Next up in our 2025 Rice Football Season Preview: running back. Here’s our breakdown of the Owls’ plans for the group this season.
A new offense brings with it a myriad of differing outlooks for key position groups, few of which will enter the upcoming 2025 Rice Football season with as much expectation as the running back room. The focal point of a scheme that has led the nation in rushing frequently when head coach Scott Abell was at Davidson, the Owls’ backs are going to be leaned on to carry a significant load in this offense.
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Breaking down the Running Back position
Rice football hasn’t had a 1,000 yard rusher since Charles Ross surpassed that mark in the 2013 season. As a program, the Owls never finished a season with more rushing yards than passing yards under prior head coach Mike Bloomgren, something that is certain to change moving forward.
Abell’s Davidson steams averaged 334 rushing yards per game over seven seasons. Rice football hasn’t averaged 300 rushing yards per game since 2004 under Ken Hatfield, who also ran a variation on an option scheme.
Altogether, that points to a significantly increased workload for this position in 2025 and beyond. The sheer volume of touches required by this style of offense will necessitate a committee approach, although there will still be room for a lead back if the staff believes they have someone capable of taking on that mantle.
While many of the names are unheralded to this point, Abell remains optimistic, “We have six running backs on the roster. I think they all have a shot of carrying the football for us,” he said.
“You’re going to hang your hat on running the football, well that starts with guys who can carry the football and I think we have a great roster, depth, of running backs.”
Projected Starter – Quinton Jackson
A team captain as voted on by his peers, Quinton Jackson is poised to step into that all-important lead back role and become “the guy” in the running back room for the first time in his collegiate career. He announced himself to the Owls’ fanbase with a leaping downfield reception in the Lending Tree Bowl against Southern Miss and earned some national cache with a 100-yard kick return touchdown last season at UConn.
Jackson’s athleticism was never in question — that’s something he has in droves — rather, it’s whether or not his 5-foot-7, 160-pound frame can bear the burden of a significant workload between the tackles. Every time he’s been asked to pound the rock, he’s performed well. He enters this season averaging 5.4 yards per carry, but that comes on just 58 rush attempts, including a career-high 48 carries last season.
Maintaining that level of efficiency with added volume would be a tall order for any back, but few possess the caliber of athleticism and vision Jackson has produced in his time on the field at Rice thus far. At a minimum, this should be a career year for Jackson, but just how high those totals ascend will depend on how significant his portion of the rushing responsibilities will become.
Rest of the Room
No room has been more challenging to sort out during the spring and fall camp than this one. As recently as the midpoint of camp, Abell himself admitted the staff was more focused on reps than developing a hierarchy in this room. And with so many unknowns, it seems foolish to set for an arbitrary ordering at this point.
“We have six running backs on the roster,” Abell said at the midpoint of fall camp. “I think they all have a shot of carrying the football for us.”
Outside of Jackson, Daelen Alexander (5-foot-10, 215) is the only other back whom Abell has acknowledge a defined separation from the rest of the room. Alexander’s prowess at the goal line is well documented (18 carries and five touchdowns in 2023), but he’s impressed in the open field during camp and looks to be a more complete back than what Rice fans might recall from his last appearances on the field.
The rest of the group is still in the midst of a competition for playing time. The following order best approximates how they’ve been prioritized in camp so far, with superlatives on their individual skillsets handed out from Jackson.
Kansas transfer Carson Morgan (6-foot, 212) has the makings of a reliable vet. While he might not possess breakaway speed, his other skills fit this scheme extremely well. “I feel like he’s very patient in the hole,” Jackson said. “He’s able to manipulate the linebacker and do some special things.” Although moving fast will always be an asset in an run-first offense, being in the right place in the right time is equally crucial.
Freshmen Tyvonn Byars (5-foot-10, 214) and D’Andre Hardeman (5-foot-8, 200) have the makings a thunder-and-lightning one-two punch. Jackson referred to Byars as “a bruiser” saying that “not a lot of people want to tackle Tyvonn.” As for Hardeman, Jackson lauded his speed, no small compliment from one of the quicker players on the roster.
The Rice offense under Abell likely won’t be as specialized in its personnel deployment as things were under Bloomgren, preferring to be able to do all things in all formations with all personnel, but it’s hard not to take one quick look at Stanford transfer Ryan Butler (5-foot-1, 225) and pencil him into a short-yardage role. Jackson called him a player who “runs very physical [and] runs behind his pads well.”
Player to Watch
The 2025 Rice football team has to prioritize the players that will best help them win games right now and if that ends up being veteran transfers, that’s who the Owls will put on the field. However, it’s been impossible to ignore the drum beat for these two freshman throughout the spring and into fall camp.
If there was an adjustment period to college ball, it was short lived. Both Tyvonn Byars and D’Andre Hardeman look the part and bring with them unique skillsets that could enable them to get on the field early. Will there be enough touches for six backs? Probably not, at least not in bulk, but it’s hard to envision a world where at least one of these two hasn’t carved out a chunk of those carries by midseason or so.
** Photo credit: Maria Lysaker **