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AAC Football 2023: Week 8 Roundup

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AAC Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 8.

Team Record  This Week Result Up Next
Charlotte 2-5 (1-2) at ECU W, 10-7  — BYE —
ECU 1-6 (0-3) vs Charlotte L, 10-7 at UTSA
FAU 3-4 (2-1) vs UTSA L, 36-10  — BYE —
Memphis 5-2 (2-1) at UAB W, 45-21 at North Texas
Navy 3-4 (2-3) vs Air Force L, 17-6  — BYE —
North Texas 3-4 (1-2) at Tulane L, 35-28 vs Memphis
Rice 4-3 (2-1) at Tulsa W, 42-10 vs Tulane
SMU 5-2 (3-0) at Temple W, 55-0 vs Tulsa
Temple 2-6 (0-4) vs SMU L, 55-0  — BYE —
Tulane 6-1 (3-0) vs North Texas W, 45-21 at Rice
Tulsa 3-4 (1-2) vs Rice L, 41-10 at SMU
UAB 2-6 (1-3) vs Memphis L, 45-21  — BYE —
USF 4-4 (2-2) at UConn W, 24-21  — BYE —
UTSA 4-3 (3-0) at FAU W, 36-10 vs ECU

Notable Results (Standings)

Blowouts

If you’re a fan of close games, Week 8 was not for you. SMU walloped Temple by 55, Rice topped Tulsa by 32, UTSA bested FAU by 26 and Memphis beat UAB by 24. Three of those teams (SMU, UTSA and Memphis) were expected be among the best squads in the AAC entering the season. Rice is either an outlier or a team on the rise. We might know more next week.

Somebody had to win?

On the other end of the spectrum, ECU and Charlotte played in a nearly unwatched football game with hopes of avoiding the bottom of the standings (now held by 0-4 Temple). The two teams combined to pass for 232 yards and convert 5-of-29 (17 percent of their third downs). The winning team, Charlotte, committed nine penalties for 90 yards. Gross.

Husky measuring stick

Former AAC member UConn has now played a pair of current AAC teams. They edged out Rice a few weeks ago thanks to very favorable turnover luck before falling to USF, who beat Rice earlier in the year. Perhaps UConn has become a proxy measuring stick for where these current AAC teams rank, but its hard to tell for sure.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Tulane v Rice

Tulane has looked remarkably underwhelming when compared to the lofty standards they established for themselves last season. They snuck past a mediocre North Texas team this week and had their hands full with UAB two weeks before that. Rice has been erratic all season, but if the good Owls show up on Saturday, things could get interesting if the Green Wave come out lethargic again.

North Texas v Memphis

The other alternative: it’s possible the Tulane malaise could be credited toward a Mean Green resurgence. North Texas has admittedly looked more composed in recent weeks, but the schedule isn’t getting easier. They will draw a talented Memphis team next weekend. If they can tango with the Tigers it might be possible to start contemplating a possible bowl berth in Denton this year.

Time for a break

Six AAC teams are on bye in Week 9, setting up a rather quiet slate apart from the aforementioned set of games. ECU vs UTSA and SMU vs Tulsa don’t promise to be very entertaining, so there’s a lot riding on the Owls and the Mean Green to give us some good football games next weekend.

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2023-2024 Rice Women’s Basketball Season Preview

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The 2023-2024 Rice women’s basketball season is around the corner and the arrow continues to point upward for Lindsay Edmonds and her team.

Rice women’s basketball still managed to find ways to win while playing with a limited roster in head coach Lindsay Edmond’s first season on South Main in 2021-2022. Adding the conference’s top recruiting class to the mix last season propelled the Owls to an undefeated non-conference run for the first time in program history.

Faced with a new conference and elevated expectations, Edmonds is ready to see her program take the next step. “Last year was amazing,” Edmonds said during her media availability at American Conference Media Days.” But it was last year, right?”

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Quiet confidence permeates one of Rice Football’s biggest wins

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Thursday night Rice football posted a significant win in program history, but rather than respond with jubilation, the Owls responded with quiet confidence.

When the clock hit triple zeroes of Chapman Stadium, Rice football formalized a host of significant program achievements. The Owls hadn’t won a conference game by more than a touchdown since 2020. They hadn’t won a conference game by as many points (32) since 2013 and hadn’t won a conference road game by that margin since 2003.

