The Rice Owls were in a game mode early on Wednesday, as David Bailiff put his charges through a two-hour morning scrimmage on the turf at Rice Stadium and afterwards, he said he was happy with the results.

"I was really pleased with how we showed up this morning and played with passion," Bailiff said. "We are making improvements as a football team and we challenged our players with some of the situations we threw at them. We showed a lot of improvement from Saturday's scrimmage," he added.

Starting from a variety of field positions, the offense was able to find the end zone six times, and kicked a field goal on a seventh possession. The morning's longest score came later in the morning when Chase Clement hooked up with walk-on receiver Jaimin Shah on a 54-yard scoring toss. Clement also found Jarett Dillard twice in the end zone on short tosses and finished with 134 yards passing. Bubba Heard scored on a 20-yard run and led the rushers with 35 yards on three carries.

Even with the improved offensive production, Bailiff noted the Owls defense continues to acclimate itself with the new 4-2-5 defensive scheme. "The defense is getting comfortable with what we have asked them to do," he said. "The mistakes that were made are ones that are correctable," he added.

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