Anyone notice an uptick in media attention to Rice after the game?

Looks like we had not one but two plays in ESPN's top 10 for Saturday, which is fantastic. But beyond that, anything? Any positive mentions on prominent blogs and such?

Here in Chicago, a local channel's sports segment devoted about 20-30 seconds to the game and, believe it or not, not ONCE was it mentioned that A&M played RICE. Not even one offhand mention. Not cool.

The Johnny Football Show sucked any and all air out of any other story involving the game. The only way Rice would get any press is if they actually won the game, and even then it would be of the backhanded compliment variety.

Nothing I've read so far mentions the missing Rice starters. It's all about A&M. So, it's the same old thing.

randomly saw a Rice mention on yahoo sports this morning....

apparently Jameis Winston''s (Florida State QB sensation) girlfriend plays basketball for the Owls and is adept at the Twitter

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-s...ncaaf.html

(09-03-2013 09:04 AM)wheredidmypantsgo Wrote:  randomly saw a Rice mention on yahoo sports this morning....

apparently Jameis Winston''s (Florida State QB sensation) girlfriend plays basketball for the Owls and is adept at the Twitter

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-s...ncaaf.html

Yeah, this was all over twitter last night. Apparently, Winston dreamed of being a Longhorn (Vince Young was his childhood idol), but Mack never offerred him a scholarship. Either that or Mack had an issue with his insistence on being a two-sport athlete (baseball) in college.

(09-03-2013 09:11 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(09-03-2013 09:04 AM)wheredidmypantsgo Wrote:  randomly saw a Rice mention on yahoo sports this morning....

apparently Jameis Winston''s (Florida State QB sensation) girlfriend plays basketball for the Owls and is adept at the Twitter

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-s...ncaaf.html

Yeah, this was all over twitter last night. Apparently, Winston dreamed of being a Longhorn (Vince Young was his childhood idol), but Mack never offerred him a scholarship. Either that or Mack had an issue with his insistence on being a two-sport athlete (baseball) in college.

The Texas Rangers drafted him last year around the 15th round or so

Two observations.

a) Winston is yet one more example of dynamic playmaker that Mack looked over b/c he did not want that person to be a QB at UT but yet the player wanted to go (JFF and RGIII being other notable examples) but yet they continue to struggle at the position with underachievers. Clearly with Snead, Gilbert, Ash, McCoy younger, etc. something is wrong with whoever is evaluating talent at that position.

b) Beware of Media...it is about ratings and celebrity. Do your own research on stories that matter to you......The storyline for A&M game was going to be about JFF and that was it. Anyone who saw the game and watched it had nothing but praise for Rice. I have had countless interactions at game, after game, emails, texts, etc. about how good Rice looked. Media coverage of game was 'JFF scores on 4 of 5 possessions and gets benched' even though anyone who watched it knows the storyline was nothing like that. Strangely, that is the media coverage by pretty much all outlets...not just the Worldwide Leader. Makes you pretty scary to see power of media to manipulate things that really matter w/ world events..

A bit of a tangent but relevant to the point...I unfortunately witnessed a horrible accident in NYC a couple weeks ago. The story and all headlines were 'Dr. Oz saves patient' Example here... http://fox13now.com/2013/08/20/dr-oz-rus...york-taxi/


I was physically there (very gruesome to see girl get leg cut off) and Dr. Oz showed-up after police, paramedics, etc. were on scene. He was not part of anything other than the photo opps but yet media story is not about the cab driver who was nuts, the girl, hero plumber who saved her life, etc....it is about celebrity. That is what the media and news is today.

JFF running/throwing/pointing fingers at opposing team/ turns on televisions, online websites, social media (e.g. more things about Elders tweet and Winston's girlfriend than game), etc. and that is what matters as people want to digest soundbytes and celebrity...

Bottom line...A&M beating Rice in a closer than the experts think game is not going to drive ratings like a JFF story...

(09-03-2013 11:08 AM)owl40 Wrote:  b) Beware of Media...it is about ratings and celebrity. Do your own research on stories that matter to you......The storyline for A&M game was going to be about JFF and that was it. Anyone who saw the game and watched it had nothing but praise for Rice. I have had countless interactions at game, after game, emails, texts, etc. about how good Rice looked. Media coverage of game was 'JFF scores on 4 of 5 possessions and gets benched' even though anyone who watched it knows the storyline was nothing like that. Strangely, that is the media coverage by pretty much all outlets...not just the Worldwide Leader. Makes you pretty scary to see power of media to manipulate things that really matter w/ world events..