By every estimation, this win was seismic — and it was — but the tone Rice football players and staff brought with them to their postgame media availability leaned much more toward serious than euphoric.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren, who has said now on multiple occasions, “the fun is in the winning,” seemed more focused than exultant.

He chuckled about quarterback JT Daniels’ rushing touchdown, just the second of his collegiate career. He praised the offense for controlling the clock, winning the time of possession battle 22:23 to 7:37 in the second half. He gave the defense its flowers for an explosive three-turnover first quarter.

But at no point during the discussion did the tone venture into anything that could be considered truly jubilant. Bloomgren was happy, sure. He stated on multiple occasions how proud he was of his players and his staff for their efforts. But the air was permeated with a businesslike, mission-accomplish aura.

“It just shows you when we play the way we’re capable of, we can do some real fun things,” Bloomgren summarized.

More: Rice football demolishes Tulsa in big program win

If the national television audience was surprised to see the Owls absolutely obliterate a team that was favored to beat them on their home turf, Bloomgren didn’t seem faced. It’s almost as if, despite the ebbs and flows it’s taken the program to get to this point, he expected it.

That approach was echoed by his players.

“It’s a big win for us, we’re of course excited, but we’re definitely not satisfied,” safety Gabe Taylor, who had a big interception on Thursday said. “We want more. We’re 4-3. That’s a good record, but we know we’re not supposed to be here. We’re just ready for Tulane next week.”

Running back Dean Connors, who rushed for three touchdowns and 120 yards on nine carries, addressed the upcoming game with Tulane, too. “It’s about stacking days, and we stacked three great days of work [at practice this week]. And I think to beat Tulane, who’s a really solid team, we’re going to have to do that all over again and do it better.”

From Bloomgren to the pair of veteran leaders, it’s almost as if the page had already been turned. And it wasn’t as if they’d taken the game they just finished for granted, they just knew they had bigger goals still to achieve.

Perhaps the real message Rice football hoped to send on Thursday night on ESPN went well beyond the final score. Sure, 42-10 is impressive and as Taylor put it, “I hope they were looking,” but what Rice football really wants people to know is this team is in a different place, mentally.

“This week, we proved a point,” Taylor said.

It’s hard for one singular game to be a referendum on the season as a whole. The Tulsa game likely won’t define the entire season, neither will the upcoming bout with Tulane.

But if Rice football has really found a way to lock in and carry themselves with the level of seriousness and focus it takes to play like they did on Thursday night, this program really could be different moving forward. Whether or not that continues rests on the shoulders of this team. Maybe, just maybe, they’re past wake-up calls and ready to take the next step. If so, Thursday night was a great first step.

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2023-2024 Rice Basketball Season Preview

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Anticipation is building for the 2023-2024 Rice Basketball season. What might be in store for the Owls as they enter the AAC in Scott Pera’s seventh season?

There’s a buzz around Tudor Fieldhouse these days as Rice Basketball prepares for its first season as members of the AAC. After years of gradual improvement under seventh-year head coach Scott Pera, the Owls hope the 2023-2024 season will be a breakthrough year where they prove to themselves and their new conference mates the Rice program is on its way up.

“I think it’s our deepest group and our most talented group,” Pera told The Roost as the Owls tipped off preseason practices, working to establish a new rhythm with a roster that will boast some important new faces in addition to return leaders Rice fans have come to appreciate.

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Rice Football flips script, soars past Tulsa

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Rice Football earned a prime-time win on Thursday night, forcing three turnovers on their way to beating Tulsa on the road to move to 2-1 in AAC play.

The defense started the night strong with three turnovers in the first quarter, buying time before the offense exploded for 35 points. Both sides did enough to secure a much-needed victory over Tulsa on the road on ESPN.

The win was the Owls’ largest conference road win since 2003 and their first double-digit conference win of any kind since 2000. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Mine!

Rice football lost the turnover battle last time out, giving UConn the ball four times. With no takeaways of their own, that proved to be a recipe for disaster in a game the Owls would go on to lose. Flipping that script was a central talking point during the bye week, but it’s one thing to talk about forcing more turnovers and it’s another thing entirely to do what they did on Thursday night.

Gabe Taylor intercepted Tulsa’s first pass attempt of the evening. Then, following a turnover on downs, Rice ended another drive with a forced fumble with Jojo Jean knocking the ball away from quarterback Braylon Braxton into the arms of teammate De’Braylon Carroll. Josh Pearcy joined the fray on the next series, punching the ball out again, this time for Myron Morrison to recover.

