The fifth installment of "Owls Insider" will make its debut earlier than usual today (Thursday) due to the Astros final road game of the season at Cincinnati.   The show will air at 4 p.m. today on Fox Sports Houston (cable only), and then re-air on Friday at 1:30 on Fox Sports Southwest.

This week's show features head coach David Bailiff, coordinators Chuck Driesbach and David  Beaty and Owls players Jake Hicks, Corey Frazier and John Gioffre, who in addition to his game-related interviews is also back for his second week of hosting a look at the Owls' upcoming athletics schedule.

This week's All Access feature focuses on the Owls' strength and conditioning coach Jared Kaaiohelo while the On Campus feature has an interview with Mary McIntire, the Dean of Continuing Studies.

Rice vs. Baylor Game Program in PDF Format

Just a reminder, due to CBS College's telecast of the game tonight, there is not a web cast available.

The NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee has selected Bloomington, Ind., and Eugene, Ore., to host the 2011 NCAA Division I Track and Field East and West preliminary round sites, respectively. Both sites will host competition May 26-28, 2011.

Indiana University will host preliminary round competition for the second time at the E.C. Billy Hayes Track, as it hosted the Mid-East region in 2005. The University of Oregon has hosted numerous competitions, most recently being the 2009 NCAA West regional and the 2010 NCAA Division I Championships, at Hayward Field.

"Indiana and Oregon have first-class facilities with outstanding staffs that have proven their championship hosting capabilities," said Todd Patulski, chair of the Division I Track and Field Committee and executive associate director of athletics at Baylor University. "We look forward to working with them to ensure a great atmosphere for the student-athletes."

Drake University will host the 2011 and the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The 2011 event takes place on June 23-27 at Drake Stadium.

Drake also hosted a highly successful 2008 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships which saw 19 stadium records set, while drawing a record four-day crowd of 41,187 despite flooding in central Iowa.

Texas A&M hosts the 2011 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship March 11-12 at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.

The fourth installment of "Owls Insider" will make its debut today an earlier time on Fox Sports Houston.  This week's show will debut at 1:30 today, because of the Astros afternoon game with the Washington Nationals.  Here's the lineup for this week's show:

Segment 1 - Recap of the Northwestern game

Segment 2 - All Access with cornerback coach Jason Washington. Coach Washington wore a wire in a recent practice to give you an inside view of a day of preparation.

Segment 3 - Looking at Baylor with Coach Bailiff as well as offensive coordinator David Beaty and defensive coordinator Chuck Driesbach.   We'll also preview this week's special Coach for the Cure initiative.

Segment 4 - Cheta Ozougwu is our "Tomorrow's Leaders" feature, John Gioffre steps out of the trenches and in front of the camera to give fans the rundown on the schedule of athletic events this week, and Rice Historian Melissa Kean talks about the 60^th birthday of Rice Stadium.

Segment 5 - John Gioffre is back in our "First and Ten" feature and David Bailiff answers this week's questions from the fans

Remember the show will debut today at 1:30 on Fox Sports Houston (cable only) and will be rebroadcast on Fox Sports Southwest on Friday at 1:30.  

Photo Gallery The above photo gallery link includes images from the 35th Justin F. Cooper Memorial Rice Invitational that Rice hosted on Friday, September 17.

Here's today's program for the Rice-Northwestern game in a PDF file: Rice vs. Northwestern

When last seen by Rice fans in a helmets and shoulder pads, Andrew Sendejo was throwing his body all over Rice Stadium, racking up 17 tackles, 15 of the solos, against Navy last season.  One week later, the four-year starter suffered a season-ending high ankle sprain at East Carolina, short-circuiting his drive to break the Rice career tackle record and leaving him tied with Dan Dawson for second.

On Saturday afternoon at Rentschler Field in Hartford, Sendejo will pull the pads back to play his first game since that October afternoon in Greenville when he makes his professional debut as a member of the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League.  Sendejo will start at strong safety after beating out several players with past NFL experience.

 "I am very fortunate to have been given this opportunity and I am going to make the most of it," Sendejo said in a text message in the middle of the Mountain Lions cross-country trip to Hartford.  

After surgery to repair is ankle, Sendejo attacked his rehab with the same signature intensity that was the hallmark of his Owl career.  When no NFL team deemed him draft-worthy last April, he set out to earn a training camp spot.  He spent a few days in camp with Tampa Bay, but was not offered a contract.  He continue to pursue his dream of playing professionally, and was a constant presence at Rice's summer workouts.

