Worth the wait: Rice football drowns Navy in rain-soaked victory

By Andersen Pickard     11/5/24 11:37pm

During a normal Rice football game, junior quarterback E.J. Warner doesn’t usually tell jokes from the locker room while the offense is in the red zone. Interim head coach Pete Alamar doesn’t usually spend an hour waiting for his clothes to dry while preparing for a five-yard touchdown run. The support staff doesn’t usually sprint to the Rice Stadium Chick-fil-A stand to buy out their entire supply of sandwiches. 

However, Saturday’s 24-10 win over Navy was no ordinary game.

Kickoff was delayed more than two hours due to inclement weather, and even after the game began, the Owls and Midshipmen endured an additional two delays before finishing Saturday’s conference matchup without any further interruptions. By the time the game — initially scheduled for 3 p.m. — resumed at 8:26 p.m., the three delays totaled five hours and six minutes. During that span, only five minutes and 24 seconds came off the game clock. 

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For the most part, Saturday’s delays were caused by nearby lightning. NCAA policy mandates that players clear the field for 30 minutes after the last lightning strike; the 30-minute timer resets with every strike inside an eight-mile radius, and a little extra time gets added on to allow for players to warm up once conditions become playable again.

During the storms, Rice took shelter in their locker room inside the Brian Patterson Sports Performance Center. Players were also seen walking in circles around the Patterson Center’s weight room — in full uniform and gear — to stay warm during the lengthy pauses in play.

When play resumed, Rice found itself five yards from the end zone, largely thanks to a pair of long catches that graduate wide receiver Matt Sykes had made prior to the third delay. On the Owls’ first play back from the locker room, Warner handed the ball to senior running back Dean Connors for a short touchdown run. The Owls capitalized on their next drive, too, as Sykes withstood contact from a defender to make a physical touchdown catch late in the first quarter.

“Matt is such a reliable guy,” Warner said of Sykes, who caught eight of 10 targets for 93 yards in the win. “I always know I can trust him on the back side, against one-on-one; you know he’s going to make a play.”

The Owls added three more points on redshirt senior kicker Tim Horn’s 47-yard field goal, his longest made kick in over a year. Navy answered with its first points of the game on a nine-yard touchdown run. Rice took a 17-7 lead into halftime.

Each team added one more touchdown in the second half. Rice’s points came from Connors, who rushed nine yards for the score. He finished Saturday’s game with 105 rushing yards, 34 receiving yards and two touchdowns. 

“Any time I give the ball to him and watch him run, it’s fun,” Warner said.

Warner, who missed the Oct. 26 game at the University of Connecticut due to injury, didn’t know he’d be healthy enough to play against Navy until Thursday night. He managed to suit up on Saturday and completed 70 percent of his passes for 239 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Rice’s 24-10 victory brought the team to 3-6 (2-3 in AAC) this season. The outcome dropped Navy to 6-2 and handed them their first conference loss of the year. The Midshipmen’s only other loss this season came to No. 10 Notre Dame. 

Rice held Navy to new season-low marks in rushing yards, total yards and total points. The Midshipmen’s low offensive output is a testament to Rice’s strong defensive showing, headlined by senior safety Gabriel Taylor’s six tackles and one interception. Taylor noted that this week’s preparation felt different. 

“The energy [and] the vibes went up and we just clicked,” Taylor said. “Everybody was disciplined.”

Other defensive leaders included redshirt junior linebacker Andrew Awe (who led the team with seven tackles), redshirt sophomore safety Tyson Flowers (one interception) and redshirt junior defensive end Michael Daley (one sack and one forced fumble). Flowers’ 88.1 Pro Football Focus coverage grade ranked 18th-best among 1,594 eligible FBS defenders in Week 10. 

Rice posted an 81.8 PFF grade in the win, setting their new season-high for a game against an FBS opponent. They also earned season-best grades in pass blocking, defense, run defense and coverage. 

The offensive line showed significant improvements Saturday as redshirt junior tackle Ethan Onianwa and graduate tackle Chad Lindberg both provided key protection for Warner and Connors. Onianwa’s 88.6 pass-blocking grade from PFF ranked 11th among 1,052 FBS linemen. Lindberg ranked 21st with his pass-blocking grade of 87.0.

Overshadowed by the upset victory and lengthy delays was Alamar’s NCAA head coaching debut. He was promoted to interim head coach Oct. 27 after Rice fired Mike Bloomgren during his seventh season with the program. Alamar didn’t expect his first game as head coach to be delayed five-plus hours by weather, but he said he didn’t mind waiting a little longer for the victory.

“I couldn’t even tell you how long [this game] took, but I think if you ask every one of those guys, ‘Was every minute of it worth it?’ everybody would tell you, ‘Heck yeah,’” Alamar said, his outfit soaked by the rain and postgame Powerade shower.

Alamar also said that energy levels were high in the locker room postgame, in no small part thanks to the 64-year-old coach showing off his dance moves. 

“That’s probably worth the price of admission there,” Alamar said of his dancing.

A Rice team that appeared defeated and destined for the bottom of the AAC just one week ago has found new life after one of the conference’s biggest upset victories this season. The Owls can still qualify for a bowl game, but the path won’t be easy.

To remain bowl eligible, Rice needs to win each of its remaining three contests, starting with Friday’s game against the seven-win University of Memphis Tigers.

Friday’s game in Memphis will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2. Rice opens as 9.5-point underdogs, according to DraftKings.

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