It has been an eventful week for the Rice Owls football program. When last Saturday dawned, Mike Bloomgren was their coach and they were preparing to play Connecticut, a should-win game that would be followed by a home game against a ranked Navy team. But the Owls lost to UConn, Navy got drubbed by Notre Dame and lost its Top 25 spot and in teh wake of it all, Bloomgren was fired with a disappointing 2-6 record.
In his place, the Owls promoted associate coach and special teams coordinator Pete Alamar, who came to the program in 2023, to the interim job. And then Rice did the unthinkable: They pulled off the upset of Navy in the team's biggest win of the season, a thorough washout of the Midshipmen, 24-10. Washout, actually, is an apt term.
This was a game that was delayed repeatedly over the course of Saturday afternoon because of rain and lightning, circumstances that surely diminished Navy's ability to keep its focus. The kickoff for the Navy-Rice outing was supposed to be at 4 p.m.
EDT, but was delayed. David Butler II-Imagn Images By the time the game was over, it was after midnight in the East. Rice was able to grind its way to an early lead through at least five game delays, establishing a 17-0 lead behind junior EJ Warner, who threw for 239 yards with a touchdown and an interception on the day, completing 26 of 40 attempts even amid the foul weather.
Running back Dean Connors had 105 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 18 attempts. Rice will go to 3-6, and do so in mem.
