'09 SMU game page
SMU 31, Rice 28
Another way to lose
Owls completely outplay SMU, but three blocked place-kicks award game to frats

Patrick Randolph (L), Pierre Beasley celebrate Pat's first TD catch of the day (PTH photo)

DALLAS (Nov. 7) -- Allow one blocked place kick, and chances are one of your men missed an assignment.

Give up two blocked place kick tries, and it's pretty much got to be the case that you have alignment problems.

But concede to the other side three blocked place kick attempts in a single game, one of them returned for a touchdown, and you've got -- and we mean this purely hypothetically and conjecturally, mind you -- well, you've got yourself a horse of a different color.

Speaking of horses, the SMU Mustangs managed to drag just enough of them out of the stable to hold off the yet-winless Rice Owls, 31-28, here Saturday – not the least of them being Estonian  immigrant Margus Hunt, who pounded to the turf two of those three blocked kicks that the Owls, indeed, allowed on this sun-dappled fall afternoon.

The numbers don’t lie, and the truth of the matter is that if you take seven points off the SMU side of the board and add seven on the Rice side, such points being the direct result of those blocked kicks, the Owls walk away with a 35-24 win.

This is hardly a matter of conjecture or speculation – all of Clark Fangmeier’s attempts were in the ‘easily makeable’ if not the ‘chip-shot’ range. The rest of the day – except for two or three mind-numbingly predictable possessions in the second half – the Rice offense moved the ball better than it has all year.

Both blocked field goal attempts came at the end of long Rice drives which resultingly produced minus-seven and zero, respectively.

And all of this, with quarterback Nick Fanuzzi apparently being required to stand like a Roman statue in the pocket, either getting the pass away, getting swarmed under, or getting tubed by the refs when an apparent forward pass attempt got swatted away and called a fumble.

Now, there may be ample reason for such rigidity in the Rice offensive play set. Perhaps Nick is still sporting a bothersome shoulder and simply can’t be allowed, for his own safety, to scramble downfield. And it’s it’s possible that...nope, that’s about it for excuses.

In fact, the Rice offensive product Saturday, though the most productive thus far of this damnable season, was mindful, to Owls of a certain age, of the play-calling exhibiting in, oh, about the 1961 edition of the AFL Houston Oilers, with an aging and usually hung over George Blanda standing stock still, six yards behind the line of scrimmage, arm cocked. Except that George was allowed to move around more than Nick was Saturday.

Hey, but why complain? It worked.

In 1961, that is. Which makes sense, in a way, because that’s about the heyday of ...aw, never mind.

But even the most recent Owl fans can recall the prolific Rice offense of the past three years, each under the tutelage of now-departed offensive coordinators,   that so often was ignited by quarterback Chase Clement, who, facing a heavy rush with his receivers covered, time and time again, was able to scramble downfield for first down – or better – yardage.

Any Owl football fan who’s achieved the pay grade of Rice sophomore or better has had a chance to be aware of the scrambling ability shown by Nick in this past spring drills.

But we’re shocked, shocked, to say there was no scrambling going on out there Saturday, and despite Nick’s 252 yards passing, some precision acrobatics by Rice receivers, and dogged, if not spectactular running by three Owl running backs, that, too, turned out to be a difference-maker.

Take, for instance, Rice’s final drive of the first half.

20-7 Rice lead was erased by Ponies before half

Cody Bauer gets his game face on  before leveling his man (PTH photo)

After the Owls shut the yaps of the 15,000 or so well-turned-out party animals in the home stands by surging to a 20-7 lead, SMU managed to put together a late second-quarter drive of 78 yards pulling to within 20-14 with 1:41 left on the halftime clock.

In response, the Owls ran the two-minute offense as well as it can be run, Nick Fanuzzi coming out and hitting Vance McDonald for gains of 8 and 27 yards, and Pierre Beasley for 11 more sandwiched around runs for first-down yardage by Ross, Smith and Goodson.

