people will be watching and hear of the final Rice regular season game because it will be against Stanford. So if we tank to open the season and bookend it with a tank to Stanford to close, any "progress" made by beating Charlotte and Prairie View A&M will go for naught as far as perception, recruiting and general fan interest.
It is time for some very big wins, signature wins, and more than one of them in a season...or in a decade.
-30-
