Owlook

It was deigned to come to pass, the reasoning would go, that the Owls should have somehow found a way to eke out a win over 1AA Nichols, without putting forth any particularly more strenuous an effort. Perhaps it could have been one decent-sized downfield pass to set up a last-minute Clark Fangmeier field goal to pull out a 17-16 win. We’d have groused about the game; but we’d have been glad to get the win.

Forget Texas, Tech, and even Baylor. The Rice coaching brain trusts weren’t sufficiently in gear at that point, given the fact that this is, indeed, their first year with the team and, what the hey, boy genius Todd Graham didn’t do a whit better, bottom line, in his first five games either.

But then there was the win at Southern Miss – shouldn’t have been a nail-biter but as Coach Bailiff said, any win in Hattiesburg is a keeper. And follow that up with an offensive coming-out party the likes of which the Owls put on in Jeppesen Stadium Saturday – remind us, just how does one lose a game in which one puts 48 points up on the scoreboard?

A tackle here, a sack there; one more pass completion; a picked-up blitz – and let’s face it: if Brian Raines had been healthy, Rice WOULD have won that game. Who believes otherwise?

But those are the circumstances the Institute football boys find themselves facing as they prepare for their first-ever meeting with the Memphis Tigers Saturday afternoon in what stacks up to be Game One of Chapter Two of this 2007 season.

Memphis is 2-4 against a mediocre non-conference schedule

Memphis – pardon some of us oldsters if it still comes out sometimes saying "Memphis State" – has won two games, but has been more impressive, at least at times, in their four losses.

The Tigers own a 35-14 win over Jacksonville State and a 24-21 league victory over Marshall. Those of you who saw any of that UM-MU game on TV will hope that none of the Owl players saw any of it – the lackluster showing put on by both teams would stand to make an opponent – any opponent – just a bit overconfident.

Memphis has already played four home games,  including last week’s contest, an un-pretty 21-7 loss to Middle Tennessee State. Of course, the Owls aren’t exactly sporting a major home field advantage, as they’re winless thus far this season in two games at Rice Stadium, themselves.

The Tigers opened the season with a loss to cross-border rival Ole Miss after falling behind a 20-0 at the half. Playing on the road at UCF, Memphis had all kinds of problems in falling 56-20. But even beyond that, the Tigers are winless in two games against the Sun Belt Conference – hey, we know how that feels – falling at Arkansas State 35-31 after leading 31-6 at the half, and then of course falling last week to MTSU.

At Monday’s press conference, Memphis head coach Tommy West announced that senior quarterback Martin Hankins will be back at the helm after missing a couple of games with a hip pointer.

Two weeks ago in Memphis’ home victory over Marshall, backup quarterback Will Hudgens moved up the depth chart ahead of  Hankins -- and stepped up with a career-high 346 yards passing. But last week against MTSU, Hudgens reverted to form, completing only 13- of-35 passes for 134 yards. The running game wasn’t all that much help either, as the Tiger offense totaled only 248 yards of total offense and 13 first downs against the Blue Raiders.

Veteran QB, nursing hamstring, to return against Owls

That’s why Coach West appears to be rolling the dice in getting Hankins, a senior, 612, 210-pounder from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, back onto the field despite the fact that hamstring injuries can be nagging and tend to slow down a player even once he's cleared to play.

"Right now we'll go right back to Martin (Hankins) for the same reason I went with Will (Hudgens)," Coach West told press Monday. "I went with Will because I thought Will played well against Marshall. I thought Will looked very comfortable running the system against Marshall. I felt like Will gave us some things creating some plays against Marshall. And then Will got his opportunity, and Will didn't play very well and didn't do the things I thought he would do to help move the team. Right now we'll go back to Martin."

Coachspeak translation: "Can’t anybody around here play this game?"

The beleaguered Memphis head coach is still searching for solutions at running back, as well. Sophomore running back T.J. Pitts has played well in recent games, but the single-game high yardage mark for rushing this year belongs to senior Joseph Doss , who netted all of 59 yards in the season opener against Ole Miss. The Tigers, as a whole, are averaging 134.2 yards rushing per game, good for ninth in C-USA.

''Committee is a good word,'' Coach West said of his offensive backfield. ''When you don't have one guy, you have to do it by committee. Everybody has to help this team run for 150 or 200 yards."

Perhaps the most potent offensive weapon for the Tigers is 6-8 sophomore wide receiver Carlos Singleton, who’s hauled in 21 receptions on the season for 286 yards, an average of 13.6 per catch. Actually the leading Memphis receiver, yardage-wise, is Maurice Jones, who’s picked up 50.8 yards per game. Again, UM boasts a solid and deep receiving corps but with no major stars in the vein of Jarett Dillard.

Suspect running defense may give Chase chance to run

This Memphis game might give veteran Owl quarterback Chase Clement a chance to further his comeback tour, started so ably at Hattiesburg and Houston. Memphis has shown a vulnerability to opponents' quarterbacks who can both run and throw the ball. In fact, least week Middle Tennessee freshman QB Dwight Dasher gained 180 yards rushing, including a 61-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that sealed the deal for the Blue Raiders. 

Defensive leadership is provided by senior linebacker Quinton McCrary, who participated in each of UM’s three most recent bowl games. At the same time, the three leading tacklers on the team are Jake Kasser, a 5-10, 205-pound senior linebacker from Germantown, Tennessee, Brandon Patterson, a 6-1, 195-pound free safety also from Germantown, and Dontae Reed, a 6-2, 210-pound safety from Memphis.

''We've got to maintain focus,'' McCrary said Monday. ''Those guys that were here during those bowls, they never quit. That's one of the things that made them so special. They never gave up on the coaches or the system. They kept playing.''

Be that as it may, Memphis is allowing 188.3 rushing yards per game, ninth among Conference USA teams.

Defensively, the Tigers are in the unusual position of being ranked high in turnover ratio – fourteenth in the nation – being plus -10 in the turnover margin in the last four games. The Tigers have picked up 12 fumble recoveries, five of them being garnered by the aforementioned linebacker Quinton McCrary.

But that hasn't translated into victories, for the most part -- nor have the Tigers shown much of a scoring punch when obtaining possession via the turnover route.

The Tigers seem to have the same problem as the Owls in giving up big plays, as well.  For a recent example, two of Middle Tennessee's three touchdowns last week came on plays better than 50 yards.

UM also might be the only C-USA team to have even greater special teams, er, ‘issues’ than does Rice. Against Arkansas State, the Tigres, up 31-7 early in the third quarter, gave up an 89-yard punt return that got the Sunbelt team on the road to what is so far this season’s most extensive comeback.

To take it further, Memphis ranks last in C-USA in field goal percentage (4-of-9) and last in punting (27.6 net average). That punting average is good for precisely  119th place among 119 NCAA Division 1A teams.

So what does that add up to for the Memphians in the way of Saturday’s game plan? Let Coach West tell the tale.

"Offensively, we've got to be able to control the ball," he said Monday. "In this kind of game, it will be critical that we're able to run the ball some and we've got to control the ball. Our defense held up remarkably well last week until the very end. When you go 46 seconds, 52 seconds, a minute and six seconds an out, that's putting a lot of pressure. The other thing offensively last week is we had tremendous field position with turnovers. Great field position. "

He added he believed his team needs to keep the Owls off the field because they are so explosive offensively. "They've done a good job at winning," he quipped. "They've won I think seven of their last eight conference games. They've done a nice job."

--P.T.H.