Might as well start it.... Tough matchup for the Owls with travel included... But Saturday was certainly a positive outing... Houston? Well they have their problems and scars...That's a 7-5 looking team if I've ever seen one. But as for the Owls, Saturday showed us "identity".... There was a vision.. a plan... Hate that the kickers ran into a rough patch in the second half. But Rice is a team that knows it's weaknesses and plays to its strengths... I only see them getting better... I'm pulling hard for a ball control, physical, will-testing outing on the islands Saturday. Give me Rice 31-28 with a last second Jack Fox FG from 51 yards..
Owls are 17 point underdogs with O/U close to 70
Our DBs will be tested, but hopefully our dline gets more pressure on the opposing QB. If our dline can generate pressure, we'll have a chance at scoring an upset.
A couple observations leading up to my Rice/Hawaii prediction:
1 - In both games, Rice has played very well for at least 2 quarters and very poorly for at least 1.5 quarters. In the PVAM game, Rice played well in the 1st and 4th, poorly in the 2nd and 3rd. Against Houston, Rice played well until the mid-3rd quarter. Rice needs to start playing complete games to take the step forward we are really hoping to see with Bloomgren. There has certainly been reason for optimism, but with Rice's talent level, the team needs to play complete games.
2 - There was some love in the last thread for Stank's performance against Houston. I really wasn't as impressed. Receivers, primarily Cephus, made some incredible catches. He almost missed a wide-open Meyers with his wounded-duck throw. Don't get me wrong, he made some very good throws as well. I just think based on last week's performance that its more likely a few additional throws fall incomplete or INT than what we saw last week unless he continues to improve.
3 - Hawaii was up 37-7 over CSU toward the end of the 3rd quarter and 38-14 over Navy at the half. Rice isn't built to come back from those kinds of deficits, so Rice really needs another strong 1st quarter.
If Rice can play more consistently across 4 quarters, can get more pressure on the QB, and can have more success running than against Houston, then Rice can win. Getting more QB pressure will really be key, IMO, I am very curious to see whether Rice starts blitzing more out of the 3-4.
With a new coach, I will remain optimistic. Rice wins the turnover battle again and continues to play well on special teams.
Rice 37, Hawaii 35.
Stank hasn't played in 4 years, so hopefully he will improve as the season wears on.
Cephus has a badass attitude; he's a competitor - he wants to beat his defender for the ball. I like it!
(09-04-2018 11:01 AM)davidw Wrote: [ -> ]Stank hasn't played in 4 years, so hopefully he will improve as the season wears on.
Agreed. Also while I wasn't blown away with his performance against UH, it was leaps and bounds ahead of what we saw against PVaTm.
Still a long way to go, but hoping Hawaii is one step further along than UH and so on.
This Hawaii QB appears to be really special. 400+ passing yards and about 100 rushing ins his first game?! Another 400+ yard passing performance vs Navy. Will he continue his Heisman pace vs Rice? Or can we expose him this week? I'm worried about him breaking contain, more than I am about putting pressure on him. The run and shoot doesn't require a lot of time to release the ball, though pressure up the middle obviously helps, but don't let him scramble. Navy did a good job with the scrambling but allowed a ton of passing yards. Need to put the intellectual brutality attitude to the test and dominate them physically. We do that, and the Owls' run game can dictate the game with ball control and play action. Confident we can win turnover, run game, and special teams battles. Worried about it being an away game far from home and facing such an explosive offense that can take advantage of our biggest weakness - pass defense. But...prefer facing run and shoots over Baylor-type spread passing offenses. The deep balls are what really kill us.
I see where Antonio Faaeteete has transferred to TSU, seeking "a better culture fit."
(09-04-2018 01:56 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote: [ -> ]I see where Antonio Faaeteete has transferred to TSU, seeking "a better culture fit."
I didn't think even the remedial FWIS class would save him.
(09-04-2018 02:18 PM)InterestedX Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 01:58 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 01:56 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote: [ -> ]I see where Antonio Faaeteete has transferred to TSU, seeking "a better culture fit."
I didn't think even the remedial FWIS class would save him.
https://www.youthvoices.live/2017/08/28/...rts-taken/
I had never seen that but that's a masterpiece compared to his Twitter commitment announcement.
I think that the Owls will run the ball well, notch nearly 40 minutes of TOP once again, and put the ball in the endzone a few times.
Sacks, drops, and penalties will stall a couple Rainbow Warrior drives, but otherwise I see them having little trouble moving the football down the field.
Hawai'i 38
Rice 28
(09-04-2018 02:22 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 02:18 PM)InterestedX Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 01:58 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 01:56 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote: [ -> ]I see where Antonio Faaeteete has transferred to TSU, seeking "a better culture fit."
I didn't think even the remedial FWIS class would save him.
https://www.youthvoices.live/2017/08/28/...rts-taken/
I had never seen that but that's a masterpiece compared to his Twitter commitment announcement.
What the **** did I just read?
There is no concept of punctuation or basic sentence construction. This is a joke, right?
I'll be interested to see what kind of approach this new staff takes to a Hawaii trip. I have a feeling that the last staff would have called it a "once in a lifetime experience for the players," loaded up on the sightseeing and vacation aspects, and treated the game as an afterthought, with results (see: 62-7) to match.
