Rice football is back from the bye week and hopes to finish the season strong with a win over UAB. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.
Both Rice football and their upcoming opponent, the UAB Blazers, most recently squared off with UAB and met similar results. Rice fell 27-20 in a Friday night affair before entering being off this past weekend. UAB also saw defeat, but by a much wider 53-18 margin. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup between Rice and UAB.
Kickoff time | 1:00 PM CT
Venue | Protective Stadium – Birmingham, AL
TV | ESPN+ (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)
Audio / Visual Preview
We’ll preview Rice football vs UAB on this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, kicking off live on Wednesday on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. Look for a recap of the game on the site afterward as well as on The Roost Podcast, which should be released early next week.
Sizing up the contenders
In years past, this has been a game pitting a conference heavyweight (UAB) against an upstart underdog hunting for bowl eligibility (Rice). Neither descriptor really applies this season. The Owls have an outside shot at a bowl berth should the five-win APR eligibility clause be necessary, but both of these teams haven’t reached their own expectations this year.
For the Blazers, their head coach still has his job. Whether or not Trent Dilfer remains employed beyond Saturday remains to be seen, but winning games tends to be more beneficial when one is trying to be retained than losing them.
Series History
All Time | UAB leads, 6-5
Last Five | UAB leads, 3-2
Last Meeting | Home 2022, Rice won 28-24
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Become a Patron!Rice Football Stat Notables
Passing | Warner – 217/348 (61.5 percent), 2058 yards, 13 TD, 10 INT / Devillier 2038 (52.6 percent), 137 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
Rushing | Connors – 126 carries, 678 yards (5.4 yards per carry), 8 TD / Jackson- 40 carries, 217 yards (5.4 yards per carry), 0 TD
Receiving | Sykes – 55 receptions, 645 yards (11.7 yds/rec), 5 TD / Campbell – 26 receptions, 295 yards (11.3 yds/rec), 1 TD / Connors – 55 receptions, 351 yards (6.4 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Taylor – 50, Morris – 49, Fresch- 42
Pass Breakups | Fresch – 9, Ahoia – 6, Taylor -5
Interceptions | Taylor/Flowers – 2, Fresch/Williams/Mutombo – 1
UAB Stat Notables
Passing | Kitna – 152/253 (60.1 percent), 1755 yards, 12 TD, 10 INT
Rushing | Beebe – 131 carries, 641 yards (4.9 yards per carry), 4 TD / Jacobs – 41 carries, 162 yards (4.0 yards per carry), 7 TD
Receiving | Thomas – 56 receptions, 610 yards (10.9 yds/rec), 8 TD / Shanks – 51 receptions, 581 yards (11.4 yds/rec), 5 TD / Beebe- 26 receptions, 199 yards (7.7 yds/rec), 0 TD
Tackles | Moore – 82, Roussaw – 63, Bryant – 58
Pass Breakups | Dempsey – 8, Hill – 5, Maddox – 4
Interceptions | Five tied with one
UAB X-Factor | Cut down on the penalties
UAB is the second most-penalized team in the AAC. The Blazers inability to play clean football games has cost them on multiple occasions and they’ve had to overcome nine or more infractions in each of their wins on the season. Just because UAB has made that uphill climb before doesn’t make it any easier to replicate.
The Blazers had a chance to upset Arkansas earlier this season but had 10 penalties for a combined 109 yards. Five penalties for 65 yards aided in their come-from-ahead loss at UConn two weeks ago. This is a team that can’t stay out of their own way, at times. If they want to win a conference game against someone not named Tulsa, they need to clean up their act.
Rice X-Factor | Run the dang ball
When Rice football choses to run the ball, they’ve done so effectively. The Owls average 4.8 yards per carry on the season, a mark that puts them right in the middle of the pack in the conference and is more than a yard better than they averaged all of last season. They’ve done this with a ever-rotating offensive line.
It’s not quite that simple, though. Rice ranks dead last in the nation in rushing attempts. For whatever reason, Rice hasn’t pounded the rock this year. And it’s not because they’re not capable of doing so.
UAB ranks dead last in the AAC in rush defense, allowing more yards per game on the ground than anyone else in the league. Conversely, they’re neck-and-neck with the Owls for the best pass defense in the conference. Sometimes the formula isn’t complicated. When you’re good at something and your opponent isn’t, expose that discrepancy. This week in particular, Rice must run the ball.
Injury Report (Subscribers only)
One Final Thing
The transitive property does not apply to college football. But…
Rice and UAB have five common opponents this season: Army, Navy, Tulane, UConn and Memphis. Rice is 1-4 in those games. UAB is 0-5. The Owls’ average margin of defeat is 7.4 points, generally playing all of their opponents closely except for a one-sided loss to Army.
UAB’s average margin of defeat in those games is 48-18. Roll the ball out against just about anyone and the Blazers typically lose by four touchdowns.
Again, the transitive property does not apply to college football. But…
Even the most pessimistic view of the 2024 Rice Football season casts the Owls as a challenged team that can’t get everything functioning as it was meant to be. At their best, they can beat Navy and push conference frontrunners (Tulane, Memphis) to the brink in the fourth quarter. UAB’s best… probably still ended in a multi-score defeat.
Vegas has Rice as about a touchdown favorite on the road this week, only the third time they’ve been favored in a game this season. They lost the previous two (SHSU, Charlotte). What does that have to do with Saturday’s game? Absolutely nothing.
Rice football is probably a better program than UAB right now, even under an interim head coach. It sure would be nice to make that reality plain an obvious on the field this weekend.
