GameDay: Baylor travels to Houston to face Rice

RICE SERIES HISTORY

• Baylor and Rice will meet for the 81st time Friday. Winners of seven straight against Rice, Baylor leads the series 48-30-2. Rice is the second former Southwest Conference rival on Baylor’s 2016 schedule (Baylor defeated SMU, 40-13, on Sept. 10). Prior to Baylor and Rice leaving the Southwest Conference in 1996, the series with the Owls had been played continuously for 71 years (with the exception of World War II) as conference rivals.

• Since moving into the Big 12 Conference in 1996, Baylor is 10-0 in non-conference games against former Southwest Conference (non-Big 12) rivals -- 6-0 vs. SMU and 4-0 vs. Rice.
• Friday will be just the fifth series meeting since the Southwest Conference disbanded.
• In 2010’s last series meeting in Houston, Robert Griffin III passed for 268 yards and three touchdowns to lead Baylor to a 30-13 win over Rice on a rain-soaked Saturday night that included a weather delay of about an hour. The Bears outgained Rice 456 to 296.
• Baylor’s coaching connections with Rice also run deep as former defensive coach Larry Hoeffer (2003-10) is the Rice safeties coach and former director of operations Jerry Pickle (1986-2007) is on the Owls’ operations staff.