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Conference USA Football 2021: Week 5 C-USA Roundup

October 3, 2021 By Matthew Bartlett

Conference USA Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 5.

Team Week 5 Result Week 6
Charlotte at Illinois L, 24-14 at FIU
FAU vs FIU W, 58-21 at UAB
FIU at FAU L, 58-21 vs Charlotte
LA Tech — OFF — L 34-27 — OFF —
Marshall at MTSU L, 34-28 vs Old Dominion
MTSU vs Marshall W, 34-28 at Liberty
North Texas — OFF —  — at Missouri
Old Dominion at UTEP L 28-21 at Marshall
Rice vs Southern Miss W, 24-19 — OFF —
Southern Miss at Rice L, 24-19 vs UTEP
UAB vs Liberty L, 36-12 vs FAU
UTEP vs Old Dominion W, 28-21 at Southern Miss
UTSA vs UNLV W, 24-17 at WKU
WKU at Michigan St. L, 48-31 vs UTSA

Notable Week 5 results – Standings

Marshall takes third straight L

Marshall was a popular pick to win the Eastern division. Through the Herd’s first five games, they’ve beaten just one FBS team and dropped their three most recent contests. Saturday’s loss to Middle Tennessee was particularly disheartening. They outgained MTSU 493 to 314 but committed six turnovers.

Louisiana Tech, masters of heartbreak

You couldn’t make this up if you wanted to. Once more, Louisiana Tech has found a way to lose in the most painful of ways. Trailing by seven with three minutes to play, Austin Kendall marched the offense the length of the field into the redzone only to be intercepted in the endzone on the final play of regulation with the clock expiring. Ouch.

Honorable mention: UAB opened Protective Stadium with a loss to Liberty. It was a tough outing, but at least there was no fourth-quarter dagger to amp up the pain even further.

Hot rice

Rice football dropped its first three games in non-conference play to Arkansas, Houston and Texas. Then Jake Constantine took over at quarterback and the Owls rattled off two consecutive home wins, capped off with their first conference win of the season over Southern Miss. They enter the bye week tied for first place in Conference USA West, righting the ship after a rocky opening stanza.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Cross-divisional fireworks

Two of the most significant divisional crossover games of the season are set to take place in Week 6. Frontrunners in the West, UAB and UTSA, are set to take on FAU and Western Kentucky, respectively. It wouldn’t be stunning to see one or possibly two of these four teams represented in the conference championship game, making these matchups some of the best we’ll see in the conference this year.

Way-too-early bowl watch

UTEP is off to one of its better starts in recent history and the Miners’ aspirations of postseason play seem more believable now than perhaps any other time in Dana Dimel’s tenure. Southern Miss is far from the top-dog in the West, making this a key matchup for UTEP if they want to stay on track and reach that coveted six-win (or more) season.

Nonconference nightcaps

Week 5 marks a notable shift toward conference play, but there are a handful of programs that won’t face a Conference USA foe. North Texas will have their work cut out for them against Missouri, while Middle Tennesee will make their best efforts to knock off a feisty Liberty squad that faced off with UAB the weekend prior.

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Filed Under: Archive, Football Tagged With: Conference USA, Conference USA football

Rice Football: Owls outlast Southern Miss for first conference win

October 2, 2021 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football got four interceptions from its defense, weathering a late Southern Miss rally to clinch the Owls’ first conference victory of the season.

For the second time in as many weeks, Rice football threw the first punch. Jake Constantine hit Jake Bailey on a third down slant and he did the rest, torching the Southern Miss defense for the 39-yard score. The Golden Eagles would level the game at seven, but were never able to take the lead as Rice opened conference play 1-0. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Not so special teams

Rice allowed a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and watched Southern Miss recover an onside kick in the same game. Charlie Mendes put one out of bounds in the fourth quarter, netting just 29 yards on a potential field-flipping opportunity. They did convert on a field goal, Christian VanSickle’s first as a Rice Owl, but were largely a liability on the day.

This comes not too far removed from a fumble on a kick return of their own and a series of misses in the kicking game. It’s just been a tough season for this unit, one that Rice has gotten used to being an asset.

Rice was extremely fortunate to have its defense step up in key moments and neutralize several of those mistakes.

