Weary football looks to break

By Meghan Hall     10/29/09 7:00pm

After eight straight weeks of losses by the football team, everyone affiliated with the squad, from the players to the fans to the media, is ready for a week off. Most notably, Head Coach David Bailiff has big plans for the bye week after last weekend's conference loss to the University of Central Florida.

"I'm glad we're getting in an open week," Bailiff said. "It's [been] eight straight [losses] and it's time we get some things figured out - figure out how to get this team's confidence back, figure how to get out of this cycle of making mistakes and this cycle of pressing."

The team surely needs fixing after its lackluster home 49-7 loss against UCF (4-3, 2-2 Conference USA). In a recurring theme in the afternoon game, the Knights' quarterback, Brett Hodges, tossed the ball to receiver A.J. Guyton for a 76-yard touchdown score before 20 seconds had elapsed.

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The spirit promptly dissipated from the already-sparse crowd, and Bailiff was determined not to let the same thing happen to his football team.

"At that point I was thinking, 'We've got to keep them up, we've got to keep them into it, because that was a missed tackle,'" Bailiff said. "That's something we've been talking to them all week about, that when something bad happens, put it behind you."

For whatever reason, this message didn't reach the team, and it appeared that the Owls (0-8, 0-4 C-USA) were unable to put that early score behind them. They forfeited two more touchdowns to UCF in the first quarter, including another one-play scoring drive with Ronnie Weaver's 27-yard run, after Rice's punt return from the previous drive was only five yards from the Rice 22.

The Rice defense managed to keep the Knights out of the endzone for more than 15 minutes of play, but UCF snuck in one more score before the half to go into the break with a 28-0 lead. A substantial hole for any team, the lead was especially daunting for a Rice offense that averages fewer than 15 points per game.

"We keep putting ourselves in those holes early," redshirt sophomore safety Travis Bradshaw said. "We have to first of all not put ourselves in those holes, and if we're in it, be able to come back out of it, and we've definitely struggled with it this year. We just have to focus and keep working."

The defense may have kept working, but the story was the same in the second half: UCF scored on a 24-yard interception return and then picked up one more at the end of the third quarter on a three-play drive to increase their advantage to 42-0.

The Owls erased the goose egg at the beginning of the fourth quarter when freshman running back Charles Ross capped a 14-play drive with a one-yard run for a score. Ross matched his career high with 63 yards on seven carries.

UCF stumbled upon one last score in the fourth quarter and left the score at 49-7, the Owls' third-highest margin of loss this season.

"We keep saying that every week, just put it behind you, but we just have to make it happen," Bradshaw said. "We're not coming out there fired up. We're not playing like we know we can right now, and it's just frustrating.

"We have to do something and we have to find out what it is on this week off and come out there with a new identity for next week."

After this bye week, the Owls enter the last third of their season - all against conference rivals - and will face Southern Methodist University (3-4, 2-1 C-USA) in Dallas next Saturday at 2 p.m. Rice should not expect to deliver a 56-27 thrashing like it did last year, though if the coaching staff has its way, improvements will be made for next week.

"It's like we are stuck in a circle," Bailiff said. "We've got to get out of it. I'm glad the open week is here when it is. It's going to let me to evaluate everything from the top to the bottom of this program, evaluate everything we're doing, evaluate our personnel - from me to everything in this program.

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