For the first time, the bulk of the Rice Football roster consists of players recruited to the program by the head coach himself, a significant inflection point for the Owls’ moving forward.
When Scott Abell arrived at South Main more than a year ago, there was no ensuing influx of former players that came with him, nor did he attempt to flip the roster with a host of transfers. Instead, he honored every offer from the prior staff and kept the Rice football roster largely as it was.
Abell and his staff did what they could in the Transfer Portal, picking up players who would become eventual starters like wide receiver Aaron Turner, offensive lineman Sean Sullivan and corner Omari Porter. But at the time Abell coached his first game at Rice, the vast majority of the roster had been recruited by someone else to an entirely different scheme.
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“I thought it was the right thing to do for our football program. I thought it was the right thing to do personally and I thought it was the situation we were in,” Abell reflected.
Noble it might have been, that course of action had its natural consequences. Misaligned fits between players and scheme and holes that weren’t readily apparent in December became quite clear by October and November. Months later, this current staff was truly able to address those concerns, and this roster, for the first time en masse.
Including the handful of players scheduled to enroll this summer after completing their undergraduate work elsewhere, more than 60 percent of the 2026 Rice Football roster was recruited and signed by Abell’s current staff. That’s quite a shift from a group that was more than 80 percent holdovers at this time last year.
“We’ll add 20 transfers. For a lot of programs around the country, that’s not a big number. That’s what they do every year. For us, that’s going to be a big number,” Abell said. “What it means is now we’re able to find hopefully those position needs that fit us more specifically in each phase of the game that we couldn’t really have the opportunity to do last year.”
In practice, that means a corner room Abell called “completely rebuilt” and a slot room flush with new athletes and playmakers. Rice signed three new quarterbacks, too, including UCF transfer Jacurri Brown, who will be the odds-on favorite to be the Owls’ starter next season.
Speed was a priority, a trait Brown and others are already exhibiting in offseason workouts. Even before stepping on the field and running a play, this current group resembles what Abell would want his team to look like more than the 2025 roster ever did.
“Instead of inheriting a roster, we had the opportunity to mold, develop, and change the roster in real time,” Abell said.
Getting those new pieces to gel with the returning players will be a key objective when spring practice arrives in less than a month’s time. From there, Rice football will embark on Year 2 under Abell and, at least from a roster construction standpoint, should be more set up for success than before.
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“We expect to take a big step in year two, Abell declared. “I said it often, I thought we did a good job competing with the middle to the bottom half of the league and our goal is to compete with the best programs in the league. I expect us to step on the field and compete at a high level next year.”
Having the right pieces should certainly help.
