If you look at UCLA�s 2006 football schedule
there is one name that requires a double take.
It�s not Notre Dame, the perennial football
powerhouse, but Rice, the small university in Houston with an
undergraduate enrollment of 2,988 students, making it the smallest
university in Division 1-A competition.
A break from UCLA�s traditionally strong
nonconference schedule, Rice finished last season 1-10 and were
outscored 447-221 in their games.
Why Rice? Rice has not played in a bowl game since 1961, so it
doesn�t fit the usual profile of a UCLA
opponent.
As it turns out, UCLA was stuck in a bind due to a scheduling
conflict.
The Bruins originally had BYU on their schedule for a
home-and-away series in 2005 and 2006, but in 2004, BYU had to drop
UCLA from their schedule when their conference, the Mountain West
Conference, added an additional conference game.
So that left UCLA, which originally only had 5 home games in
2005 and 2006, scrambling to find a Division 1-A opponent that
could come to the Rose Bowl two years in a row.
�Rice was extremely accommodating, and they
were able to fit into our schedule,� UCLA
associate athletic director Marc Dellins said.
�That was the biggest factor, finding a team that
could fill our two home dates.�
And the decision worked out on both sides. Rice, which is 1-12-1
all-time in the state of California, gets the exposure of playing a
national Pac-10 team, and UCLA essentially gets an easy win while
preparing for the brutal end of its Pac-10 schedule which starts in
mid-October with a game at Oregon.
Rice coach Todd Graham, who also faces Texas and Florida State
during his nonconference schedule, is looking forward to the
opportunity after nearly upsetting the University of Houston last
week.
�We feel like we are developing a good football
team,� Graham said in a telephone conference.
�We let one get away (against Houston), but you
can see that things are changing around here.�
To see why Graham has so much work to do in his first year as
head coach, one just has to look at the state of the Rice football
program he inherited.
The team plays in a football stadium with a capacity of 70,000,
but its game last week against Houston drew a paltry 23,000.
Surprisingly, that was the team�s highest
attendance in three seasons.
The team last won a conference title in 1994 and is 1-17 in its
last 18 games.
But Graham certainly can�t be faulted for not
trying. The former assistant coach from Tulsa raised $6 million
during the offseason by getting donations from alumni to help
renovate the football stadium and to purchase new helmets and
jerseys for the football players.
The changes have Graham optimistic after all the losing Rice has
suffered through during the last few years.
�Changing the mind-set, that�s
really the most difficult thing,� Graham said.
�Any place that hasn�t won,
there�s a hopeless lack of confidence.
We�ve spent an enormous amount of energy on mental
training.�
So when UCLA, which will almost definitely be playing in front
of its smallest home crowd of the year, takes on Rice this
Saturday, it will be facing a different team than the one it
demolished 63-21 last season.