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Coaches see yellow in first scrimmage
Abundance of flags mars proceedings

Rice deep snapper Brandon Long does double-duty as he hustles down the field to put the quietus on punt returner Ja'Corey Shepherd in Saturday's scrimmage (Mark Anderson photo)

HOUSTON (Aug. 18) -- If you didn't like the yellow in last year's uniforms, you would not have liked this Saturday's scrimmage all that much, either.

Rice head coach David Bailiff couldn't betray his less- than- enthusiastic take on the proceedings.

"We had five illegal procedure penalties," Coach Bailiff said afterwards of the yellow handkerchiefs that kept hitting the Rice Stadium turf.  And that didn't include the offsides on the defense, or the illegal block that nullified a nice catch-and-run by freshman tight end Wil Norris.

"We had way too many mental mistakes today," Coach Bailiff said afterwards. "A lot of them were by freshmen, but we will be able to take the film from today and sit down with them and show them how badly those kinds of mistakes can hurt the team. I would have liked it to have been crisper, but with the number of people we had out, it's to be expected."

Citing nagging minor injuries and aches and pains, Rice coaches held out a number of players on both sides of the ball, including All-American wide receiver Jarett Dillard.

On the positive side, Bio Benaye-Bilabo scored on the second play of the controlled scrimmage when he took a swing pass from Chase Clement and took it roughly 65 yards down the east sideline untouched. The only other score for the offense was a TD by Justin Hill to the left from eight yards out.

"Chase impressed me today," Coach Bailiff said. "He did some nice things while he was in there," Bailiff noted. "Scott Solomon keeps making plays, but he has been doing that in every practice this fall. There is no doubt that he is going to be playing this season," Coach said of Solomon, who is a freshman defensive end from San Antonio.

Chase opened the scoring in the scrimmage, hitting Bio Bilaye-Benibo with a 67-yard scoring pass on the second play of the day. Freshman running back Justin Hill scored the only other touchdown of the scrimmage, carrying the ball in from five yards out. Benibo led all rushers with 26 yards on five carries and caught a pair of passes for 71 yards. Sophomore Taylor Wardlow led all receivers with three catches for 27 yards.

Defense didn't get shut out in this controlled scrimmage, however. With the ball close to the offenses' own goal line, the idea was to move the ball forward and just get a first down. Instead, two times the running back was tackled in the end zone for a safety.

But that's why they call it practice. As he left the field, Coach Bailiff said he was already on a mission to review the tapes and then correct the mistakes. "Right now I'm giving us a C-minus," he said, "and I can't wait to look at the film."

The Owls begin in earnest their preparation for Nichols State on Monday.

--Mark Anderson and staff, SID reports

Zoom, zoom....

Rice  RB Bio Benibo fires up the jets in an attempt to evade DB Chris Jones in Saturday night's
workout under the Rice Stadium lights (Mark Anderson photo)

Them's big ones....

Rice  QB James Casey takes on a heavy load at the leg lift machine in this recent shot taken at the Rice strength and conditioning facility (i.e., what we used to call a 'weight room') (Mark Anderson photo)

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