At that point the Owls were facing first and 10 from the SMU 12 yard line, with two timeouts left and right at 40 ticks left on the scoreboard clock.

But it was there that Rice’s clock management skills faltered. A second and ten quick out to Toren Dixon lost two yards, but more importantly burned, like, 24 seconds off the clock, and so with six seconds left in the half, instead of making one more aerial attempt at the end zone, the Rice offense ran a play to center the ball for a seemingly easy field goal try.

According to Rice head coach David Bailiff, at that point the Owl offensive unit was still a bit discombobulated over a blocked extra point attempt when the Owls had gone up, 13-7, a few moments earlier. Consequently, he said, they bunched up a bit too tightly, whereupon SMU’s Sterling Moore came on from the outside and got his hand on the kick, whereupon it was picked up by the Ponies’ Bryan McCann and returned 74 yards for the score. You can bet that brought the partisan Homecoming crowd to life, after the SMU fans had sat on their hands for most of the first half.

So, instead of 27-14, which it might’ve been given a bit better clock management, or 23-14, which a successful field goal attempt would’ve yielded, it was 21-20, SMU – which negated, essentially, a rousing first-half offensive effort by the Owls.

After SMU took a 7-0 lead, Rice came out and move the ball with alacrity. Well, not exactly at first. First possession, the Owls coughed up a fumble by Jeremy Goodson, stretching for extra yardage at the SMU 19.

It looked, thus, as if the Owls were going to play themselves out of this game early, but an aroused defense stopped an ensuing SMU drive when Kevin Gaddis made an acrobatic interception of a hollow is a Kyle Padron pass deep in the Rice end zone.

Then is when the Owl offense got cranked up. Rice proceeded to grind out an 80-yard , 13-play drive, capped by Nick Fanuzzi’s 11 yard post pattern to a leaping Patrick Randolph, who did his best impression of a Jarett Dillard imitation in going high to snag a touchdown pass beneath the goal posts to tie the score.

Taylor Wardlow had three big pass receptions on that drive, for 21, 16, and 6 yards – all instrumental in keeping the drive alive.

Stuff, sack, fumble produced on consecutive plays by Rice 'D'

Charles Ross did not put up big stats on the day, but had some key carries for the Owls (PTH photo)

Brandon Yelovich placed his second consecutive kickoff into the SMU end zone, and this time the Rice defense came out loaded for bear. First play, SMU’s Zach Line was stuffed for no gain by Alex Lowry.  Next, Scott Solomon came on to deliver a crushing blow to Padron (see photo above), who coughed up the ball to Kevin Gaddis at the SMU 23 yard line.

Two plays later, Nick hit Patrick Randolph again from 23 yards out, and the Owls had themselves a 14-7 lead. Oops, make that 13-7 instead of 14-7, because it was on this occasion that the Estonian immigrant, Margus Hunt, got his first set of hands on the ball to block the extra point attempt.

SMU could not manage a sustained drive on its next possession, either, as, after a single first down, helped by key stops by Aaron Williams and Scott Solomon, the Owls forced a punt and took over at their 20.

Once again, the Rice offensive machine got cranked up. This time, the Owls covered 69 of their 80 yards on the ground, a single pass completion going to Pierre Beasley for 11 more. The drive clearly rated the most smash-mouth of the year for the Flock, and highlighted Coach Bailiff’s insistence that "three of our most talented players all line up at running back."

So with just over five minutes to go in the half, the Owls were sporting a 20-7 lead, and thoughts actually turned to, "how can we get a stop and put up seven more against these guys before half?"

The Ponies, however, were able to mount a scoring drive in response, even though the Rice defense came out strong with a first-down sack of quarterback Padron by Scott Solomon and friends. But the Mustangs got cranked up after that, getting a scoring pass e from 23 yards out, Padron to Emmanuel Sanders.

The Owls went into the halftime locker room stoked up, nonetheless, despite the fact that they should’ve by all rights held at least a nine-point, or even perhaps a two-touchdown lead against SMU.