Third downs crucial for Owls’ offensive success

Third down has been a boogeyman for Rice football in recent weeks. Coming into the game, Rice had converted just 32.7 percent of their third down tries, the 12th best mark in Conference USA. The defense was equally ineffective, allowing opponents to convert on 42.9 percent of their tries, ninth-best in the conference.

Things started off on the right foot for the Rice offense. They converted on both of their third down attempts on their first possession of the game, setting up a 39-yard touchdown grab by Jake Bailey (on third down).

Then things took a turn. Not only did Rice fail to convert their next three third down opportunities, they went three-and-out on their next three drives. It might have been four, had Cedric Patterson not made a soaring grab on third and long on the following possession.

Constantine guided the offense on a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive on the first drive of the second half. At that point, Rice had converted 4-of-4 third downs on their two touchdown drives and 1-of-5 third downs on all other drives to that point. Sometimes it’s that simple. When Rice converts on third down, this offense works, and works well.

Rice football finds its quarterback

The third down efficiency was sporadic, but for the second consecutive game, Jake Constantine looked composed and accurate in the pocket. He bookended the three listless first half drives with a pair of lengthy scoring drives, giving his team the lead going into halftime. The running game did him no favors early, but he was able to do enough through the air to get the offense moving down the field.

Constantine completed 18-of-23 (78.3 percent) of his passes against Texas Southern. He completed 16-of-22 (72.7 percent) against Southern Miss. In the two games he did not play this season, Rice quarterbacks posted a combined completion percentage 48.1 percent. It’s hard to view what amounts to a 30 percentage point increase in efficiency as anything other than a massive improvement.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week 

It’s going to be interesting to see what the split looks like between him and Luke McCaffrey following the Owls’ bye week. McCaffrey saw limited action against Southern Miss, possibly because of the limited redzone opportunities Rice saw. When he was in the game, he proved a spark, rushing for 16 yards on two carries and completing his lone pass attempt. He picked up two first downs.

If the plan is to bring McCaffrey along at his own pace, there was no reason to rush that process after this week’s positive outing from both players.

Rice Stadium took a collective deep breath midway through the third quarter after Constantine was leveled on a scary blow. Targeting was called and Constatine was taking directly to the medical tent. He reentered the game shortly after.

Busted coverage

The Rice defense made colossal strides from downright abysmal in 2018 to the unit that shut out an undefeated Marshall squad on the road last fall. The talent profile increased, and that undoubtedly played a major role in the improvement, but their sound fundamental play was perhaps equally as important.

Last fall, balls didn’t fly over the heads of Rice defenders. The Owls made stops on third down. They tackled well. The defense’s performances weren’t always perfect, but they looked like a unit that knew where they were supposed to be and did what they were asked to do the vast majority of the time.

Then this happens:

Heck of a toss for your first TD pass 👊@Jake_lange16 | #SMTTT pic.twitter.com/R4HuyoVneK

— Southern Miss Football (@SouthernMissFB) October 2, 2021

The corner bites, but allows the receiver to pass right by, assuming he has help with the safety behind him. He doesn’t. That allows the receiver to waltz into the endzone for a 31-yard score. The quarterback, Jake Lange, was third on the depth chart for Southern Miss when the season began, forced into action by multiple injuries. Making third-string quarterbacks look good is a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately, the Rice defense bounced back down the stretch. Each of their four interceptions and five sacks was crucial when it came to pulling out the win.

Back on track

If the 0-3 start was the worst-case scenario for Rice football, the 2-0 rebound has to be weighted equally as the best-case follow-up. Through five games, Rice is exactly where most would have projected them to be — and perhaps slightly better — given the uncertainty surrounding the matchup with Southern Miss entering the season.

With their backs up against the wall, Rice responded well. It wasn’t perfect, but a winning streak is a winning streak. And its ramifications on this team’s own outlook on themselves and this schedule cannot be overstated.

Rice hasn’t found the answers to all of their most pressing questions just yet, but they’ll have some time to ponder entering the bye week. Sitting at two wins with the bulk of their conference schedule still ahead, the Owls are positioned reasonably well to make a run at their goals.

Digging deeper

Every week we’ll have a stat, storyline or key learning from the game reserved for our subscribers.

