it got half a page spread, by Stephanie. Also mentioned on front page of Section A.

JJ and O'Brien were singing his praises.

Also, I turned on channel 13 news at 10:00 last nite and the sportscaster basically paraphrased the article. Good stuff !

Also in the article/interview was Coach O'Brien stating how well coached he was at Rice.

(08-11-2015 11:07 AM)Pan95 Wrote:  Also in the article/interview was Coach O'Brien stating how well coached he was at Rice.

Correct; forgot to mention that. They were very complimentary of his coaching at Rice.

The Rice-Texans relationship has been beneficial to both sides. Texans like to have an overlooked talent pool at Rice, which is small but has been growing with NFL prospects each year, and nobody has them better scouted than the Texans. They got Casey and Covington in the mid-rounds, steals. Rice has benefitted by getting these kind of players an NFL home, and the relationships with Kubiak (with his son playing for Rice - future Rice coach?) and now O'Brien with Bailiff seem very solid.

Stephanie says that NFL scouts were at our practices this week for several days. Has Rice been "discovered"?

There is an obvious 'game' for the known talents, but the REAL value in the NFL now is these guys who fly a bit under the radar, often because of whom they go against. It's like scouting 4a vs 5a football. Everyone knows the 5a studs and the opinions don't vary much.... it's these guys whom you can sometimes steal in the middle rounds and if they are good, they either greatly benefit the team who drafted them directly, or they become valuable as trade bait.

Frankly, this could be some serious potential for us in that we are really in a class by ourselves in g5 academically and becoming more and more solid athletically each day. Those guys who were destined to sit on the bench at the powers or play 2 years at a middle p5 with far less attention because the teams lose half their games might be better off starting 4 years and winning at Rice.