Finally, an offer came to compete for a spot with Sacramento, and now Sendejo is on the verge of playing his first professional football game.

The New England Sports Network will televise Saturday's game, with Mike Logan (play-by-play), Scott Zolak (color), John Chandler and Tony Terzi (sidelines) on the call, in case you are home on Saturday afternoon and want to take look before heading over to Rice Stadium for the Owls and Northwestern.   

Rice University hosts the 35th Annual Justin F. Cooper Memorial Rice Invitational on Friday, September 17, 2010, on the Rice campus. The start/finish line is located near Rice entrance 18 off of Rice Boulevard.

Running for the Jon Warren's men's squad will be Gabe Cuadra, Michael Trejo

Sammy Abuhamram, Alex Weinheimer, James Llamas, Zach Casias

Anthony Lauriello, John Cavallo, Anthony Urbanelli, and Travis Parker.

"We have a young, but solid team and I am excited to see them run again this year," states Warren. "This weekend we should have some great competition on the Rice Intramural fields and I think it will be a lot of fun."

Rice's women's head coach will field a team including Britany Williams Sr, Nicole Mericle, Allison Pye, Marie Thompson, Halsey Fowler, Heather Olson, Keltie John, Farah Madanay, Sophie Peeters, Aaren Pastor, and Lindsay Miller.

"We are excited to start our competitive season," comments Bevan. "We have had a great summer of preparation it's time to take the next step and start racing! We are currently ranked in the top thirty (29th) in the nation and we need to start and find out where we at right now. 

"We have lofty goals for the year with a great group of young ladies that work hard and compete hard. Britany and Nicole are tremendous seniors and this will be their last cross country meet at Rice. It's great to have a meet on our campus and we'll have a lot of support on the fields at 6:45 pm on Friday night!  Our ladies love to race in front of their peers, friends and family."
 
Action gets underway at 4:45 p.m. with the running of the always fun Yahoo Race, an event that is open for anyone to run.
 
Besides Rice, other collegiate squads participating are Baylor, Texas Southern, Houston, HBU, Lamar, and Prairie View A&M.
 
High school teams competing include Carnegie Vanguard, Clear Lake, Fort Bend Austin, High Island, Jersey Village, Houston Lamar, Nimitz, Second Baptist, St. Agnes, St. Pius X, St. Thomas, Chinquapin, Waltrip, Lee, Channelview.
 
The Rice Invitational is named for Justin F. Cooper (1927-2009) who was a father of two Rice alumnae and father-in-law of a Rice alumnus. He respected the discipline and effort of all scholar-athletes.
 
Live Results can be found at:
http://flashresults.com/flashtexas/2010/ricexcinv10/

Schedule
4:45 p.m. Yahoo Race - open to everyone
5:05 p.m. H.S. Freshman Boys
5:25 p.m. H.S. JV Girls
5:45 p.m. H.S. JV Boys
6:05 p.m. H.S. Varsity Girls
6:25 p.m. H.S. Varsity Boys

6:45 p.m. University Women
7:05 p.m. University Men

As you may have noticed when watching coverage of the first two weeks of college football, a very familiar Owl had a role in the current Flo TV commercial.  The good folks at Flo TV have posted a video short with some behind-the-scenes footage. 

Three Rice home games will be available on Flo TV this year, starting with this Saturday's game with Northwestern. Other games that will be available nationally through Flo TV will be SMU on October 2 and the regular season finale against UAB on November 27.

Owls fans getting a little Western exposure as they wait for the game to begin

While it's a standard part of any college football team's itinerary, what transpires when a visiting team arrives at the stadium on the day before a game for their walkthrough can be as good an indication of a team's character and confidence as one can find.

In general, David Bailiff keeps his walkthroughs short and to the point. A look around to let the younger players get their first glimpse of their new surroundings, a chance to familiarize themselves with the location of the 40-second clocks and the route to and from the locker room.

On a sizzling afternoon in Denton, the Owls took their first steps on to Fouts Field, a stadium on its last legs, soon to be replaced by a new structure located just the other side of I 35E.  After nearly six hours on a bus, it was more important than usual for the Owls to get their bodies in motion.

"It's important to get the blood flowing after the long ride, so we'll let them have a little fun and play some catch at first," Bailiff said.  "Then will go over a few things, review our substitutions, and familiarize ourselves with this stadium.   We get that out of the way today, so when we get off the bus tomorrow, we know it's time for work," he added.

Some teams will use a walkthrough for a more intense set of drills, others treat it in a far more light-hearted manner.

