The Road to Respect: A Rice Dynasty: Turn it back to 1990

[Kcordloh]

Feel free to post.

I like playing as DC. I am more of 2012 fan than anything, but I have been having fun on 14 lately.

[ZSmit88]

Definitely looks interesting. I'm here for it.

[Kcordloh]

Rice Gears Up For Season Opener at #1 Missouri

Since 2015, the Missouri Tigers have been the force in the Big 8. They have won 8 straight Big 8 titles, several national titles, and back to back Heisman winners!

Led by QB Todd Scales (SR), Missouri looks to go 11-0 and have a run at the national title. Some are criticizing Missouri for only scheduling 11 regular season games in an era when the standard is 12, but undefeated is undefeated and as we know, that's what gets you noticed at the end of the year. Undefeated vs a tough schedule.


Scales two favorite targets, TE Ken Chance (JR) and WR Jeremy Jackson (JR) are back and healthy, which favors to the run and gun style of Missouri.

Rice will rely heavily on senior CB Adam Cook to shut down Jeremy Jackson and the combination of wet behind the ears freshman Doug Fields and Jeremy Horton to contain Ken Chance!

Meanwhile Rice's weak offensive line will try to protect QB Maurice Griffin from Missouri's fierce defensive lineman duo of Courtney Charles and Justin Wheeler! They combined for 15 sacks last year, and look to feast upon Rice's weak line.


The game kicks off at 3pm.

Predicted Final Score: Missouri 45, Rice 14

[Kcordloh]

#1 Missouri sends Rice packing back to Houston

For a quarter and a half it looked like a game.

Unranked Rice, who many people had unofficially ranked at #83, came into Columbia Missouri as two teams.

There was the offense, that was unprepared to face the onslaught of a Missouri Tigers defense that looked every part of a team on a 31 win streak.

And there was the defense. Matt Raymer's young defense came like a house of fire.

Missouri received the opening kickoff, and on their first possession Scales dropped back out and the shotgun, and hit the turf when Paris Singleton hit him like a freighttrain. Rice held Missouri to 3 and out, and Rice's offense took over. Unfortunately, one play later Missouri had the ball with just 31 yards to score.

Rice responded with another 3 and out, but Missouri kicked a 43 yard field goal and took a 3-0 lead.

Missouri didn't score another point until deep in the 2nd quarter when Griffin launched a bomb, that was picked off and ran back for TD.

That's the one that broke Raymer's defense. Down 10-0, with no support from the offense, the young men came back from halftime and gave up 14 points in the 3rd quarter. Down 24-0 going into the fourth quarter, they swapped in their 2nd string on defense, and finally the Rice offense got something going. Griffon hit Newton with a 23 yard strike to make it 24-7, and then as time expired Branch punched it in from 8 yards out to make the final score a closer than it seems 27-14.

Paris Singleton had 5 tackles and 3 sacks for Rice as their standout of the game. Dunlap added 7 tackles, and Rocky Walker had 6 solo tackles!

Meanwhile for Missouri Scales ended up 21/37 for 299 yards and 1 TD.

[Kcordloh]

Uneventful Week 1

(AP): With only 5 games, week 1 was very uneventful.

#1 Missouri defeated Rice 27-14
Arkansas defeated Baylor 35-28 in SWC action
Colorado State defeated Colorado 38-29 to win their 3rd straight in the series
Alabama snapped a 7 game slide with a 28-14 victory over Georgia
Utah State defeated rival Utah 31-7

[Kcordloh]

Rice travels to Arkansas to kick off SWC Competition

Last week Rice traveled through Arkansas to face Big 8 Missouri while Arkansas faced Baylor to start the SWC Conference schedule.

Rice returned home with a 27-14 defeat, while Arkansas is 1-0 with a 35-28 victory. Despite the scores, Arkansas dominated their game with 459 total yards of offense vs Baylor's 287. It was only losing 3 turnovers that kept the game close.

Arkansas is led by freshman QB Reggie Saunders (6'6, 229) and a pair of senior wide recievers Derrick Ryan (6'5, 207) and Mark Dingle (6'3, 195).

Rice looks to improve on their 1.5 quarters of defensive dominance, and hopes the offense can contribute.

Keys to Victory

For Arkansas it's air it out over the middle. The safeties for Rice showed some weakness last week, so the Razorbacks need to challenge them.

For Rice it's to support the defense. Last week showed that the defense can hold up with the best offense in the country, but at some point they need moral support of points on the board. Who knows what would have happened had the Owl's scored those 14 points in the first quarter.

Prediction: Arkansas 27, Rice 10

[RolePlayer]

Interesting concept, I wish conferences looked more like this today. Outside of the fact that even in this virtual dynasty ECU still gets screwed in the 90s realignment.

[Kcordloh]

Arkansas vs Rice opens SWC: Week 2

(AP): Rice opened 2024 with high hopes, and got brought back to earth after facing down #1 Missouri.

They opened SWC play against 1-0 Arkansas, traveling to the home of the Razorbacks!

Arkansas opened the game with a 7 play 73 yard drive to take a 7-0 lead after a R. Sanders 16 yard run capped off the drive.

Rice's defense started clamping down, but the Razorbacks had back to back long drives and took a dominant 21-0 lead after the first quarter.

J. Williamson opened the 2nd quarter with a 63 yard strike to R. Brown to make it 21-7, and after Rocky Walker forced a fumble the next offensive possession of the Razorback the Owl's took the field with confidence!
C. Ostrander came free over the middle and grabbed a 25 yard completion, and after a quick PAT, it was 21-14, Arkansas, going into the half.



The 3rd quarter started with some fireworks, K Larkin got free for a 57 yard run but got caught at the 5. The very next play Razborback QB R. Sanders fumbled, and the Owl's got to work. They ate some clock, and finished the drive with a T. Stevenson 3 yard run, to tie it up 21-21!


The Razorbacks and Owls traded three and outs, but with 90 seconds left the Razorbacks got into the red zone for the 7th time on the day!

The Razorbacks couldn't break the Owl defense, and C. Hurst nailed a 34 yard field goal to give the Razorbacks a 24-21 lead with :17 remaining.

Rice threw a couple deep balls, but time ran out, and Rice fell to 0-2 overall, 0-1 in SWC play.

Meanwhile Arkansas improve to a 2-0 overall, 2-0 SWC record.

Rice POTG: Rocky Walker had 7 tackles, 2 forced fumbles, and a sack!


Up next:
For Rice they host East Coast Alliance #4 Syracuse!

For Arkansas, they host 1-0 (0-0) Houston in their 3rd straight SWC Game to open the season!