Rice Owls College Football Pregame Quote, 09/14/2021

We’re in the midst of the back end of Tropical Storm Nicholas. We had to make some adjustments for the team, our players and staff, to make sure they were safe. We are going to pick up whatever we need to this afternoon. Our thoughts and prayers certainly go out to anyone who was affected by the storm in our area and beyond.

Talking about our team and the last game, I know that when this team does things right, we’ll have great success. We can beat anybody. On Saturday, we didn’t do that. I don’t believe that was our best shot. I take my hat off to Houston. I think they had a great plan. I just wish we had played like we’re capable of. That really is our mantra right now. What we have to do is play to the best of our ability and play within our scheme that the coaches set forward. That’s what we’re going to do this week. We’re going to fight our butts off. We’re going to try to make sure we know our jobs inside and out and the techniques that are appropriate and then go on the field and execute them this weekend.

We know we have a great opportunity. We know we get an opportunity to play another football game. A football game in a really cool place and cool environment. I have faith in this team to respond the way we need to. They had a great practice yesterday. They came out with a hard hat mentality and really attacked the day. I was really pleased with what they did yesterday. But again, our focus is going to be on us; on fixing the things that need to be fixed and preparing to play our style of football this weekend.

Talking about this weekend, we travel to Austin, to DK Royal Stadium and get a chance to play there. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Steve Sarkisian. We’ve had a chance for our paths to cross many different times with different teams. I’ve studied the stuff he’s done since he was at Washington, to USC, to the (Atlanta) Falcons to, of course, last year at Alabama. I just think he’s an incredible offensive mind. I know he’s going to have his team ready to play. So, again, it’s just a great opportunity for our team. I think that that everybody who grew up in Texas probably dreamed of playing in that stadium, on one side or the other. Where it was for the Longhorns or against them. Since we all came to Rice, we look forward to these opportunities to play that team. We would love nothing more than to earn a victory on Saturday night.

On the quarterback situation going into the Texas game:

We’re preparing both those quarterbacks to get reps with the ones. We are going forward with Luke McCaffrey right now and trying to get him to understand the system and get him to make the best decisions within it and protect the football.

On what made him decide to go with QB Luke McCaffrey:

We just think he gives our team the best opportunity to be successful, not only today but going forward. There’s things that he brings to the position and to the team that are different. The ability to affect the game with his legs. The ability to keep plays alive. When he’s comfortable and stands in there and throws, or when he is on the move, he’s got a super strong arm. But the ability to keep plays going and do things with his legs are really the reasons right now.