Rice Pursues Progress With Its New Attitude

Rice isn’t likely to play in a football bowl game this year -- the Owls haven’t since 1961 -- but they have on their nonconference schedule three teams that probably will.

After meeting UCLA on Saturday at the Rose Bowl, the lowly Owls, who have won only one of their last 18 games, will play No. 2 Texas at Reliant Stadium in Houston, then at No. 9 Florida State.

“It’s no question that staying healthy is one of our biggest concerns,” Todd Graham, Rice’s first-year coach, said Tuesday. “It’s a big challenge.... We don’t have a lot of depth.”

The Owls have undergone almost a complete makeover since Graham took over after last season for Ken Hatfield, who resigned after 12 seasons. Rice has new uniforms and helmets, a renovated stadium and only one football staff member -- a receptionist -- remaining from Hatfield’s regime. Also, Athletic Director Bobby May and several other athletic program officials either retired or were not asked to return.

Graham, an assistant at Tulsa the last three seasons, said he knew that the job of turning Rice into a perennially competitive football school would be difficult considering the Owls’ history.

Rice’s last conference title in football came when it won a share of the Southwest Conference championship in 1994, a season in which it finished with a 5-6 overall record. The Owls have won or shared only seven conference titles since they began playing football in 1912.

“Changing the mind-set, that’s really the most difficult thing,” Graham said. “Any place that hasn’t won, there’s a hopeless lack of confidence. We’ve spent an enormous amount of energy on mental training.”

UCLA linebackers Korey and Kyle Bosworth are from Plano, Texas, and were recruited by Rice. “They really wanted us, but we just weren’t interested,” Korey said.

Although the Owls lost to city-rival Houston, 31-30, in their opener last week, UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell said he noticed a new attitude with Rice, which led, 30-17, at the start of the fourth quarter.

“You can tell that this team playing now is really inspired,” Dorrell said. “They are really flying around on defense.”

UCLA defeated Rice last year, 63-21, but visitors to the Owls’ athletic website are greeted with big, bold letters that read: New Coach, New Beginning -- it’s a slogan that Graham said the Owls are starting to believe.

“We feel like we are developing a good football team,” said Graham, who has three assistants who coached at the high school level last year. “It wasn’t surprising to us that we led by so much, what was surprising was that we didn’t keep the lead.

“We let one get away, but you can see that things are changing around here.”

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Cornerback Michael Norris (knee), receiver Joe Cowan (knee) and safety Aaron Ware (concussion) did not practice Tuesday.... UCLA did not break into the Associated Press top 25, but the Bruins received 29 votes.

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lonnie.white@latimes.com