Teams such as Oklahoma during the Barry Switzer era or Miami in the heyday of "The U" turned the Friday walkthrough into a form of performance art, enhancing their image by engaging in such strenuous activities as throwing Frisbees.  They seemed to revel in the knowledge that their opponent the next day was watching their unassuming routine, their relaxed manner in stark contrast to the  building set of nerves common among their hosts.  Their lark itself becoming a psychological weapon to further weaken an underdog's belief in their chances the next day.  

Normally a team has exclusive use of the field during its walkthrough. But while his team limbered up on the field, Bailiff could not avoid noticing the North Texas cheerleading squad taking photos in one end zone and various elements of the North Texas band moving through the exits.  It was hardly the stuff of controversy or extra motivation, but that has not always been the case.

Earl Bruce was bringing a very talented Iowa State team to Lincoln to face Nebraska, and decided to hold his walkthrough in Omaha on the campus of Nebraska-Omaha, rather than at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.  He closed the workout to all media, but one intrepid Omaha station gained access to one of the buildings that overlooked the field, and shot video to show the Cyclones on the field.

Bruce and the Cyclones were enraged to see the footage on the news that night.  After upsetting the Huskers the next day, team members cited the outrage over the invasion of their space as a primal motivational factor.

It was the rare moment when the non-descript practice of the walkthrough was elevated to the lead item of a game story.

For the most part, they will remain a part of the process to bring a team to game time.

And this week, that time is 6:05 p.m. (central).

Week 2 of the 2010 season comes to a close.

After six hours on the bus (including the traditional stop for lunch in Sam's Restaurant in Fairfield on the way up), the Rice Owls went through their normal Friday routine with a walkthrough at Fouts Field.

However, this walkthrough was not your normal affair, as the North Texas Cheerleaders were on the field as well for a photo shoot.  Look for a seperate blog on some thoughts about various walkthrough traditions of years past later tonight..

LISTENER ALERT

Those of you tuning in to the Rice radio broadcast tomorrow should not fret if the pregame show is partially pre-empted.  ESPN 97.5 is carrying the Miami-Ohio State broadcast as part of their ESPN radio olbigation, and that game could cut into the pregame show.  The Rice-North Texas game will be on ESPN 97.5, rest assured.

A new, expanded photo gallery from the Texas game is now available,.

November 19, 2005 had been notable as the first game of Jarett Dillard's eventual 15-game touchdown reception streak, an accomplishment happily revisited by Owls fans.  But the date also became notable when the Owls took the field against Texas on Saturday in an all-blue uniforn, since it marked the first time since the season-ender in 2005 that Owls had gone All Blue.

A staple in Rice's past glory days, the all blue uniform made its return on South Main in 1989 and remained a part of the uniform through 2005.  In 2006, the Owls had blue pants as an option on the road, and wore them three times (UCLA, Army and Tulane) before switching to their white pants during the stretch drive to the New Orleans Bowl.

The seniors on the 2010 Owls had expressed a desire to possibly bring the blue pants back earlier in the year, but they did not learn of their arrival until they were given a sneak preview last Thursday.   As for the frequency of their appearance in games going forward??? 

Stay tuned.

The Owls will bring back their blue pants for today's game with Texas.   WiR Will Allday tries his out during pregame warmups.

Workers at Reliant Stadium put the finishing touches on the Rice logo at midfield on Friday, and the countdown to the opening of the 2010 football season entered its final stage.

The Owls held a short practice at Rice Stadium, then made the short bus ride down Main Street as the veteran Owls re-acquainted themselves with the venue where they ended the 2008 season with a victory in the Texas Bowl. The younger Owls got their first look at the venue where, in a few hours, many will be making their college debuts.

Texas holds a 69-21-1 overall lead in the series, including a 28-13-1 mark in games played in Houston. Rice University's last win in the series came in front of a national-television audience on a rainy Sunday night in 1994 as the Owls held on for a 19-14 victory.

The win snapped a 28-game winning streak by the Horns which began the year after Rice's last victory in Austin, a 20-17 win in 1965. In the first 14 games of the series, the winning team posted a shutout 10 times (Texas 8, Rice 2), but since the Owls posted their last shutout of Texas (7-0 at Rice Stadium in 1960), there have only been two shutouts by the Longhorns, and none since a 34-0 Texas win at Rice Stadium in 1978.

With advance ticket sales topping 66,000 by late in the week, Saturday's game against Texas will be the largest, season-opening crowd for the Owls since they played in front of 94,379 on the road at Ohio State on Sept. 7, 1996.

