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Inauspicious inaugural

GIVE 'EM A HELMET AND PADS

It takes three UAB defenders to finally drag down Shane Turner afte he rumbles 38 yards, through heavy traffic, on kickoff return (PTH photo)

BIRMINGHAM, AL (Sept. 5) -- OK, then, was 2008 just a dream or something?

The Rice Owls started out as if in a dream, themselves, on both sides of the ball as Joe Webb and his UAB Blazers calmly dissected the Feathered Flock, running out to a 27-3 halftime advantage and never looking back in a 44-24 runaway win under rainy skies here Saturday evening.

Despite penetrating the UAB 10-yard line their first two possessions, the Owls came away with zero points to show for their efforts, and that fact proved the by-word for the game, as it seemed to invigorate a UAB offense that thereafter was able to stage big play after big play against a tentative Rice defense.

The three-touchdown loss brought the Owls (and needless to say, their fans as well) down to earth with a thump after their off-season bask in the glow of 2008's ten-win campaign, and served to point out just how thin a line there is between winning and losing. That’s the good news, according to Rice head coach David Bailiff – Rice didn’t get "outpersonneled" out there Saturday, except perhaps on the sidelines.

"It’s my job," he said afterwards, "to get these young men in situations where they can be successful. I didn’t do that. Looking back, I should have scrimmaged more during the spring; given the defense more live work; given the offense more live work."

The Owls, in fact, appeared to play the game as soft as a Dairy Queen cone, in the first half driving the ball with relative ease at midfield but then quickly cratering in the red zone when the slogging got tough.

"Offensively, we’ve got to learn to take advantages of the opportunities that we have," DB said, with the obvious implication that they didn’t tonight. "We had way too many opportunities especially early in in this football game; I believe it was five drives either stopped by a drop or a penalty. You can’t do that; especially on the road. You’ve got to play with a toughness about you, to where you can’t beat yourself."

Defensively, it was more of the same thing, the Rice head man averred.

"As good a job as UAB did tonlight – and Joe Webb is an amazing talent – so much of this tonight was just Rice beating Rice, and that’s me. I’ve got to do a better job."

Of course, the eleven defensive guys on the field are going to have to consider stepping up their game a bit, as well.

Andrew Sendejo, who led Rice tacklers with 15 on the day, was emphatic about that necessity.

"That was just a case of us not making the plays," Andrew said. "They didn't really come out with anything that we hadn't seen before. It just came down to us not stepping up and making a play."

"We had a good week of practice and we really didn't expect to get gashed like that, especially by the tight ends. We were in position a lot of times, we just didn't make the play. And that's just something we've got to work on next week when we come back on Monday."

Owl defense just wasn't there, for most part

Patrrick Randolph hangs onto the ball as he dodges spearing UAB defender (PTH photo)

"I'm very disappointed in the way we tackled," Coach Bailiff said. "That's me.  We're going to work extremely hard on fundamentals starting Monday when we go back to practice. This defense has a lot of talent, and we've got to get them playing like it.

"He (Webb) put us on our heels, and instead of risking to be great we turned passive."

"He’s a talented guy – but we sure didn’t do anything to help ourselves. And we knew going into this, that we had to be great tacklers, we knew we had to protect the football; we knew we couldnt’ have any stupid penalties – and we had all three."

It didn’t look that way on UAB’s opening possession of the game; it looked as if the defensive had come ready to play, as Scott Solomon, Terrance Garmon and Travis Bradshaw combined to force a three-and-out. Moreover, the Owls rushed the punter and forced an anemic boot which traveled all of 17 yards, allowing Rice to set up shop at the UAB 43.

John Thomas Shepherd, as advertised, drew the starting nod for the Owls, and immediately under him the Rice offense clicked. Tyler Smith ran well, running for two first downs while J T connected with Patrick Randolph for 12 more in between.

It was then first and goal from the nine, and that’s when the wheels came off. First down, a desultory halfback dive by Tyler Smith netted three. From there, on second down, John Thomas misfired to Taylor Wardlow. Then on third and goal... let JT take the narrative from there.

"We had Patrick Randolph open back of the end zone, but the ball got tipped just a little at the line of scrimmage," he said glumly, "so we missed that big opportunity right there."

