Editor’s note: This is part 11 of a 13-part series previewing each of Western Kentucky’s opponents for the 2022 football season. Part 11 features a look at Rice. Part 12 will preview Auburn.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Rice has upset some of the top teams in Conference USA the last two years.

The Owls enter the season looking to gain more respect in the league, and Western Kentucky will try to avoid becoming one of Rice’s victims when the two face off Nov. 12 at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

“We need to earn the respect that we deserve,” Rice redshirt senior offensive lineman Shea Baker said at the C-USA Football Kickoff at Globe Life Field in Arlington. “To go out this season and prove that and play with a chip on our shoulder is going to be every week for us.”

Rice went just 4-8 last year and 2-3 in a COVID-disrupted 2020 season, but picked up wins against some of C-USA’s best teams in each of those campaigns. The Owls knocked off UAB – the three-time defending West Division champion and C-USA champ in 2018 and 2020 – 30-24 in Birmingham, Ala., in 2021, and the year before shut out then-unbeaten and No. 15 Marshall 20-0 at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington, W.Va.

The Owls hope to look back on those experiences that show they can beat the top teams and translate it into more consistent success on the field.

“When you find a way to beat them, it just gives you a different belief structure. You know you have the ability individually, you know your team’s good enough, but when you do something like that, you can always go back to it and rely on those experiences,” fifth-year Rice coach Mike Bloomgren said. “So what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Sometimes you’ve just got to throw them both together and make both those things happen. Then you have those experiences.”

Despite some big wins over the last two seasons, Rice is still expected to finish near the bottom of the C-USA standings. In the league’s predicted order of finish voted upon by members of media that cover C-USA, the Owls were picked to finish 10th of 11 teams. FIU was picked to finish last.

Rice has added 41 newcomers since the end of the 2021 season that it hopes will add depth at all positions. The Owls have 55% of their starts back on offense from last year and 68% on defense.

“That’s a great thing when you have guys that want to play every down, but it’s an even better thing when you can put somebody in the game that you don’t have to pray for when somebody breaks a shoestring and they’ve got to enter,” Bloomgren said. “This depth is not just good for practice, it’s obviously going to be great for games, too. We’ve worked really hard to get to a point where we have this kind of depth, which, in addition to those things with practice and games, the competition level – everything has gone up. When you raise the floor of your program, it just makes everything so much better and that’s what we’ve done.”

Offensively, Rice averaged only 21.5 points and 362 yards per game last season – marks that were 12th and 13th of 14 teams in C-USA. Rice rushed for 150.3 yards per game and returns leading rusher Ari Broussard. Bloomgren is also high on Riverside Community College transfer running back Dean Connors.

The Owls have started 11 different quarterbacks since 2017, and entered the fall with a competition primarily between Wiley Green and TJ McMahon. Green will look to be the program’s first starting QB in consecutive seasons since Driphus Jackson started the 2014 and ‘15 seasons. Green started the team’s opener at Arkansas and played in four games, throwing for 414 yards and four touchdowns on 36-of-55 passing with three interceptions, but suffered a season-ending injury Oct. 30 against North Texas after leading the team over UAB the week prior. McMahon played in 11 games last season, and saw his best performance in relief when he threw for 191 yards and two touchdowns against Louisiana Tech in the season finale.

Defensively, Rice ranked 13th in C-USA with 36.2 points allowed per game and 11th in total defense with 435.5 yards allowed per game.

WKU is 3-0 all-time against Rice, including a 42-21 victory last season in Houston that made the Hilltoppers bowl eligible. This will be the final season the Owls play in C-USA before moving to the American Athletic Conference. Rice has at least one road win against every current C-USA team except WKU, which won the one previous contest in Bowling Green 46-14 in 2016.

Kickoff for the Nov. 12 game at Houchens-Smith Stadium is scheduled for 1 p.m.{&end}