"We were ready to go," DB Travis Bradshaw said afterwards. "After that blocked field goal for a touchdown, their crowd was getting into it, their players were talking trash, and we didn’t want to go to halftime — we wanted to stay out there and play. It was really the first time all season I’ve seen everybody all crazy in the locker room."

After interminable halftime interval, Owls came out gunning

Vance McDonald makes the catc and tucks it under for more yardage (PTH photo)

After what seemed to be interminable frat- and sorority-centered halftime Homecoming ceremonies ("EEK. Screeeech! Goo Boo Phoo beats out Tri-Delt for Homecoming Queen!"), Rice took the second-half kickoff and got right back to work.

Taylor Dupree picked up a key third-down grab for the first down, and then Patrick Randolph made a couple of nice catches to put the Owls in business deep in SMU territory. On third and five from the SMU 17, however, Nick Fanuzzi misfired to Dupree, so Rice set up for what looked to be an easy field goal which would’ve wrested the lead from SMU.

You guessed it. Margus Hunt once again got his palm on the ball (anybody know how to say that in Estonian?) but at least this time Clark Fangmeier managed to fall on it, so at least the score stayed 21-20.

The Ponies moved the ball on their ensuing possession, but the Rice defense rose up to arrest them on goal-to go, thanks to key stops by Chris Jones and Travis Bradshaw. SMU’s Matt Szymanski hit the chip shot field goal, but the damage was slight, as the Ponies at that point led only 24-20.

It was then, however, that the Rice offense begin to show the same sort of predictability that it exhibited in previous one-sided losing efforts. Two consecutive three and outs forced the Rice defense to work overtime to keep SMU out of the end zone.

Then, on the first play of the fourth quarter, Kevin Gaddis returned a Szymanski punt nine 9 yards to the Rice 21, and hopes arose for a time-consuming, lead-commanding touchdown drive.

But on the first play from scrimmage, Nick Fanuzzi dropped straight back, cocked his arm, and was met by SMU’s Chase Kennemer, who surged into the Rice backfield unblocked. It appeared as if Nick’s arm was moving forward, but the officials ruled   the resulting loose football a fumble instead of the apparent forward pass, and that gave the Mustangs possession at the Rice 26.

So the Ponies managed a cheapie touchdown, Shawana McNeil carrying it over on the ground from 9 yards out four plays later. That made it 31-20 SMU, then, when on the balance, the score should have been reversed in Rice’s favor.

After an exchange of possessions, as as the clock ticked down, the Owls managed a 69 yard drive capped by a 4 yard touchdown pass to Toren Dixon, followed by a leaping Taylor Wardlow grab deep in the end zone for the two-point conversion.

That made it 31-28 with 1:46 to play. Naturally, it was up to the Owls try to convert the onside kick, but the ball simply didn’t bounce the way it needed to, and SMU managed the recovery. The Owls got the ball back over on downs with a mere 6 seconds remaining, but the ensuing multiple lateral play didn’t get the job done, and the scoreboard clock  ran out,with SMU ahead by three.

The way the Pony players were prancing about, cavorting with the Mayor’s Trophy, wildly tossing footballs into the stands, you’d have thought they had just won the Cotton Bowl, instead of a very, very lucky triumph over a still-winless Rice team.

Rice quarterback Nick Fanuzzi had his best game of the season, however, and a few minutes after the final gun, seemed ready to play the game all over again.

"You could feel there was momentum on offense," said Nick. I felt like we were in control of the game, it felt like we were the better team, but it comes down to finishing everything. We were so close, but we need to finish."

--P.T.H.

Successful offense starts with clicking OL, Coach Bailiff says

Rice OL was last intact during OSU game, eons ago -- but is back together for SMU (MA photo)

HOUSTON (Nov. 5) – It all starts with the offensive line, Rice head coach David Bailiff insisted to gathered scribes at his Monday media luncheon this week. Hmm, and it just so happens, coincidentally, that the last time the Rice brain trust had its season-opening OL lineup intact was the Oklahoma State game, when quarterback candidate Nick Fanuzzi found his sea legs behind a stout OL push, leading the Flock to three straight second-half touchdowns and putting a scare into the high-flying hosts.

