I talked with Christian at the basketball game. He said he had surgery Tuesday and was out for the rest of the season. I asked if he would return next year and he said he was strongly considering it.

(11-09-2014 12:45 PM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  I talked with Christian at the basketball game. He said he had surgery Tuesday and was out for the rest of the season. I asked if he would return next year and he said he was strongly considering it.

That'll be a tough decision and would, I think, come down to where he is projected to be drafted following the injury. He is a potential 1st/2nd round talent, but I wouldn't be surprised if his injuries this year has affected that. If so, coming back for a senior year may help lock him into that round. But an extra year in college means there is another year where he isn't getting paid and risks getting injured.

Whatever he decides, I hope it works out for him. I'd love to see him come back, but I get it if he decides to declare early.

(11-09-2014 02:28 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(11-09-2014 12:45 PM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  I talked with Christian at the basketball game. He said he had surgery Tuesday and was out for the rest of the season. I asked if he would return next year and he said he was strongly considering it.

That'll be a tough decision and would, I think, come down to where he is projected to be drafted following the injury. He is a potential 1st/2nd round talent, but I wouldn't be surprised if his injuries this year has affected that. If so, coming back for a senior year may help lock him into that round. But an extra year in college means there is another year where he isn't getting paid and risks getting injured.

Whatever he decides, I hope it works out for him. I'd love to see him come back, but I get it if he decides to declare early.

Wouldn't be surprised if it boils down to whether he is healthy and fit enough for the combines and pro day. If not, he's not going to be drafted as high as he should.

I came over to HRS and enjoyed the experience greatly (aside from fighting the traffic caused by the construction around 59). I sat behind Freshman OL Kenneth Thompson's grandmother, a UT alum who is now a great Owl fan. I had the feeling we were a little flat, perhaps looking forward to the Marshall game next week. But we played well enough to get the W and that is what good teams do.

(11-09-2014 12:45 PM)bobreinhold1 Wrote:  I talked with Christian at the basketball game. He said he had surgery Tuesday and was out for the rest of the season. I asked if he would return next year and he said he was strongly considering it.

I would read that as it's not really his decision... it depends on what the NFL teams indicate his draft position may be. Actually, I'd read (almost) any answer that way, as he'd have to be very committed to finishing his degree (if necessary) in order to decide against whatever those indications from the NFL may be.

I'd love to see him play for Rice again, but he's been here four years and I've loved seeing him play here, even if only for 2.5 of those years.

maybe picking a scab here, but let's revisit the DJ interception.

In the game thread, someone said not his fault. Is that the consensus?

I was at the game and didn't have benefit of a visible replay (since one can't actually see anything on our video board). In the moment, it looked like the ball might have been thrown behind the receiver, but that just might be the angle and a built in bias because his accuracy was poor in general in the first half.

Note--not starting a QB debate here. I remain bullish on DJ's performance this year. I see his pocket presence getting better, he is really athletic, and he has avoided turnovers much better than his predecessor did in the first 2/3 of last season.

The throw was a little high and led him a little much, but Hull had both hands on the ball and it could have been caught. Some fault on both ends. He also stared him down the entire route.

(11-09-2014 08:47 PM)At Ease Wrote:  The throw was a little high and led him a little much, but Hull had both hands on the ball and it could have been caught. Some fault on both ends. He also stared him down the entire route.

Yes. Even though he stared him down, the d-back was two yards off him, so there was no contact that could be blamed.

4:41 of the first quarter, for those who still have their recordings.

(11-09-2014 08:47 PM)At Ease Wrote:  The throw was a little high and led him a little much, but Hull had both hands on the ball and it could have been caught. Some fault on both ends. He also stared him down the entire route.

thanks. I have bolded what seems like the most important clause in the sentence

(11-09-2014 09:31 PM)MemOwl Wrote:  

(11-09-2014 08:47 PM)At Ease Wrote:  The throw was a little high and led him a little much, but Hull had both hands on the ball and it could have been caught. Some fault on both ends. He also stared him down the entire route.

thanks. I have bolded what seems like the most important clause in the sentence

This seems like the proverbial blind men and an elephant because the announcer also said that the ball was behind Hull, but the video showed that it led him a bit much, as At Ease indicated. I think he made a very good description, including staring down the route, but I don't even think that was a primary factor in the int - I don't think the safety moved more than two steps during the play, and he didn't do anything to break up the play. It's like he could've slept through the entire play and the ball still would've fallen into his lap.

A great win for the Owls, and a good way to continue our momentum into Huntington. A couple of observations about the game:

1) From my perspective, it looked like the game plan paid a little too much respect to UTSA's defensive backfield. I figured we would run the ball more, given their athletic and playmaking secondary. UTSA did too, as they stacked to line to stop the run. When they did that, the middle of the field was wide open, and I think we only started taking advantage of that well into the second half.

2) Great job by the defense. Other than their TD drive and the drive at the end of the first half, UTSA really could muster anything offensively.

3) That being said, the game was a lot closer than it should have been. Multiple mistakes (Hull tipped ball INT, back to back tripping calls) prevented us from putting more points on the board, and we can't do that if we want to compete against Marshall.

4) UTSA really, really wanted to beat us this year. My wife and my law partner are both UTSA alums. They had been inundated with emails from the UTSA athletic director seeking to turn out the crowd at Rice Stadium this year. While there was a decent sized UTSA contingent, I recall their group two years ago as being bigger. Nonetheless, you could tell from the way both the crowd and players were reacting throughout the game, they really wanted to take it to us. Glad we prevented that from happening. I also guess that is a byproduct of having sustained success and being perceived as one of the premier teams in CUSA.