Then on fourth down, what should have been a routine field goal was tipped in the line and returned by UAB out to their 20, and the initial Owl drive was kaput, with zero to show for the effort.

Operating from their 20, on second and 7 Joe Webb made his first big play of the night, and it happened to be through the air due to a breakdown in pass coverage. The big senior UAB quarterback hit Nick Adams as he streaked toward the post and outran his defender. The play carried for 45 yards to the Rice 32, and from there it was just a matter of a couple of plays before Webb hitched up his saddle and ran around end for 15 yards and the score.

Down 7-0, the Owls moved the ball again – at least until they approached the shadow of the goal.

Things got off to a great start when Shane Turner took the ensuing kickoff and returned the ball 49 yards to the UAB 48. It wasn’t a lucky seam, either – Shane picked up blockers, picked his hole, and threaded his way downfield. Repeatedly. Anyway, he had plenty of opportunities this day.

Two straight completions to Toren Dixon set up the Owls in business, and then, after a holding penalty nullified a 20-yard Tyler Smith gainer, J T got it back with a 19-yard scramble.

At that point the Owls were knocking at the door on the UAB 11, but three downs netted only eight yards, and on fourth and two from the three, John Thomas attempted an ill-advised pass in the general director of Tyler Smith coming out of the backfield.

"Looking at it from the pre-snap, I thought I had a good opportunity to get a little pick and get Tyler open in the flat," Shep said afterwards, taking full responsibility for the gaffe. "I left it a little behind him; probably should have thrown it a little bit quicker, and the safety was able to cut in and make the pickoff."

UAB’s Chase Daniel scooped up the interception and returned it to midfield, and things all of a sudden began to look very distressing indeed. But after a holding penalty set back the Blazers, Webb attempted a scramble on second and 17, whereupon he was rocked by a hard hit from Justin Hill, who separated the big fella from the ball, and it was recovered by John Gioffre.

Thus, as the first quarter ended, the Owls had set up shop at midfield, trailing only 7-0, so the thought went that Rice’s anemic first quarter showing had not really resulted in any kind of irreparable harm.

First quarter ended with Owls in striking distance

Taylor Wardlow threads his way down the sideline in picking up key first down (PTH photo)

But Rice’s ensuing offensive series went backwards, and Kyle Martens had to punt out on fourth and 14. He got off a nice 51-yarder, but it sailed into the end zone for a touchback.

From there, the second play from scrimmage, UAB’s Webb ran wide and simply evaded the outstretched arms of the Rice defenders in the area, streaking 71 yards untouched for the score.

That 71-yarder seemed to take the starch out of Rice’s defensive effort, for from that point onward, Webb & Co. pretty much had their way with the Rice defenders.

"I really think what happens is when he got us on the big plays, as aggressive as we were wanting to be, they got us back on our heels, and we started playing passively," Coach Bailiff said, "and we weren’t letting it all hang out and risking to be great. We need to risk to be great."

Nope, not much in the way of risk out there among Rice defenders Saturday. Couldn’t find much in the way of greatness, either – at least not the kind of greatness that this same unit made very evident in closing out last season against Marshall, UH and Western Michigan. Where was it?

As Vandal Al Franken says, "uh-uuh-unh."

Nick Fanuzzi came in to quarterback Rice’s third series, but his initial efforts as the Rice man under went for naught as well. After hitting Pierre Beasley twice in a row on the sideline route, Nick stretched for the first down on a keeper, and wound up coughing up the ball to UAB’s Ed Henigan at the Rice 44.

He was falling all over his sword afterwards. "You could say there’s a little inexperience going on out there," he said. "My first drive, especially, I made a read, cut it up – had the first down, really – but didn’t have the ball tucked away; and there was a turnover. " Translation: "Gack! I coughed up the pill!"

UAB covered the ensuing 44 yards in four plays, including a crucial scramble by Webb, with the score coming on a nine-yard slant to a wide-open Fantrell Forrest.

Though the Rice defensive line rose up to get a hand on the ensuing PAT attempt, still, at that point, it was 20-0, and the rout was on.

Another fine 38-yard return by Shane Turner gave the Owls good field position next possession, however. Yup, an actual Rice bright spot was the job on kickoff returns rendered by the sophomore running back. In fact, Shane's 200 total yards on his six returns set an all-time Rice record for kickoff return men.

