It’s been a season of ups and downs for our “Ugly Underdogs.” Three weeks ago, we were riding high at 5-3 and staring down another profitable season. Two non-covers by Sacramento State and Nevada later, and we’re back at .500 as we head down the stretch. Don’t worry, though, we’re backing the Rice Owls this week. They’d never let us down, right?

College football programs are like snowflakes. They’re all made of the same stuff, but no two are exactly the same.

And it’s not just X’s and O’s that make them different. It’s their location, the size of the school, and even their academic standards.

To an outsider, Rice University, which is located in the heart of Houston, has the makings to be a football powerhouse.

It is located smack in between two of the biggest talent heartlands in the country, the rolling hills of Texas and the Louisiana Gulf, and Rice is a prestigious institution, not unlike Notre Dame.

But the school has never bent on its rigorous academic standards, even for football players, which has severely limited the pool of players who are eligible to suit up for the Owls.

Instead of being the “Notre Dame of the South,” Rice was the butt of an ad-libbed joke by President John F. Kennedy during his famous speech about going to the Moon in 1962.

Kennedy, when stressing the importance of challenging yourself by attempting to do difficult things, like flying to the moon, joked, “Why does Rice play Texas?”

Knowing that the program needed a new direction because of its standards, Rice made an interesting hire before the 2025 season, bringing in Scott Abell from Davidson.

Abell got the gig by proposing that Rice adopt the triple-option offense, like Army, Navy, and Air Force, to offset the lack of talent at its disposal.

The early returns were decent. Rice went 5-8 and earned an invitation to the Armed Forces Bowl in Abell’s first season.

Things have not gone nearly as well for the Owls (1-7, 0-4 AAC) this year, but they’re not as bad as that record suggests. Rice is 0-3 in one-score games and has hung around against Fresno State and UTSA, two of the best teams in the Group of 6.

But more importantly, something significant happened in their last game against Florida Atlantic. With quarterback Jacurri Brown out with an ankle injury, Rice tapped Gael Ochoa to make his first career start. The El Paso native was good. Historically good.

Ochoa ran for 259 yards — the second-most in school history — and threw a 71-yard touchdown pass in a 51-49 loss to FAU.

Ochoa and the Owls will need more of that against North Texas on Saturday.

Neal Brown deserves serious Coach of the Year consideration for the job he’s done in Denton.

North Texas lost nearly two-thirds of its production from last season when head coach Eric Morris left for Oklahoma State, making a rebuilding year seem inevitable.

Instead, Brown has flipped the script, leading the Mean Green to an offense that’s putting up numbers comparable to last year’s FBS-best unit.

North Texas ranks first in yards per game, second in yards per play and second in points per game.

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Containing North Texas hasn’t been easy for anybody, but there is plenty of hope for the Owls to keep this game within the 16.5-point spread.

As good as North Texas has been with the ball, it has been porous without it, ranking 99th in yards per play allowed (5.8) and, most importantly, 77th in yards allowed per rush (4.3).

Also notable? The Mean Green allowed 39 points and 506 yards of offense to Navy in Week 8.

Don’t be surprised if Rice, coming off its outburst against FAU, is able to have similar success at Apogee Stadium on Saturday.

The Play: Rice +16.5 (-110, DraftKings)

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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.