Next up for Rice Football: a road trip to North Texas. Here’s what head coach Scott Abell had to say about the matchup and a few depth chart notes.
Head coach Scott Abell and a set of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the bye week and looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with North Texas.
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We touch on those items, then dig into the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like heading into the weekend. First, the quotes:
Press Conference Quotes
Jacurri’s still working back to full health. We’re still making sure we’re managing that correctly. We anticipate that he’s going to be fully healthy by game [day]. Now, what does that mean for us? [It] means we have two really good quarterbacks to run our system. Now our challenge is how do we now involve our quarterbacks into our system that make our program better. And that’s what we’re working on.
It could be what situation fits which quarterback best. There’s a variety of ways in which you have two quarterbacks that are ready to play that can impact the game, that you get them involved. For us, here at this stage, everything is on the table. I think it’s exciting for our program.
Gael had the opportunity, came in and played really well. PJ came in and played really well. Now, we’re getting a healthy Jacurri back, and so I think that’s exciting for us. Now, we’ve got to figure out what does that look like when we take the field on our Saturdays and that I’m not ready to discuss yet. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on his plan at the quarterback position moving forward
I think there’s a lot. I don’t know if we have enough time this press conference to talk about that. They’re very balanced. I mean, the stats probably jump off more with their passing game, there’s no doubt, they’re a balanced attack. When you break down their explosive plays over the last three or four weeks, they’re about split between run and pass.
I think the key there is, they’re very old. They’re probably a top 10 in how old they are. They’re a very veteran group across the board. Coach Brown has done an amazing job. That’s not easy. I think he had to replace 71 players and he went and found veteran guys that had snaps under their belt. I think they’re very comfortable in their system, now. I think they can hurt you in a lot of ways, and I think they’re very balanced. That’s a lot for us to defend. How do we make them uncomfortable? We work on those daily to try and figure that out, but that’s been hard for everyone, to make them uncomfortable.– Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on North Texas
I“It would be a huge momentum grab for us at this point in the year. We’ve talked coming out of this bye week, this is a four-game season now. That’s how we’re approaching it. What is our record going to be in this four-game season? Starting off with the win on the road against a really quality opponent, a team that’s fighting for the championship in our league right now. A huge boost for us heading into these last four weeks and I think it would be monumental for us, I really do. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on what a victory over North Texas would mean for the Rice program right now
From camp on, a name that comes to mind in that group is Cullen Witt, a guy that you can throw anything at him, and he’s gonna get it done. That’s been something that’s inspired me, honestly. That guy’s learned every position on the offensive line, sometimes tight end, and he’s just tackled all of it and we continue to ask him to do different things, and he just continues to do it every day. It’s an inspiring thing, and I’m really proud of how far he’s come at every position he plays. It’s just an exciting thing to watch. – Offensive lineman Patrick Valent on the growth of fellow lineman Cullen Witt
It was huge. It was definitely needed. Going eight games in a row isn’t easy at any level of football, so to be able to take that deep breath and start to focus on our bodies, our minds, getting that good reset, and getting that hunger back for football. It’s hard to be away from it for a week and watch everybody else in the country play football without getting that itch to get back out there. It was definitely beneficial for us. – Safety AJ Brown on a much-needed bye week
Press Conference
There was no video of the press conference available this week.
Depth Chart
Depth Chart Notes
There were two changes to the depth chart this week and neither of them were at quarterback. We wrote extensively about the Gael Ochoa/Jacurri Brown dynamic in practice notes over the bye week and will have more updates for those subscribed to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon later this week.
As for the changes that did make it to the official ledger, Peyton Farmer has moved into the starting split tackle spot, taking over for Justin Michaelis. Receiver Payton Matthews, who has seen his usage tick upward over the past few weeks, is listed atop the X receiver depth chart ahead of Braylen Walker for the first time since making a couple of position switches throughout the fall. No other changes were made.