Rice football has a new QB1 and lots of new weapons at the skill positions. Here’s a deep dive on what we learned from the offense in the spring.
When Rice football head coach Scott Abell arrived on campus, he elected not to flush the existing roster and reboot everything overnight. Instead, he did his best to make things work with the players available to him on South Main. A year removed from his arrival, he’s had time to be more selective and handpick the right pieces for his unique scheme.
“On defense, we’re conventional,” he remarked. “Offensively, I need to get guys that fit us.”
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Guys like dual threat quarterback Jacurri Brown, several new skill players and a couple of upcoming imports from the Ivy Leagues in the trenches should make the Owls look much different when the fall arrives. This update digs into which questions were answered this spring and what uncertainty remains with the offense as the spring winds down and the summer approaches.
QB Battle Moves Quickly
Shortly after the conclusion of spring practices, The Roost broke the news that Jacurri Brown is expected to be named the Rice football starting quarterback. For those who have been following along throughout the spring, this shouldn’t have come as a shock.
Brown received the first reps throughout the spring and was brought in to win the job. He impressed at every turn and ran away with whatever semblance of competition there was.
It’s not just Brown, though. The entire room is more polished and productive than the Owls had at any point last season. UNLV transfers Gael Ochoa, the frontrunner at this point to be QB2, delivered a vicious run in the spring game and made several plays with his arm throughout camp. A second season on campus for Lucas Scheerhorn and Patrick Crayton gives Rice four capable quarterbacks, a luxury they’ll hope they don’t have to use, but will be thankful to have if they’re needed.
The Best is Yet to Come at the Skill Positions
If there were a portion of Rice Football spring practice that could be tagged as disappointing, it would be the impact of injuries on the pass-catching rooms and the limiting factor it had on the offensive expansion. The spring game drew attention to this. As exciting as it was in the moment, deep sideline routes to defensive linemen turned tight end DD Oliver aren’t what this offense was designed to do.
However, the entire spring wasn’t run with such drastically reduced numbers. Many of those players did get reps, even if they were fleeting. The biggest impacts were likely in the slot room, where Davis Lane and Ben Grice delivered a plethora of highlights before each saw their workload reduced for health reasons.
Assuming a clean bill of health in the fall, it’s possible, if not probable, that the duo will start at the slot positions alongside Quinton Jackson. That’s three players in that room who each have more speed than Aaron Turner last season, who was by no means slow. Holy Cross transfer Max Mosey is expected to be a contributor, too, and he will arrive on campus in June.
“I genuinely could not be more pleased with the direction that I think we’re going. The guys that we’ve brought in have been incredible additions from a talent standpoint and a culture standpoint,” slot coach Austin Eisenhofer said. “We got bigger. We got savvier. We got tougher.”
The spring served as a taste of what could be possible from that group. If the full course is anything like those initial offerings, this position is poised for a renaissance in the fall compared to how it was utilized by the staff in 2025.
That optimism persists, in part, by the production of younger players like Jordan Clark and Michael Sifford, who both had strong camps and had a few splash plays in the spring game, too. That’s potentially six capable weapons in the room, with room for others like Colin Leahey or one of the incoming freshmen to earn time down the line if they impress.
Depth at Receiver Remains Murky
Similar unknowns remain at the true wide receiver spot, but injuries aren’t to blame for that uncertainty. The good news starts with the continued growth of Payton Matthews, who has taken another step forward in his development after seeing more and more playing time down the stretch last season.
His relentlessness as a gunner on special teams and his tenacity as a blocker helped get him on the field in the first place. His rapid assimilation into the scheme has kept him there, something that was made abundantly clear this spring.
“Payton knows the offense. I can turn my back and know he’s going to do the right thing,” receivers coach Brian Brown said. “I don’t feel like that with everyone else at this point.”
He’s the frontrunner to keep the starting job heading into the fall, but what else happens at the position remains to be seen. Keenan Arcega-Whiteside impressed during camp and appears to be progressing well in his second season on South Main. Then there’s Barry Jackson, who can take the top off a defense, but lacks the experience in this scheme and has some more development to do in that respect.
Braylen Walker is the fourth man who could contend for snaps, but he missed most of last season with injuries and barely saw the field this spring with a separate concern that limited his availability. It’s going to be hard to count on him until he can string a meaningful amount of reps together.
Hardeman and Byars Take Center Stage
When the starting offense took the field this spring, D’Andre Hardeman was the running back in the formation. While the coaching staff noted on several occasions that Quinton Jackson would reclaim that spot in the fall and was merely cross-training in the slot, that notion became less plausible with every given practice.
Hardeman runs with power and a slashing burst. By every observable trait, he looks like a starting-caliber FBS running back. He did his best to make that plain during the spring, earning ample opportunities to showcase himself while Jackson flashed in his own right in the slot. It certainly seems as if the best version of this offense has both of those men on the field, whether lined up in the backfield, in the slot, or in a combination of both.
And if that is the case, sophomore Tyvonn Byars becomes even more important to the 2026 team. If he and Hardeman can carry the load in the running back room, it frees Jackson to drive the offense in other ways.
It seems Abell shares that viewpoint, too. “It’s hard not to get them all three involved, heavily,” he said.
Offensive Line Better, but Not Set in Stone
There was much rejoicing when Patrick Valent pulled his name out of the Transfer Portal this winter and opted to return to Rice football, where he stepped right back into a starting guard spot on the offensive line. He and tackle Luke Miller were fixtures on the first team this spring, as was center Nate Bledsoe.
Bledsoe earned a brief cameo last fall when starting center David Stickle was sidelined with an injury, earning high praise at the time. He’s the best option in the middle for the Owls right now, but it’s possible that changes by the time September arrives.
Bledsoe, along with guard Cole Principe and tackle Justin Michaelis, would start if the Owls had to play a game today. Since they don’t have to suit up for a few more months, they’ll be challenged for playing time by several players.
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Guard Colter Alberding had one of the most impressive springs of anyone on the roster before missing the final weeks with an injury. He’ll be in the mix, as will incoming Ivy League products Scott Becker and Leo Bluhm. Freshman Marcus Page, a top-5 graded signee in program history, could get in the mix at some point, too.
Rice does rotate its linemen throughout games, so all of the names mentioned above may see action in some capacity. Altogether, the health of the line is better than it’s been in some time.
Odds and Ends
- Rice has one kicker, one punter and one long snapper on the roster right now, but they’ll get more reinforcements this summer. Abell described incoming punter/kicker Tommy Bauchiero as a “weapon” who could challenge punter Charlie Durkin, and to a lesser extent, incumbent place kicker Enoch Gota.
- Injuries limited the exposure of the tight end room this spring, but Notre Dame transfer Preston Zinter impressed at every turn. He’s the favorite to start at the position and should be more heavily involved as a pass catcher and a blocker compared to how the Owls utilized the position last fall.
- Incoming Holy Cross transfer Max Mosey was brought up multiple times when discussing the Owls’ options at the slot position. Exactly how he fits into the picture remains to be seen, but he’s a superb, versatile athlete who should carve out a role when he arrives.