SWC Game of the Week: SMU at Rice

The temps are near 100 every day, so it must be football season! Yes, another season and we here at SWC Game of the Week are very excited about this year. This is our third year and we’ve got some new features for our dedicated readers. One is the SWC Blog (http://bubba-blog-nyc.blogspot.com/) where this newsletter will be posted along with other tidbits. The SWC Blog will also allow the readers and others to comment and contribute their own stories and memories. While the SWC may be officially disbanded, for those of us that grew up with the Raycom SWC Game of the Week, and started every year by watching the Cotton Bowl Parade and then the Cotton Bowl, the SWC will never die. I hope everyone is as excited about this college football season as we are here at SWC Game of the Week!

THIS WEEK’S GAME:

This week’s game features the SMU Mustangs making the short trip down I-45 to face off with the Rice Owls on a Friday night (Gasp! Fridays are for the school boys!) in front of a national televised audience on ESPN. SMU leads the all time series 45-39-1 although Rice leads the series in games played at Rice Stadium 15-12-1. The last game SMU won at Rice Stadium was in 1986. (Side note, as many of our readers know, the Editor in Chief is a big fan of Rice Stadium and thinks it is about the best place on earth to watch a football game.)

June Jones will coach his first game for the Ponies and there is excitement on the Hilltop for a quick turn around. Jones coached the Hawaii Warriors to a 12-1 season last year before being lured back to the mainland. SMU will try to bounce back with a true freshman quarterback as Bo Levi Mitchell, who played his high school ball at Katy High School in the Houston area, will get the start. Braden Smith, another true freshman will back him up, leaving returning starter Justin Willis on the sidelines. Mitchell will try to lean on junior widout Emmanuel Sanders who ranks 3^rd in receiving touchdowns, 12^th in yards, and 8^th in catches on the SMU all time list. When SMU does run the ball, they will be handing to DeMyron Martin, a Doak Walker Award candidate who has a shot at becoming the 12^th player in SMU history to pass the 2,000 yard mark. Defensive coordinator Tom Mason will have the Mustangs flying around the ball trying to make something happen. Two linebackers have graduated and converted DE Justin Smart will take over at middle linebacker. Smart will make the defensive calls and after making 29 tackles last year as a freshman shared the “New Mustang” award with defensive end Youri Yenga.

David Baliff will lead Rice in his second season as head coach and will provide some stability to an Owl squad that had seen 3 coaches in 3 years. Rice’s offensive is led by two seniors, quarterback Chase Clements and wide out Jared Dillard. Clements closed last season with some remarkable games: 395 yards passing, 103 yards rushing vs. UTEP; 364 passing, 124 rushing vs. SMU; and 541 passing, 60 rushing vs. Tulsa. He became the first quarterback in the NCAA to complete consecutive games with 300 yards passing and 100 yards rushing. His favorite target is Dillard, who has produced consecutive seasons of 1,000 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns. Clements and Dillard have combined for 32 touchdowns in their careers, only 6 away from the NCAA record. Last season injuries forced the Owls to scramble on the defensive side of the ball and hope to have some stability this year, despite playing some inexperienced players. Senior linebacker Brain Raines, on the Lombardi Award watch list, has 224 career tackles and needs 55 to move into the Owls top ten.

This should be a great opening game if last year’s is any indication. Last year Rice won on the last play of the game, a 31 yard field goal to seal a 43-42 win over SMU. Rice has won 4 games the last 2 years on the their last offensive play of the game. SMU lost 6 games last year by 10 points or less. If you are in the Houston area, we encourage you to make the trip out to Rice Stadium to kick off the new season, if not, you can stay home and watch on ESPN.

SWC MEMORIES PLAYER PROFILE:

This week’s player profile is Rice’s James “Froggy” Williams. Froggy lettered four seasons at Rice (1946-1949) as offensive and defensive end and kicker. Froggy became Rice’s all time leading scorer with 156 points: 13 touchdowns, 75 conversion kicks and 1 field goal. He was a two time All-SWC pick and a consensus All-American in 1949. The 1949 Owls were 10-1 and SWC Champions. Froggy helped Rice to a 27-13 Cotton Bowl victory over North Carolina by scoring a touchdown and kicking three extra points. He seemed to save his best games for arch enemy Texas. In 1949 his only career field goal defeated Texas 17-15 and he also scored 2 touchdowns and kicked 7 extra points in his career against the Longhorns. The was named one of the 1950 Cotton Bowl Classic’s outstanding player and was also selected to the Cotton Bowl’s All-Decade team for the 1950’s. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1965 and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1985. Froggy began his football playing career at Waco High School and was a star on the 1945 co-championship team that tied Highland Park 7-7 in front of 45,000+ fans in the Cotton Bowl.

After his playing days at Rice, Froggy Williams started a career in the oil field. After 37 years in the oil field service industry, the slow downs of 1980-1981 cost him his job. Froggy then began an air conditioning maintenance business in 1987 that is still going strong some 20 years later. Froggy Williams has been an active Rice alumnus over the years, speaking and writing about the history of Rice Owl football.

OTHER GAMES THIS WEEK:

Western Illinois at Arkansas (Western Illinois, easy opener for Bobby Petrino)

Wake Forest at Baylor – Thursday (This probably seemed like a good idea for the Baptist a few years ago, now, not so much for new coach Art Briles)

Southern at Houston (Another new coach, Kevin Sumlin for UH, should have an easy opener)

Florida Atlantic at Texas (Is Texas “tough enough” for Florida Atlantic … cue ZZ Top)

Arkansas State at Texas A&M (Mike Sherman (man the new coaches…) faces the other Arkansas team, who opened with Texas last year and was competitive)

TCU at New Mexico (TCU needs to win on the road this year, they will get a good shot right off the bat)

Eastern Washington at Texas Tech (Texas Tech needs to deal with expectations this year, but this one will light up the West Texas Night)

RESULTS FROM LAST WEEK:

None to report…

STANDINGS:

	Conference:		Overall:
	W	L	W	L
Arkansas:	0	0	0	0
Baylor	0	0	0	0
Houston	0	0	0	0
Rice	0	0	0	0
SMU	0	0	0	0
Texas	0	0	0	0
Texas A&M	0	0	0	0
TCU	0	0	0	0
Texas Tech	0	0	0	0

ON THE BLOG:

Along with this newsletter, read about how Rice’s mascot got it’s name.

FINAL WORD:

It’s great to be back to football season! Enjoy your long weekend and everyone here at SWC Game of the Week welcomes you back! If you are receiving this message you don’t want to, please let us know. Please forward on to your friends. And don’t forget to support the