An open letter to Rice Football Coach David Bailiff

By Anthony Lauriello and Alex Weinheimer     11/29/12 6:00pm

Dear Coach Bailiff,

Congratulations! As Owls, we cannot be more excited about this year's football season. Doing things right by having true student-athletes and still having a .500 record is something in which everyone at this school should take pride. Of course, there were some close and disappointing games, such as our home loss to Marshall University in overtime or our barely-missed chance to take out C-USA favorite University of Tulsa. However, these were offset by our upset of the University of Kansas Jayhawks or our grtty win over Tulane University. As the saying goes, you win some and you lose some. We are overjoyed that for the first time in our collegiate careers, we have not lost more than we have won.

However, as we move to an exciting bowl game in either New Orleans or Fort Worth, we have one small request to make. You see, in our last home game against Southern Methodist University, we found ourselves cheering for Rice to not convert on third down during the fourth quarter. The reason for this strange turn of events was twofold: Our victory was assured, and we wanted to see Chris Boswell kick. Already, Boswell had kicked three field goals over 50 yards, tying a NCAA record. We wanted to see that record broken. And that's not the only record we want to see broken. We believe that with a guy like Boswell on the squad, there is no reason the school record should be less than 60 yards.

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In fact, why stop there? Our exhaustive Wikipedia research indicates the world record for an in-game field goal is a mere 69 yards, kicked in 1976. Seeing Boswell's 56-yard kick yard sail easily and powerfully during the SMU game demonstrated that breaking this benchmark is not inconceivable. Rice Stadium is where America launched its successful attempt to go to the moon; let's make it the place where we launched our successful mission to reach 70 yards.

Imagine what would happen if we set the record during our bowl game. Chris Boswell would be on Good Morning America, and even in this crazy year for college football, Rice University would make it to the highlight reels. It would be famous not only in school history but nationally, providing loyal fans with an achievement to cite when forced to defend the Owls' contributions to the sporting world.

Naturally, as head coach of a Division I football team, your first priority is ensuring the development of your student-athletes, and your second is winning games. We are not suggesting that you throw out the playbook and simply go into the bowl game with the sole purpose of breaking field-goal records. However, it should be your secondary purpose. Later this month, when we find ourselves around midfield late in the fourth quarter, a bowl game victory already secured, we implore you, Coach Bailiff: Let Chris Boswell kick us into the history books.

 

Wiess College Senior 

Anthony Lauriello and Martel College Senior

Alex Weinheimer are Thresher Backpage editors.

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