Rice football returns to Houston for a Homecoming tilt against the Tulane Green Wave. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.
It was a tough Week 10 for Rice football and the Tulane Green Wave, both of which fell by multiple scores. Rice found itself in a close game midway through the third quarter against North Texas, but couldn’t finish. Tulane was less combative against Tulsa, losing by 50 points during their own Homecoming game. That sets up a game both sides really want to win in Houston this coming Saturday. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup between Rice and Tulane.
Kickoff time | 1:00 PM
Venue | First Community Stadium – Houston, TX
TV | ESPN+ (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)
Gameday cartoon illustrated by Hong Lin Tsai.
Sizing up the Contenders
Oddsmakers don’t know everything, but they’ve labeled Rice football favorites against Tulane. That’s the first time this season the Owls have been expected to beat an FBS opponent. For as much as the record has not been reflective of the strides this team has made, Vegas appears to have noticed there’s some untapped potential hanging around South Main. Any win would be massive for the program at this point, but a win over a name-brand program like Tulane on Homecoming would be particularly persuasive, even if the Green Wave have taken a step back.
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It’s no secret the 2026 season hasn’t gone according to plan for Tulane, but things took a turn for the worse when Tulsa blew them out at home, handing them their fifth loss of the season. With road trips to Houston and South Florida and a home tilt against North Texas, the Green Wave need two wins to reach a bowl berth. Something that once seemed a formality in New Orleans is now in real jeopardy if they can’t bounce back and win on Saturday.
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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 | Rice leads, 20-17-1
Last Five | Rice leads, 3-2
Last Meeting | Away 2024, Tulane won 24-10
Rice Football Stat Notables
Passing | Ochoa – 16/29 (55.2 percent), 332 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT / Brown – 40/83 (48.2 percent), 478 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT
Rushing | Brown – 124 carries, 686 yards (5.5 yds/car), 6 TD / Byars – 105 carries, 497 yards (4.7 yds/car), 3 TD / Hardeman Jr. – 81 carries, 330 yards (4.1 yds/car), 2 TD / Ochoa – 42 carries, 325 yards (7.7 yds/car), 5 TD
Receiving | Clark – 20 receptions, 257 yards (12.9 yds/rec) / Walker – 6 receptions, 111 yards (18.5 yds/rec)
Tackles | Brown – 66 / Combs – 57 / Harnetiaux – 56
Pass Breakups | Brown, Akui, Benjamin – 4 / Harnetiaux, Condoll, Clarke – 3
Interceptions | Hook, Harper, Condoll – 1
Tulane Stat Notables
Passing | Johnson – 76/125 (60.8 percent), 818 yards, 2 TD, 5 INT / Bruno – 5/7 (71.4 percent), 53 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Rushing | Daniels – 89 carries, 542 yards (6.1 yds/car), 6 TD / Turner – 51 carries, 366 yards (7.2 yds/car), 2 TD
Receiving | Hill – 36 receptions, 445 yards (12.4 yds/rec), 2 TD / Brown-Stephens – 28 receptions, 297 yards (10.6 yds/rec), 1 TD / Richardson – 16 receptions, 157 yards (9.8 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Agu – 86 / Adams III – 77 / Williams, Makai – 52
Pass Breakups | Rogers – 4 / Tchienchou, Shine, Smith – 3
Interceptions | Adams III, Rogers – 2 / Smith, TJ – 1
Tulane X-Factor | Get the Defense Off the Field
There is a bounty of unkind statistics for the Green Wave this season, but their inability to get stops on defense has been particularly glaring. Even with the 60 points they allowed to Tulsa last weekend, Tulane ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of scoring defense. Third downs have been a different story entirely.
Tulane is tied for 135th in the nation in third down defense, allowing a 50 percent conversion rate. Only two programs, Colorado State and Northern Illinois, are worse.
Rice ranks last in the conference in third down conversion rate on offense, moving the chains on just 32 percent of their tries. This matchup could very well swing the game. If Rice can keep their offense on the field, they’ll force a flawed Tulane offense to be perfect, something they haven’t shown the ability to do this season. That would be disaster for the Green Wave, making every third down snap paramount this week.
Rice X-Factor | Protect the Football
Rice football enters the week dead last in the American in turnover margin, tallying 13 giveaways with just five takeaways this season (minus eight). That rate has been extremely detrimental against a grueling schedule and it swung what had been a close game against North Texas just last week.
On paper, the Green Wave aren’t the juggernaut that the Mean Green have proven themselves to be. A clean football game should favor a Rice team that, while imperfect, has proven itself to be competitive on offense and defense this season. Handing Tulane free possessions and short fields could be devastating.
And on the other extreme, should Rice find a way to force a few turnovers of their own, Tulane has proven incapable of rallying from that negative game script. The Green Wave are 1-5 this season when losing the turnover battle and have been positive just once, racking up six takeaways against Memphis.
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One Final Thing
Rice football has been favored in exactly one game this season, their season-opening win over Houston Christian. The Owls were 22.5-point favorites and covered the spread. Lines and odds aren’t nearly as important as wins and losses, but they can serve as instructive guidelines for expectations.
On the whole, this team has been able to keep pace against opponents that oddsmakers viewed as vastly superior to themselves and they’ve done it while working to assemble the most potent version of an offense that was forced to go through more iterations than they would have hoped as injuries forced a constant shuffling of the lineup.
The version the Owls put on display against North Texas and Florida Atlantic seems much more sustainable than any version this team has put on film to this point and now it will go up against a team on the ropes with a head coach under immense pressure and a fanbase with frustrated expectations. The ingredients for a get-right win are there, but it’s going to take a more robust effort than the Owls have put forth thus far to turn that hope into a tangible victory.
Every week from now on, Rice football faces a one-game season. There is nothing more important to this program than finding a way to beat Tulane and there’s a season’s worth of angst ready to overflow if they can finally achieve that goal after months of waiting.