Coming into Thursday night, Rice had forced two turnovers in their past 12 quarters of play, one apiece against South Florida and East Carolina. They surpassed that total in a single quarter against Tulsa, helping propel themselves to a 14-0 lead.

The Owls seem to have leaned all the way into a havoc-centric defensive scheme. They’ll give up chunk plays and set up looser coverage at times to ensure they keep the ball in front of them. If they compliment it with tackles for loss – they had seven against Tulsa — and turnovers, that might just get the job done.

Instant Rice and Ball Control

Alongside the explosive start by the Rice defense, the offense delivered several succinct scoring drives. The first was a two-play, 70-yard drive thanks to this breakaway touchdown run by Dean Connors:

Then another via a two-play, 53-yard drive concluded by this dart from Daniels to McCaffrey:

Rice entered this game as the top offense in the AAC in 30+ yard plays per game. That’s a stark difference from the team that had leaned on lengthy, 10+ play, clock-controlling drives in years past. When you have someone as capable as JT Daniels at quarterback, you might as well put his arm to good use. Rice is certainly doing that this year.

In fact, Daniels has completed a 30+ yard pass to 10 different pass catchers so far this season.

It’s also worth noting Daniels was not at his best early on . He finished the game completing 65 percent of his passes, but he started 5-of-13. Several of his throws went long, overshooting open receivers on plays that could have turned into significant gains. But that’s part of what makes the explosive plays so big.

When you’re missing your shots, even a few big gains can generate all the points you need. And when you’re locked in, the touchdowns arrive in bunches. Daniels finished the evening with 342 passing yards, two touchdowns and one, big win.

But it was how the Owls ended the night that was equally impressive. Their first three scoring drives took less than a minute. Their last two were both 13-plus plays and 8:00+ minutes. Dean Connors provided the exclamation point, running in a third touchdown on his nine-carry, 120-yard night.

It was a complete offensive performance, mixing the quick strike with relentless efficiency, by far their best outing of the year.

Special teams up and down

After a horrendous special teams day against UConn, the Rice coaching staff elected not to make any significant changes to personnel for this game. The results weren’t quite as disastrous — no turnovers were committed — but it wasn’t a great outing either. Results were decidedly up and down.

Conor Hunt’s first punt traveled just 37 yards and set Tulsa up with great field position. His next kick was near-perfect though, pinning Tulsa inside their own five-yard line on a perfect hanging kick that gave his coverage team plenty of time to get under the ball.

Punt returner Sean Fresch made a dangerous decision to field a punt in the final seconds in the first half, but made the catch off the bounce cleanly. He then delivered a 20-yard return to start the second half, getting Rice out of the shadow of its own endzone.

Enoch Gota booted the opening kickoff of the second half out of bounds but otherwise didn’t allow any returns. Rice did not attempt any field goals, but Tim Horn connected on all five extra-point tries.

Needed it. Got it.

Before the game, ESPN ran an interesting blub with their pregame commentary. They gave Rice a 37 percent chance to reach six wins as things currently stood. Those odds were set to nearly double should they beat Tulsa. Their win on Thursday elevated their current win total to four with a game left against Charlotte (who was a touchdown underdog to an ECU team Rice beat a few weeks ago).

As we learned against UConn, there are no gimmies with this team, not yet. But, Rice should be set up to have more than a puncher’s chance at a second-straight bowl season with two wins in their final five games. The road ahead is tough — defending AAC champion Tulane comes to Rice Stadium next weekend — but it’s tangible. And it won’t require a Herculean performance to get there.

“It just shows you that when we play the way we’re capable of, we can do some really fun things,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said postgame.

Rice needed this game. They absolutely had to have this game. And they found a way to win. We’ve watched this team mature over the course of the past few seasons and the past seven games. They’re proven they can beat anyone if they don’t beat themselves. Too often that seems a popular football cliche. This team is living it out, this time on national TV.

“I don’t think so,” Bloomgren chuckled when asked if he could have envisioned a better primetime performance. “What a great platform and I felt they used it really well.”

Rice football is its own worst enemy. On Thursday, they were their biggest advocates. A team playing that well can hang with anyone. The Owls just need to find a way to make sure that squad that won on the road shows up again next Saturday and each Saturday from this point onward.

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