Fresh off a bye, Rice football returns to action this week in Denton against a red-hot North Texas team. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.
Eight games into a rigorous season, Rice football finally had a chance to catch its breath this past week during a much-needed bye following a shootout loss at FAU. North Texas won’t be quite as rested, but did get the benefit of a Thursday kick last week, taking down FAU in another high-scoring affair, 48-41. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup between Rice and Florida Atlantic.
Kickoff time | 3:00 PM
Venue | DATCU Stadium – Denton, TX
TV | ESPNU (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)
Gameday cartoon illustrated by Hong Lin Tsai.
Sizing up the Contenders
Rice football head coach Scott Abell vowed to take it “one game at a time” following the Owls’ seventh loss of the season against Florida Atlantic, which removed the possibility of a conventional six-win bowl berth. With that measuring stick removed, the Owls must turn their attention to being the best they can be on Saturday. A win against a conference frontrunner like North Texas would be massive for building momentum toward what the program hopes will be a much more productive 2027 campaign.
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On the other side, North Texas should be laser-focused on the task at hand after earning another shot at a potential College Football Playoff berth. The Mean Green came up just short a season ago, falling in the American Conference Championship game to Tulane. Under new management with a refreshed roster, that same opportunity is on the table, but first, they must take care of business against Rice.
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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 | North Texas leads, 9-5
Last Five | North Texas leads, 4-1
Last Meeting | Home 2025, North Texas won 56-24
Rice Football Stat Notables
Passing | Ochoa – 8/16 (50.0 percent), 160 yards, 1 TD / Brown – 40/83 (48.2 percent), 478 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT
Rushing | Brown – 118 carries, 669 yards (5.7 yds/car), 6 TD / Byars – 97 carries, 465 yards (4.8 yds/car), 2 TD / Ochoa – 25 carries, 278 yards (11.1 yds/car), 5 TD / Hardeman Jr. – 74 carries, 257 yards (3.5 yds/car), 2 TD
Receiving | Clark – 20 receptions, 257 yards (12.9 yds/rec) / Walker – 6 receptions, 111 yards (18.5 yds/rec)
Tackles | Brown – 60 / Harnetiaux – 53 / Combs – 52
Pass Breakups | Akui – 4 / Harnetiaux, Clark – 3
Interceptions | Hook, Harper, Condoll – 1
North Texas Stat Notables
Passing | Jackson – 193/267 (72.3 percent), 2,577 yards, 22 TD, 5 INT
Rushing | White – 142 carries, 1,054 yards (7.4 yds/car), 13 TD / Haygood – 41 carries, 171 yards (4.2 yds/car), 2 TD
Receiving | Stevenson – 50 receptions, 781 yards (15.6 yds/rec), 8 TD / Reese – 24 receptions, 335 yards (14.0 yds/rec), 3 TD / Milliner – 20 receptions, 325 yards (16.3 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Barker – 62 / Coombes – 56 / Jones – 47
Pass Breakups | Taylor – 4 / Barker, Jones, Jenkins – 2
Interceptions | Allen, Coombes, Wilson, Davila, Taylor, Garza – 1
North Texas X-Factor | Keep Moving Forward
While the North Texas defense has had its moments, the offense remains the front on which this team will live and die. The highlight-reel plays and the copious amounts of touchdowns have garnered this offense plenty of attention, but it’s what they haven’t done that’s made the biggest impact and presents an opportunity to Rice or whoever can find a way to crack the code.
North Texas doesn’t move backwards. The Mean Green rank second in the American with 3.5 tackles per loss per game and second with .75 sacks per game allowed. They’re better at preventing negative plays than Navy and Rice, both of which run variations of the option and a half of a sack behind Army, which hardly ever throw the football.
If the Mean Green can stay in favorable down and distances, they have their entire playbook at their disposal. Add the talent on their offense to that optionality and you get a combination nobody in the league has been able to solve so far. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Keep doing it. That’s the objective for North Texas on Saturday.
Rice X-Factor | Win Time of Possession
The offensive fireworks in the Owls’ last game were truly a sight to behold. After weeks of trying to get the offense in gear, it was hard to feel any legitimate grievance with the clock, yet that battle might have been one of the more consequential results that Rice football had in the contest.
Entering the game, Abell said he felt Rice needed to “win time-of-possession by five minutes”. They lost it by nearly a full minute, in part because their offense was too good.
“You’re never going to complain about that,” defensive coordinator Jon Kay reflected over the bye week. “It’s a good problem to have.” And yet, if the same pattern transpires against North Texas, Rice will probably be looking at the same result. The North Texas offense ranks No. 2 in the nation, just behind the Miami Hurricanes. The Rice defense will have its hands full on full rest and will be playing at an even more severe disadvantage if they’re gassed.
The Rice offense took a big step against Florida Atlantic. To topple an even more capable team, they’re going to have to elevate their game even further and that means playing a bit of keep-away from the Mean Green.
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One Final Thing
The best thing for the future of Rice football is a successful end to the current Rice football season. There’s no rewriting history or erasing the defeats that have come thus far, but there are some potential flag-plant moments for this program, starting with this game in Denton on Saturday.
North Texas enters the game as one of the only two unbeaten teams in American Conference play. And with one of their losses to defending champion Indiana on the road, the Mean Green have just as good a case as anyone else in the G6 right now for a spot in the College Football Playoff. At a minimum, they qualify for the kind of “top of the league” program Abell referenced as the standard he hopes to see Rice play at before the season.
A season ago, Rice was able to beat some of the teams at the bottom of the league standings. This year they haven’t beaten any of them, but they came closer than anyone else to toppling UTSA, currently 4-0 in conference play.
Frankly, the narrative surrounding this season could flip rather significantly with a win over North Texas. And it sure would be more palatable to look back at a 2026 season that was marred by injuries and bad luck, but featured a crowning win or two that prove this future iteration of Rice football is capable of hanging with the league’s best programs, even while the Owls themselves are beaten and bruised.