Rice football closes out its last game before a bye week with a road trip to Florida Atlantic. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.
It was a rough weekend in the American Conference for Owl-based teams. Rice football dropped a home contest to Tulsa while FAU fell on the road to Army. Although it’s not directly relevant to this game, Temple was upset by Charlotte. At least one of these programs will find relief this week with Rice headed to Boca Raton. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup between Rice and Florida Atlantic.
Kickoff time | 11:00 AM
Venue | Flagler Credit Union Stadium – Boca Raton, FL
TV | ESPNU (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)
Gameday cartoon illustrated by Hong Lin Tsai.
Sizing up the Contenders
Rice football needs a win any way they can come. The Owls have been within striking distance in league game so far, only to falter in the fourth quarter. A win wouldn’t change the underlying issues that need to be addressed or get any of their injured playmakers back on the field, but it would do a ton for the psyche of a team that still has half a season to play.
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On the other sideline, Florida Atlantic came off its bye week before the Army game and faces a tough stretch out of the gate with games against North Texas and UTSA looming. Those Owls can’t afford to get caught looking ahead against a Rice team hungry for a win.
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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, 3-3
Last Five | FAU leads, 3-2
Last Meeting | Home 2025, FAU won 27-21
Rice Football Stat Notables
Passing | Brown – 40/83 (48.2 percent), 478 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT
Rushing | Brown – 118 carries, 668 yards (5.7 yds/car), 6 TD / Byars – 81 carries, 372 yards (4.6 yds/car), 2 TD / Hardeman Jr. – 64 carries, 238 yards (3.7 yds/car), 1 TD
Receiving | Clark – 18 receptions, 223 yards (12.4 yds/rec) / Jackson Jr. – 7 receptions, 102 yards (14.6 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | AJ Brown – 52 / Harnetiaux – 50 / Combs – 47
Pass Breakups | Akui – 4 / Harnetiaux, Clark – 3
Interceptions | Hook, Harper – 1
Florida Atlantic Stat Notables
Passing | Veltkamp – 161/223 (72.2 percent), 1,745 yards, 15 TD, 3 INT
Rushing | Ervin – 81 carries, 361 yards (4.5 yds/car), 2 TD / Farrow – 45 carries, 220 yards (4.9 yds/car), 2 TD
Receiving | Valsin – 47 receptions, 601 yards (12.8 yds/rec), 6 TD / Messer – 46 receptions, 547 yards (11.9 yds/rec), 4 TD / Henry – 28 receptions, 319 yards (11.4 yds/rec), 3 TD
Tackles | Sipp Jr. – 41 / Hart Jr. – 29 / Simpson-Nealy – 25
Pass Breakups | Rogers – 4 / Burris – 2 / Simpson-Nealy, Sweeney, Crable, Foster IV – 1
Interceptions | Simpson-Nealy – 2 / Tooley III, Bax, Foster IV, Sweeney – 1
Florida Atlantic X-Factor | Clean it Up
Only two programs in the American Conference have committed more penalties than Florida Atlantic. And yet, the Owls’ tendency of getting in their own way hasn’t really come back to bite them until last weekend. They committed eight penalties against Army, making an already challenging task on the road that much harder.
What makes things particularly problematic for Florida Atlantic is this wasn’t a one-off event and eight penalties is the norm. The Owls are averaging 7.5 penalties per game and a whopping 8.4 penalties against FBS opponents. That’s getting uncomfortably close to an infraction per series.
That they’ve been able to win in spite of these miscues is a credit to their program, but it’s not a sustainable way to live.
Rice X-Factor | Make Every Possession Count
Sustaining drives has been a challenge for a Rice football offense that has been forced to cycle through a carousel of injured playmakers and with quarterback Jacurri Brown hobbled last week, the threat of a breakaway run from their signal caller forced the offense to be even more methodical from down to down. The results weren’t encouraging.
Through seven weeks, Rice is 13th in red zone trips and 13th in red zone touchdown percentage. Flipping either of those measures, more trips or more frequent scores, would go along way toward boosting the floor for this offense, and it wouldn’t exactly require a Herculean effort to get there.
The Owls want to limit possession and condense the game, taking away whatever advantages their opponent might have by keeping them off the field. If that strategy is going to be executed to its full potential, Rice has to be better in those few possessions that they have. The efficiency has shown through in spurts. This needs to be the game they put it all together.
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One Final Thing
This is the last game before Rice football reaches their bye week. That will be the time for more serious reflections and adjustments to be made for the second half of the season. That could mean personnel or scheme or everything in between. Game week is not the time for such wide sweeping changes, meaning the Owls are going to have to find a way to make it work within the framework currently in place this week.
On offense, they were able to get the triple option going last week against Tulsa and moved down the field with it working under two different quarterbacks. There are some building blocks there. Likewise, the defense made some splash plays but failed in some pivotal moments that, ultimately, swung the game against them.
Against an opponent of similar caliber, which Florida Atlantic appears to be, adjustments to those core facets could go a long way toward enabling this version of Rice football to be competitive, even if there is plenty to clean up and address on a macro level in two weeks.
The reality is, those adjustments have been available to this team for some time and they haven’t been able to seize them.
“We have to go get those breaks. We have to find those momentum shifters ourselves. We can’t wait for somebody to hand it to us,” Abell said following the Owls’ loss to Tulsa. “Nobody is going to hand it to us. People are going to show up on Saturday wanting to win football games just like we do. So we have to go get those.”