2017 Rice Owls football team

The 2017 Rice Owls football team represented Rice University in the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Owls played their home games at the Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas, and competed in the West Division of Conference USA (C–USA). They were led by eleventh-year head coach David Bailiff. They finished the season 1–11, 1–7 in C-USA play to finish in sixth place in the West Division.

2017 Rice Owls football
Conference	Conference USA
Division	West Division
2017 record	1–11 (1–7 C-USA)
Head coach	David Bailiff (11th season)
Offensive coordinator	Billy Lynch (7th season)
Defensive coordinator	Brian Stewart (1st season)
Home stadium	Rice Stadium (Capacity: 47,000)

2017 Conference USA football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
East Division
Florida Atlantic x$		8	–	0					11	–	3
FIU		5	–	3					8	–	5
Marshall		4	–	4					8	–	5
Western Kentucky		4	–	4					6	–	7
Middle Tennessee		4	–	4					7	–	6
Old Dominion		3	–	5					5	–	7
Charlotte		1	–	7					1	–	11
West Division
North Texas x		7	–	1					9	–	5
UAB		6	–	2					8	–	5
Southern Miss		6	–	2					8	–	5
Louisiana Tech		4	–	4					7	–	6
UTSA		3	–	5					6	–	5
Rice		1	–	7					1	–	11
UTEP		0	–	8					0	–	12
Championship: Florida Atlantic 41, North Texas 17
$ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

On November 27, head coach David Bailiff was fired.[1] He finished at Rice with an 11-year record of 57–80.

Schedule

Rice announced its 2017 football schedule on January 26, 2017. The 2017 schedule consisted of 5 home, 6 away and 1 neutral site game in the regular season. The Owls hosted CUSA foes FIU, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, and Southern Miss, and traveled to Old Dominion, UAB, UTEP, and UTSA[2]

The Owls hosted one of the four non-conference opponents, Army, who was independent from a conference, and traveled to Houston from the American Athletic Conference and Pittsburgh from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Rice traveled to Sydney, Australia to face Stanford from the Pac-12 Conference.

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 26	9:00 p.m.	vs. No. 14 Stanford*	Allianz Stadium Sydney, Australia (Sydney Cup)	ESPN	L 7–62	33,101
September 9	7:00 p.m.	at UTEP	Sun Bowl El Paso, TX	CUSA.TV	W 31–14	19,136
September 16	7:00 p.m.	at Houston*	TDECU Stadium Houston, TX (Bayou Bucket Classic)	ESPN3	L 3–38	38,900
September 23	6:30 p.m.	FIU	Rice Stadium Houston, TX	STADIUM	L 7–13	18,932
September 30	11:00 a.m.	at Pittsburgh*	Heinz Field Pittsburgh, PA	ACCRSN	L 10–42	33,051
October 7	5:30 p.m.	Army*	Rice Stadium Houston, TX	beIN	L 12–49	21,766
October 21	6:00 p.m.	at UTSA	Alamodome San Antonio, TX	STADIUM	L 7–20	25,270
October 28	2:30 p.m.	Louisiana Tech	Rice Stadium Houston, TX	FloFootball	L 28–42	19,992
November 4	2:00 p.m.	at UAB	Legion Field Birmingham, AL		L 21–52	21,224
November 11	2:30 p.m.	Southern Miss	Rice Stadium Houston, TX	STADIUM	L 34–43	18,124
November 18	1:00 p.m.	at Old Dominion	Foreman Field Norfolk, VA	ESPN3	L 21–24	20,118
November 25	12:00 p.m.	North Texas	Rice Stadium Houston, TX	ESPN3	L 14–30	17,956
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to game All times are in Central time

Schedule Source:[3]

Game summaries

vs Stanford

	1	2	3	4	Total
Owls	0	0	0	7	7
No. 14 Cardinal	21	17	14	10	62

See also: 2017 Stanford Cardinal football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
3–2	2016	L, 17–41

at UTEP

	1	2	3	4	Total
Owls	3	7	7	14	31
Miners	7	0	0	7	14

See also: 2017 UTEP Miners football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
13–7	2016	W, 44–24

at Houston

	1	2	3	4	Total
Owls	0	0	0	3	3
Cougars	17	21	0	0	38

See also: 2017 Houston Cougars football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
11–29	2013	L, 26–31

FIU

	1	2	3	4	Total
Panthers	0	10	3	0	13
Owls	0	7	0	0	7

See also: 2017 FIU Panthers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
1–0	2014	W, 31–17

at Pittsburgh

	1	2	3	4	Total
Owls	0	0	10	0	10
Panthers	21	7	0	14	42

See also: 2017 Pittsburgh Panthers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–0	1951	W, 21–13

Army

	1	2	3	4	Total
Black Knights	21	14	7	7	49
Owls	0	0	6	6	12

See also: 2017 Army Black Knights football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
4–2–1	2016	L, 14–31

at UTSA

	1	2	3	4	Total
Owls	0	7	0	0	7
Roadrunners	10	0	10	0	20

See also: 2017 UTSA Roadrunners football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
3–2	2016	L, 13–14

Louisiana Tech

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulldogs	7	14	7	14	42
Owls	0	7	7	14	28

See also: 2017 Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
4–6	2016	L, 16–61

at UAB

	1	2	3	4	Total
Owls	0	7	0	14	21
Blazers	21	21	7	3	52

See also: 2017 UAB Blazers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
3–2	2013	W, 37–34

Southern Miss

	1	2	3	4	Total
Golden Eagles	10	12	14	7	43
Owls	0	14	13	7	34

See also: 2017 Southern Miss Golden Eagles football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
4–3	2016	L, 28–44

at Old Dominion

	1	2	3	4	Total
Owls	7	0	0	14	21
Monarchs	7	3	7	7	24

See also: 2017 Old Dominion Monarchs football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
0–1	2014	L, 42–45

North Texas

	1	2	3	4	Total
Mean Green	7	17	3	3	30
Owls	7	7	0	0	14

See also: 2017 North Texas Mean Green football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
4–3	2016	L, 35–42

References

1. Hill, Glynn A. (November 27, 2017). "Rice fires football coach David Bailiff". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
2. "C-USA Announces 2017 Football Schedules" (Press release). Rice University Department of Athletics. January 26, 2017. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
3. "2017 Rice Owls Football Schedule". FB Schedules. Retrieved February 5, 2017.