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Friday, August 14, 1998
Owls now seeking championships
By MICHAEL A. LUTZ AP Sports Writer
HOUSTON (AP) - It says something about how far Ken Hatfield
has taken the Rice Owls when the team is no longer satisfied with
a winning season.
It says even more that the Owls are no longer satisfied with
back-to-back 7-4 records, their first since 1960-61.
"We are trying to go beyond that and it's difficult because
our schedule is so tough," Hatfield said. "We are not
a dominant team. We can't play bad and win, we've shown that.
"A team like Michigan might have an off week and win.
The more experienced players we have that understand we can't
do that, the better chance we have of being competitive every
week."
Rice lost to Air Force in last season's opener, then played
its best football in decades over the next six weeks to move into
contention for the Western Athletic Conference title.
But just when they were closing in on the glory, an open date
spoiled the momentum. Losses to Southern Methodist and Utah in
the last four weeks left in a bitter taste for such a promising
season.
"The off week really hurt us," Hatfield said. "Everybody
already was counting on us to win, but we didn't stay hungry and
that was my fault. We hadn't been in that position for quite some
time."
Michael Perry, the fourth running back in school history to
surpass 1,000 yards, returns for his senior season and former
walk-on Charles Torello is back to anchor the offensive line.
In fact, the Owls return nine defensive and seven offensive
starters. However, they must replace quarterback Chad Nelson and
running back Benji Woods, each of whom almost joined Perry as
1,000-yard rushers.
Nelson had 953 yards and Woods 936. Perry was the WAC's leading
rusher with 103.4 yards per game and the Owls' 366 yards rushing
per game were second in the country to Nebraska.
"When you play Nebraska, you have to stop the run and
the pass, but against us they had to stop the run all the time,
they had their best run defense set up every down," Hatfield
said. "We'd like to get them worrying about our passing a
little. That will make our running even better."
While Rice is sticking with its run-oriented spread option
offense, a change in quarterback may lead to more passing. Jeremy
Bates replaces the departed Nelson, with Chad Richardson as his
backup.
"We'll throw the ball more because both of our quarterbacks
have stronger arms than Chad (Nelson) and they're not quite as
gifted runners," Hatfield said.
Rice's offensive line will be strong with returning starters
in Torello, Neal Gray, Mike Vietor and Rod Beavan, who started
three games last year before suffering a season-ending shoulder
injury.
Hatfield's area of concern is the defense, which allowed 383.5
yards per game last year to rank 73rd among NCAA Division 1-A
schools. New defensive coordinator Roger Hinshaw has plenty of
work ahead of him.
"That's the one area for us to get to the championship
level, we've got to get to being a dominating defense," Hatfield
said. "We have an aggressive defense that plays hard. We
just need to be bigger and stronger."
The Owls also need to be wiser if they get another chance at
the championship.
"I hope we learned a lot from that week off before SMU
when we got caught up in all the talk and adulation," Hatfield
said. "We need to take advantage of those learning situations
and play at the top level all the time."
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