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College Football and COVID-19: Early August Roundup

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This week has brought plenty of updates as to the status of the upcoming college football season amid a pandemic. Here are a few highlights.

This edition of the round up comes one week removed from the previous edition, and my goodness, what can change in a week! A week ago conferences were still sorting out how many games they were going to play. There’s been some more clarity on that front, and less clarity on others. Here’s the latest.

Big 12 goes conference plus one

Following in the footsteps of the ACC, the Big 12 has opted to allow its teams to play one non-conference game. That makes sense given the league’s 10 members with less intraleague options available for scheduling purposes. They were the last Power 5 conference to announce their decision.

UConn cancels football season

UConn became the first FBS program to cancel their 2020 college football season in its entirety. The Athletic ($) reported earlier in the week that head coach Randy Edsall was going to give his players a voice in what the program was going to do this season. Days later, the school announced they would not be playing this season. The players released this joint statement:

 “As a team we are in full support of the decision to not compete in 2020.  We have many health concerns and not enough is known about the potential long term effects of contracting COVID-19. Additionally, we have not had the optimal time to train mentally & physically to be properly prepared to compete this season.  We love this game and love competing.  We came to campus in the beginning of July knowing there would be challenges presented by the pandemic but it is apparent to us now that these challenges are impossible to overcome.”

The MAC becomes first FBS conference to cancel all fall sports

Days after UConn became the first program to shut down football this fall, the MAC became the first conference to hit the pause button on the 2020 season. The league hopes to play in the spring, but deemed a fall season not feasible. Conference commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said, “This isn’t a financial decision. It’s a health & well-being decision.”

NCAA cancels DII and DII Championships

The NCAA hasn’t been at the forefront of much during this current crisis. They issued two decisions this week that seemed like more of a formality than earth-shattering news. Both DII and DII canceled fall championships this year. That comes on the heels of several conferences and additional programs announcing they would not participate this season, if it were to be played.

The rest of the Group of 5 offers varied structures

Conference USA, the American and Sun Belt will all retain their 12 game conference schedules this season. Rather, those conferences will allow their member institutions to play four non-conference games in addition to their preexisting schedule of eight conference opponents. Most teams will have to add games to reach 12 opponents following the canceled games against Power 5 teams.

The Mountain West will play eight conference games with two non-conference games.

Opt outs continue

The trickle of college football players opting out from the season is gradually picking up steam. It’s not just the quantity of players choosing to forgo the season, it’s the inclusion of big names who could see their names called early in the upcoming NFL Draft.

The most notable players to announce they would not play this week were Minnesota wide receiver Rashod Bateman, Purdue wide receiver Rondale Moore, Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons, Pitt defensive lineman Jaylen Twyman, Maryland quarterback Josh Jackson and countless others. The list will continue to grow.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 45 – 2020 Rice Football Offense Preview

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The 2020 Rice Football season is scheduled to begin in the coming weeks. In this week’s show, the Roost Podcast breaks down the Owls’ offense.

The Extended Offseason steps away from our series of guests to focus on Rice football. This week’s show features a position by position breakdown of the offense. Carter and Matthew talk through the entire offense, focusing on potential breakout players, reasons for concern and what they’re paying attention to on this side of the ball.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to our preview of the Rice Football offense on Episode 45.

Episode 45 Notes

  • Housekeeping — Practice reports are reserved for Patreon subscribers. Make sure you hit the button and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s happening behind the scenes. As always, thanks to all of you who have followed the show on Twitter and left a review on iTunes. It’s quick, but it makes a difference.

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  • Rice/COVID-19 Updates — Rice football back to regularly scheduled offseason workouts and the university has announced its campus plans for the upcoming fall. As of now, the Owls’ first football game is scheduled to kick off within a month’s time.
  • Rice football offense preview — Carter and Matthew walk through each position:
    • Wide receiver: Austin Trammell and Brad Rozner are studs. Our picks for the next options behind those two.
    • Tight end: Jordan Myers leads the way here and he can do everything, from blocking to pass-catching. Even returning punts.
    • Running back: The health of Juma Otoviano is an x-factor for this offense, but newcomers like Khalan Griffin are worth keeping an eye on.
    • Quarterback: JoVoni Johnson vs Mike Collins. Collins has the slight edge to win the job, but as long as one man can rise to the top and stay healthy, Rice football should be better off. The talent in the room is as good as its been in the Mike Bloomgren era.
    • Offensive line: Mike Bloomgren’s influence has to pay dividends this year. Proven commodities on the left side anchored by Clay Servin and Shea Baker are important pieces.
    • Fullbacks: Brendan Suckley has the fulltime job after being thrust into the starters role last year. Plus, Rice signed the No. 1 fullback recruit in the nation … even though he’d never played fullback.

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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Rice Athletics: Extended offseason showcase series

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Showcasing a variety of Rice Athletics programs who don’t always get the spotlight was a focal point of the 2020 Extended Offseason. Check out key storylines across many Owls’ sports.

When sports were canceled in March the offseason calendar was more than doubled almost overnight. The silver lining in the midst of the heavy situation was additional time to shed some light on a few Rice Athletics programs that hadn’t been given as much of a spotlight on the site before. Over the span of the last few months, we’ve run weekly series on other programs beyond the revenue sports that typically get the most attention (although we wrote about those too). Here’s a summary of those series, all in one place:

Volleyball

Soccer

Swimming

Tennis

Baseball

Men’s Basketball

Women’s Basketball

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Rice Football: 2020 Preseason roster notes and changes

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The summer is over and the 2020 Rice football season is, allegedly, approaching. Here’s a quick rundown of the preseason roster and a few interesting tidbits and notes.

