General Information
| Opponent | Rice University |
| Nickname | Owls |
| Location | Houston, TX |
| Enrollment | 5,145 |
| Conference | Conference USA |
| Head Coach | David Bailiff |
| 2008 Record | 10-3 (7-1) |
| Starters Returning/Lost | 14/10 |
| Blogs |
The Rice Football Webletter Houston Chronicle |
| Links |
2009 Prospectus (pdf) 2009 Depth Chart |
Statistics
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| Statistic | Rice | Texas Tech |
| Pass Offense | 327.23 (5) | 413.15 (1) |
| Rush Offense | 143.69 (62) | 117.84 (94) |
| Total Offense | 470.92 (10) | 531.00 (4) |
| Scoring Offense | 41.31 (8) | 43.77 (3) |
| Pass Efficiency | 162.94 (7) | 158.76 (9) |
| Sacks Allowed | 2.23 (83) | 1.00 (4) |
| Pass Defense | 269.46 (110) | 242.23 (94) |
| Rush Defense | 182.77 (99) | 140.38 (61) |
| Total Defense | 452.23 (111) | 382.62 (79) |
| Scoring Defense | 33.31 (103) | 27.85 (74) |
| Pass Efficiency Defense | 135.04 (86) | 130.56 (72) |
| Sacks | 1.69 (80) | 2.62 (18) |
| Tackles For Loss | 4.31 (114) | 4.85 (95) |
| Turnover Margin | 1.15 (7) | 0.62 (22) |
Top Returners
| Category | Player |
| Rushing | Jeramy Goodson (12 / 69 yds / 0 TD) |
| Passing | John Thomas Shepherd (8-15 / 78 yds / 0 TD / 0 Int) |
| Receiving | Toren Dixon (50 rec. / 598 yds / 5 TD) |
| Tackles | Andrew Sendejo (94) |
| Sacks | Scott Solomon (4.5) |
| Interceptions | Andrew Sendejo and Christopher Douglas (3) |
A Few Things
- Need Improvement from Defense: Texas Tech was not good defensively last year, but Rice was absolutely abysmal. The good thing is that Rice returns quite a few starters and experience. It's easy to say that if the same team returns, you can expect the same results, but players mature and teams improve.
- Replacing A QB and Two WR's: Rice finds themselves ina similar situation to Texas Tech in that the Owls are replacing QB Chase Clement, WR Jarrett Dillard and TE James Casey. That's a ton of offense (sounds familiar?) and perhaps its a little more daunting for Rice as Clement and Casey were also big parts of their rushing attack (along with C.J. Ugokwe who is absent from their roster despite being a junior).
- Defensive Ends Step Up: DE's Cheta Ozougwu and Scott Solomon are the leaders of the group they combined for 8.0 sacks last year, including 14.5 tackles for a loss. Again, it's tough to look at the overall defensive numbers and think that they played well, but they were both sophomores.
- Casey Does It All: I'm not sure if Rice has figured out how they can replace all-world TE James Casey (it's like replacing Crabtree, you really don't). Casey did a little bit of everything for Rice, which included catching 111 passes for 1,329 yards and 13 touchdowns. You heard about Dillard because he was so good for so long, but Casey was a helluva player for Rice.
- Sendejo Returns . . . Again: Andrew Sendejo is one of those guys who's been at Rice for a really long time and he's got one more year for the Owls. If Sendejo's name sounds familiar, it should as he intercepted a pass when Rice and Texas Tech met up in Houston. Sendejo leads the team in tackles and interceptions.
- Young Offensive Line: Something to remember when the 2009 season starts is the relative youth of the Rice offensive line, as you're going to see 4 sophomores and 1 junior start. This will be one of those games where if there's not a certain amount of success by Texas Tech, it may be an indication of a very long season.