The last time Rice opened a home season with a crowd larger than 64,000 was on Sept. 23, 1961, when 73,000 saw the Owls defeat LSU 16-3, the largest crowd to see the Owls open at home in their history.

Since the opening of Rice Stadium in 1950, Rice and Texas have played seven times in front of crowds of 70,000 or better, with the last coming in 1970. The largest crowd to see the two teams play came in 1962, when 73,000 packed Rice Stadium.

The last time the crowd count was announced as 65,000 or better was in 1972 when 65,000 were announced for the game. 

Kickoff is set for 2:36 on Saturday, shortly after the Owls, along with honorary captains Earl Cooper, ND Kalu, Trevor Cobb and James Casey take part in the coin flip featuring Rice head baseball coach Wayne Graham and consensus player of the year Anthony Rendon.

A capacity crowd is expected for the game, while a national television audience will also tune in to ESPN's coverage.  Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham will call the action while Jeannie Edwards will cover the sidelines.  Look for some feature angles regarding the Owls that Edwards has worked on over the past several days.

Former Owl pitching star Ryan Berry (2007-09) has gone from student-athlete to professional player to now a student/pro athlete. The Humble, Tex., native is currently back on campus this semester working on his Rice degree, which he is now just 16 hours away. The Oriole farm-hand and former all-conference honoree recently sat down with the R-Blog to get his fans caught up on an array of topics ranging from life in the minors to a PB & J diet to his current course-load. Get you best chant ready and welcome back Ry-an, Ber-rey!

Provide a little recap of where all have you been playing so far for the Orioles organization.

When spring training disbanded I was assigned to the Class A Delmarva Shorebirds, which is located in Salisbury, Md. The Shorebirds are in the South Atlantic League which consists of teams as far north as Lakewood, NJ to as far south as Savannah, Ga. So some of the travel was BRUTAL! About eight starts into the season, I was promoted to the Class Hi-A Frederick Keys. The Keys play in the Carolina League (which only consists of eight teams). They started limiting my innings-pitched to 5 for each start and by the last few weeks of the season, I was coming out of the bullpen. This is where I finished up my first professional season.

Describe how the Orioles have you at your season pitch limit, and does that mean you are done until when?

I guess the new way to handle pitchers in professional baseball is to limit the amount of innings a young pitcher throws  to just under 20%-30% increase of what he threw the previous year. Although my increase was around 50%, most likely the result of my injury last year, this puts me in prime position to throw around 150 innings next year.

What's your assessment of the pro life so far?

Prolife is quite different than the life style I experienced at Rice. I wouldn't say the professional life is any less strenuous or stressful (because it can be way more!), it's just that there is only one obligation to fulfill in the minor leagues. Heck, Rice's academics alone, not to mention the Rice Owls Baseball team, would sometimes bludgeon you with requirements or duties so am I always on the "grind".

What if anything have you missed about Rice?

You gotta be kidding me! I missed everything about Rice. From the people, to the school organizations, to even the FOOD - I've lived off of PB & J's since Spring Training. But to get serious, I missed Hanszen College the most. It's rare to have a group of people that live and gel together with a common purpose to finish their respective degrees. To be involved with Cabinet or Powderpuff or The Hanszen Finer Things Club; Being part of the College System is one of the things that distinguishes Rice from other Universities.

Is there any chance the "Ry-an Ber-rey" chants you had at Reckling Park followed you to pro ball?

Funny that you asked. A few of my fellow Hanszenites came to a home game in the middle of the season and they were a bit bashful in initiating the chant but I did hear a bit before the first pitch. I really had to strain to hear it. To be honest, I don't think we will be hearing those chants ever again on the baseball field.

What's your advice for the Owls who will soon be pursuing the pro opportunities?

Get your education completed as quick as possible. No matter if you are a 1st round selection that signs a large signing bonus or not, finishing up your undergraduate degree should be at the top of your priorities. It's one of the few things that can not be taken away from you and after the three or four years that you spent here at Rice, it would be an utter waste not to graduate.

What courses are you taking now that you're back on campus this semester? How many more hours, or courses, do you need?

Since I'm finish with my core requirements in both my majors, I'm finishing up with some distribution classes and some for fun. My class schedule looks like this at the moment.

THEA 300 - Theatre Design

HIST 117 - America to 1848

HIST 291 - 20th Century Presidents

ECON 307 - Statistics and Probabilities

SOCI 313 - Demography

BUSI 305 - Accounting

I need 16 hrs to graduate

What have you learned from Coach Graham that has stayed with you into pro ball?

