presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
GAMEDAY: Rice
KICKOFF: 7pm CT, NRG Stadium, Houston, TX
TV: CBS Sports Network
PXP: Carter Blackburn
ANALYST: Aaron Taylor
SIDELINE: Jenny Dell
RADIO: Longhorn IMG Radio Network
PXP: Craig Way
ANALYST: Roger Wallace
SIDELINE: Quan Cosby
Sirius 81, XM 81 and streaming at online channel 81
GAMBLING
LINE: Texas -32 (opened at -30.5)
72% of public bets are on the Longhorns to cover the spread along with 78% of the money, indicating that sharp, big-money bettor support for the public sentiment.
OVER/UNDER: 56 (opened at 57.5)
67% of public bets are on the over, while only 27% of the money is on the over, strongly indicating that sharp, big-money bettors are going strongly against the public sentiment and expecting the game to be lower-scoring than public sentiment.
Fun Facts from the Texas SID
• Saturday’s game marks the 95th all-time meeting between the two former Southwest Conference rivals, but the first since 2015. UT bested Rice, 42-28, at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in the teams’ last meeting. Texas holds a 72-21-1 advantage in the all-time series and has won 13 straight against the Owls. The Horns have won 41 of their last 42 meetings against Rice, dating back to 1966. UT is 29-13-1 all-time against Rice in Houston and defeated the Owls 34-17 in 2010 during the teams’ last meeting at NRG Stadium.
• Texas faces a challenging slate in 2019 that features three new non-conference opponents from last season. Similar to last year, those games are the first three of the season. The first two featured a pair of 2018 bowl winners with Louisiana Tech, which Texas defeated, 45-14, to open the season, followed by No. 6 LSU, who edged out UT, 45-38, in Austin last week. The final non-conference game will be the renewal of the series against former Southwest Conference foe Rice at NRG Stadium in Houston. The final nine weeks of the regular season will all be in Big 12 Conference play, with six of the nine opponents coming off of bowl appearances a season ago.
• Texas head coach Tom Herman was the offensive coordinator at Rice in 2007 and 2008, where he made his biggest mark as a play caller. In 2008, Rice’s passing offense ranked in the top 10 nationally in passing (327.8 ypg/5th), scoring (41.6/8th) and total offense (472.3 ypg/10th)
• Heading into Week 3, the Horns are ranked at No. 12 in the AP Top 25 and No. 13 in the Amway Coaches Poll. Texas was slotted at No. 10 in both the AP Top 25 and the Amway Coaches Poll to start the 2019 season, marking the first time since 2010 that the Longhorns have opened the year ranked in the top 10 of both national polls. It was the 34th time that UT has been ranked in the top 10 of the preseason AP Top 25 and the Horns have appeared in 53 of 69 possible preseason polls since 1950. Texas’ top-10 preseason ranking marked its third-straight appearance in the preseason AP Top 25, sealing UT’s longest stretch since a 12-year run concluded in 2010.
What to Watch For
A glimpse at the backups
If things go according to plan, we'll likely see our first extended run of the 2019 season for a bunch of backup players on the offensive and defensive sides of the football.
The first one people will think of is backup QB Casey Thompson, who I'm personally excited to hopefully see in extended action. As for his pass-catchers -- at TE, look out for Jared Wiley and a possible cameo from freshman Brayden Liebrock if things get way out of hand.
At the slot WR, we'll probably see extended run for stud Jake Smith and once he gets pulled, it should be the Jordan Pouncey show. At the outside WRs, we're sure to get a heavy dose of Marcus Washington at some point, as he's even seen a little time already versus La Tech. Al'Vonte Woodard was also back quicker than expected from his foot injury and should see run as well - people forget that he was a highly-rated prospect. We could also get a first-peek at Kennedy Lewis in game action.
I'd expect the offense will begin to slow down (not coincidentally) around the time the second OL gets in there, but we'll just have to see how that goes. Maybe a weak second-unit full of developmental promise could insert its will on the likes of a school like Rice even though it holds no prayer of doing so against better opponents.
