Sports

It seems odd that just four seasons ago, the Rice Owls finished the season 10-3 and defeated Western Michigan 38-14 in the Texas Bowl in 2008. It was one of their best seasons to date and only their fifth bowl win in school history. But now with head coach David Bailiff entering his sixth season at Rice, he has just one winning season while there. Most don’t expect the Owls to win seven or eight games each year, but Rice fans expect more than what has been taking place down on Main Street.

Offense (6 starters return)

New coach, new conference and even new uniforms — the Texas A&M Aggies are finally out of the shadow of the University of Texas. The team lost four of its last five regular season games, and parted with coach Mike Sherman, hiring Kevin Sumlin from the University of Houston. The Aggies did manage to end the season on a high note as they defeated Northwestern 33-22 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

It’s August and the temperature is scorching hot, which means one thing — football season is less than a month away. The infamous two-a-day practices begin bright and early on Monday, Aug. 6, for schools that did not participate in spring practices, which applies to just Class 5A and 4A Schools.

This time two years ago, fans were super excited that football, absent since 1989, was returning at Lamar University. It had been too long since fans, alum and students could sit in the stadium and watch college football.

Money flowed in to make it happen, beautifully refurbishing the stadium, which went on to be named Provost Umphrey Stadium. Everyone embraced the return of Lamar football.