Rice spent the offseason adding a piece that fits its scheme far better than anything on last year's roster: UCF transfer quarterback Jacurri Brown, a dual-threat option runner brought in specifically to run the shotgun-based system Abell calls "gun choice." Pair him with tailback Quinton Jackson, who's back for a fourth season after a career-high 889 rushing yards, and Rice has more juice at the skill positions than it did during a 5-8 debut season that still included upset wins over Louisiana and UConn.
The stylistic matchup is the real story here. Army isn't just facing another spread team it has to chase around the field — it's facing a Rice offense built on option principles the Black Knights understand better than almost anyone in the country, which could cut both ways. Defensively, Army's staff has decades of collective experience defending option looks in practice, and that rep advantage should translate to fewer explosive plays allowed even against a Rice attack with real speed at running back.
For Rice, the swing factor is simply how far the offense has come in year two of installation. Gun choice teams tend to take a leap once the quarterback is a true fit for the scheme, and Brown gives Abell exactly that after a debut season spent making do with pro-style holdovers. Whether that leap shows up by late November against a program with Army's option pedigree is the whole question.
Army's floor here is genuinely high: a veteran option attack, a defense that's seen every option wrinkle in practice for over a decade, and a head coach who has three conference titles worth of institutional knowledge running this exact style of football. Rice's ceiling is higher than it was a year ago, but ceiling and floor are two different things against a program this battle-tested in the run game.