Stout defense and an impressive 465 rushing yards propelled Rice Football (1-0) to a season-opening win over Houston Christian.
Rice football fell behind 3-0 in the first quarter then never looked back as the Owls engineered what head coach Scott Abell called “a dominating effort on both sides of the football” to move to 1-0 on the young season. The three points were the fewest Rice has allowed in an opening game in more than 50 years while the 465 yards rushing were the most in more than two decades. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:
Sluggish Start Quickly Reversed by Stout Defense
It wasn’t the picture perfect start Rice football fans had been waiting months to see. The Owls won the toss and took the ball, churning their way to midfield where they faced a fourth and sixth. Abell rolled the dice and put it in the hands of his quarterback who dirted the ball well short of his intended receiver.
Right or wrong, Abell stood by the aggressive choice.
“I’m so confident in who we are right now and I love this football team. I decided anywhere near midfield early in the game, I was going for it. They needed to feel my confidence. The team needed to feel it. Jacurri needed to feel it. The offense needed to feel it. And I trust our defense,” he said.
“Three points is not winning that football game. There’s a lot of analytics in this world. I’m sure none of the analytics told me to go for it but it was the best thing for our football team.”
Gifted the ball in Rice territory, Houston Christian picked up a couple of first downs before kicking a go-ahead field goal. Trailing in the first quarter to an FCS squad fresh off an upset last week, the Owls battled braved another fourth down try, this one a conversion from Brown to Davis Lane, eventually setting up a go-ahead touchdown.
Rice never relinquished the lead. While much of the focus surrounding the program fixates on the Owls’ exciting offense, it was the defense which set the tone and got the team back on track in their opener.
Houston Christian did not score another point after their short-field field goal try. The Owls held the Huskies to 244 totals yards and 4-for-13 on third down, snuffing out any would-be-rally before it ever had the chance to materialize. With that strong backing, the offense got to work.
Four Headed Monster
Tyvonn Byars took the first carry of the contest straight up the middle for two yards. As it turned out, he was only beginning to pick up steam. After maxing out at 47 yards against UTSA in a lightly used freshman season last fall, Byars blew past those marks by the midpoint of the second quarter. Having one stalwart back is a necessity in this offense, but fortunately for the Owls, Byars wasn’t alone.
D’Andre Hardeman got the second running back touch and scored the first touchdown of the season. Quinton Jackson finally got his first carry after that. Then Carson Morgan took a turn.
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Watching Morgan thunder through the defense to tune of 7.7 yards per carry made it perfectly clear just how deep and capable the Owls’ running back room really is.
“It’s what we’ve worked in developing the roster,” Abell said. “We’re going to need that. As we continue to build how we use [Jackson], Carson has to be a guy who is ready to step up and make some significant carries in a game.”
The rushing prowess was palpable throughout the night and the numbers bore out the Owls’ effectiveness pounding the rock. They totaled 465 yards on 70 carries, the highest rushing total for an Abell-led offense at Rice, surpassing the previous high of 347 yards against Prairie View A&M last season.
Abell was pleased with the effort, but far from satisfied saying he was “disappointed we didn’t have more” and that a 500-yard day was probably out there if they’d made a few more plays.
Byars, who led the team with 104 yards and his first performance above the century mark, echoed those declarations. “I don’t think y’all have seen anything yet,” he said. “This is just me getting my feet wet. I expect a lot more.”
Improved Quarterback Play
It’s hard to imagine feeling encouraged by a quarterback position that finished the day collectively 4-for-10 passing, but it was still a rather robust showing from the entire signal caller room. The offense stayed on schedule and operated efficiently with both Jacurri Brown and Gael Ochoa at the sticks.
Brown was a human bulldozer on the ground, changing the math for the defense and forcing them to throw bodies at him in the run game. Even when they did, it wasn’t always effective. Brown ran for 98 yards on 13 carries including a helmet-rattling 32 yard gallop to pull Rice into the redzone early in the second half.
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There’s plenty of room for improvement through the air with Brown missing short on his fourth down attempt and way too long on a seam ball in the redzone that probably should have been touchdown if it had been thrown on target. It should also be noted Brown clearly wasn’t at 100 percent. He left the game in the second quarter minutes after leading the Owls’ second touchdown drive, throwing up a few plays before Jackson found paydirt.
It didn’t matter who was in the gun, though. Ochoa made some plays of his own, beating Brown to the endzone with a 29-yard touchdown scamper to put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter.
1-0.
The optics look different if Rice punts the ball on its opening possession and finishes this game with a 31-0 shutout win. In hindsight, that would have been the most invigorating possible result. In practice, that’s effectively the type of performance Rice football put on display on Saturday night.
They came close to 500 yards rushing and held Houston Christian less than 200 yards of total offense in a game that was never in doubt by halftime. It was the Owls’ largest margin of victory since a 69-7 win over Texas Southern in 2024 and the most decisive win posted under Abell’s tenure to date.
It’s just one game, and by the time midseason rolls around any emotional or psychological aftereffects of a multi-touchdown victory over an FCS opponent will be long gone. But Abell is 2-0 in season openers now and certainly has established a culture of confidence. It will be fascinating to see where they go from here.
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