Rice football suffered a tough loss to UTEP in Week 10. Mike Bloomgren recaps the loss and looks forward to Louisiana Tech in Week 11.
On the rough start against UTEP
That’s absolutely something we have to get out of these kids minds – the soft attitude of letting one play affect the next. We’ve got to be able to move on to the next play. We’ve got to be mentally tough. We’ve got to understand what we can control in that moment, what’s important in that moment, and not what just happened.
On how the team has responded this week
We’re continuing to stress our process and demand that these guys do it our way. To these kid’s credit they came back in the building yesterday, they watched the film, they listened to me talk about the things that win football games… and then they went out on the practice field and worked.
On the health of starting quarterback Shawn Stankavage
Senior quarterback Shawn Stankavage, our day one starter, is going to be able to return from injury this week a lot faster than everybody thought.. we expect him to start [the rest of this] season. We’re excited to have Sean’s leadership and experience back in the huddle.
On the impact of the new redshirt rule on the program going forward
Some of these freshmen are playing 60-80 plays a game. It’s going to pay dividends, I know it is… the redshirt rule is awesome in that regard… I think going into spring ball knowing the tempo of what a college football game feels like instead of knowing what a practice feels like has so much value.
On Louisiana Tech’s star defensive end Jaylon Ferguson
Jaylon Ferguson is as good of a defensive end as I’ve seen in this conference… he’s how you would design a defensive end on the Madden video game. He’s going to be a great challenge for all of our tackles and backs and tight ends to get a chance to block.