A bit of a tangent but relevant to the point...I unfortunately witnessed a horrible accident in NYC a couple weeks ago. The story and all headlines were 'Dr. Oz saves patient' Example here... http://fox13now.com/2013/08/20/dr-oz-rus...york-taxi/


I was physically there (very gruesome to see girl get leg cut off) and Dr. Oz showed-up after police, paramedics, etc. were on scene. He was not part of anything other than the photo opps but yet media story is not about the cab driver who was nuts, the girl, hero plumber who saved her life, etc....it is about celebrity. That is what the media and news is today.

JFF running/throwing/pointing fingers at opposing team/ turns on televisions, online websites, social media (e.g. more things about Elders tweet and Winston's girlfriend than game), etc. and that is what matters as people want to digest soundbytes and celebrity...

Bottom line...A&M beating Rice in a closer than the experts think game is not going to drive ratings like a JFF story...

Pretty much sums it up succinctly. Truth is Rice will have to earn respect over the long haul of several consecutive years of elite success to get a fair shake from most media again. We might as well be starting now, and I hope we finally are. Keep fighting, Owls and eventually they will have to show a little bit of respect.

Wonder how Sam will fair against Aggie next week?

Be careful what you wish for. :( This is from today's top college football article on ESPN (BMOC).

"Johnny Football can get away with that sort of knuckleheadedness because, well, it was Rice. Reveille could beat Rice these days. Same thing goes for this Saturday's opponent, Sam Houston State."

I really hate the lack of accurate reporting and objectivity, but what do I expect? It's all part of the spin. As noted above, ESPN is just hyping up JFF v. Bama. Even if Rice would've won the game, the lede would've been about how A&M lost the game.

Oh well. At least Johnny Foosball got practice writing his name. I'm fairly confident that's the most writing he's done since arriving in College Station.

Skip Bayless gave some praise to Rice on Monday's First Take. Called Owls, "underrated". Steven A., on the other hand, talked about how we went 2-10, 4-8, 4-8 before 7-6 last season, as if to say that A&M wasn't playing a powerhouse. Mark Schleretz tweeted something about being a Rice fan after the first drive. Charissa Thomson also gave props via Twitter after first Owl drive. Many mentions on Twitter obviously, but on TV it has mostly been of the "they were playing Rice" variety. Overall, I think Rice improved its stock with the way we started the game.

First sports broadcast where I never heard a comment of the "rice players are smart" variety.

Rice linebacker insists Johnny Football isn't total jerkwad | The Daily Caller

(09-03-2013 09:47 PM)I45owl Wrote:   Rice linebacker insists Johnny Football isn't total jerkwad | The Daily Caller

Ugh.

Yeah, that didn't really go along with Bailiff's "this is a hurt team and locker room right now" as we're wading into the Johnny Kardashian stuff... not that I'd fault the players at all..

It's great to be excited about a great effort Saturday. But let's keep some perspective. Steven A. is right, we have gone 2-10, 4-8, 4-8, 7-6 over the last four years. And remember my benchmark, that we play them closer than Sam did last year? Well, we didn't--21 point loss v. 19 point loss. Yes, Sam got way behind and then caught up late. But if you reverse the halves, arguably a better comparable since Manziel did't play until the second half, there's not a lot of difference. So we're all giddy about a game that looks to the rest of the world like we're as good as last year's FCS runner up.

What we saw was a Rice team with the athletic potential not to lose another game against the schedule before us. Unfortunately what we also saw was a Rice team that still makes enough mental errors to lose any close game--and we can expect a few of those along the way.

I'll get excited about potential once we win our 10th game. For one thing, if we seriously want to be considered for a conference upgrade next round of musical chairs, 10-2 or better against a CUSA schedule needs to be an annual occurrence.

Owl 69- totally disagree w/ that post. I watched the Sam game from last year. It was 35-0 and could have been 70-0 if A&M wanted it to be. Sam got garbage time TD's and final score was not in zipcode of what really happened. Final score misleading for those at the game.

