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2024 Rice Football Schedule Announced

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The 2024 Rice Football schedule was released by the American Conference on Thursday, including a full 12-game slate.

Opponents have been known for some time, but now we have dates. All of a sudden the 2024 Rice football season is starting to take shape following an announcement by the conference office on Thursday that laid out the full slate of games the Owls will undertake this fall.

The AAC released this statement concurrently with the schedule:

The nonconference portion of the schedule features 10 games against teams ranked in the top 25 of the final Associated Press poll of 2023, including seven games against top-15 teams. American Athletic Conference teams will face No. 3 Texas, No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Florida State, No. 14 Notre Dame (two games), No. 15 Oklahoma (two games), No. 16 Oklahoma State, No. 18 Kansas State and No. 25 Liberty in nonconference play.

Teams from The American will play 11 nonconference games against opponents from the Sun Belt, six against Conference USA, five against the SEC, four each against the Big 12 and Mountain West, three against the ACC and two against the Big Ten. American teams will additionally play six games against FBS independents, including two against Notre Dame.

So, here it is, the 2024 Rice Football schedule:

Date Opponent H/A
Aug. 31, 2024 Sam Houston Home
Sep. 7, 2024 Texas Southern Home
Sep. 14, 2024 Houston Away
Sep. 21, 2024 Army Away
Sep. 28, 2024 Charlotte Home
Oct. 5, 2024 — OFF — —
Oct. 12, 2024 UTSA Home
Oct. 19, 2024 Tulane Away
Oct. 26, 2024 UConn Away
Nov. 2, 2024 Navy Home
Nov. 8, 2024 Memphis (Fri) Away
Nov. 16, 2024 — OFF — —
Nov. 23, 2024 UAB Away
Nov. 30, 2024 USF Home

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Rice Baseball drops midweek bout to No. 3 LSU

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A rocky start was too much to overcome as Rice Baseball fell at home to defending champion LSU who scored early and often.

To beat championship-caliber teams you have to play championship-caliber ball. Wednesday night fully encapsulated the degree to which Rice baseball isn’t on the same level as the reigning national champions. And it all came to bear in the span of two half-innings that made all the difference.

Left field Brendan Cumming lost a ball in the lights in the second inning. A few at bats later, he came up inches short of a diving play in the outfield. Had both balls been caught, Rice very well could have been out of the inning with a zero on the board. Neither were. LSU got three.

Last Time Out: Pitching powers Rice Baseball to series win over Louisiana

An inning later, Rice got the first two outs. Instead of retiring the next batter though, reliever Jake Melvin hit him. The next man hit a home run. LSU proceeded to tack on four additional two-out runs. After coming so close to putting up back-to-back zeroes, Rice trailed LSU 9-0 through three innings.

Rice put together four runs of their own, but another large crooked number in the seventh — courtesy of another mammoth home run blast from LSU catcher Brady Neal, his second of the night — ended any illusions of a comeback. Rice fell 16-4.

What it means | Bright lights, strong winds, bad mix

The lights in the outfield were replaced the week before the season began. The new lights are bright. Someone on staff from a visiting team at Reckling Park this season mentioned they’d seen players struggle with similar lighting setups, particularly in the outfield. The first four games proceeded without notice. Then came Wednesday night.

What the scorebook shows is not fully indicative of what really happened in the field. Both left fielders misplaced balls in the air. Multiple balls dropped in between the triangle formed between the left fielder, third baseman and the shortstop. Officially these were ruled as hits because no fielder directly misplayed the baseball. But for those watching the game it was more than evident the field was playing tricks on everyone.

Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was more concerned with the wind that the lights.”I don’t think it was lights at all the lights were great. It’s it’s as bright as it’s ever been here at Rice,” he said. “But we were both playing on the same field.”

ON DECK | vs Stanford (Fri-Sun)

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Shooting fizzles as Rice Basketball falls to Temple

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Rice basketball never found its groove from the floor, falling behind early against Temple and never rallying back.

It took Rice basketball a while to get going in an all-Owl affair at Tudor Fieldhouse on Wednesday night. The visiting Temple Owls controlled the pace of the game in the early going, starting the score with a quick layup and holding Rice without a lead throughout the first half.

Even though Rice managed to hold Temple 28 points before the break, their own shooting woes rendered that workable defensive effort moot. Rice shot 23 percent from the floor before the break, going into halftime with a 28-19 deficit.

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Things didn’t get better after the break. Temple opened the half on a 12-2 run, ballooning their lead to as many as 26 points as Rice continued to struggle from the floor. Travis Evee was 1-for-11. Mekhi Mason was 2-for-11. Outside of Max Fiedler, who finished with a team-high 12 points, no Owls saw any sort of success shooting the ball.

