larry izzo attended rice university, where he wore the number 26, and was a four-year letterman and standout and finished fourth on the school's all-time tackles list with 301 tackles, setting a school-record 46 tackles for losses, and a season record of 18 tackles for losses in 1995. in 1994 an underdog rice beat top 10 ranked texas on national television by the score 19-17, as izzo was selected player of the game with two key sacks (sharing the honor with teammate n. d. kalu). it was the first time in over 30 years that rice had beaten its in-state rival, and would help rice win a share of the southwest conference title for the first time in 37 years. as a senior, izzo was voted defensive team captain and earned consensus all-southwest conference honors after registering 121 tackles, he won the george martin award as the team's mvp and won the jess neely defense award as the team's top linebacker. izzo was also selected as an honorable mention all-american.