Football team looks to rebound against Army after rout by LSU

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by John Fredland

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The Owls, who opened so promisingly with a shutout victory over the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, have dropped two straight games to Louisiana teams. First came a 17-15 upset loss to Tulane University. Then came last Saturday's 52-7 mauling at the hands of 14th-ranked Louisiana State University.

Tomorrow, Rice travels to West Point to take on the United States Military Academy at 12:30 p.m.

The Owls feel that they will be able to rebound from their recent losses.

"The team will come back," Head Coach Ken Hatfield said. "We played an awfully good football team last week. We have good leadership, and we have had good, spirited practices this week."

The Cadets, who play Rice for the first time since 1958, enter the game with a 1-2 record. Army, however, could easily be 3-0. Both of their defeats -- to Duke University and the University of Washington -- were decided in the last minute.

Rice, who dropped a 29-17 decision to Navy last season, will try to avoid losing to a service academy for the second year in a row.

"All of the service academies are very aggressive -- they play with a tremendous esprit de corps," Hatfield said. "They are going to be all hyped up because they have all of their national championship teams (1944-45-46) back. They will want to play in the tradition of those players. They really play hard."

Much like Rice, Army relies heavily on a balanced running game for ball control. Five different Cadets have gained 100 or more yards on the ground this season

"They will run a four-down offense anywhere on the field if they think they are having trouble stopping you on defense," Hatfield said. "Between their quarterback and fullback running the ball, they think they can get one or two yards every time. They operate well in the red zone also."

The Owls will face the Cadets without the services of defensive tackle Bryton Goynes.

Goynes sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in the second-half of the LSU game.

Goynes, along with injured all-American offensive lineman Chris Cooley, will accompany the team to New York.

Junior Jason Winship will take Goynes' place in the starting lineup. Goynes' status for the Oct. 7 game against the University of Texas is uncertain.

Hatfield said, "We want them around for leadership. Football is a leadership situation here and having them around will mean something to our team."

Junior Jason Winship will replace Goynes in the starting lineup.

LSU scored early and often to defeat Rice 52-7 last Saturday at Baton Rouge. The margin of defeat for the Owls was the largest since a 64-0 loss to Houston in 1989.

Senior quarterback Jamie Howard led the way for the Tigers. He completed 15 of 23 passes for 356 yards and four touchdowns.

LSU drove into scoring territory on all six possessions of the first half. They scored touchdowns on four of these and rolled to a 31-7 halftime advantage. The Tigers reached paydirt on long passes -- 52, 26 and 40 yards to Sheddrick Wilson and 64 yards to Eddie Kennison.

"Our top priority coming in was to stop the run," Owl defensive back Jay Lamy said. "We felt that would help us with the pass. We didn't anticipate them going deep that number of times."

Hatfield said, "We played the running game well and didn't play the passing game well. We over committed to the run because we wanted to stop the run. We just have to learn to be a little more cautious in the secondary."

Although Rice's pass defense had a nightmarish game, Hatfield cautioned future opponents against trying to exploit it.

"They had better protect as well as LSU did, and they had better have an arm like Jamie Howard's, and they had better have great speed and leaping ability," Hatfield said. "Even the pass over Warrick (Franklin),he had played it perfectly, but the ball was thrown in the only place where it could have been caught."

Similar to the Tulane game, the Owls were hit-or-mostly-miss on offense. They drove the opening kickoff straight down the field to the LSU 22, but Mike Ruff's 40-yard field goal hit the crossbar and bounced back into the endzone.

They scored their only points in the second quarter. Trailing 10-0, Josh LaRocca hit Yoncy Edmonds with a 77-yard touchdown pass, the fifth-longest scoring pass in team history.

Other than those drives, the Owls usually put themselves into long-yardage situations by gaining little on first down and then failing to convert most of their third-down opportunities.

"Our protection was spotty, and we did not have the consistency," Hatfield said. "We had some people open, such as on that first curl route, but we didn't have time to throw the ball."

Despite the margin of defeat, LaRocca and Hatfield were encouraged that the team continued to give top effort throughout the contest.

"I feel we didn't give up," LaRocca said. "We've got a long way to go in the season. We are still 0-0 in the Southwest Conference. It's a tough loss, but we are going to learn from it. This is the type of team we need to learn to play against if we are going to get to the next level."

Hatfield said, "We were still fighting and trying to play. That is what was good. We can build on that."

This item appeared in the Sports section of the September 29, 1995 issue.

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