For anyone who ever played under Coach Graham and remembers the amount of repetitions the pitchers went through when performing PFP's (pitcher fielding practice) - "that we are going to stay out here until we get it right" - guess what? Coach Graham was right... of course. Practice is worthless without the necessary mindset and skillset to get better. Without a goal or an aspiration to strive for, you're wasting your time, and whoever else's time that's there to help you.

What do you call this hairdo and are your plans for it this semester?

This hairdo will be gone on Sunday. I figure I'll go out in "style" with maybe a blue mohawk, or mullet, for the Texas game. Maybe someone will take a picture!

Rice University sophomore Arsalan Kazemi concluded his first FIBA World Championship by equaling a tournament high when he grabbed 14 rebounds to go with 13 points in Iran's 65-60 loss to Slovenia Thursday.

Kazemi's only double-double of the tournament, helped Iran stay in sight of an upset bid but in the end fell short against a Slovenian team which improved to 4-1 and will advance out of Group B play and on to the "Eight-Finals." Iran ended pool play with a 1-4 record.

In five games in Group B, Kazemi averaged 12 points while shooting 48.7 percent from the field. His 14 steals in five games was the most by a player through the preliminary round of the championship. He also finished in a tie for ninth in rebounding average at the tournament, pulling down 7.4 rebounds per game.

The segments are finished and the final version is loaded into Fox Sports master control.  The premier episode of "Owls Insider" on Fox Sports Houston is set for 5 p.m.  (central) today.

The inaugural episode, hosted by Patti Smith of Fox Sports Houston, features segments with head coach David Bailiff that look at his first three years with the Owls in addition to the 2010 team.  Offensive Coordinator David Beaty and Defensive Coordinator Chuck Driesbach are also featured as are members of the 2010 Owls as they prepare for the season opener with Texas.

In addition to a discussion of the game with the Longhorns, the show will also feature the broadcast premier of Rice University's new institutional message, along with a look at its creation.

"Owls Insider" will also take a look back at Rice's 1994 win over Texas, including a special feature involving current Rice volunteer assistant baseball coach Patrick Hallmark.

Rice volleyball player Tracey Lam will also be featured as the first "Tomorrow's Leader" for the 2010-11 school year.

In addition to  Fox Sports Houston, "Owls Insider" will also be shown on Sports South, adding an additional 10 million homes to the show's coverage area.  The show will be broadcast again on Friday at 1:30 central and have an additional airing on Fox Sports Southwest on Friday at 3:30 p.m.

We definitely need to work on our mental approach for each opponent. Our mental approach towards UTSA was poor and we got in a hole really early (0-2) and UTSA is too good of team to do that against and the same thing happened against Ole Miss but in a different way. They were prepared for a tough team to come at them, but it just wasn't enough. We needed to come out with a little bit more fire and focus from the beginning and Ole Miss definitely took it to us with a lot of emotion and fire and aggressiveness. I think our team, reflecting back on the weekend, learned that we play really good volleyball when we're mentally focused and prepared for great competition.

On the Asics Classic:

This is going to be a great tournament. All three teams (Missouri, Eastern Washington, and Pepperdine) all have NCAA experience and Missouri is probably the toughest team with Pepperdine a close second and Eastern Washington is always tough. They are big blocking teams and they play at a very high level. I know our team is fired up to go out and play against that type of competition. It should be a lot of fun and think the matches will be extremely competitive.

A sort of homecoming for SoCal natives Schamun and White:

That is one of the big reasons we do these trips is to go back home for the players who are not from Texas. I know there will be an entourage of people to watch both Meredith and Megan. They get to play in front of friends and family and play in a competitive tournament.

Rice University sophomore Arsalan Kazemi scored 14 points and grabbed four rebounds as his Iranian national team continued Group B pool play Wednesday with an 88-51 loss to Team USA.

Against a United States team featuring NBA players, Kazemi was 5-for-8 from the field. He also had a game-high five steals in the contest televised on ESPN.

Kazemi's play was highlighted by a layup in which he was fouled while driving into the lane midway through the third quarter as well as a fourth-quarter dunk. With just under seven minutes to play in the game, Iranian point guard Saman Veisi broke free for a long pass and then found Kazemi trailing for the 2-on-1 dunk.

In four games of play at the 2010 FIBA World Championship being held in Turkey, Kazemi is averaging 11.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and shooting 47.2 percent from the field. He has 11 steals at the tournament.

Iran, 1-3 at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, concludes pool play Thursday against Slovenia.