Owlook

That, however, is when line stalwart Taylor Hicks went down with an injury, followed week by week with a succession of wounded OL warriors that resulted in a makeshift, shifted-around set of line personnel that never jelled and never really provided much in the way of protection for the beleaguered Owl quarterback corps (and how many times have we used that word this season?)

With the bye week, though, Jake Hicks is back from the Red Cross squad, the Rice OL alignment is back to where it was against OSU, and Coach Bailiff insists that this is going to have nothing but a positive effect on the offensive fortunes of his team, currently ranked 111^th in total offense among 120 Division 1A teams, and third-to-last last in scoring.

"You'll find this football team is refreshed, refocused," Coach B said, alluding to the extra time off. "You'll see the offensive line is back to where it was at the OSU game."

"I think you'll find that with Jake Hicks coming back you'll see the offensive line is back to the position where it was at Oklahoma State where we really started to play well. And if Jake can come back, he was a really solid player for us and he gets us back into everybody's position where we need to be."

Speaking of returning wounded, senior Terence Garmon will be returnin on the defensive side, and that’ll help, too, Coach noted. "His personality coming back will really give us some confidence defensively. We've had five different lineups wiht the offensive line. That hurts. Everything on offense starts right there at the offensive line."

Pssst, it’s a secret, but Owl fans might even see a new wrinkle or two in the offensive backfield come Saturday on the Hilltop. "We've seen that three of our best players are running backs," Coach Bailiff noted, alluding to Jeramy Goodson, Tyler Smith, and freshman Charles Ross. "We've got to find a way for these guys to get on the field at the same time, to produce."

Up at the podium a moment later, when running back Goodson began to get more specific, the Rice head man smilingly shushed him up.

A two-back set? Why not? Anything to give the beleaguered,er, there we go again, Nick Fanuzzi another option or two.

"The inconsistencies in the offensive line have been hard on Nick; even the timing with his drops,"Coach noted. "With Jake coming back that's going to help us really solidify that offensive line, which will solidify Nick where he'll be confident when standing in the pocket."

Not to mention the possibility of having more than one ball carrier/blocker line up behind him. With that, can the seemingly heretical act of bowing under at center be that far away?

While the Rice traveling squad will be the youngest assembled by a Rice coaching staff in several years, the Ponies will likely be even younger, including a second-string true freshman quarterback who wasn’t in anybody’s plans, not even SMU head coach June Jones, at the beginning of the season.

"SMU was young a year ago, took its lumps, and got better," DB noted. "SMU has got big time receivers, a big time tailback and is really playing solid defensively."

Yeah, like holding a prolific Tulsa offense to a couple of TDs in an impressive 27-13 homecoming spoiler in Okie land last week.

How are the Owls going to man up with this resurgent Pony team? By working extra hard during the beat-off week, it seems. Oh, and at the same time, taking the extra time to not work so hard and long.

"We were able to start working on SMU last week, we were able to have three extra practices on SMU – but shorten them and get the players off their legs," Coach Bailiff explained, sort of.

"We're going to change some things this week schematically and hopefully that will help us as a football team."

"Everything we'd done was not working. Schemicatically, we can start with the defense. The problems haven't been our youth – (Phillip) Gaines and those guys have been playing well."

Nope, it’s been mostly a matter of missed tackles and short fields, the Rice head man averred. "You look at the reality of some missed opportunities we've had."

But strategy-wise, Rice opposing coaches, starting with June Jones -- who’ll never be confused with January– may expect to see something completely different.

"Offensively, everything we've looked at, from formation to personnel, we've evaluated everything in ths program," DB insisted. "The only way out of this is to change some of the things we've been doing that haven't been working, and that's what's going to happen."

"Mostly what we need to do is just give this football team confidence. We’ve got to figure out a way to get out of this Ground Hog Day and get a win."

--P.T.H.