Hopefully this staff will treat it like the purely-business trip it needs to be. Hawaii is absolutely in a vulnerable spot for an upset. They're riding high off back-to-back upset wins and very well could be looking ahead to Army next week (also meaning we are catching them coming off one triple option game and right before another). After Army they have layups in Duquesne and San Jose State to get to (in their minds) 6-0 and bowl eligibility, quite a potentially seductive daydream for a team that was 3-9 last year. Their seemingly-running-on-all-cylinders offense also may be lulling them into a false sense of security w/r/t their bad defense.
(09-04-2018 02:48 PM)illiniowl Wrote: [ -> ]I'll be interested to see what kind of approach this new staff takes to a Hawaii trip. I have a feeling that the last staff would have called it a "once in a lifetime experience for the players," loaded up on the sightseeing and vacation aspects, and treated the game as an afterthought, with results (see: 62-7) to match.
Hopefully this staff will treat it like the purely-business trip it needs to be. Hawaii is absolutely in a vulnerable spot for an upset. They're riding high off back-to-back upset wins and very well could be looking ahead to Army next week (also meaning we are catching them coming off one triple option game and right before another). After Army they have layups in Duquesne and San Jose State to get to (in their minds) 6-0 and bowl eligibility, quite a potentially seductive daydream for a team that was 3-9 last year. Their seemingly-running-on-all-cylinders offense also may be lulling them into a false sense of security w/r/t their bad defense.
They are leaving Thursday AM, arriving late Thursday afternoon.
Based on CMB's presser, the only vacation type thing they'll be doing is Pearl Harbor on Friday A.M. Didn't hear any reference to beach time.
(09-04-2018 02:48 PM)illiniowl Wrote: [ -> ]I'll be interested to see what kind of approach this new staff takes to a Hawaii trip. I have a feeling that the last staff would have called it a "once in a lifetime experience for the players," loaded up on the sightseeing and vacation aspects, and treated the game as an afterthought, with results (see: 62-7) to match.
Hopefully this staff will treat it like the purely-business trip it needs to be. Hawaii is absolutely in a vulnerable spot for an upset. They're riding high off back-to-back upset wins and very well could be looking ahead to Army next week (also meaning we are catching them coming off one triple option game and right before another). After Army they have layups in Duquesne and San Jose State to get to (in their minds) 6-0 and bowl eligibility, quite a potentially seductive daydream for a team that was 3-9 last year. Their seemingly-running-on-all-cylinders offense also may be lulling them into a false sense of security w/r/t their bad defense.
Actually, the last time Rice was in Hawaii, the staff did treat it like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And the team then proceeded to decisively win the Hawaii bowl. I love the new staff, but the old staff managed to succeed every once in awhile also.
(09-04-2018 02:31 PM)Antarius Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 02:22 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 02:18 PM)InterestedX Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 01:58 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 01:56 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote: [ -> ]I see where Antonio Faaeteete has transferred to TSU, seeking "a better culture fit."
I didn't think even the remedial FWIS class would save him.
https://www.youthvoices.live/2017/08/28/...rts-taken/
I had never seen that but that's a masterpiece compared to his Twitter commitment announcement.
What the **** did I just read?
There is no concept of punctuation or basic sentence construction. This is a joke, right?
Come on, now. What good does it do for anybody to trash the kid and make fun of his writing? One of the main reasons athletes dislike Rice socially is because you're looked down upon if you don't write well enough or your comments in class aren't sophisticated enough.
(09-04-2018 04:10 PM)Pan95 Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 02:48 PM)illiniowl Wrote: [ -> ]I'll be interested to see what kind of approach this new staff takes to a Hawaii trip. I have a feeling that the last staff would have called it a "once in a lifetime experience for the players," loaded up on the sightseeing and vacation aspects, and treated the game as an afterthought, with results (see: 62-7) to match.
Hopefully this staff will treat it like the purely-business trip it needs to be. Hawaii is absolutely in a vulnerable spot for an upset. They're riding high off back-to-back upset wins and very well could be looking ahead to Army next week (also meaning we are catching them coming off one triple option game and right before another). After Army they have layups in Duquesne and San Jose State to get to (in their minds) 6-0 and bowl eligibility, quite a potentially seductive daydream for a team that was 3-9 last year. Their seemingly-running-on-all-cylinders offense also may be lulling them into a false sense of security w/r/t their bad defense.
Actually, the last time Rice was in Hawaii, the staff did treat it like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And the team then proceeded to decisively win the Hawaii bowl. I love the new staff, but the old staff managed to succeed every once in awhile also.
IMO, a bowl game vs. a regular season game is apples and oranges. Sydney was definitely way too much of a vacation for a regular season game. Stanford was studying film whereas Rice was hanging out on Bondi Beach and at local pubs. On the other hand, in a bowl game, both teams are usually doing the same activities.
(09-04-2018 04:18 PM)elw4796 Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 02:31 PM)Antarius Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 02:22 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 02:18 PM)InterestedX Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2018 01:58 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote: [ -> ]I didn't think even the remedial FWIS class would save him.
https://www.youthvoices.live/2017/08/28/...rts-taken/
I had never seen that but that's a masterpiece compared to his Twitter commitment announcement.
What the **** did I just read?
There is no concept of punctuation or basic sentence construction. This is a joke, right?
Come on, now. What good does it do for anybody to trash the kid and make fun of his writing? One of the main reasons athletes dislike Rice socially is because you're looked down upon if you don't write well enough or your comments in class aren't sophisticated enough.
What do you expect from two of Rice's worst representative 'fans'?