The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 1991 Page: 16 of 20
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18 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22,1991 THE RICE THRESHER
Rice loses
chance for
winning year
by Peter Hovviey
The Owls doomed themselves to
another losing football season with
their sixth loss, a 41-21 beating at the
hands of the Houston Cougars at Rice
Stadium last Saturday. After jumping
ahead 14-0, the Owls wilted under the
attack of Houston quarterback David
Klingler.
Klingler entered the game with
14:47 to play in the first half, replacing
backup Donald Douglas, who failed to
score on three drives. He was
scratched from the starting lineup af-
ter experiencing a sharp pain in his
side during warmups.
He ignited the Cougars' run and
shoot offense, leading them on five
scoring drives and racking up impres-
sive passing stats. He completed 27 of
37 passes for 395yards and five touch-
downs before leaving the game mid-
way through the fourth quarter.
"David threw welL You could tell
the difference, he had zip on the ball
when he rifled it through," said Rice
head coach Fred Goldsmith. The
velocity on his arm made the differ-
ence on some throws."
"When he came in it seemed like a
totally differentgame," said linebacker
Tony Barker, who left the game a with
a deep thigh bruise.
The Owls tried throughout the
game to exploit Klingler's injury, but
as linebacker Alonzo Williams noted,
they failed: "He's a tough guy. It's
going to take more than we gave him
to knock him out of a game."
"We harassed him all day with a
good rush," said Goldsmith. "He hung
in there and did a good job. We blitzed
twice in the first half and they picked
it up.
Until Klingler's entrance, the game
went well for Rice. Freshman quarter-
backjosh LaRoccaand tailbackTrevor
Cobb led the Owls on two early scor-
ing drives that put Rice up 14-0.
Cobb scored first, capping a 46
yard drive with a two yard touchdown
run. LaRocca added another score with
a nine yard keeper early in the second
quarter after a personal foul by Hous-
ton kept a faltering Rice drive alive.
But the Houston defense allowed
no more scoring until the game was
out of reach. The Cougars recorded
five sacks and three interceptions.
"This was probabiy my weakest
performance of the year," LaRocca
said. "1 couldnt get my rhythm down.
The receivers were open, but I couldn't
hit them." He completed eight of 23
passes for 79 yards.
The Owls especially had trouble
with deep routes; on one deep pattern,
receiver Herschel Crowe got tangled
up with the Houston defender and
broke his right tibia.
"We stopped ourselves a couple of
times," said Cobb. "We were practi-
cally throwing it away."
LaRocca agreed: "We were beat-
ing ourselves more than anything
else."
Only Cobb and receiver Louis
Balady had good days, as Cobb racked
up 154 yards on 41 carries and Balady
grabbed four passes for 39 yards.
Cobb retained his title as the
nation's leading rusher, and said, "that
means a lot to me. If I can come back
as defending champion in the rushing
race, it would be a big source of per-
sonal pride."
Rice scored again late in the fourth
quarter when backup quarterback
Randall Schultz hit tight end Tim Winn
with a 15 yard pass. Schultz connected
on a 43 yard bomb to Ed Howard to set
up the play, but by then it was too late.
With this loss, the Owls dropped to
4-6 overall and guaranteed their 21st
consecutive losing season. "Its disap-
pointing to me and everybody else,
especially the seniors," said LaRocca.
"It hurts not to get the winning
season because deep down inside
that's what we wanted to do," said
nose guard Matt Sign. "We really
thoughtthat th is was the year we were
going to go over the hump."
I
Rice quarterback Josh LaRocca is tackled after a short gain. LaRocca was sacked four times and threw three interceptions in Saturday's 41-21 loss.
Owls to face hungry Razorbacks tomorrow
by Joey Olivier
The Rice football season will come
to a close this weekend against the
Arkansas Razorbacks when the Owls
kick off their final game at 1 p.m.
Saturday. The contest will be held at
War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock,
and will be the Razorbacks' last regu-
lar season game as members of the
Southwest Conference..
Though head coach Fred Gold-
smith felt that Rice showed a lack of
poise through mental mistakes and
blown coverages at certain points in
last week's Houston game, he praised
the improved pass rush and was opti-
mistic about the final game: "We're
getting ready to represent our confer-
ence, but more importantly, it's an
opportunity for u s to have two five-win
seasons back-to-back, something we
haven't done in twenty years."
"Our team has learned how to cope
with ups and downs over the course of
the season and we've been bouncing
back from the downs. I think we'll
bounce back from this one."
One tribute to the rebuilding of
Rice football has been fan support,
which has surpassed last year's aver-
age attendance by about nine thou-
sand fans per game.
Goldsmith expects a physical game
from Arkansas and is prepared to face
a good defense and a strong rushing
attack. Goldsmith was Arkansas' de-
fensive coordinator before coming to
Rice. He said, "some ofyour best com-
petition is against people you know
and respect, people you feel close to."
The Arkansas defense has re-
turned to its traditionally strong form
with the help of defensive tackle
Mackenzie Phillips and outside line-
backer Darwin Ireland.
The Razorback offensive line has
also improved since last year. Quar-
terback Gaiy Adams has had a rough
time passing, but his first start was
against Miami. Adams was a top high
school recruit from Missouri and has
a good, strong arm. Arkansas mixes
offensive sets, alternating between the
wishbone and the I formation.
