Owls look to build on Bayou victory

The Bayou Bucket was on display Tuesday, property of the Rice Owls. The coveted trophy was inside the Patterson Sports Performance Center at Rice Stadium, stationed alongside the podium during the Owls’ weekly media session.

Coach Mike Bloomgren was still smiling three days after his team outlasted Houston 43-41 in double overtime, despite the Cougars scoring 35 consecutive points from just before halftime through the first overtime.

“It feels great to bring this lovely bucket home to South Main where it belongs,” Bloomgren said. “It was great to celebrate with the guys after the game. Probably spent a little more than 24 hours celebrating that one, but we are certainly on to the next one at this point.”

Center Braedon Nutter, a product of Tomball Memorial, was a big part of Rice’s first win in the Bayou Classic after seven straight losses in the series.

“It was pretty big for me,” Nutter said. “Big for the team, big for the OLine, big for everyone.”

Coming off Bloomgren’s most significant victory in his sixth year as Rice coach, the Owls host Texas Southern at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Against Houston, Bloomgren said he saw a lot of good play from the Owls, who led 28-0 at one point in the first half, and played as well as the squad is capable. A week earlier in its season opener in Austin, Rice was beaten 37-10 by Texas.

The growth by the Owls from the first week to the second was evident. Saturday’s win snapped a 17game losing streak against Power Five programs.

“The best part is, there’s so much that can be improved, and the ability to play for sixty minutes,” Bloomgren said. “A lot of things that I wanted to take from game one, I wanted our offense to start fast and they certainly did that. I wanted our defense to come out of the locker room in the third quarter and settle in, and they threw a third-quarter shutout.

“Now when we play for 60 minutes, our kind of football, there’s not a team on our schedule we can’t beat. If we will keep growing at the rate we are growing, we are going to be a hard team to deal with no matter who we play.”