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Rice Football Recruiting: Breaking Down the 2025 Signees – Offense

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The 2025 Rice Football Recruiting class includes several hand-picked impact players on offense. Here’s how that side of the ball stacks up.

The 2025 Rice football recruiting class began with 12 signees during the Early Signing Period, the first recruiting haul for new head coach Scott Abell. That group has since been supplemented by a wave of transfers and an additional round of high school signees on National Signing Day. Of those players, 22 are current high school seniors, and 16 play on the offensive side of the ball.

“It’s an exciting time for me,” Abell said upon welcoming his first signees in December. “These are my very first recruits that I have the opportunity to welcome here to Rice. I just can’t imagine anything better.”

When it came time to put a bow on that class in February, Abell remained just as emphatic. “Attracting the right recruits here, the right people [is] imperative. It’s the most important thing we do,” he said while introducing the class. “That means Year 1, the first opportunity to do that, it becomes incredibly important that we get make sure that we get the people part of that right.”

We’ve gone position by position breaking down each of those new people, dissecting how these Owls will help the program on the field.

* Denotes players who enrolled early in January

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** This piece has been updated to reflect new signees as of 2/5/2025 **
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Texans, Trenches and Speed: Scott Abell introduces 2025 Rice Football Recruiting Class

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The 2025 Rice Football recruiting class is in the books and head coach Scott Abell couldn’t be more excited about this newest crop of Owls.

Inking the 2025 Rice Football Recruiting class has been top of mind for head coach Scott Abell since he was hired roughly two months ago. Abell is still in the process of moving and only recently got his car to Houston, joking about this nomadic life over the last few weeks that centered around Rice Football and this incoming group of athletes.

“Year one, for everyone, you’re really laying a foundation for what it’s going to look like moving forward and you’re creating the energy behind that,” Abell said. “The most important resource behind all those things are people and the most important people in our program are the athletes. Attracting the right recruits here, the right people [is] imperative. It’s the most important thing we do.”

Abell was formally able to introduce those athletes on Thursday, officially welcoming 10 new signees to bring his 2025 class total to 22 high school players and eight transfers with room for a few more at the conclusion of the spring semester. Those adds get the Owls’ roster near 100 players for spring ball and, Abell hopes, will set his staff and this program up for success.

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In Abell’s eyes, the defining characteristics of this class are three fold. First and foremost, the group includes 17 Texas High School Football players, underscoring Abell’s adamant declaration that starting with local talent from the state’s established programs will be the bedrock for this program.

Then, when it came to descriptors of the types of players in that group, Abell pointed to two things: the trenches and team speed.

“We desperately were in need of adding depth and building for the future up front on both sides,” Abell remarked. “I think winning football in the trenches is the most important thing and we will focus on that year and year out and that shows up in this recruiting class.”

The Owls signed 11 such players: five high school offensive lineman, one transfer offensive linemen, four high school defensive linemen (counting rush end DeReyon Jenkins Jr.) and one transfer on that side. Rice also holds commitments from one more transfer in each group which should arrive in the summer.

As for speed, the phrase “who can really run” was repeated when describing multiple players and position groups. “I think it’s important to put players on the field who can run at all levels on both sides,” Abell said. “I think we did a great job of doing that.”

Spring football is just a few weeks away. Soon enough, Abell and his staff will get to see what these players look like inside the white lines on South Main. Even as much as Abell admittedly adores speed, that day can’t come quickly enough.

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Rice Women’s Basketball runs out of stream vs Tulane

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Rice Women’s Basketball dipped back below .500 in AAC play, running out of stream late against Tulane at home.

Tulane struck first in a Wednesday night tilt at Tudor Fieldhouse but Rice women’s basketball would quickly fire back. Victoria Flores sparked a quick Rice rally with an 11-point first quarter, turning a deficit into a nine-point advantage for the home team which would prove difficult for the Owls to maintain.

By the end of the first quarter Tulane had pulled within one. The Green Wave led by 12 at halftime and survived a brief push by the Owls in the third, still maintaining a double-digit advantage by the time the fourth quarter arrived. That’s when the Owls’ offense finally ran out of stream.

More: Rice Women’s Basketball 2024-2025 Midseason State of the Program

Already staked to a significant lead, Tulane opened the final frame on a 12-2 run, taking a commanding 21 point lead midway through the quarter. Not even a banner day from a career-best showing from Malia Fisher (32 points, 6rebounds) would be enough to get the Owls back within striking range. Flores would finish with 11 points, all scored in that first with Ennis the only other Rice players in double figures — she scored her 11th point at the buzzer.

The loss marks a staggered stretch of back-and-forth for Rice women’s basketball in the win column. The Owls haven’t won more than two games in a row since November 7 through November 17, posting four straight wins over NC A&T, South Alabama, Houston and Sam Houston, respectively

Final Box | Tulane 78, Rice 67

Key takeaway | Offensive identity

Dominique Ennis had taken zero three point attempts at halftime. She finished with four shots from long range in a game the Owls were down by a large margin for the duration of the second half. That tally is well below her average of 6.5 three-point attempts per game. She took 12 threes last time out against FAU.

