It's Rice's turn in Houston right now as Houston is likely to start an 18 year old at QB in John O'Korn who has a lot of potential, but Houston is a work in progress right now especially defensively and that has not yet been exposed by anyone, but in comes Rice who was ranked 41st last year in total yards and already showed how explosive they can be putting up 300+ yards rushing against Texas A&M.
Rice just has too much experience returning from last year with 19 starters including a senior QB and every starting offensive linemen. This is a team that was only down 28-21 on the road at A&M and put up 509 yards. This is a team that progressed big time down the stretch winning their last 5 games including their bowl game. Rice's RB Charles Ross is a bruiser that should give Houston's front a handful at 235lb's he already has 264 total rushing yards. QB McHargue who missed last year is a senior and is dying for a chance to upset Houston. He is probable for this match up and I anticipate that he will start. Meanwhile Houston will be without their starting QB and their starting RB Kenneth Farrow is questionable.
Rice's defensive front is good enough to get into the backfield to put pressure on the 18 year old QB with Cody Bauer and Christian Covington and they have a solid secondary led by senior CB Phil Gaines who led the nation with 18 pass defenses last year and they return an All American freshmen from 2011 that had injuries in 2012 in Bryce Callahan to form a very solid tandem. At the end of the day not much separates these two and Houston barely got by a Temple team that was bad ranking 112th on offense and 93rd in defense last year and wont' be much better this year. Facing Rice on a neutral field for the Bayou Bucket will be a challenge.
