Next up for Rice football, a home game against 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 UAB game and looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with North Texas.
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
The advantage we got in this bye week compared to the first one is that we were healthier going into it. The first bye week, three weeks ago now, it became more how do we catch our young football players up? How do we manage the roster to try and get ourselves healthy to head into the back half of the season? This time we hit the bye week, we were fairly healthy, so we could grow in the bye week. We could really take a hard look at what we’re doing. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the bye week
I see a football program, they’re playing with a ton of confidence. Incredibly skilled on both sides of the football. They recruited players that fit their scheme… and here they are now, they’re playing as good of football as anybody we’ve played all year.”– Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the UNT program
They’re very opportunistic. They’ve forced 24 turnovers on the year, defensively. We need to take care of the football. That’s been a secret sauce that probably doesn’t get talked about. Their offense overshadows their defense but their defense has 24 takeaways on the year. That makes every offense better. That makes every program better. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the North Texas defense
[QB Drew Mestemaker and RB Caleb Hawkins are] just two really talented people. When I look at their offensive roster, you gotta talk about [Wyatt] Young, right? He’s a deep ball threat. He’s incredibly athletic and really fast. They find really creative ways to get him the football… they give you a lot to defend. Mestemaker, he does a really good job of getting the football to all of his athletes. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the North Texas skill players
My time at Rice has been unbelievable. It’s taught me so many lessons. I’ve been through so many trials and tribulations and those trials and tribulations ultimately got me to where I am today. Without God, I wouldn’t be here standing at this podium right now. If you would have told me two years ago you would be standing here, you would be a captain of the Rice football team, I would have said, you’re a liar. Because of God and because of people that he brought to my life like coach Abell I’m able to stand at this podium right now and be a captain of this Rice football team. – Tight End Micah Barnett on his time at Rice
They do have a good quarterback They’ve got a pretty good running back as well. I just feel like they all complement each other very well. In some offense you see some groups doing better than others and some not, but I feel these are very well put together team, a very experienced team. I feel they all mesh together as a unit and come together very well. – Defensive lineman Blake Boenisch on the North Texas offense
Full Press Conference
Depth Chart
Depth Chart Notes
There were two minor changes to the depth chart this week, both accounting for injuries that were preexisting before the Rice football bye week. Tackle Brad Baur was removed with freshman Justin Michaelis inserted in his stead. On defense, Daveon Hook was removed with Jack Kane sliding up and Bailey Fletcher re-enntering the two deep behind him.
Any other adjustments will likely be injury-related or driven by the subtle schematic shifts the Owls employ for this game. We’ll cover those in depth on this week’s practice report, available to those subscribed to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon, which should be out later this week.
Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.
