A “battered and bruised” Rice Football roster returns home determined to will their way into the win column. Here’s the latest from the field.
The list of healthy players always shrinks this time of year, but the Owls’ contingent feels smaller than normal. The lack of healthy bodies has forced Rice Football to reevaluate their plans, particularly on offense. They aren’t throwing out their scheme and starting over, but the staff is putting particular care into the game plan for Tulsa, striving to maximize the roster they have available, no matter how unorthodox or unexpected it might be.
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This update focuses on the continuing weight of week after week of injuries and how the Owls are addressing that within their plans. Plus, more on how the slot room, which lost another key playmaker in recent weeks, is adjusting and which new faces are getting their first reps with the top units.
Who’s Here and Who’s Not
As has been the case all season long, unfortunately, every trip to Rice football practice has involved a scouring of the sidelines to identify which players aren’t on the field. This week, that meant seeking out a trio of offensive skill players who have been banged up in recent weeks and getting updates from the staff on potential timetables for their return.
The best news came in the running back room, where D’Andre Hardeman was back on the field taking his usual allotment of touches in the backfield. Hardeman suffered an injury in pregame warmups that kept him off the field against the Pirates but looks to be trending towards a full return this week against Tulsa. The same can’t be said for a few other offensive pieces.
Receiver Barry Jackson did not participate in team drills and worked to the side with a trainer. He’s unlikely to play against Tulsa, but he could return in a couple of weeks, possibly around the time the Owls come off their bye week following the FAU game next week, give or take a few weeks. It’s a shorter-term injury.
“It’s no secret we’ve been battered and bruised. I think up to date, we’ve had seven, eight, maybe nine surgeries that have happened to players in our program,” Abell shared this week. The latest surgery was undergone by one of the Owls key players in the slot room.
Abell disclosed to The Roost that slot Ben Grice underwent surgery and is currently in the recovery process. “He’s got a shot of getting back within the year, maybe the last couple of weeks.” That’s another long-term injury for a key offensive piece that had just delivered some of his biggest contributions of the season before going down.
The Injury Pileup
Injuries are part of sports. Embedded in that reality is the unspoken agreement that coaches will persevere through the pain and find ways to win in spite of them.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever had a year like this with the injuries,” Abell admitted. Although he can’t outright blame them exclusively, injuries have derailed a Rice football season that began with such tremendous promise. He has danced around this as best he can. At times making references to continuity and inexperience. He’s not wrong.
A cursory look back to the opening day two-deep reveals a relative MASH unit in some of the Owls’ position rooms.
| Position Group | Player(s) |
|---|---|
| Running Back | D’Andre Hardeman, Carson Morgan |
| Slot | Quinton Jackson, Davis Lane, Ben Grice |
| Receiver | Barry Jackson |
| Tight End | Preston Zinter, James Falk |
| Offensive Line | Luke Miller |
Additionally, offensive linemen Nate Bledsoe and Patrick Valent have each left games with injuries. If we’re being even more rigorous, even Brown has missed time, as he was unable to play a few series against Houston Christian because of illness.
More succinctly, Brown, Tyvonn Byars, Braylen Walker and Jordan Clark have been available for the duration of the season. That’s a much shorter list. And none of those players have been a full-time, season-long starter at the FBS level in their careers to this point. For as good as Brown has been, you can’t build an offense out of impressive hurdles and superhuman plays.
The 2026 roster, as it currently exists, looks much more like a Year Zero team than a Year 2 squad. The injuries really have gotten that treacherous, and it’s forced Abell to adjust in significant ways.
“It’s probably the question that keeps me up at night. When you look at what pieces are not available to us and what we have available and then, how do you put a game plan together that suits your skill sets but also suits what you’ve worked on and what you’ve developed because you can’t go recreate the wheel,” he said.
“I think, for us, we’ll dive into the things that we’ve worked very hard on over these six months since we started our spring football, things that we know that we need to do well in our program in every phase. Then you’ve got to trust and hope that some of these young guys continue to grow, and they have.”
