Rice's answer to its own opener was almost the inverse: 70 rushes, 10 passes, and 465 yards on the ground in a 31-3 win over Houston Christian that doubled as a clinic in ball control. The Owls held the ball for well over half the game, wore down an FCS front, and did it all with a run-heavy, misdirection-based scheme under second-year coach Scott Abell that isn't built to speed anything up.
That contrast is the whole game. Rice wants long, physical drives that keep Notre Dame's offense off the field and bleed the clock; Notre Dame wants to get stops fast and let Carr and a deep receiving room do the rest. Kickoff at Notre Dame Stadium is set for 2:30 PM ET, the Irish's first home game of the year and the first meeting between these two programs since 2014 — a series Notre Dame has swept in all 5 prior meetings.
The number Notre Dame has to answer isn't Rice's record, it's the 465 rushing yards — that kind of clock-control approach has given bigger favorites headaches even when the talent gap is lopsided, simply by shortening the game and limiting possessions. If the Owls can run it late into the second half the way they did against Houston Christian, this stays closer on the scoreboard longer than the name on the front of the jersey would suggest, even if the final margin still favors the Irish.
For Notre Dame, the follow-up question from Week 1 is whether the run defense holds up well enough to actually impose tempo on a team that wants to slow things down — a defense that gets its stops in 3 plays keeps Rice's offense from ever finding its rhythm. A unit that instead lets the Owls stay committed to their base run game for four quarters is exactly how this turns into the kind of slog nobody in South Bend expects on paper.
There's also a health angle worth watching after any physical opener — both sides absorbed real contact in Week 1, Rice's offensive line especially after 70 snaps of grinding runs, and how each team's two-deep looks Saturday will say plenty about depth heading into conference play.