Nice Read

UNTLifer · November 27, 2006

Wish our old Head Coach had the same attitude and taught his players to feel the same way towards the fans, students and alumni.

Rice's bowl drought ends at 45 years
Victory caps remarkable year after an 0-4 start
By DAVID BARRON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
For the first time since the dawn of the New Frontier, when the Southwest Conference ruled Texas football and a game like Rice vs. SMU was a marquee event on Houston's sports calendar, the Owls are going to a bowl.
They clinched a postseason berth Saturday, their first since 1961, with a come-from-behind 31-27 win over the Mustangs at Rice Stadium. And they did so in an audacious, confident fashion that hasn't been seen on South Main in many a year.
First, however, came adversity. After taking a 17-0 lead, Rice allowed 21 unanswered points to trail 21-17 and seemed to be collapsing as so many Rice teams have in the past half-century.
But the 2006 Owls are composed of and coached by a different breed of bird. And as coach Todd Graham addressed his team at halftime, he delivered a message unthinkable in past years.
"I told them, 'Ain't no doubt in my mind that we're going to win this football game,' " Graham said. "We always do."
This time, a Rice coach had the goods to back up his words. Quarterback Joel Armstrong threw two second-half touchdown passes to Jarett Dillard, and the Owls battled back to win their sixth consecutive game — each a nail-biter, decided by an average margin of 4.8 points.
At 7-5 on the season, they'll learn their bowl destination this week — perhaps New Orleans or Fort Worth. They won't bring a lot of people — a cozy 12,867 were on hand Saturday — but they'll show up for a game few thought was possible after an 0-4 start.
"I'm hurting, but it's the happiest day of my life," said Rice defensive back Andray Downs, who played with a ripped-up right shoulder that will require postseason surgery. "This is for 45 years of not going to a bowl. It's for the alumni, for the people who come to our games, for everybody that supports us."
Remembering Dale Lloyd
Significantly, it was for the memory of the teammate whose name was inscribed on the blue band each Rice player wore around one wrist — for Dale Lloyd, 19, a freshman defensive back who died Sept. 25 from what autopsy reports determined was an exercise-related disorder associated with the sickle-cell trait.
"It says: 'Dale Lloyd II, Rest in Peace, 8-21-1987, 9-25-2006,' " Downs said. "We think of Dale every day. Not a moment goes by that we forget what he meant to this team."
As the Owls faced death, they faced defeat, with opening losses to Houston, UCLA, Texas and Florida State. They also faced the expectations of their new coach, who blew in promising immediate success and set about revamping everything from Rice Stadium's seating configuration to the mind-set and physical condition of players who suffered through a 1-10 finish in 2005.
"This summer I was thinking, 'I don't want to do this. This isn't worth it. This isn't football. I want to play football, not run a marathon,' " said Dillard, a sophomore from San Antonio who has 20 touchdown catches on the season and is a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's top receiver.
It's paying dividends, too, for Rice fans such as Brian Barnett, one of hundreds who celebrated on the field after the game. He had to wipe a tear from his eye after shaking Dillard's hand.
"Being a Rice fan hasn't been an easy thing," Barnett said. "I was a junior here (in 1991) before I ever saw us win a home football game. So I wanted to thank (Dillard) for making the effort and giving us a little bit of joy. I never thought this would happen. Maybe in 10 years, I thought maybe we could go to a bowl game. But no way this year."
Graham, however, said he wasn't just shooting off his mouth when he predicted immediate success.
"I like coming to places and turning them around because it's written on people's foreheads what is wrong — low expectations, a helpless feeling," Graham said. "I knew there was talent here."
That Rice's celebration came at SMU's expense was no small irony. With a 6-5 record entering the game, the Mustangs needed a victory to clinch their first bowl berth since 1984, two years before the pay-for-play scheme that led to the first and only use of the NCAA's "Death Penalty" and suspension of the football program in 1987 and 1988.
SMU optimism
Bob Sharp, a former SMU cheerleader who is interim president of the Mustang Club, contrasted the heartbreak of 20 years ago with the promise of Saturday's contest.
"For SMU to go to a bowl would close a chapter of our lives for the last 20 years and open up a new springboard for where we want to go," Sharp said.
So, now, do the Owls and their small cadre of staunch supporters, including Houston attorney Bucky Allshouse, a former Rice player who as a member of the university's board of trustees made the decision to hire Graham and who now, given the dog-eat-dog nature of college football, probably will have to find the money to give him a pay raise.
"If we have to do it, we will," Allshouse said, laughing. "But don't tell him (Graham) that."
Fortunately for Allshouse, Graham plans to spend today working on recruiting, not basking in Saturday's victory. As he sees it, the Owls have miles to go in accomplishing the goals painted on the walls throughout the Rice athletic department complex — excelling academically, winning a bowl and capturing a conference title.
"We're the best in C-USA academically," Graham said. "Now we want to be a bowl champion. We don't want to go to a bowl; we want to win it. We want to be conference champions. We want to get rolling, get two of three done this year, and go win a conference title (in 2007). There's a lot of work here to be done."

I hope we find someone like Graham. Something tells me his situation was much tougher than DD's.

Edited November 27, 2006 by UNTLifer

SilverEagle · November 27, 2006

Wish our old Head Coach had the same attitude and taught his players to feel the same way towards the fans, students and alumni.
I hope we find someone like Graham. Something tells me his situation was much tougher than DD's.
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I hope we find someone EXACTLY like Graham.