5) On the other hand, the west stands, while full, were just dead. Occasionally, the crowd would get loud, but more often than not, there would be polite applause, nothing more. I thought that the UTSA contingent, though outnumbered, was louder and more into the game than the Rice fans. There has to be a way to get the Rice fans to get loud at the right times. Sitting in the west stands, there just seemed to be a lot of apathy.

6) When did Rice change its homecoming court into something legitimate? Back in my day (less than 20 years ago), nominees for homecoming court included a ferret, the Transco (now Williams) Tower and an inanimate carbon rod. Is this another sign of Rice losing part of what made it unique?

All in all, a beautiful day, and a great day for a Rice win. Hope we can keep it up and finish strong this season.

(11-10-2014 10:57 AM)Pimpa Wrote:  6) When did Rice change its homecoming court into something legitimate? Back in my day (less than 20 years ago), nominees for homecoming court included a ferret, the Transco (now Williams) Tower and an inanimate carbon rod. Is this another sign of Rice losing part of what made it unique?

It's something brand new they started this year after ~2 years of forgetting to do homecoming elections entirely.

What did they do for homecoming in the 50's? These things go in cycles.

(11-10-2014 10:57 AM)Pimpa Wrote:  6) When did Rice change its homecoming court into something legitimate? Back in my day (less than 20 years ago), nominees for homecoming court included a ferret, the Transco (now Williams) Tower and an inanimate carbon rod. Is this another sign of Rice losing part of what made it unique?

Agree we may have lost something. Nominees in the past included a refrigerator (which won, iirc) and in my era, Sandra the Banana Woman (apocryphal border town entertainer), who ran a good race but lost. Any others?

IIRC, a construction crane won in 1999 or 2000 (not sure if king or queen).

(11-10-2014 12:06 PM)Old Sammy Wrote:  

(11-10-2014 10:57 AM)Pimpa Wrote:  6) When did Rice change its homecoming court into something legitimate? Back in my day (less than 20 years ago), nominees for homecoming court included a ferret, the Transco (now Williams) Tower and an inanimate carbon rod. Is this another sign of Rice losing part of what made it unique?

Agree we may have lost something. Nominees in the past included a refrigerator (which won, iirc) and in my era, Sandra the Banana Woman (apocryphal border town entertainer), who ran a good race but lost. Any others?

I remember a story about a secretary in one of the Rice departments who won. her son was playing for the other team.

(11-09-2014 10:44 AM)MrMxyzptlk Wrote:  

(11-09-2014 01:21 AM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(11-08-2014 06:05 PM)Lumberjack99 Wrote:  ...these are the QB that we have played against the last six wins...not very impressive stats

Ranking 210 Andrew McNulty, UNT 2.5 -1.4 -3.8 1.8 -0.9 117 35.1 24.3
Ranking 146 Angel Santiago, ARMY 3.5 8.5 -4.6 -0.1 7.4 193 48.7 43.4
Ranking 122 Nick Mullens, USM 23.5 2.9 -8.2 -0.2 17.9 353 54.4 49.7
Ranking 200 Alex McGough, FIU 0.7 2.3 -16.0 -1.4 -14.5 304 25.8 26.6
Ranking 207 Austin Robinson, UTSA 3.6 5.3 -7.2 -0.0 -5.5 117 25.5 24.8
Ranking 191 Ikaika Woolsey, HAW0.8 4.5 -14.4 3.2 -6.0 337 33.0 31.4

What are these numbers/stats supposed to represent or indicate? At least some headings and analysis/explanation would be useful in communicating your point.

Does this help? I need a glossary for the glossary.

College Football Total QBR
Glossary

PASS EPA: Expected points added on plays with pass attempts.
RUN EPA: Expected points added through rushes.
SACK EPA: Expected points added (lost) on sacks.
PEN EPA: Expected points added on penalties.
TOTAL EPA: Total expected points added.
ACT PLAYS: Action plays.
RAW QBR: Raw Total Quarterback Rating, which values quarterback on all play types on a 0-100 scale (not adjusted for opposing defenses faced)
TOTAL QBR: Adjusted Total Quarterback Rating, which values the quarterback on all play types on a 0-100 scale adjusted for the strength of opposing defenses faced.

From http://espn.go.com/ncf/qbr/_/group/12

Understanding Total QBR:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...e-football

Short explanation:
"The scale of QBR is from zero to 100, where 50 is average. Top quarterbacks are in the upper 80s and 90s for a season. "

Last Saturday, Cato scored 93.7. DJ 61.8

I poked around on a couple of the tabs. I don't totally buy into the QBR methodology (i.e., black box calculations) used by ESPN, but it's interesting to see that Chase Clement's 2008 season is the 4th best all-time in C-USA (behind 2 Keenum seasons and Stefan Lefors in 2004), and Taylor McHargue has a top 100 all-time performance in all FBS beating ECU in 2010.

Jackson and Cato each have 3 performances this season in the top 20 of CUSA. But Jackson has a couple of stinkers (around the time of his injury - remember Hawaii?) that pulls his average down. And Cato's rating this season isn't any better than last season.

Our winners were "Pretzel Man" (a cheerleader who bounced around on his hands, with his legs wrapped impossibly up over his shoulders) and a gay man running as Queen.
Nominated, but not winning, were a pair who ran as a couple: Ava Gina and Hugh G. Rection.

The only winners I remember from my run were from 2008-

The Queen was VP for finance Kathy Collins, who was very unpopular at the time for I don't even remember what.
The King was the venerable and soft spoken Hurricane Ike

2009, if I recall correctly, was H1N1 (King), and Kanye West (Queen, shortly after the interrupting-Taylor-Swift fiasco).