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'08 Texas Bowl
Pre-game news page
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'I've heard they're located up in western Michigan'
Focus on winning bowl game,
making Rice football history

HOUSTON (Dec. 8) – It seems Notre Dame’s Texas Bowl no-show registered scarcely a blip on the radar screen for the home town contestants in that game – or so insisted Rice head coach David Bailiff and two of his star players here Monday.

Instead, the attitude is "business as usual" for this Rice team, which has the opportunity to earn a 10-win season for the first time in over 50 years as a representative of Rice’s football fortunes. That, in and of itself, is more than enough incentive to keep one’s eyes on the prize, Coach Bailiff and his players unanimously agreed.

"First off, we are absolutely thrilled to be staying at home and going to the Texas Bowl, the Rice head man insisted. "It will be a bowl that our players can cherish because of all the different events that the bowl gives – this is truly an elite bowl for our guys and they will absolutely love it."

First comes the bonuses incumbent with any bowl berth – the ability to work in several more weeks of practice, the chance to get back to fundamentals. "With our having this amount of time to get ready," Rice junior DB Andrew Sendejo said, "we will be able to go back and do some fundamental stuff; we will be able to break down some of the things that we did wrong in the UH game and we will be able to fix all those little things. And that’s going to help us be ready to play against Western Michigan."

Rice senior quarterback Chase Clement also said the travel issue is much ado about nothing – in fact, the circumstances, if anything, play in the Owls’ favor. " I don’t think it’s that big of a deal," he said. "With the team that we’re going to play, being that they’re from Michigan, it looks like we’re going to have more of a home field crowd and that will work to our advantage. But I don’t think that means a whole lot. The way the bowl set you up, it’s going to feel like we’re not at home anyway. They give you so many things to do to keep you occupied and entertained."

Notre who?

Too, there’s no disappointment over the failure to show by Notre Dame as a much anticipated Rice opponent – well, perhaps a tinge of regret over a missed opportunity to kick a storied, but overrated and arrogant program right between the teeth. But not even that, Coach Bailiff insisted.

"I don’t care about any of that," Coach B said. "Just tell me who, show me where, and we’ll go to work. It’s a bowl game is the second bowl game in three years at Rice. So we can quit talking about that, quote ‘the first bowl game in 45 years’ stuff from now on."

"We’re going to our second bowl game in three years. I’m not disappointed in anything. I’m getting goose bumps already. I can promise you this will be this team will be refocused and refreshed. There isn’t any disappointment."

Chase Clement said the opportunity factor was the thing that hit him and his teammates in the face. "I think that we’ve gotten a great opportunity, because of the chance to go to 10 wins – which is an opportunity both teams have. It’s an exciting prospect, and I know that the people associated Rice would agree with that. It will be a great opportunity to accomplish a lot."

Andrew Sendejo shrugged off all the media ballyhoo of the previous week. Doesn’t have anything to do with his world, he said.

"I’m kind of old school," he dead-panned. "It was completely out of my control. So I don’t worry about it. I just enjoyed my week off and tried to get healthy and just let things run their course. You can’t control it, so you can’t worry about things like that area."

"It really doesn’t matter to me who we’re playing. I’m going to go out there with the same attitude that I do every week."

Bailiff impressed with WMU prowess

Coach Bailiff said he hadn’t yet begun to study films of Western Michigan, although he knew from the onset that the Kalamazoo, Mich.,- based school was a potential bowl foe.

"This was a team that (AD) Chris (DelConte) had mentioned we could easily be having as an opponent, the first time I talked to him, so it wasn’t surprising."

Coach Bailiff said he has an enormous amount of respect for his opponent (of course, that’s requisite Coach-Speak but one senses his sincerity in the event.) "Western Michigan, you know, they are nine and three. They have a top 10 passing offense. It’s a game we are really, really going to have to prepare for to have a chance to win."

WMU is ranked 57^th in the BCS standings, and a win over the Broncos, if other games break right, might be enough to propel the Owls into a season-finale Top-25 spot, Coach B pointed out. "There are a lot of opportunities out there for us. On some of the polls, were already up as far as 28th. We are playing possibly for a top 25 spot. When you get an opponent like Western Michigan, with a record if they are having, it gives you an opportunity to move up."

"The guys are fired up about this Texas bowl, and they’re fired up about their opponent. I’m sure that when they first heard (about the Notre Dame defection) there was some disappointment, but if you sit back and reflect, and you see what’s coming, it makes you ready to go to work.

Andrew Sendejo there’s a realization waiting around the bend to hit the Owls in the face. "The feeling is going to settle in here soon, realizing that we have a real chance to win 10 games and be bowl champions, and in that way, to make our mark on rice football history. That’s going to help motivate the guys throughout the next couple of weeks of practice."

Andrew got a big chuckle out of gathered scribes when asked what he knew about Western Michigan.

"Well, I’ve heard they’re located up in western Michigan," he dead-panned. "That’s all I know, I don’t really know about them that much."

"But I’ll be finding out here really soon."

--P. T. H.