According to MK Bower, the Rice Owls have sold 6800 tickets to the New Orleans Bowl. Considering that's about three times the size of the undergraduate student body, I'd say that's not too shabby. Rice's bowl ticket sales (as of Friday) compare very favorably to its CUSA brethren. By the way, has anybody else gotten a robocall from Art Briles about buying tickets for the Liberty Bowl?
If you're an Owl fan who can't make it to New Orleans but would like to watch the game with fellow alums and fans, there are regional game watching parties going on around the country, and even in Canada. Why watch alone? It's better this way.
Meanwhile, Rice senior offensive lineman Rolf Krueger offers his thoughts on the bowl experience. And it's nice to hear that former coach Ken Hatfield is doing well and still a fan of the team, almost all of whose players this year he helped recruit. Go Rice!
UPDATE: Another nice story about the Owls and head coach Todd Graham. This bit really stands out:
Graham also addressed the school's high academic standards, but instead of asking for them to be reduced only requested that the admissions process be speeded up so that recruits could be targeted earlier and that qualifying signees be allowed to enter school in January."Todd became the first coach to appear at a faculty meeting," said Jim Castaeda, the school's longtime faculty athletic representative. "Some of them were really astonished by that.
"After it was over, I heard them expressing support for the program that I hadn't heard in a long time."