College Football

2025 Rice Football Predictions: Owls Ranked 115th in RJ Young's Ultimate 136

Updated Aug. 10, 2025 9:30 p.m. ET

FOX Sports National College Football Analyst

This isn't your average college football ranking.

My Ultimate 136 is a set of rankings that is fluid, but it's my job to look ahead and make a claim for all FBS teams based on what I know and why I know it. Here are the three pressing questions I started by asking when putting together this list:

Who do I think is good?
Why do I think they're good?
What are the chances they will finish above or below my expectations?

Here is a look at where Rice lands in my Ultimate 136.

Rice ranking: 115
Last year’s ranking: 111
Top player: DL Blake Boenisch: Has played in 37 games in the last three seasons for Rice; last season recorded career-bests in total tackles (42), solo tackles (25) and tackles for loss (3.5); became the first Owl interior defender to be credited with at least 10 tackles in a game since the 1990s.

[Rice's 2025 schedule]

RJ's take: If you've made it to 115 in the ranking, I’ll just assume you're an Owl fan or a degenerate college football junkie like me, so allow me to give you hope (Rice fan) or fill you with glee (sicko) and tell Scott Abell is gonna move the ball and win.

He was 47-28 at Steph Curry’s Davidson; runs a shotgun spread that feels like the one Mack Brown ran with Vince Young at Texas; averaged more than 315 rushing yards a game in 2024 and has a pair of tailbacks who averaged 6.0 yards per carry last season in Quinton Jackson and Taji Atkins.

It ain't much, but it's likely to entertain the hell out of us.

[Check out RJ Young's Ultimate 136 College Football Rankings here]

Rice Win Total Odds: Over 3.5 (-154) Under 3.5 (+126)

Have an issue with my rankings? Think your alma mater is too low, or your school's rival is too high? Get at me on X, @RJ_Young, and I'll select my favorite tweets and respond to them in a future article.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young.

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