It hasn’t always been pretty — and with so many of those players to remain out for the next several weeks — it could be rocky for a bit longer still. It’s forced the staff to turn over every rock and consider every possible solution to spark an offense playing without so many key pieces.
Building a Robust Gameplan
What brings Abell and his staff some comfort is how they’ve been able to respond given the tough hand they’ve been dealt. “We’ve been very competitive. We’ve had a chance to win every game in the second half, except for Notre Dame, with these injuries. With so many young guys getting snaps, with so much inexperience stepping up. That’s a huge credit to our coaching staff,” Abell said.
“People probably don’t want to hear that. You’re 1-5. It’s not where we want to be. I have a hard time saying it without getting really frustrated. But when you look at all the different parts and pieces we put in, whether it’s on offense or defense, who’s had to step in, we’re giving ourselves a chance to win. And that’s a credit to both the staff and to these young players who, some of them, they’re not ready to play. They weren’t ready for this moment, but we’ve had no choice and part of that is the nature of Rice in this new era of college football.”
What does being ready look like this week? For starters, freshman quarterback Ayden Wilhelm, who was one of the fastest players on the roster during summer testing, swapped his no-contact jersey for the typical navy attire of a non-quarterback offensive player and worked with the slot room this week. For now, he’s another option down the depth chart should the Owls need more help.
Starting slot Jordan Clark played every down against East Carolina, which is not a sustainable plan moving forward. Rice football will need more help in that room.
“We don’t ever really want to do that, but to be honest with you,” slot coach Austin Eisenhofer said. “But he’s playing so well and he wasn’t tired, so I want to play the best guys as much as I can. And he is a ballplayer.”
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Davis Lane returned to the offense last week but did not record a touch, something Eisenhofer attributed to a gradual increase in snaps and East Carolina’s defensive approach.
“I think last week he was getting his feet wet, mostly getting back comfortable in what we do. He’s a fifth-year senior, but he’s really only gotten to play, before Saturday, one full game in the slot,” Eisenhofer said. “There’s a lot of things that go into it. A lot of processing. And to play fast, that takes a little bit of time, so he probably didn’t have a full workload.”
The limited usage was part of a disappointing day from the unit as a whole, a malaise that extended well beyond Davis.
“He’s someone that we want to get more involved,” Eisenhofer said. “And you’ll see that this week, get him in different spots, get him involved.”
The Owls have also tinkered with a variety of bespoke formations and permutations of offensive skill players. Backfield combinations that include a running back and a slot together, for example, could be incorporated in the weeks ahead if the situation calls for it. If there’s a way to get the best 11 on the field and get the right playmakers the ball, it’s on the table.
“You don’t go changing the nuts and bolts of who you really are,” Abell said.
While it’s clear the staff is operating from the same core scheme and ethos, it’s been encouraging to see creative ideas being explored rather than just another week of the status quo.
Odds and Ends
- How aggressive will the staff truly be with the slot room usage? That remains to be seen. As of now, Clark and Max Mosey have certainly earned a spot in the circle of trust, while Payton Matthews and Davis Lane have seen some run. The rotation probably doesn’t get too much wider for the time being in a close game, but seeing a Wilhelm, Mitchell Sifford or Chris Bruce make a play here or there or work their way further into the game plan after the bye doesn’t seem unreasonable.
- Corner Jamir Benjamin was limited in practice this week and appears to be less than 100 percent. If he can’t go for any reason, Bailey Fletcher would be the next man up in that room. He’s risen up the depth chart in recent weeks and got a little bit of work in against East Carolina.
- Linebacker Jayden Cupitt is another player who has seen his stock rise in recent weeks. He made the two-deep following the UTSA game and got meaningful run in the fourth quarter of the East Carolina game. He had some good plays in practice this week and, at a minimum, seems to be pushing starters Stone Combs and Austin Harnetiaux.