The Rice Owls have experienced some tough times first-hand in the early going of 2011, due in large part to a very tough non-conference schedule. The Owls opened up Conference USA play in Hattiesburg, Mississippi dropping a game against a talented Southern Miss team 48-24 but managed to rebound last weekend with an impressive home victory of a struggling Memphis team and for Rice that game couldn’t have come at a better time.
It’s good for the Owls to gain a bit of confidence as they get deeper into the conference slate, head coach David Bailiff is pleased with the way the defense improved against Memphis.
“That was fun,” Bailiff said during his weekly press conference. “I think it’s nice being able to start a press conference with the progress the defense made - the front four after watching the film, starting with the inside out, with Michael Smith and John Gioffre's play. They played a heck of a game up the middle with Jared Williams and Scott Solomon on the perimeter. I'm really pleased with that front four and our efforts this week. Linebackers, Cam Nwosu and Justin Allen were really all over the field and were the leading tacklers in that football game. We gave up seventy yards rushing, that was nice - with 2.4 (yards) a carry. I thought our pass defense was much-improved and yet a lot of that pass defense was that front four that did such a great job putting pressure on that quarterback, and our blitzing which was very effective. When Cam Nwosu hit their quarterback down in the redzone, he got the ball out and recovered. That was a big play of the football game.”
While he was pleased with the defensive performance on Saturday, Bailiff believes there is plenty of improvement that can be had on the offensive side of the ball.
“I though offensively we still have to do a better job protecting,” Bailiff said. “We have to do a better job of opening seams in the lane. We got Ian Gray in and thought he really did a good job at guarding his first two stints of play, so it's something that we've still have to get better in the offensive line of opening the seams. I thought we ran the ball on the perimeter well, we blocked on the perimeter well, but we have to get it to where we can establish the run. The two interceptions Taylor threw, one of them he was getting hit, and the other should have been caught. The pass was tipped into the air. He's getting better each week. Still, we have some big-play people over there. We need to start making bigger plays and being more consistent moving those chains.”
Next up for Rice is another road trip, this time to Huntington, West Virginia where they take on the Marshall Thundering Herd, with a game time kickoff set at 2:05 CT on Saturday, Oct. 15.
Rice Owls fans, be sure to follow Jefferson D. Powell, as your College Football Examiner he will bring you all the latest college football news and information from in and around the Houston area.
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