Rice football concludes regular season play on the road against South Florida. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.
The final week of the regular season is upon us. Rice football enters its finale following a home loss on Senior Day to North Texas, while South Florida returns home from a more successful road trip in Birmingham, where they took down UAB with relative ease. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup between Rice and South Florida.
Kickoff time | 6:00 PM
Venue | Raymond James Stadium – Tampa, FL
TV | ESPN+ (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)
Sizing up the Contenders
With two conference losses, a trip to the American Championship game is wishful thinking for South Florida entering this final game. However, it still might be possible for an emphatic win and some chaos in the ranks ahead of them to make things interesting. Regardless, the Bulls have their eyes on a 10-win season and they won’t get there without beating Rice on Saturday.
More: Undersized and Undeterred – Quinton Jackson’s Journey to Rice Football Star
The Owls find themselves in a different place, seeking a sixth win to secure bowl eligibility in Scott Abell’s first season on campus. This team would happily take a postseason berth any way they could get it, even if it came as a 5-win team courtesy of an APR bump, but everyone would rest much easier if they could find a way to secure that postseason trip for certain with an upset over South Florida.
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Last Time Out
Make sure you check out The Roost Podcast every week this season as we review the Owls’ most recent game, breaking down the key moments, decisions and their impact on the outlook of the program moving forward.
Series History
All Time | Tied, 1-1
Last Five | Tied, 1-1
Last Meeting | Home 2024, Rice won 35-28
Rice Football Stat Notables
Passing | Jenkins – 113/163 (69.3 percent), 986 yards, 9TD, 2 INT
Rushing | Jackson – 162 carries, 808 yards (5.0 yards per carry), 6 TD / Jenkins – 140 carries, 497 yards (3.6 yards per carry) – 5 TD / Hardeman – 74 carries, 310 yards (4.2 yards per carry), 2 TD
Receiving | Dickmann – 36 receptions, 319 yards (8.9 yds/rec), 3 TD / Turner – 46 receptions, 275 yards (6.0 yds/rec)
Tackles | Awe – 87 / Morris – 73 / Williams – 66
Pass Breakups | Crump (Suspended) – 6 / Williams, Porter – 5
Interceptions | Kane, Stevenson, Wyatt – 1
South Florida Stat Notables
Passing | Brown – 210/317 (66.2 percent), 2883 yards, 24 TD, 7 INT
Rushing | Brown – 160 carries, 904 yards (5.7 yds/car), 13 TD / Davenport – 80 carries, 546 yards (6.8 yds/car), 6 TD / Franklin – 60 carries, 380 yards (6.3 yds/car), 4 TD
Receiving | Singleton – 44 receptions, 752 yards (17.1 yds/rec), 6 TD / Koger – 32 receptions, 504 yards (15.8 yds/rec), 6 TD / Reuben – 10 receptions, 405 yards (13.1 yds/rec), 4 TD
Tackles | Harris – 95 / Shuler – 88 / Ward – 60
Pass Breakups | Shuler – 7 / Duclona – 4 / Rucker, Chenault, Stokes – 3
Interceptions | Chenault, Harris, Lee, Gaskins – 2 / Six tied with one each
South Florida X-Factor | Death by a Million Cuts
Rice is a ball-control offense that wasn’t to dictate the terms of the game through possession and limiting opportunities for the other team. And while South Florida ranks dead last in the American Conference in time of possession per game, averaging less than 25 minutes per game, they have amassed an impressed 23.6 first downs per contest.
South Florida can strike fast. They can drive the length of the field. But what they’ve done so well this season is grind teams out so that by the time the second half arrives, defenses are tired and unable to mount a capable resistance. That’s been the breaking point for the Rice defense in recent weeks, able to stand tall in spots, but worn down by the constant battering an elite offense can provide.
To win this one, South Florida must maintain its consistency and move the ball effectively. If they can do that, the points will come.
Rice X-Factor | Force Some Turnovers
Only one team in FBS has forced fewer turnovers than Rice football. One. The Owls’ six takeaways represent barely more than half a turnover per game and that’s simply not going to cut it against a quality opponent like South Florida.
A turnover-free day requires a near-perfect offensive effort and further contributions from everywhere else. Rice pulled off the feat against UConn, but that’s not a sustainable way to live for a team that doesn’t have any truly dominant phase to hang its hat on. Rice needs to steal some possessions and get South Florida playing off script. Turnovers are the best way to accomplish that.
Injury Report (Subscribers only)
One Final Thing
It’s hard to put into words just how significant a bowl berth would be for this program after the year they’ve had under their first-year head coach. Things have been bumpy. The roster has its flaws. And still, they’ve found ways to win.
Practically, the Abell hire isn’t any more or less successful if Rice makes a bowl game or not, but the optics of being ahead of schedule by such a noticeable margin would have tremendous dividends for the program, both on and off the field.
Beating a nine-win UConn team should go down as one of the more impressive wins Rice football has had in several years. But fair or not, a FBS independent not named Notre Dame doesn’t carry the same cache that knocking off a top-flight American Conference team would. To stack South Florida on top of UConn and Louisiana would be quite a feat for a program that’s supposed to be “rebuilding.”
On paper, Rice football probably has no business winning this game, but that’s sort of the exact reason Abell was hired and his offense was welcomed to South Main. This is supposed to become a program that wins games like this, games when the masses have counted them out. It sure would be nice to see that come to fruition just one more time this season.