Rice football released its preseason roster this week, featuring 109 players. If you haven’t grabbed a copy of the 2020 Rice Football Season Preview, be sure you do soon. It has position by position and player by player breakdowns. Check out a sample here.

The team had the option to begin fall camp on Wednesday. Rice has not yet indicated when it will begin. The team is currently holding walkthroughs. The majority of schools who kick off their season on Saturday of Week 1 can open camp on Friday.

As for the roster itself, here were a few observations worth mentioning.

No startling omissions

First, as most significant, all of the Owls’ key pieces are returning. It’s not uncommon for players to move on from teams for various reasons. It happens everywhere. Rice wasn’t hit hard by outgoing transfers this summer, nor were any key players dismissed. There were 110 players on the roster this spring compared to 109 currently. The lone subtraction was former backup quarterback Parker Towns, who did not appear in any games for the Owls last year and had been moved to wide receiver this spring.

There’s a stark contrast between the Owls’ situation and that of other C-USA teams like Marshall and FAU, both of which unexpectedly lost established starting quarterbacks in the past month.

Rice has size in the offensive trenches

Rice had one player on the offensive line that weighed at least 295 entering the 2019 season, grad transfer Nick Leverett. He’s in camp with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers right now.

The 2020 offensive line is significantly bigger. Seven offensive lineman enter camp at or above that 295 pound mark. That includes projected starting center Isaac Klarkowski (299), starting guards Shea Baker (302) and Cole Garcia (296) as well as probably starting tackle Jovaun Woolford. The final likely starter on the line, left tackle Clay Servin, checks in at 292.

The Rice starting o-line will come close to 1,500 combined pounds this season. Some of those, like Woolford, have put on a good portion of that weight during the extended offseason. They’re going to push some folks around.

Still room for non-roster additions

The Owls have been adding to their roster all summer. From former Richmond tight end Andrew Tsangeos to former Princeton long snapper Chris Sayan, Rice is still in the market for the right depth pieces. We might not see any massive last-second additions, but there could be a few more pieces.

One such newcomer is CJ McCord, the brother of current Rice corner Miles McCord. He was included on a graphic tweeted out by a few of the Rice wideouts. Standing 6-foot-1, CJ is transferring from Yale and will bring depth the receiving corps. He caught three passes at Yale.

Senior-led, but not senior heavy

There are 13 players on the 109 man roster listed as redshirt seniors, seniors or grad transfers. That includes Collin Riccitelli whom the staff expects to regain an additional year of eligibility. Here are the other 12:

Definite starter
  • Blaze Alldredge, LB
  • Elijah Garcia, DL
  • Jordan Myers, TE
  • George Nyakwol, Saf
  • Naeem Smith, Saf
  • Austin Trammell, WR
Possible starter / key contributor
  • Mike Collins, QB
  • Jovaun Woolford, OL
  • Garrett Grammer, LB
  • JaVante Hubbard, DL
Bench / backup
  • Andrew Tsangeos, TE
  • Collin Whitaker, CB

As you can see, the most experienced players Rice has are going to be playing a lot of snaps for the team this year. But the next level is just as promising. Although I wouldn’t call this a “young” team, there’s plenty of underclassmen and juniors on the roster this year who will see meaningful reps as the team prepares for a more typical season in 2021.

27 freshmen

Between walk ons and scholarship players, Rice is adding 27 freshmen to the roster for the fall. Bringing in such large classes is what’s enabled Mike Bloomgren and his staff to build the roster back to the appropriate amount of depth. He won’t be having to cancel spring practices because he ran out of players like he had to do on occasion during his first year on campus.

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Rice Baseball: 2020 Summer Ball August 5 Update

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Current, former and incoming Rice baseball players are participating in Summer Ball leagues around the country. Here’s the latest on those Owls.

First a quick note on rosters. I’ve tracked down all players that I could find with listed statistics, but I know there are others playing ball this summer. If you come across information on anyone else associated with Rice baseball playing summer ball, please send it my way. You can leave it in the comments or send it to me some other way. Thanks!

Hitters

It seems like most of the summer leagues are starting to wind down as the calendar meanders into August. Playoff brackets have been announced and started with Owls mixed in the various championship hunts.

There wasn’t much in the form of updated stats from the plate. Cullen Hannigan saw action in four more games, failing to register a hit but walking six times in 17 plate appearances. His OBP is up to .394 for the summer.

Hitting Stats

Pitchers

Rice baseball will have some decisions to make in the weekend rotation this coming season. Mitch Holcomb has done all he can this summer to warrant inclusion in those conversations. He’s been strong through five outings, going six scoreless innings his last time out for the Round Rock Hairy Men.

Rice needs arms that can pitch deep into games. Holcomb, a grad transfer from Penn and a Texas native, should be one of those guys the Owls can rely on in some fashion next spring.

https://twitter.com/RRHairyMen/status/1288654502036475905

Pitching Stats

*All stats as of Aug 5 taken from league and team websites. Not all players listed have complete stats and some have no official stats listed at all.

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