Temple had no such problems. They finished the night shooting 48 percent from the field, earning some payback from a loss to Rice in Philadelphia earlier this season.

Final Box | Temple 65 – Rice 43

Key takeaway | The race is on

By virtue of the loss on Wednesday, Rice basketball finds itself neck-neck with a grouping of six teams vying to avoid the final four spots in the conference standings and thus secure a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Among those in contention are the Wichita State Shockers, who the Owls face this coming weekend.

After Wichita State, Rice takes on Charlotte and North Texas to close out regular season play. Both of those squads currently reside in the top half of the standings. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room remaining. If Rice wants to avoid that first day of the conference tournament, another win (or two) would go a long way.

Up Next: at Wichita State (Saturday, Mar. 2)

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Rice Women’s Basketball drops home tilt to Temple

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Rice Women’s Basketball fell behind early to Temple and couldn’t mount a comeback, dropping their third straight as the conference tournament looms.

Temple didn’t waste any time asserting their intentions on Sunday afternoon. As Rice women’s basketball slowly took their time ramping up, the visiting Owls jumped out to a 13-4 lead, putting the home team on notice. Rice volleyed back, evening the score at 16-apiece before Temple turned on the gas once again. By the time the first quarter ended, Rice was trailing by 10 points.

The Rice deficit hovered around that double-digit mark for most of the next three quarters. They had a tough time slowing down Temple guard Tarriyonna Gary, who led the visiting Owls with 20 points and knocked down all five of her attempts from three.

The long ball would prove to be too much for Rice to overcome. Every time Rice thought they’d cut into the deficit, Temple delivered a back-breaking three. Rice made 4-of-16 from deep. Temple converted 10-of-17.

A furious fourth quarter rally proved to be too little, too late for the home team. Trailing by 17 after a Temple three, Rice went on a 10-2 run, but they still trailed by nine. Malia Fisher led Rice in scoring, finishing with 24 points and eight rebounds, a valiant effort, but eventually, the clock would run out.

Final Box | Temple 75 – Rice 66

Key takeaway | Crunch time

Entering Sunday, the top six teams in the AAC were separated by one combined game in the win column. With four double-byes available for the conference tournament, the margin was razor-thin. That made Sunday’s defeat particularly costly.

Now sitting at 9-7, they hold the tiebreaker over ECU, South Florid and Tulsa, but lack the tiebreaker against Temple, UAB and Charlotte with a game against North Texas looming. The double-bye is still within reach, but how these next few games go will play a significant role in determining who gets the extra rest. Rice cannot afford another loss.

Up Next: vs North Texas (Saturday, Mar. 2)

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Starting pitching propels Rice Baseball to series win over Louisiana

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Rice Baseball picked up a much-needed series win, taking two of three from Louisiana on the road behind dominant starting pitching.

FRIDAY | Rice 2 – Louisiana 1

Following a bumpy start in the regular season opener, Parker Smith dazzled in start number two of the year. He delivered a fantastic seven-inning, one-run, four-hit performance that kept Louisiana at bay while the Rice offense managed to sneak across two singular runs, one in the first and another in the third.

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“We had opportunities to really blow this game open,” head coach Jose Cruz Jr. said. “At the end of the day we have Parker Smith out there and Parker through a gem.”

Manny Garza was credited with both RBIs. Davion Hickson came through with a two-inning save, retiring six of the eight batters he faced to secure the Owls’ first win of the season.

SATURDAY | Rice 6 – Louisiana 1

The JD McCracken show started and ended the same way, with a strikeout. McCracken punched out 11 en route to the Owls’ first complete game since 2019 (thrown by Matt Canterino against FIU). The only run he allowed was scored on a wild pitch in the fourth inning.

On the other side, McCracken was aided by a two-run first inning to stake him to the lead, then a tricker of additional runs in the fourth and seventh. Nathan Becker broke the game open in the top of the ninth with a two-run double before McCracken walked back to the mound one more time to slam the door.

SUNDAY | Louisiana 3 – Rice 0

Unlike their previous games, Rice didn’t get the first inning lead they’ve grown accustomed to having. Instead, Louisiana scored first, putting up two runs in the third inning against Rice starter Ryland Urbanczyk. That would prove to be the lone blemish against him, but no run production whatsoever from the Owls would make it the decisive runs in the ballgame.

Rice managed just two hits, making Louisiana pitchers face two more than a minimum in an underwhelming offensive showing that netted them zero runs. The pitching staff held its own, but was still saddled with the loss.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Rice baseball took its first series of the season and has won three of its last four games after being swept on opening weekend. Here are three takeaways from the weekend:

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1. Starting pitching rebounds in a big way

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ON DECK | vs LSU (Wed), vs Stanford (Fri-Sun)

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