Yes, JFF did not play the 1H in our game but I don't think the outcome was any different. They scored at will w/ him and w/out him. Bigger point is that they could not stop us. They did stop Sam. JFF does not play D. We also did not have our 1st team key D players there (Shahin, Nwosu, Gaines, Radcliffe, etc.) when JFF was in game and actually had 3rd team guys in there for many of his snaps. A&M succeeded not b/c of JFF but b/c we gave him short fields and Rice mistakes. FAU and FIU and other C-USA weaklings would have scored the same amount of points w/ those short fields.

Bottom line. We are not Sam. We are 3 TD's better. Will show this week when A&M beats them by more than 42 and more than 50 if they want to make a point before Alabama. Rice is a vastly improved football team. A&M can't beat Rice by anything like that difference (but could have in 2007, 2009, 2010, or 2011). Rice is not yet a top-25 team but a top-50 team when dust settles and I am 100% confident that we are many TDs better than Sam in head-to-head. Let's give a bit more credit where it is due and stop acting like this is Rice circa..2009-2011. Times have changed.

I was on the field for those teams and this team..and things have improved. I understand the 'believe it when I see it' approach and that is justified given historical precedents but I fortunately did get a chance to be on the field this past week and very different from prior Rice teams... I still expect us to win out but reality is that we will lay an egg or two but do expect us to be 7-1 going to NT game where I could see us disappointing. That will go back to your macro point of preparation but the talent, depth, etc. is not like any Rice team in past 15-years.

Here's my take on the JFF situation. A&M doesn't want him to talk to the media because he is really a jerk and, in their opinion, is not reflective of the values of the university, the athletic department or the football team. In addition, they try to distance themselves from his antics on the football field. They suspend a number of athletes and have a couple more ejected during the game.

I would suggest that the real reason to have athletic teams is to spotlight the best your university has to offer.

I would suggest that, if you get a chance, talk with Taylor M. or Donte M. or Charles R. or Christian C. or Philip G. or any of the members of our football team. These guys are exactly who Rice wants to represent them in the media. There's no question in my mind that, besides being outstanding athletes, they are the best ambassadors of what Rice represents in college athletics. I, for one, am very happy with Saturday's performance...I'm not satisfied but it's obvious we are doing things the right way. A&M..maybe not so much.

(09-04-2013 08:32 PM)Houston Owl Wrote:  Here's my take on the JFF situation. A&M doesn't want him to talk to the media because he is really a jerk and, in their opinion, is not reflective of the values of the university, the athletic department or the football team. In addition, they try to distance themselves from his antics on the football field. They suspend a number of athletes and have a couple more ejected during the game.

I would suggest that the real reason to have athletic teams is to spotlight the best your university has to offer.

I would suggest that, if you get a chance, talk with Taylor M. or Donte M. or Charles R. or Christian C. or Philip G. or any of the members of our football team. These guys are exactly who Rice wants to represent them in the media. There's no question in my mind that, besides being outstanding athletes, they are the best ambassadors of what Rice represents in college athletics. I, for one, am very happy with Saturday's performance...I'm not satisfied but it's obvious we are doing things the right way. A&M..maybe not so much.

One Aggie friend I talked to would be glad to trade out JFF for a couple of more losses for those reasons. His was also incredulous that people were so upset with his behavior this year because he did the exact same things last year and that's what they fell in live with...

(09-04-2013 07:31 PM)owl40 Wrote:  Owl 69- totally disagree w/ that post. I watched the Sam game from last year. It was 35-0 and could have been 70-0 if A&M wanted it to be. Sam got garbage time TD's and final score was not in zipcode of what really happened. Final score misleading for those at the game.

You misunderstand my post more than you disagree with it.

My point was not that we are at Sam's level, but rather that to an outsider our scoreline looks like Sam's.

I agree that we are very different from 2009-2011 physically. But we are not nearly so much better mentally. Certainly not enough better that we couldn't show up and make enough mental errors to lose to anybody on our schedule.

Our physical ability won't beat us in any other game this year. We're not going to get out-athleted by anybody in CUSA, or by UH or KU. Whether we show up mentally prepared will be the difference between 11-1 and 5-7 (surely we couldn't possibly be worse than that).

A&M is a 46 point favorite this weekend. They were a 27 point favorite last weekend. So Vegas at least thinks we're significantly better than the Bearkats.