Owls nestle into position as worst of worst

Rice had a 10-3 record in 2008, including a win in the Texas Bowl, yet still failed to crack the Associated Press Top 25 rankings.

Well, the sleepy Owls aren’t being ignored this year. Their 0-7 record has elevated them to the top of the Bottom Ten, following a 13-49 loss to East Carolina.

Rice ranks No. 120th – last – among major schools in scoring defense, coughing up 45 points per game.

The Houston Chronicle reported that when a sportswriter showed the defensive stats to coach David Bailiff the other day, Bailiff said, “Fortunately, I don’t have my glasses.”

But let’s look on the positive side: Jeff Sagarin’s Top 245 computer rankings say Rice is the 168th-best team in the nation.

WreckW-L		Last Loss	Next Loss
1. Rice	0-7	13-49, East Carolina	C. Florida
2. W. Kentucky	0-6	22-30, La.-Lafayette	Middle Tenn
3. Ball State	0-7	17-31, Bowling Green

4. New Mexico

0-6

Idle

UNLV

5. Washington St.

1-5

14-27, Arizona St.

California

6. Florida State

3-4

beat North Carolina 30-27

N.C. State

7. Miami (Ohio)

0-7

7-28, Ohio (Ohio)

Northern Illinois

8. E. Michigan

0-6

6-28, Kent State

Ball St.

9. Fla. Int.

1-5

33-42, Troy

Arkansas St.

10. Illinois

1-5

14-27, Indiana

Purdue

11. Syracuse (2-4); 12. Vanderbilt (2-5); 13. Utah State (1-5); 14. San Jose State (1-5); 15. Alabama Birmingham (2-4); 16. Akron-x (1-5); 17. Florida Atlantic (1-4); 18. Hawaii (2-4; 1-3 on mainland); 19. On sabbatical; 20. Oklahoma (3-3).

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Crummy game of the week: Midwest – Ball State (0-7) at Eastern Michigan (0-6). Rockies – Nevada Las Vegas (2-5) at New Mexico (0-6).

That gentle touch: The defense with the fewest sacks in the nation is Western Kentucky, with two in six games. Close behind, with four, is Texas of El-Can’t-Get-to-the-Passer.

Special citation: Police said a fan at the recent Minnesota-Wisconsin game was so out of control that they had to repeatedly use a Taser on him. “Even worse,” pointed out Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, “more charges are pending.”