Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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34 SEPT. 12, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: RICE been on the winning side all my five years here, and that's something I want to do, just go out the right way. "I'm excited. I think we had a great off- season, a great journey as a team together, building our brotherhood with the trans- fers coming in and with the players that stayed. We talk a lot about being a tight- knit group, and I think that really shows. "A lot of people say their group is tight, but I really can honestly say that our group is very tight. We play for each other, and we just want to see each other succeed. There's no jealousy around this team, and everybody is here for one common goal, and that's to win football games." LEADING THE OFFENSE Winning football games typically requires a successful quarterback. The Owls brought in former UCF and Mi- ami quarterback Jacurri Brown to be the solution, and he won the starting job in the spring. That allowed Brown to take on a leadership role, and he received a captain title in August. Brown, a Rivals Industry four-star recruit out of Valdosta (Ga.) Lowndes, began his career at Miami. He earned playing time immediately as a freshman, which included eight game appearances and two starts. He lost the starting job to Tyler Van Dyke the following season, but he made his third career start in a Pinstripe Bowl loss to Rutgers. Brown transferred to UCF, where he spent the past two seasons, but he ended up start- ing only one game with the Knights. Through four seasons, Brown has completed 57.4 percent of his passes (85 of 148) for 906 yards with 6 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. He also rushed 138 times for 823 yards and 8 touchdowns. Brown's ability to become a true dual- threat quarterback may dictate how well Rice can elevate its expectations. "I'm really excited about our chemistry and our explosiveness," Jackson said of Rice's offense. "I think coming in this off- season, we kind of knew where we wanted to be great at and we hammered it all off- season. Spring ball, then going into OTAs and coming into camp, we just hammered it all offseason. I'm just ready to show the world this chemistry that we have and the brotherhood we have, because I think it's going to pop out on film." ✦ Three Things To Know About Rice 1. Rice Has A 6-foot-1 Tight End That The Owls Are Very Excited About And the redshirt junior hasn't played the position since his senior season at Catholic Central High in Lawrence, Mass. His name? Preston Zinter. Yes, that Preston Zinter, a former deep reserve linebacker, a for- mer deep reserve defensive end and a former special teams stalwart for Notre Dame the past three seasons. Zinter entered the transfer portal in January having earned his business degree in three years, and landed at Rice, where he's enrolled in graduate school, seeking a master's in busi- ness administration. Rice's No. 1 tight end played just 18 defen- sive snaps for the Irish in 2025 and 75 during his Notre Dame career. But he logged 221 special teams plays last season for the Irish and was rated as their special teams player by Pro Football Focus. 2. What Little History There Is Between Notre Dame And Rice Is Actually Historic Saturday's clash at Notre Dame Stadium, in the Irish home opener, is just the sixth meet- ing between the two teams. All five previous matchups resulted in wins by the Irish. Two of those victories came during national championship seasons — in 1973 under Ara Parseghian (28-0) and in 1988 under Lou Holtz (54-11). The first meeting was the only one of the previous five in which Notre Dame wasn't ranked, and that's largely because the Associated Press rankings wouldn't debut until 1936, 21 years after Notre Dame's 55-2 beatdown of the Owls on the road to conclude the 1915 season. Future coaching legend Knute Rockne was an assistant coach for the 1915 Irish team as well as a chemistry instructor at Notre Dame during the week. He also commuted to Massillon, Ohio, via train, after games on Saturday to play pro ball for the Massillon Tigers, then take an overnight train on Sunday back to South Bend. Notre Dame's 10-3 victory over Rice in 1974 came during Parseghian's final year of coaching and was the smallest Irish offensive output of the season. Parseghian's final game that season was a 13-11 upending of No. 2 Alabama by No. 9 Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl in a legendary coaching matchup with Bear Bryant. The most recent Irish victory, 48-17 in the 2014 season opener, was a relative bright spot in the largely disastrous 30-game run for Brian VanGorder as Notre Dame's defensive coordinator under Brian Kelly. That run ended with VanGorder's dismissal four games into the 2016 season. 3. It's Hard To Win At Rice — And Has Been For Quite Some Time Current head coach Scott Abell was able to coax the Owls into a bowl game during his first season leading Rice, but it took the school's academic prowess and Notre Dame's snub of the Pop-Tarts Bowl to make it happen. Iowa State and Kansas State also turned down bowl bids, opening three spots for teams with 5-7 regular-season records to play in a bowl game. The Owls were the first team offered, based on having the best score using the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate (APR) formula. Rice played Texas State in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth on Jan. 2, and got trounced 41-10. Business as usual? Of the last 12 coaches who preceded Abell at Rice, only Todd Graham in 2006 (7-6) left the school with a winning record during his stint there. Homer Rice only fashioned a 4-18 record in two seasons (1976-77). Even Hall of Fame coach John Heisman — after whom the Heisman Trophy is named — was a combined 14-18-3 in his four seasons coaching the Owls (1924-27), after which he retired. — Eric Hansen Former Notre Dame linebacker/defensive end/ special teams stalwart Preston Zinter is listed as Rice's No. 1 tight end on its depth chart ahead of returning contributor James Falk. PHOTO COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS