Scott Abell's second season at Rice started exactly how the home crowd hoped — a laugher under the lights at Rice Stadium.
Rice opened its 115th season Saturday, September 5, hosting Houston Christian in front of the home crowd Abell said would give his team extra juice. It showed early: the Owls led 7-0 after the first quarter and never trailed, piling on 10 more in the second before putting the game away with 14 in the fourth.
+Abell returns for year two with system continuity
+Exceeded expectations in year one at Rice
+Home opener under the lights, extra juice per Abell
−New pieces to break in, including Jackson's move to receiver
−Openers can be sloppy even for the better team
Abell came in saying a win would put him alongside Fred Goldsmith as the only Rice coach to open back-to-back seasons with victories, and this one was never in doubt. The Owls also broke in a new look at receiver this fall with Quinton Jackson sliding over from running back, and against a Huskies defense that had plenty of its own personnel to replace, Rice's skill players had room to operate from the jump.
Houston Christian, for its part, was playing its first game since a rough 2025 under third-year coach Jason Bachtel, and the step up from Southland Conference competition to an FBS roster showed. The Huskies' lone points came on a first-quarter field goal, and Rice's defense shut the door on everything after that.
It was 90 degrees and cloudy at kickoff, the kind of night where a bigger roster and deeper bench can just wear an overmatched opponent down over four quarters — and that's roughly what happened. Rice's scoring came in bursts rather than a track meet, which tracks with a game that was decided more by the talent gap than by any particular wrinkle either staff drew up.
For a program trying to build on a surprising first year under Abell, this is exactly the kind of opener you want on the résumé — comfortable, low-drama, no signature injuries or late scares to sort through before the schedule gets tougher.