The Razorbacks lead the series
with Rice by a count of34-29-3 and had
claimed nine straight before last year's
meeting, when the Owls used a tough
defense and a ball control, rushing
offense in a 19-11 victory.
Arkansas head coach Jack Crowe
stressed the importance of this week-
end: "It's a one-game season for us
right now. Our goals have been a
winning season and a bowl game. Both
are possible if we win against Rice."
Goldsmith said that playing moti-
vated opponents is nothing new to
Rice. "Teams thatnormally would have
overlooked us came in healthy and
hungry. Now we play Arkansas, and
whatdoes itcomedownto?Theyhave
to win this game to go to a bowl It's
been the story of our season."
SPORTS
Men end tennnis season
with America West tourney
Campbell advances to semifinal despite injury
by Tom Harris
With a strong showing in the
America West Challenge Cup, the Rice
Owls tennis team finished its fall
schedule.
Playing against tough competition
including Southern California, Texas
Christian, and Pepperdine, the Owls'
Pascal Hos, Matt Berry, and Nick
Lorenzini each reached the
quarterfinals of their flight
In addition, Steve Campbell
reached the semifinals of the overall
tournament However, beset by a
stomach injury and a cold, Campbell
then fell to eventual champio n Howard
Joffe of Pepperdine. ,
Tennis coach Larry Turville was
pleased with the strong individual
showings in the tournament, but now
looks to the spring schedule.
The Owls should return all butone
player from last year's squad, which
was ranked 22nd for over a month.
They have reason to be optimistic
about the future.
Indeed, Turville needs to look no
further than his top player, Campbell,
to find results. After a phenomenal 21-
4 individual record this fall, which
included three tournament titles, vic-
tories over the eighth and 12th ranked
players in the country, and no defeats
to unranked players, the senior should
be ranked in the Top 20 in the spring.
Attributing his success to "going
for my shots and getting them,"
Campbell does not intend to rest on
this fall's accomplishments. Rather,
he expects to win the conference title
and become the first Owl in five years
to compete in the NCAA champion-
ships.
Despite the depth of the squad,
some question marks remain. If Jesco
von Heintze graduates early, the Owls
lose their number three player with
no clear replacement at hand. Indeed,
although the Owls are solid, the race
for the fourth, fifth and sixth positions
are wide open.
As Campbell remarks, "We need
someone to step up and take those
spots." If the players do respond to
this challenge, then the Owls clearly
could remain a Top 25 squad.
Campbell said, "We have poten-
tial We just have to work so much
harder to achieve our goals." If the
squad simply follows Campbell's lead,
then this spring's season could be a
successful one.
Sugar and Orange Bowls
bound to disappoint fans
by Tom Harris
College bowl matchups were
announced last Sunday, and once
again the pairings illustrated the
ineffectiveness of the bowlsystem.
This year, the two most glaring
bowl mismatches are the Sugar
Bowl and the Orange BowL
I sympathized with the Sugar
Bowl since it became a mere half-
time and postgame show for the
Orange Bowl. However, after the
incompetent workings of the bowl
committee, I no longer have any
pity for this game. Last year, they
invited an 8-3 Virginia team that
finished its regular season with
three straight defeats. This season,
thebowlchoice, 17th-ranked Notre
Dame (8-3), is even more inexpli-
cable.
With a 9-1 record and a number
five ranking, Florida offered half of
a possible matchup with national
championship implications. By in-
viting a quality team, the Sugar
Bowl could have had something
which it has not had the last few
years: a matchup interesting to the
entire nation.
However, after Notre Dame lost
to Tennessee and fell out of the
Top Ten, the Sugar Bowl decided
to commit themselves to the Irish
regardless of their next game
against number eight Penn State.
Why?!
Atthevery least, theSugar Bowl
coulcl have pursued the winner of
the Penn State- Notre Dame game;
at the very best, they could have
invited Miami to Set up an intrastate
battle for the national title. But, the
bowl committee was content to
chase the Irish and their faithful,
who,alongwith Gator fans, will be
the only ones watching.
The second disappointment is
that number one Miami, with ev-
ery bowl to choose from, decided
to stay home and play a mismatch
against overrated Nebraska.
It is disgruntling that the num-
ber one squad chooses not to put
its national ranking on the line in a
New Year's Day bowL How can
one give the national champion-
ship to a team which runs away
from competition?
Although Miami did defeat the
previous number one squad last
week, they had previously played
against only one other Top 20
squad. It is simply infuriating that
a team can play only two chal-
lenging games and still claim a
national champion ship. Miami has
no excuse for dodging quality
competition, especially since they
have no conference scheduling
obligations.
However, there still is one ideal
solution to remedy these bowl
mistakes. Perhaps the NCAA
should intervene and force Miami
to play a real game for the national
championship. For an undisclosed
sum of money, the Orange Bowl
could be forced to trade the Hurri-
canes to the Sugar Bowl for the
Irish.
As a result, all parties would be
happy, and the fans would get a
reasonable game to determine the
national championship. Although
this deal will never happen, in the
interests of college football, it
should.
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Zitterkopf, Ann & Howe, Harlan. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 79, No. 13, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 1991, newspaper, November 22, 1991; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245798/m1/16/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.