Rice Football head coach Mike Bloomgren made his final comments on the Baylor game as the Owls move onward to Louisiana Tech in Week 5.
Running back Charlie Booker and safety Treshawn Chamberlain joined head coach Mike Bloomgren at the podium on Tuesday. All three made comments on the end of nonconference play and what the team expects as the begin their Conference USA schedule this coming week against Louisiana Tech.
From Mike Bloomgren
On the team’s goals…
“The team’s goals are very clear. We want to win the conference. That conference trophy is at the very top. The other goal is to go to a bowl game and win. That’s what we want to do.”
On where the program is right now…
“I just believe so much in the steps we’ve taken. I don’t know if anybody outside of our program thought two years ago that we could be here. Standing toe-to-toe with an Army team that’s going to play the way they do for 60 minutes and fighting with Baylor and giving ourselves a chance in the end. I’m really proud of the progress. But, like I told these guys yesterday morning, it’s about time to win.”
On the current quarterback dynamic…
“I probably hoped that someone would really separate in the last game. The reality is they both played really well. So, we’re going to continue to do what we did last game. Wiley (Green’s) going to start. He’ll get take two series and then Tom (Stewart) will come in and we’ll see where it goes from there.
“We’re going to treat it, really right now until it defines itself completely, like any other position on our team. I think that they can all do everything we asked, but each of them brings something different to the table.
“Wiley’s time in our system allows him to be more comfortable with any change that we can make on the sideline. Obviously, pre-snap Wiley is still, not light years ahead, but he’s still ahead of him. What Tom does better is Tom elongates plays to keep them alive and when Tom runs with the ball he runs with a passion to get in the end zone. We’ve seen him do it on multiple occasions now. He’s a determined runner.”
On the redshirt rule and the recent decisions at Houston…
“I love our kids and our culture and I’m so glad we’re not dealing with it. It wouldn’t be good for our football team right now if a starter decided not to continue to play. It would make me question what we were doing”
From Charlie Booker
On how he hopes to contribute to the team this year…
“From my standpoint, I’m just going to do whatever I can do. I’m going to go out there — my job is every week when I get out there, I’m supposed to make the right reads and I’m always supposed to break the first cycle. So that’s my main focus right now.”
From Treshawn Chamberlain
On how the defense can improve…
“The next step would be to eliminate explosive plays. Most of the explosive plays are due to your own mistakes so being able to take this in and going to this week with the mindset of perfecting every personnel every formation that they’re giving us so we can basically be a step ahead of the offense without them knowing.”
