Next up for Rice football, a home tilt against Prairie View A&M. 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 Houston game and looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with Prairie View A&M.

The Roost Podcast: Rice Football vs Houston Recap

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

This is going to be a learning curve for the roster. It’s going to be a learning curve for the program. Our guys are going to have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. We may get it just right. Louisiana, we got it just right…. Houston, we did not…. I think the learning curve for the offense will be the flexibility to adapt as the game changes and people make adjustments, whether its coming into the game or halftime, and that’s easier said than done. But getting some live games now, getting some experience, is going to be really impactful for us. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on what the team has to improve on following the Houston game

I think our guys will be incredibly focused. They’d better. Prairie View has plenty of talent. They’ve got a lot of guys who have played at our level… We’re coming off a week where we’re disappointed. We need to refocus ourselves and we need to be at our best Saturday. And that will be the challenge for our guys. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the PVAMU matchup

I think they have really good size up front. To be honest, they’ll be one of the biggest fronts that we’ve seen so far in our first two weeks. I think they run well in their back half. They’re not a whole lot different from us where everything they’re doing right now, new offensive scheme, new defensive scheme, they’re building confidence through that every week. How does that look? I think we’ll have to be prepared for a couple different things this week out of their defense?– Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on PVAMU’s roster and makeup

A lot of new guys breaking in for that phase of the game, breaking in new quarterbacks, so that is probably going to take some time. I do want to see some improvement there. I think part of that is getting confidence to throw the ball downfield more. We have to do that. We have to take some shots downfield and have some confidence in our guys making some plays. That’s what I’m looking for. We’re completing the simple stuff and we’re getting it out quick to our athletes, which is important… The next phase is we gotta get some downfield threats going and find out who are playmakers are downfield. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the passing game

Our main focus is running the ball. Establishing that, I feel, will open up the pass game. I feel like if we run the ball well, they’ll crowd the box and also open up the passing lanes. I feel like our is going on a good step. I’m not really worried or anything like that. It’s only Week 2. As long as we keep going out and practicing hard, doing what we need to do, everybody executing their one eleventh, I think we’ll be fine. – Slot Aaron Turner on the passing game

I think he’s a great teacher, especially in the areas I needed to improve on, in terms of complete DB play with run, pass and all those aspects, especially in my off coverage, he’s been a great teacher in terms of just helping me perfect my technique and be the best DB I can be. – Corner Omari Porter on the impact of position coach Jeremy Modkins

Depth Chart

Depth Chart Notes

Three weeks in the offensive line depth chart is finally starting to matchup the lineups Rice football has utilized during games. They have rotated those players a lot more than most other staffs, but the two-deep listed above is the most accurate representation we’ve seen thus far. Similarly, the X receiver with Artis Cole backed up by David Kasemervisz is now more correct.

On defense Dillan Botts moves in front of Chris Clark and Ejike Adele replaces Sam Carrell. Both Botts and Adele saw more action in the Houston game than their counterparts they’re replacing on the two-deep.

In the secondary, Daveon Hook has been removed after missing the Houston game entirely. That freshman Ahran Ogbor is listed at two spots reflects the relative lack of healthy depth Rice has at the position right now. His status, along with the available of other recovering players, will be noted in the weekly practice report later this week, available to those subscribed to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon.

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