Optimism is building for the 2019 Rice football team as several of the Owls’ own are beginning to be recognized for preseason awards.
The lull of early summer momentarily fades away the moment the first college football magazines hit the newsstands. Athlon Sports and Phil Steele produce two of the most widely regarded issues, both of which have been released. In addition to their storylines and team breakouts, they both list preseason superlatives for Conference USA.
Nine different Rice football players were honored, some more than once. Here’s the complete list for both magazines:
Phil Steele
- Second Team – OL Clay Servin
- Second Team – P Adam Nunez
- Third Team – KR Austin Trammell
- Fourth Team – WR Aaron Cephus
- Fourth Team – DL Anthony Ekpe
- Fourth Team – LB Blaze Alldredge
- Fourth Team – DB George Nyakwol
- Fourth Team – LS Cam Riddle
Athlon Sports
- Second Team – KR Austin Trammell
- Fourth Team – AP Aaron Cephus
- Fourth Team – OL Shea Baker
- Fourth Team – S George Nyakwol
Two Owls made the beginning of Underdog Dynasty’s countdown of the top 50 players in Conference USA. Blaze Alldredge checked in at No. 50 and Prudy Calderon was No. 43.
Preseason recognition isn’t indicative of future success, but it’s nice to see some of the Owls more established players getting talked about in the same discussion as the conference’s best players. That doesn’t include the relatively unknown grad transfers, each of whom project to be meaningful contributors for Rice in 2019.
Conference USA will put out their preseason lists in the next month or so and The Roost will have some insight in the most notable Owls, too. All these things point toward the return of Rice football and the end of the long offseason.
