Football falls to UAB as new crop continues adjustment

By Meghan Hall     9/10/09 7:00pm

Last time we saw the football team, it was delivering an indisputable beat-down on Western Michigan University in the 2008 Texas Bowl, the big shining Texas star atop a seven-game winning streak to end the season. But with graduation and the NFL draft taking their victims - namely James Casey to the Houston Texans, Jarett Dillard to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Chase Clement to consulting - suddenly there are different Owls responsible for running, catching and throwing the football. These new faces had their debut last Saturday, along with many others, falling 44-24 in a conference battle against the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The beginning of the contest was auspicious: The veteran Rice (0-1) defense, which was returning eight starters, was on the field first and forced the Blazers (1-0) and their star quarterback Joe Webb to go three-and-out.

With the ball in the Owls' hands for the first time this season, fifth-year senior John Thomas Shepherd showed why he beat out sophomore quarterback Nick Fanuzzi to take the game's opening snap, his first start in nearly three years.

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Shepherd quickly moved the team down the field and had a first down within the 10-yard line, but three consecutive shots to the endzone fell short. Senior Clark Fangmeier came onto the field for his first field goal of the season, but the 26-yard attempt was blocked, and the series set an unfortunate tone for the team.

"With [nine] new starters out there [on defense], we left a lot of points out there, especially early in this football game," Head Coach David Bailiff said. "When you're on the road you need to take advantage of those opportunities to get the points on the board, and we didn't do that."

Senior wide receiver Toren Dixon agreed, pointing to the failed opportunities at the beginning of the game as an aspect where the team can improve.

"We made progress, we moved the ball," Dixon said. "We just have to correct those things. You look out at all those points we left out on the field."

As soon as the attempt was blocked, Rice was sent reeling. As part of his Conference USA-record-setting performance for rushing yards in a game by a quarterback - 194 yards total on 20 plays - Webb took UAB down the field on the next series for the first score of the game. The Blazers' 80-yard touchdown drive marked the first time the Owls had trailed in over 16 quarters of play.

The tone was set. The rest of the half featured Webb's strong play, as well as a series of misplays by Rice, that resulted in a 27-3 Blazer advantage by halftime. In the third quarter, Fanuzzi, who had fumbled in his opening first-half drive, hooked up with redshirt freshman tight end Luke Willson for a 52-yard touchdown, the first for each in their careers.

But the scoring was too little, too late. Though the Owls outscored the Blazers 21-17 in the second half, it was not nearly enough to make up for a first half full of uncertainty and mistakes.

Nonetheless, there were some positives to be taken from the game, beginning with the relatively strong play of the special teams, particularly that of redshirt freshman running back Shane Turner, who set a Rice record with 200 yards on kickoff returns. Additionally, the receiving corps performed modestly well, as Dixon picked up a career-high nine catches for 65 yards, though the numbers next to his name were the farthest thing from his mind.

"At the end of the day it's all about winning," Dixon said. "It doesn't matter if I caught nine balls or three balls. We didn't win and that's all that shows. . I still felt like there were a tremendous amount of plays we could have made to change the game."

In terms of the quarterback situation, the fog appears to have cleared a little bit. Shepherd got the start and finished 10-22 with 81 yards and one interception; he also picked up 48 yards on the ground. Fanuzzi, who has been named the starter against Texas Tech University tomorrow, completed 12 of 20 passes for 154 yards and one touchdown.

"Nick threw the ball well," Bailiff said. "We still need to get him better in the running game. Same with [Shepherd]. He ran the ball well, didn't throw it as well as Nick did. . We have a lot of confidence in both those young men."

Another position in question was running back, where several different players were clamoring for playing time. As a starter returning from a serious knee surgery, redshirt sophomore Tyler Smith played well enough - rushing for 37 yards - to earn the praise of his coaches.

"Smith had three knockdowns on his pass protection," Bailiff said. "He did some really nice things where he showed he could be an every-down back."

With all the focus on the offense, perhaps too much confidence was placed in the hands of the experienced defense. They were faced with the tough task of containing Webb, but their performance was littered with missed tackles and poor coverage.

"I really thought we would play better Saturday on the defensive side of the football," Bailiff said. "We didn't play, we didn't tackle. ... We knew we had to be great tacklers and that we had to finish plays. I don't think we did that at any point. . We had one of our better days with few missed assignments and alignments; we had one of our worst days finishing at the point of attack."

Bailiff also spoke of the lack of passion visible in the defense - something that will be sorely needed when the Owls travel to Lubbock and take on the tough Red Raiders (1-0) and their explosive offense .

"When you play defense you need to play it like your hair is on fire, not like you're taking a chemistry test," Bailiff said. "We didn't have a lot of passion out there, and to play great defense you have to be passionate; you have to be willing to take risks; you have to be willing to strain every play you're out there and I don't think we did that. . We can be a lot better on that side of the football, and should be a lot better."

Rice will be facing a stiff challenge tomorrow evening. Besides the hostile atmosphere at Jones AT&T Stadium, the team will have to deal with the sheer size of Texas Tech and their traditionally prolific offense.

"It's always a challenge going on the road with a Big 12 opponent, but we have to take it one play at a time," Dixon said. "It's probably not going to be easy, but we'll go in there optimistic and give it our all."

The coaching staff will be looking for a vast step up in the quality of the defense, a continued improvement by the offense and a higher quality of effort from a young team facing an extremely difficult opening to the season. After Texas Tech, Rice will stay on the road to face another Big 12 powerhouse in Oklahoma State University (1-0) before coming home for back-to-back games against Vanderbilt University (1-0) and the University of Tulsa (1-0) - two of the three teams the Owls lost to last year.

"Tough times don't last, but tough people do," Bailiff said. "We'll continue to work hard and get a football team out there that we can be proud of.

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