Rice-Vandebilt: A Student’s Perspective
For the first home football game of the year, this one wasn't too bad. Sure it wasn't as fun as last year's, but how can you top a prime time ESPN game in which the Owls beat up on a conference rival? Even though Rice was coming into this game with an 0-3 record and had a pretty good chance of leaving it 0-4, we painted ourselves up again and trekked to Rice Stadium. (I was the C in Rice last year and the O in Owls on Saturday, if you were wondering.) It was a bummer there was no official student tailgate because of Families' Weekend, but regardless I was impressed with the number of students in the student section. And the official attendance figure was near 20,000, which would look quite impressive if the Owls played in an appropriately-sized stadium.
As a reporter who has been covering the team all season, I am familiar with what's going on and knew the prospects going into the game. Therefore, it was fun to stand and cheer with people who didn't know so much. For instance, I explained more than once that Nick Fanuzzi was hurt and David Bailiff wasn't just switching between John Thomas Shepherd and Ryan Lewis for fun. However, my excuses were not taken well when I was standing near a Miami fan who extolled the virtues of Taylor Cook as Shepherd and Lewis went a combined 12-32 with four interceptions.
Now the defense is another story: it was great to watch them keep up with an SEC team in the first half. They were playing with passion and hitting with force. That combined with the skills of freshman Charles Ross led to an exciting halftime score of 10-10. But unfortunately, after watching and not understanding another MOB performance (something about Vanderbilt's version of NOD? I wasn't paying enough attention), the second half had to be played.
The defense started off well, but the offense wasn't spending enough time on the field and naturally, the defense quickly wore down in the hot, muggy temperatures. Can you blame them? The offense only converted three times on third down—and all of those came in the first half. They're young, I get that. They are having injury problems, I get that. (Having a QB, 2 RBs, and a lineman plus his backup out is not a winning formula.) The main thing I—and the other students, from the pleading I've heard—want to see is improvement. Let Fanuzzi play so he can duke it out with Cook next year, and let Ross develop.
We are all resigned to the fact that it's a rebuilding year combined with a tough opening schedule. We can see that the pieces are in place, but everything's not quite fitting together yet. It's not easy for anyone, including the students who are still riding high after last year's miracle. But we will still be out at the games and we will still support our Rice Owls. And I have extra body paint, so if you want to be a letter I can hook you up.