For Rice, it’s time to play smarter, harder
The Rice football team prides itself on making this statement and its ability to back it up:
“We are the smartest, hardestworking football team in Conference USA.”
Every year when the graduation rates come out, Rice lands near the top. As for the hard work, ask a Rice student and there’s probably some way to calculate it across the conference.
Right now, though, Rice is neither.
The Owls are 4-4 and with four conference games left, starting this Friday against UTEP, playing smarter and working harder could be the difference between a bowl game and a losing season.
On Friday against Louisiana Tech, Rice committed three “stupid” and “silly” personal foul penalties that cost them at inopportune times. The Owls are putting in hard work at practices too, but that hard work for some players has only been for the betterment of themselves and not for the team.
Rice football coach David Bailiff said this week the team had a conversation about aggressiveness.
“They’re confusing being aggressive with being dumb aggressive,” Bailiff said.
Being aggressive is playing football. Being dumb aggressive is adding in shoves at the end of a play.
Redshirt freshman safety J.T. Ibe was called for two personal fouls — including an unsportsmanlike conduct — on Friday. Redshirt sopohmore offensive lineman Peter Godber was also called for a personal foul late in the game.
“It’s about playing for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back,” Bailiff said. “They’ve got to stop.”
The coaches met and decided to increase discipline and bench time for “silly penalties.”
“We can’t have dumb penalties where Rice beats Rice,” Bailiff said
Rice finished Friday’s 42-17 loss to Louisiana Tech with eight penalties for 62 yards.
Nationally, the Owls have given playing time to more freshmen — redshirt and true — than any other team. Thirty-one total freshmen, 21 redshirts and 10 true, have played during one of Rice’s eight games this season.
Bailiff knows his team is young. At the beginning of this season, he expected a defensive line that included redshirt senior defensive end Grant Peterson and redshirt sophomore defensive end Graysen Schantz. Both were lost to injury. Bailiff also expected to have senior defensive tackle Christian Covington and redshirt junior defensive end Brian Nordstrom. Both defensive linemen left Rice early for jobs in the NFL and the energy industry, respectively.
“Some of these youngsters now have eight games under their belt,” Bailiff said. “You can’t say they don’t have enough reps. They have enough reps now. I can understand we’re not blowing coverages. We have to make plays and continue to grow up.”
On Sunday, Rice’s seniors had a meeting with the team to talk to them about how they will hold everyone more accountable. Rice center Andrew Reue said the seniors are going to better show the line between playing aggressive football within the rules.
“I don’t think we’ve been playing the brand of Rice football that’s what Coach Bailiff expects, what we expect,” Reue said. “Three personal fouls is kind of lacking a little bit of team selflessness and putting the team first. You’re going to see change here in the next couple of weeks.”