Preview: Rice vs Texas Tech

This weekend’s game brings Conference USA and old Southwestern Conference opponent Rice (0-1, 0-1) to Lubbock for a 6 p.m. kickoff at Jones AT&T Stadium. Rice will be bringing its spread offense attack with them, but it will have completely new faces at many of the positions when Texas Tech (1-0) traveled to Houston two years ago.

Gone from Rice offense are seven starters from last year’s squad including their leading passer Chase Clement, leading receiver Jarrett Dillard, leading rusher C.J. Ugokwe and all everything TE/RB/QB James Casey.

Rice, who has already faced off against fellow Conference USA opponent UAB last week, will be bringing in a balance spread attack that ran 66 plays on Saturday, 34 rushing plays and 42 passing plays, that resulted in 391 yards.

Rice started senior QB John Thomas Shepard, but also featured sophomore QB Nick Fanuzzi, a transfer from Alabama, in their 44-24 loss. The Owls seemed to be inclined to use two QBs instead of one with Shepard finishing 10 of 22 for 81 yards and an interception. Fanuzzi, seeing his first action in college, finished going 12 of 20 for 154 yards and a TD.

Filling in for the other skill positions on offense will be sophomore Tyler Smith at running back and senior Toren Dixon as the go to wide receiver.

The Owls will also face a challenge facing the Air Raid spread attack. Rice lost eight starters on defense from 2008’s squad that helped win 10 games and take them to the Texas Bowl.

They definitely looked to struggle on defense last week giving up 516 yards of total yards to UAB. Safety Andrew Sendejo was actually the leading man with 15 tackles, which is a sign that a defense had trouble with both the running and passing game.

The Owls did return notable defensive ends Cheta Ozogwu and Scott Solomon who combined for 80 tackles and 8 sacks last year.  However, Rice didn’t mount much pressure on UAB only able to get one sack on the Blazers QB.

Tech should have no problem moving the ball up and down the field on Rice’s defense, but Taylor Potts needs to show urgency and confidence in his passes this time around. A lot of people are anxious of next week’s game and a strong performance from Potts will go a long way in alleviating those fears in Raider fans eyes.

The Tech offensive line should not face a terribly good pass rush Saturday, but a key to this game will be getting the run game started and controlling the line of scrimmage all game long. This will give the young lineman Chris Olson, left tackle, and Mickey Okafor, right guard, confidence going into Austin.

Tech defensively should not run into any problems, but the potential does lie in Rice’s RB Smith to have a big game rushing if the Raiders can’t control the line of scrimmage. Both defensive ends Rajon Henley and Daniel Howard need to get in the backfield regularly, much like they did against North Dakota, to make it difficult on the Owl’s QB.

If Tech can get a lead early, and one would expect they will, this should make the d-line a force that Rice won’t be able to handle with their personnel.

The Raider secondary will need to show improvement and growth on Saturday for fans to feel any kind of confidence going against Colt McCoy.

LaRon Moore, cornerback, and Franklin Mitchem, safety, are suited perfectly for Big XII WRs, but did not show their ability last week against the Fighting Sioux. They need to protect against silly penalties and cover the intermediate passing routes better.

This game has the potential to get ugly by the second half, but more then the win the Tech players will need to show development from Week One to Week Two.

Potts needs to get comfortable in the pocket and let his passes fly. The offensive line needs to control the line and let the talented stable of RBs get loose and use their speed and agility against the inexperienced Owl’s linebackers and secondary.

Tech’s defense needs to hold steady and continually put pressure on either Fanuzzi or Shepard and get them uncomfortable. The secondary needs to show improvement and safety Cody Davis needs to use his aggressiveness and make plays against the pass.