"You look at what Shane Turner did on his returns," Coach Bailiff said, "I think that’s as fine a job as I’ve seen at any job I’ve had in a long time."

From there, aided by defensive holding call and a pass interference penalty, the Rice offense traveled as far as the UAB 11. But then the red zone swoon reared its head, and the Owls had to settle for a 29-yard Clark Fangmeier field goal to finally get on the scoreboard.

When the Rice defense forced a UAB punt on the ensuing possession, thoughts were that an Owl offense could finally get untracked and force the Blazers to within striking distance by halftime.

But, with J T Shepherd at the helm, the Owls went nowhere, and had to punt the ball again. UAB responded by romping 64 yards in seven plays to take a 27-3 lead into the halftime locker room, Webb going 22 yards to his favorite receiver, Fantrell Forrest, for the score.

Fanuzzi takes over in second half as Owls finally reach end zone

Shep makes his cut in heading downfield for 17-yard scramble (PTH photo)

The Owls took the second half kickoff and, under the guidance of Nick Fanuzzi, moved the ball 78 yards in 13 plays for their first touchdown of the’09 campaign. The touchdown came on second and goal from the eight, when Fanuzzi dropped back, found his receivers covered, and dashed into the end zone, in a bit of improvisation that tends to separate the sheep from the goats.

Notions of a stirring comeback were quieted considerably, though, when on the ensuing possession, UAB drove the ball at will, taking it down the field for the score in five plays, Justin Brooks scoring on first and goal from the seven.

This time, it was Nick Fanuzzi’s turn to go three and out, and on third and four he never had a chance, as he was swarmed under for a loss of nine to his own seven yard line, putting the Owls in a deep hole.

Brandon Yelovich got off a punt which bounced underneath return coverage, where it was fielded on an ill-advised move by UAB’s Jim Mitchell. The Rice punt coverage was all over him, and Travis Bradshaw jumped on the resulting loose football at the Rice 49.

This time, John Thomas Shepherd captained the ship, completing three out of four pass attempts on the next drive, albeit all of them of the short  variety. Marcus Knox was in on this series, as well, and he ran hard for yardage, including a bulling four yard smash into the end zone for the six.

With the score thus standing at 34-17 with 2:40 to go in the third quarter, the 150 or so Owl fans in the stands couldn’t help wondering what the complexion of the game would have been, had the Owls picked up, say, 10 or 14 points out of those first two drives that wound up yielding zero.

But the defense had no further statement to make, as it allowed UAB to blow back down the field, covering 75 yards in five plays, Dexter Barnett carrying it in from the 10 to cap the drive.

After a holding penalty put the quietus on the ensuing Rice possession, UAB quickly moved another 50 yards to set up a 41-yard Josh Zahn field goal, and at that point, with 7:23 left in the game, the Owls were down, 44-17.

But Nick Fanuzzi came into to quarterback the Owls, next possession, and after another formidable Shane Turner return out to the Rice 43, Nick promptly found an open Luke Willson on the sideline, and the Canadian dashed 52 yards into the end zone for his first career TD, and it was 44-24.

The Blazers were ready to go home and get out of the rain at that point, trying to ice the clock on their next possession. They punted out to the Rice seven, but, led by Nick Fanuzzi and frosh running back, Charles Ross, the Institute Boys moved the ball crisply down the field. Three Ross carries netted 34 yards, and Fanuzzi pushed the ball downfield to Derek Clark for a gain of 20. The drive stalled at the UAB 16 with only a few ticks left on the clock, however, after the Owls had moved the ball 78 yards.

In retrospect, it was clear that Nick Fanuzzi had had the better day, despite his early sputters, but Coach Bailiff was circumspect afterwards, when queried regarding his spot grading of the two Rice quarterbacks, Shepherd and Fanuzzi.

"You know both of these guys at times looked absolutely brilliant and you can tell at the same time that they’ve got a lot of work to do," he said. "The game is going to slow down for them every rep that they get; that’s why late in the game, I wanted to score; I wanted to milk every minute out of that clock; to make this football team better."

So, who's going to start next week, Coach?

"We’ll have to watch the video. Sitting here, I know there’s a whole lot of both of them that I’m proud about; but there’s things that we’re going to have to grow from and improve on."

--P.T.H.

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