yeah! in Waco. Baylor beat Colorado at Colorado the week before....then came home to lose to Rice. Classic.
Scoreboard Rice! As a UH alum I am glad Rice is in CUSA with UH. College sports does not have to revolve around the BCS.
I've always looked at that game as the beginning of the monumental collapse of the Baylor football program. They did have a couple of decent years after that, but that loss hurt so bad.
Okay, look. I don't know if you have a better gauge of the student population or if I do. More than likely, you're speaking from personal experience when you went there. When I went there (I'm not there now, but I think one of the posters is...), I felt like my friends / college [WRC] / classmates) thought *most* athletes were just like everyone else. In fact, the football players were the most visible on campus, unlike the basketball or baseball players. They didn't stand out, but they were most definitely around. As for apathy among students and profs. It's funny how people delude themselves into thinking that you support your team through thick and thin no matter what. Please. Wasn't it easy to get tickets to the A&M-UT game last weekend in CS? Why is that? I have two memories of sports at Rice - going to UT-Rice at Rice Stadium, where the place had a buzz and people were interested because UT was great and Rice was *decent*. Second, going to Rice-TCU at Autry for a basketball game because Rice was *decent* (start of season) and TCU was ranked. In both cases, it took some time but the crowd got into it because the teams performed. Rice will never have the hype of larger BCS schools. There's no way. They can be competitive, however, while fielding a team that meets their requirements and shows a positive face to the media/population. I don't believe Hatfield was the coach to do that, and I'm glad he's gone. I don't see why some hotshot high school coach is going to help, unless he is a good game planner. Is the Westlake guy in that category?
The Big XII hurt Baylor. Baylor was a competitive program in the SWC, a mid level program in relation to the others. I remember when Odell James who was recruited by Nebraska to take over for Frazier decided to go their. He was the qb from MacArthur when they went to state in either 93 or 94. He was the number one recruit in the nation. they don't get recruits like that anymore. edit: the school that was screwed and hurt the most by the SWC break up was UofH.
Uh, that was last year...I think with Ken gone, someone will be able to come in and do well...Although, you still need to upgrade the faciliites to recruit more quality people, as people leaving high school don't want to play at high school faciliites...
WRWS... I was WRC a few years before you, I think. The athletes weren't as looked down upon as they are now. Most people I knew thought they were pretty cool and it was something to brag about if you knew one. The basketball players were the most visible and integrated into campus life; often we didn't see as much of the football and baseball players. But my experiences may be based on the crowd I hung around... the more laid-back, less competitive students. Also, the band, which does support the teams. There was more support for athletics in general and a lot more game attendance than what I usually see now (with occasional exceptions). It seems like the "I'm going to do nothing but study and pad my resume so I can take over the world" mentality has gotten a lot more prevalent, and that happened not long after I got there. The professors lived in their ivory towers and most of them didn't want to be associated with athletics, or anything anti-intellectual. (they didn't even want to be seen with students who weren't yet on their level and didn't make automatic A's) I'm not anti-academic; I'm on the faculty at another university now. I just don't think there's anything wrong with having some balance in life. However, seems like everywhere you go, the academic types think the athletes are too dumb to be there (which is very condescending and hurtful IMO) and then the athletes end up not liking academics. Lots of "intellectuals" were picked on by jocks in high school and don't think any good can come from them. As for those of us who are also music nerds and artist types, a lot of us find our artistic friends not wanting to support the athletes either... and then the regular academics, especially in science, don't want to fund the arts... all the "us vs. them vs. them" mentality. Too bad when I believe it's possible to support more than one of these things.
I hope Rice does get their act together regarding their football program. I like the rivarly between the two schools. Not many cities have two I-A schools. LA only comes to mind.
Let me repeat C-USA sucks. It is probably worse than the SWC. If Rice can't compete in C-USA, Rice needs to drop to I-AA.
and I was at WRC years before you (WRC '82). The student body does not support the football team. What I have seen over the years is that students attend at the start of the season games, before the grind, and by the end of the season even in "good" years attendence drops off pitifully. The faculty I know also do not support the football team. Some of it is snobbery since most of the football team would have a hard time getting into *any* college based on their academics. Another part is the $$$. About 1/3 of Rice undegrad tuition goes to the football team's yearly budget ($8 million or so). To put that into another perspective, Rice annually gets about $4 million from graduate donations. IMO I think Hatfield is a good fit for RIce, if Rice has to have a football team. Hatfield, his homophobia aside, runs a clean program. He does not cheat to get recruits and he does not put up with behavior problems. And he usually get his team near a 500 record, which is better than his predecessors.
I didn't know you were a Rice grad... cool. Which school DOESN'T experience the end-of-semester dropoff? Not only that, during my time at Rice the football team ALWAYS faltered in the second half of the season. They'd start out well, then blow a chance to make some noise within the WAC. Ugh. The instant they fell into 2nd or 3rd in the conference, we knew it was over because there was no way to be picked for a bowl. If you don't have hope for any sort of glory / post-season, who will really care? This is why casual fans in Houston won't support Rice or even UH. If the team is mediocre, there's no such thing as a postseason-high or even a "winning note" to provide momentum into next year. I also think Hatfield helped convey the *wrong* impression of the school, not only for his homophobia but because of the offense. I think it simply states to the public that "Hey, we can't compete. We're going to run a gimmick offense because we know we lack talent, and we're never, ever trying to build a traditional underdog team that might surprise a few people." I also cannot believe that Ty Willingham was once an assistant at Rice. Holy cow - it would be awesome to bring him back, or find an up-and-comer like him.
Yup, because UTEP isn't going to be getting better and better with each killer recruiting class Price brings in.