On defense, we've already seen a pretty deep rotation along the defensive line and getting more run to Jacoby Jones, Moro Ojomo and Marquez Bimage will be key as Ta'Quon Graham has basically been a ghost at the SDE position through two games. D'Andre Christmas might even get his first snap of the season!
The LBs will be interesting to watch as well. We'll see Juwan Mitchell as the first ILB up after the Top 3 of Ossai, McCulloch and Adeoye. Mitchell played 32 snaps versus La Tech and I think we can expect something similar here. Marcus Tillman played only 2 snaps in that contests and was a standout in camp. We should be excited to see No.13 with extended run tonight. We'll probably also get to see ILB Caleb Johnson and OLB Byron Vaughns in their first appearances on defense.
In the secondary, Kenyatta Watson could see his first substantial run on defense of the 2019 season and this should be critical, must-watch material for Texas fans as the corners of Texas have been the team's overall weakest link to start the season. Watson needs more playing time and an opportunity to push players like Kobe Boyce for a starting job and a nice performance in a game like this could go a long way in giving a coaching staff not known for being risky in personnel decisions some evidence to show that trying such a change could benefit the unit.
And remember one thing:
It's still Texas football.
Yes, it's an opponent that many fans view as inferior and a game that some may see as a potential snoozer-in-the-making. It's the kind of game on the calendar that many bitch about other teams scheduling in order to rack up early-season wins. It isn't Citadel or Sam Houston State or Lamar (cough ... SEC ... cough) but it's certainly one where a W should be at least penciled in on your programs.
But it's still Texas football, and we only get so many of these every year. Think back to yourself in the doldrums of spring with only mid-season NBA basketball to scratch your sports itch. You'd give a pinky to watch the Horns play Rice.
And Rice wants to kick Texas' ass -- have no doubt. They would probably hang up a banner. "Texas NRG Champions 2019" or something with the score and date underneath. The 0-2 Owls and their 2-13 (career) head coach Mike Bloomgren would give that same pinky we talked about to get within a sniff of Texas on the scoreboard.
Texas cannot let him do it.
It will not let them do it.
THIS. IS. GAMEDAY.
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
GAMEDAY: Rice
KICKOFF: 7pm CT, NRG Stadium, Houston, TX
TV: CBS Sports Network
PXP: Carter Blackburn
ANALYST: Aaron Taylor
SIDELINE: Jenny Dell
RADIO: Longhorn IMG Radio Network
PXP: Craig Way
ANALYST: Roger Wallace
SIDELINE: Quan Cosby
Sirius 81, XM 81 and streaming at online channel 81
GAMBLING
LINE: Texas -32 (opened at -30.5)
72% of public bets are on the Longhorns to cover the spread along with 78% of the money, indicating that sharp, big-money bettor support for the public sentiment.
OVER/UNDER: 56 (opened at 57.5)
67% of public bets are on the over, while only 27% of the money is on the over, strongly indicating that sharp, big-money bettors are going strongly against the public sentiment and expecting the game to be lower-scoring than public sentiment.
Fun Facts from the Texas SID
• Saturday’s game marks the 95th all-time meeting between the two former Southwest Conference rivals, but the first since 2015. UT bested Rice, 42-28, at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in the teams’ last meeting. Texas holds a 72-21-1 advantage in the all-time series and has won 13 straight against the Owls. The Horns have won 41 of their last 42 meetings against Rice, dating back to 1966. UT is 29-13-1 all-time against Rice in Houston and defeated the Owls 34-17 in 2010 during the teams’ last meeting at NRG Stadium.
• Texas faces a challenging slate in 2019 that features three new non-conference opponents from last season. Similar to last year, those games are the first three of the season. The first two featured a pair of 2018 bowl winners with Louisiana Tech, which Texas defeated, 45-14, to open the season, followed by No. 6 LSU, who edged out UT, 45-38, in Austin last week. The final non-conference game will be the renewal of the series against former Southwest Conference foe Rice at NRG Stadium in Houston. The final nine weeks of the regular season will all be in Big 12 Conference play, with six of the nine opponents coming off of bowl appearances a season ago.