Will this team be able to pound the rock?

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Filed Under: Featured, Football, Premium Tagged With: Cedric Patterson, Charlie Mendes, Christian VanSickle, game recap, Jake Constantine, Luke McCaffrey, Rice Football

Rice Football – September 2021 Patreon Q&A

September 30, 2021 By Matthew Bartlett

There were a handful of questions submitted for this month’s Q&A, all of which revolved around the state and future outlook of the Rice football team.

We had several questions submitted for the September mail bag as Rice football closes out non-conference play. Topics range from injuries to depth pieces to what changes we should expect to see from the Owls moving forward.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Q&A’s are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

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Filed Under: Archive, Football, Premium Tagged With: August Pitre, Bradley Rozner, Cam Montgomery, DJ Arkansas, Garrett Braden, Jalen Reeves, Kenneth Orji, Luke McCaffrey, Rice Football, Zane Knipe

Rice Football 2021: Owls hitting their stride in practice prep for Southern Miss

September 30, 2021 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football got some pieces back this week as it preps for its conference opener against Southern Miss. The latest from practice, here.

Things are starting to settle in for Rice football. Fresh off their first win of the season with several players expected to return to the field after missing time with injuries, spirits were high on South Main this week. This update will hit on those key returning pieces and discuss how Rice will approach the wide receiver and quarterback positions this week against Southern Miss.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Practice reports are reserved for our subscribers. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to deploy its quarterbacks, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. You can get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe to our All-American Tier on Patreon today.

Cedric Patterson takes the lead

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Rice Football 2021: Southern Miss presser quotes, practice notes and depth chart

September 28, 2021 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football kicks off conference play this weekend against Southern Miss. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about it, injury updates and practice notes.

This is the first of a couple of updates coming this week as Rice football prepares to take on Southern Miss. We’ll include updates from head coach Mike Bloomgren’s midweek press conference, then dig further into the details on the depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

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Rice football found some answers at quarterback this past week and looks to be getting a bit healthier as conference play rolls around. One of those newly healthy players is back at the top of the depth chart this week. We’ll tackle that addition as well as a few developments from practice early this week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I feel like we took some real steps forward as an offense. I think that’s a big thing for us to do. 620 yards, making explosive plays, being able to be efficient at the quarterback position — those are things that we’ve struggled to do over time. It’s really good to go into conference play knowing we’re on an upswing. That gives me a lot of comfort.

Knowing that our defense — we’ve been missing a couple of pieces in the past couple of weeks, but we should get some of those back — that’s really encouraging to me too. Special teams: we’re just continuing to grow. So what do I know? I know that we’re a team that is playing really hard for each other and at times playing really well, but we’ve got to become a consistent bunch for 60 minutes.” – Mike Bloomgren on what he learned about the team in nonconference play

“Defensively, we made a lot of adjustments during the game. I felt like they made a lot of plays. We were really close on a lot of things but kind of a step behind on getting those things done. I don’t think it’s anything we can’t get fixed this week and that’s what we’re working towards. Coach (Brian) Smith is really doing a great job with the defense, getting everyone on the same page. We’re going to try to get out there and look like our defense for 60 minutes. That’s the goal this week.” – Mike Bloomgren on the defense

“Great education and running the football. It’s pretty simple. I went to Colgate Unversity which was about greater education and running the football, so finding something that had they same type of patterrn and being able to get a great degree from it, that was pretty much a no-brainer. ” – Jovaun Woolford on what drew him to Rice

“It’s definitely a lot of fun, actually, just switching around positions on the d-line. Playing end, playing rush, playing tackle, playing nose — I’ve really played all four [positions] this season, I feel like. All the other guys on the d-line are what Coach Calhoun calls ‘bilingual’. It just makes us a lot more adaptable for to whenever sudden change situations come up in a game and makes us a better team in general.” – Ikenna Enechukwu on the versatility of the defensive line

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart shifted in response to last week’s performance and a key injury along the offensive line. Hopefully, there will be some more stability from this point onward. Bloomgren hinted he’d like to get to that point in his comments this week. “There’s no more experimenting going on right now,” he said. “We’ve got a group that we trust and we’re going to go forward with those guys.”

Secondary shifts after TSU’s passing outburst

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