How many threes Ennis or anyone else attempts in a single game isn’t going to make or break this team in the long run, but Ennis’ inconsistent usage underscores a nagging issue Rice women’s basketball has had all season: a lack of true offensive identity.

Up until this game, the plan probably could have been described as an inside-out approach in which the Owls’ bigs win in the paint to provide open shots from distance for the likes of Ennis and others. That’s not what happened here.

It feels as if the Owls are banking on Malia Fisher to carry the load while banking on someone else to provide a meaningful supporting role. Sometimes that’s been Ennis. Other times Victoria Flores. But more often than not, it’s been a sluggish result on that side of the court that’s hampered this team’s upside.

Up Next: at USF (Wed, 2/12)

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Rice Basketball thunders past ECU

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Rice Basketball snapped their losing streak in emphatic fashion on Wednesday night, posting a convincing victory over East Carolina on the road.

Days removed from a heart breaking loss to Memphis at home, their seventh consecutive conference defeat, Rice basketball came out with that same fire still burning. The Owls opened the game on a 7-0 run, waded through an up-and-down next few minutes before closing the half on a 6-0 run to take an eight point advantage.

Another stout defensive effort had limited ECU to just 25 points in the first half and kept their pair of talented scorers, C.J. Walker and RJ Felton, from dictating the game. That tandem did score — accounting for a combined 37 points throughout the night — but Rice clamped down on the remainder of the roster, a reality that was magnified as the game progressed.

More: Rice Basketball 2024-2025 Midseason State of the Program

After ECU had drawn within six, Rice rattled off a 23-5 run, combining that suffocating defense with powerful work inside from Cade Powell, who scored a career-high 18 points, and timely three-point shooting from Alem Huseinovic and Emory Lanier. Before the Pirates could catch their collective breath they were trailing by 23 points.

All that was left to do at that point was to play out the string. The torrential outburst of Rice points drowned any real chances of an ECU comeback and notched the Owls a much-needed AAC win.

Final Box | Rice 71, ECU 60

Key takeaway | At Last

A somber attitude would have been perfectly reasonable in the midst of an extended losing streak like Rice basketball has endured over the past month. Yet somehow point guard Trae Broadnax made sure to slip a quiet, but powerful edict into his postgame comments following Sunday’s loss to Memphis.

“The ball is going to swing back in our favor eventually, at the right time,” Broadnax declared, as if willing the positives he’d seen in his team over a series of game to coalesce into one, cohesive performance.

Wednesday’s decisive win over East Carolina wasn’t perfect but it was one of the most comprehensively solid performances this team has authored in weeks. Rice won the rebounding battle, didn’t turn the ball over too much and held their own from the free throw line. They played well. And when this team plays well in multiple phases, it should be good enough to win some games. That finally came to fruition on Wednesday.

“Most teams break during that kind of stretch, instead we’ve gotten better,” head coach Rob Lanier told Rice Owls Voice JP Heath after the game. “We’re getting better in the midst of our struggles. That’s a sign of connection, togetherness, and growing toughness. And it was on display tonight. And we can get better.”

It’s a long climb from 3-7 to where this team wants to be — .500 would be a good starter — but the version of Rice basketball that took the court against ECU is certainly one capable of beating a lot of teams in the AAC. They just need to find a way to replicate that effort again.

The silver lining? Even with this tough stretch, Rice surpassed last season’s win total with their victory over ECU.

Up Next: vs Charlotte (Sat, Feb. 8)

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Rice Football Recruiting: DL Braden Bays commits to Owls

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A National Signing Day addition to the 2025 Rice Football recruiting class, Boerne defensive lineman Braden Bays has signed with the Owls.

One of the final additions to the 2025 Rice Football recruiting class was a big one, literally. Announced publicly for the first time on National Signing Day, Boerne defensive lineman Braden Bays has committed and signed with the Owls.

Rice beat out a host of interested parties for Bays’ services. At the time of his commitment he’d received offers from the likes of Utah, Washington State, UNLV, Colorado State, Tulsa, UTEP and Central Michigan as several Ivy League schools and the service academies. And how he’s headed to South Main.

Bays joins Luca Akirtava, who committed earlier in the week, and Rob Rooks as the high school representatives in the defensive line room in this class. That trio combined with transfers Dillan Botts (Mary Hardin-Baylor) and Ejike Adele (Dartmouth) makes for a robust group in the trenches for head coach Scott Abell’s first class.

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The 6-foot-3, 265-pound Bays can and has lined up all over the field and has demonstrated and ability to win inside and outside. He’s a pass rusher who moves well rather but packs some power in his punches, too, all of which jumps out quickly when you turn on the film.

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