From a one-catch campaign to becoming the go-to guy, Rice football wide receiver Matt Sykes has stepped up in big ways when his team has needed him most.
Rice football wide receiver Matt Sykes had the best spring of any player at his position, bar none. It was hard to walk through the halls of the Brian Patterson Center and avoid the chatter about the transfer wideout’s big step forward. Coaches and teammates were quick to speak of his playmaking ability at practices. The drumbeat for a breakthrough season was there.
But at the same time, it was just spring football.
Countless players have shown out in the spring when nobody wearing a different color jersey breaks across the middle of the field and delivers a jarring hit the stakes are lower. Translating practice into game day has always been the differentiator between good and great. Sykes had done all the right things, but he still hadn’t done it on Saturdays, not yet.
Sykes caught one pass in his first season at Rice following a transfer from UCLA. Injuries and inconsistent play kept him from making a more meaningful impact that season. Then came the strong spring and a chaotic fall camp that transformed the Owls’ feel-good story from a luxury to a desperate need. Sykes wasn’t going to be eased into his new role. He was needed now.
Landon Ransom, Rawson MacNeill and Thai Bowman were thought to be the Owls’ top three receivers entering the season. All three of them were injured in some capacity by the time the 2024 season began. Suddenly, Sykes’ emergence was essential.
In the Owls’ season opener against Sam Houston, Sykes caught six balls for 74 yards, both career-highs in his fifth season of college football. He followed that up with two catches for 47 yards and his first Rice touchdown grab a week later against Texas Southern. For a receiving corps decimated by injuries in need of a playmaker, Sykes delivered.
“I feel a lot more comfortable,” Sykes said, evaluating the difference between his first and second season on South Main. “Getting a lot of reps, just feeling back in my flow. [I’m] really confident, playing fast.”
Sykes would continue to be the primary target for Rice quarterback EJ Warner as the season progressed. As the offense ebbed at flowed, having No. 8 on the field proved to be a positive more often than not. As his production on the field grew, expectations came with it. More and more was asked of Sykes as the offense tried to find its way.
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“The thing that I’m most impressed with him and most pleased with him about is that I think he wants to step up. I think he’s capable of doing it. Like I said, he hasn’t arrived yet, but I think he’s on his path to being that guy,” receivers coach Bobby Kennedy said. “Because of him and the way he works, you think, okay, maybe he can get this done. Maybe he can really, really, really be the guy. And if he continues to have some more success, I’m excited to see what happens as games go on because I think he’s got it in him.”
Although so much of what Sykes did on the field was encouraging, there were still growing pains that come with less experienced players growing their roles so quickly. Sykes struggled through some concentration drops against Army and had a pass tip off his hands into the waiting arms of a defender for an interception.
Adversity is part of the game, but it’s also one of the reasons Sykes’ coaches theorize he’d yet to emerge in a significant way on Saturdays. Coaches pointed to a lack of confidence in the old Matt Sykes, a tendency to get in his own head and get rattled with things didn’t go according to plan. The veteran player had struggled when faced with trying situations in the past, but with no relief coming, something was going to have to change.
Sykes responded to a rough start against Army with a flawless touchdown grab later in the game. Then he authored the best game of his college football career.
Against Charlotte the following week Sykes hauled in a career-best eight passes for a career-high 97 yards. A 25-yard reception in the fourth quarter put Rice in position to attempt a game-winning field one play following what could have been a debilitating penalty that set the offense back near midfield.
That grab was one of the most high-leverage moments in Sykes’ well-traveled career. This time, he made the play.
The 2024 version of Matt Sykes remains a work in progress. There will be more highs and lows along the way. But it’s hard to imagine where Rice football would be without him.
“He just became a dominant catcher of the ball, like he was so confident in his ability, he saw the ball in the sky and went and got it,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said of Sykes’ ascension. “That’s the standard he set for himself and what we have to expect of him. When you ask what’s different, I think it came down to confidence in allowing him to grow into the player we thought he could be.”