• Texas head coach Tom Herman was the offensive coordinator at Rice in 2007 and 2008, where he made his biggest mark as a play caller. In 2008, Rice’s passing offense ranked in the top 10 nationally in passing (327.8 ypg/5th), scoring (41.6/8th) and total offense (472.3 ypg/10th)
• Heading into Week 3, the Horns are ranked at No. 12 in the AP Top 25 and No. 13 in the Amway Coaches Poll. Texas was slotted at No. 10 in both the AP Top 25 and the Amway Coaches Poll to start the 2019 season, marking the first time since 2010 that the Longhorns have opened the year ranked in the top 10 of both national polls. It was the 34th time that UT has been ranked in the top 10 of the preseason AP Top 25 and the Horns have appeared in 53 of 69 possible preseason polls since 1950. Texas’ top-10 preseason ranking marked its third-straight appearance in the preseason AP Top 25, sealing UT’s longest stretch since a 12-year run concluded in 2010.
What to Watch For
A glimpse at the backups
If things go according to plan, we'll likely see our first extended run of the 2019 season for a bunch of backup players on the offensive and defensive sides of the football.
The first one people will think of is backup QB Casey Thompson, who I'm personally excited to hopefully see in extended action. As for his pass-catchers -- at TE, look out for Jared Wiley and a possible cameo from freshman Brayden Liebrock if things get way out of hand.
At the slot WR, we'll probably see extended run for stud Jake Smith and once he gets pulled, it should be the Jordan Pouncey show. At the outside WRs, we're sure to get a heavy dose of Marcus Washington at some point, as he's even seen a little time already versus La Tech. Al'Vonte Woodard was also back quicker than expected from his foot injury and should see run as well - people forget that he was a highly-rated prospect. We could also get a first-peek at Kennedy Lewis in game action.
I'd expect the offense will begin to slow down (not coincidentally) around the time the second OL gets in there, but we'll just have to see how that goes. Maybe a weak second-unit full of developmental promise could insert its will on the likes of a school like Rice even though it holds no prayer of doing so against better opponents.
On defense, we've already seen a pretty deep rotation along the defensive line and getting more run to Jacoby Jones, Moro Ojomo and Marquez Bimage will be key as Ta'Quon Graham has basically been a ghost at the SDE position through two games. D'Andre Christmas might even get his first snap of the season!
The LBs will be interesting to watch as well. We'll see Juwan Mitchell as the first ILB up after the Top 3 of Ossai, McCulloch and Adeoye. Mitchell played 32 snaps versus La Tech and I think we can expect something similar here. Marcus Tillman played only 2 snaps in that contests and was a standout in camp. We should be excited to see No.13 with extended run tonight. We'll probably also get to see ILB Caleb Johnson and OLB Byron Vaughns in their first appearances on defense.
In the secondary, Kenyatta Watson could see his first substantial run on defense of the 2019 season and this should be critical, must-watch material for Texas fans as the corners of Texas have been the team's overall weakest link to start the season. Watson needs more playing time and an opportunity to push players like Kobe Boyce for a starting job and a nice performance in a game like this could go a long way in giving a coaching staff not known for being risky in personnel decisions some evidence to show that trying such a change could benefit the unit.
And remember one thing:
It's still Texas football.
Yes, it's an opponent that many fans view as inferior and a game that some may see as a potential snoozer-in-the-making. It's the kind of game on the calendar that many bitch about other teams scheduling in order to rack up early-season wins. It isn't Citadel or Sam Houston State or Lamar (cough ... SEC ... cough) but it's certainly one where a W should be at least penciled in on your programs.
But it's still Texas football, and we only get so many of these every year. Think back to yourself in the doldrums of spring with only mid-season NBA basketball to scratch your sports itch. You'd give a pinky to watch the Horns play Rice.
And Rice wants to kick Texas' ass -- have no doubt. They would probably hang up a banner. "Texas NRG Champions 2019" or something with the score and date underneath. The 0-2 Owls and their 2-13 (career) head coach Mike Bloomgren would give that same pinky we talked about to get within a sniff of Texas on the scoreboard.
Texas cannot let him do it.
It will not let them do it.
THIS. IS. GAMEDAY.
