HOUSTON -- Sitting in a conference room looking over the field at Rice Stadium on a sunny February afternoon in Houston, Scott Abell willingly admits something few coaches usually would when walking into a new place: the job isn't normal.

"I don't think you can always be conventional here," Abell told CBS Sports. "That doesn't mean anybody who's come before me was bad. There's been a lot of good coaches. But I don't think you can run a Rice football program like an Alabama or Texas . You just can't.

"You have to see it differently."

That theory explains how Abell, a coach who never worked in a FBS program before December, got the Rice job in the first place.

The Owls are a historic program after 111 years but not necessarily successful. They've reached 14 bowl games all time, ha

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