4thand4cast

Search the site.

Try , , or .

Powered by Pagefind

Rice

Owls · American Athletic

Head coach Scott Abell Year 2 with Rice

Year-2 HCs (2015-2024) averaged +0.09 W vs. preseason expectation

Season Projection · 2026 W0

10,000 sims
2.9
Expected wins
3-7
Proj record
0 to 6
Win range (90%)
#121 (103–133)
Final rank (90%)
0%
Make playoff
0%
Win conference

Path to Glory

Tap a win or a loss on each pivotal game to see how the playoff probability shifts. Leave any game unset to average across both outcomes.

Make the playoff

0%

Baseline projection.

  • vs Houston Christian
    Home · Sep 5
  • vs UTSA
    Home · Oct 3
  • vs Tulsa
    Home · Oct 17
  • at Florida Atlantic
    Away · Oct 24

Pivotal games are the 5 with the largest playoff-probability swing, ranked by the model. Math: chained Bayesian log-odds update from the conditional simulation set; gets the directionally right answer but won't perfectly capture cross-game correlations until the full Monte Carlo pipeline lands.

Returning production · 2026

29 score
  • Quarterback 5% (2/5 )
  • Offensive line 58% (11/19 players)
  • Skill (RB/WR/TE) 51% (15/30 )
  • Front 7 (DL/LB) 22% (15/27 )
  • Secondary 24% (7/21 )
  • Special teams 8% (1/4 )

Share of last season's production each unit returns. Higher means more continuity: 70%+ is healthy, 45–70% a normal rebuild, under 45% a major turnover.

Portal additions · 2026

-0.4 rating

23 proven transfers in, carrying the production below from their prior school.

  • Koa Akui S ← Sacramento State 90 impact
  • Stone Combs LB ← Nevada 75 impact
  • AJ Brown DE ← UAB 56 impact
  • Max Mosey WR ← Holy Cross 52 impact
  • Austin Harnetiaux LB ← Nevada 35 impact
  • Tariq Watson CB ← UAB 21 impact

Impact scores offensive skill additions (QB/RB/WR/TE) — prior-season production normalized within position (100 ≈ a 90th-percentile producer at that spot) and discounted for non-FBS competition, so a top back counts alongside a top quarterback. Defensive and O-line additions count as transfers but aren't box-score measurable, so they carry no impact score. The rating figure is this class's portal contribution vs. the FBS average, capped at ±2.5.

If QB1 is out (Chase Jenkins)

GIE projects a -3.0 rating drop and a -11.8pp shift in playoff probability if Rice loses its QB1 for an extended stretch. (n=1 historical samples; pooled across recent seasons.)

Situational efficiency · 2025

FBS percentile rank
  • 3rd-down conversion 31.4% 21th — bottom tier
  • Red-zone TD rate 20.9% 90th — elite
  • 4th-down aggression 37.2% 56th — average
  • Late & close 3.2 yds/play 16th — bottom tier

Percentile is across all FBS teams with play-by-play data for the season. "Late & close" is yards per play in Q4+ with a one-score margin — a proxy for clutch offensive performance.

More coming

Per-team pages get the full treatment in Phase 3: current rating, season projection histogram, schedule with win probabilities, and live overlays on Pylon stream days. For now, this page exists so stories and news have a permanent home as content rolls in.