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Conference USA Football 2019: Week 14 C-USA Roundup

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Rice football capped off their year with a third straight win while the Conference USA Football Championship game was set, without a complex tiebreaker.

Team Week 14 Result Record
Charlotte at Old Dominion W, 38-22 7-5 (5-3)
FAU* vs Southern Miss W, 34-17 9-3 (7-1)
FIU at Marshall L, 30-27 (OT) 6-6 (3-5)
LA Tech vs UTSA W, 41-27 9-3 (6-2)
Marshall vs FIU W, 30-27 (OT) 8-4 (6-2)
MTSU at WKU L, 31-26 4-8 (3-5)
North Texas vs UAB L, 26-21 4-8 (3-5)
Old Dominion vs Charlotte L, 38-22 1-11 (0-8)
Rice at UTEP W, 30-16 3-9 (3-5)
Southern Miss at FAU L, 34-17 7-5 (5-3)
UAB* vs North Texas W, 26-21 9-3 (6-2)
UTEP vs Rice L, 30-16 1-11 (0-8)
UTSA at LA Tech L, 41-27 4-8 (3-5)
WKU vs MTSU W, 31-26 8-4 (6-2)
*Clinched Conference USA Football Championship Game berths

Notable Week 14 results – Standings

Make it three!

It took a while for Rice football to get the monkey off their backs, but once they did the results seemed worth the wait. The Owls closed out the season on a three-game winning streak, dispatching Middle Tennesee and North Texas before closing out the year with a road win over UTEP. Rice football looks to be headed in the right direction.

Conference USA avoids tiebreaker drama

After changing the tiebreaker rules in the middle of the week, Conference USA could have found themselves in a tough spot had they had to enforce the newly minted rules on less than six days notice. With Southern Miss losing to FAU on the road, there was no three-team tie to break, making all the drama of the late change for naught.

And then there were two

C-USA East champ FAU will host C-USA West champ UAB will meet in the championship game next weekend. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network with the opening kickoff set for 1:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. CT. FAU was picked to finish third in the East in the preseason with three first place votes. UAB was picked to finish fourth in the West in the preseason with two first place votes.

Week 15 storylines

Hot seat watch

UTEP and Old Dominion end the season as the only C-USA teams without a conference win, both went 1-11 with their singular victories over non-FBS teams. UTEP headman Dana Dimel might be in better shape as he’s in Year 2 of a challenging rebuild. Bobby Wilder at Old Dominion is one to watch. After leading the Monarchs to a program-best 10-win season in 2016, they’ve regressed in his next three subsequent season, with the 1-win mark the programs worst-ever finish, by three games.

UTSA’s Frank Wilson and Middle Tennessee’s Rick Stockstill are two others who have had their names come up in those discussions this season. There’s a good chance one, if not multiple C-USA programs have a new man at the helm for the 2020 season.

Will Skip Holtz give answers?

Louisiana Tech was undefeated in conference play and the clear front runner to win the West before the program suspended quarterback J’Mar Smith and lead receiver Adrian Hardy. The two games missed, both losses, proved to be impactful, knocking the Bulldogs out of first place. The fanbase is understandably upset. Will there be a satisfactory resolution to this? Or will fans have to live with a promising season derailed by “internal discipline”.

Bowl season is right around the corner

Conference USA won the Bowl Challenge Cup last year, winning four of their program’s six bowl games. The conference has eight bowl-eligible squads this season, with 6-6 FIU the only team who might have to sweat the selection process should the total of eligible teams exceed the total amount of slots. Regardless, it should be another busy bowl season for C-USA.

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Rice Football: Owls soar over UTEP for third straight win

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Rice football enters the offseason riding high, knocking off UTEP on the road to win their third consecutive game for the first time since 2014.

The Rice football team who took the field on a blustery Saturday afternoon against UTEP never looked flustered, even when UTEP took a momentary lead. This team had become accustomed with adversity and put their learnings from the school of hard knocks to use, winning their third straight game. The last Rice team to win three and a row won six straight in 2014. The last Rice squad to win their final three came in 2013, a year which included a conference championship.

Here are a few immediate takeaways from another encouraging outing:

1. It’s not perfect, but the Owls have fixed their offense

For the first time since their road trip to Birmingham to face UAB, Rice football ended their first offensive possession in the endzone. Set up by an opportune special teams play and a short punt, the offense needed just three plays to traverse the 28 yards between them and a touchdown. Taking the 7-0 lead kept their first-half momentum going. It also quickly ended the Miners’ hopes of a reprisal of last year’s 27-0 onslaught that put the Owls in a massive hole before their offense woke up.

UTEP would answer with a defensive touchdown, putting the onus back on Rice to keep their foot on the gas. Not only did Rice respond with a score, they marched 67 yards in a little less than three minutes, capping things off with a 30-yard touchdown run by sixth-year senior Aston Walter.

Whether they’re at home or on the road, the past three games have given ample reason to believe the early-season woes of the Rice offense are a thing of the past. They’ve scored on the ground and through the air. They’ve mixed in some razzle-dazzle and some no-nonsense, run-you-over physicality.

Zane Knipe hauled in a 42-yard bomb for his first career reception. JoVoni Johnson looked electric in select packages, including his first career touchdown and a second score to ice the game in the fourth quarter.

All told, the Owls finished with 30 points (16 of which came after halftime) and 371 total yards. That’s a long way from a seven-point, 243-yard outing this same team had in their season opener against Army.

2. There are no “gimmes” in Conference USA

Rice football won their prior two games in upset fashion, ending any bowl aspirations for both Middle Tennessee and North Texas. They took Louisiana Tech to overtime. In their only other game as a favorite this season, they squandered a fourth-quarter lead, falling to UTSA on the road. Notice any rhyme or reason to those results? Not really.

The Owls have been playing well in all phases, but there are no “gimmes” in Conference USA. The talent level gap between the upper tier and lower tier teams is nowhere near the chasm that exists in some other conferences around the country. Nobody can throw the ball out on the field and win games with willpower alone. It takes focus, execution and good coaching. Every Saturday.

The tone in the locker room matched this mindset all week. Leading receiver Brad Rozner was direct with his viewpoint of the game at hand: “We haven’t really done much. All we’ve done really is win two games.” Rice wasn’t overlooking UTEP, but even well-prepared, winning this game on the road against a team desperate to find any way to finish on top was always going to be hard. Credit Rice with this: for the third time in three weeks, they found a way to win.

3. The jury is still out on the Owls’ third down defense

From the box score alone, the defensive performance seemed presentable. The Rice defense allowed 10 points (none after halftime) with only one touchdown drive to a UTEP offense that put up five touchdowns last weekend. But after turning UTEP away on their first third down of the game, Rice allowed their opponents to convert five of their next seven third downs.

It was the defense’s inability to get off the field that proved to be the biggest stumbling block for the Rice offense. Rice had two offensive possessions in the second quarter while UTEP controlled the ball for 11:29 of the 15 minutes of play.

To some degree, an injury to Kai Locksley helped Rice solve their third down problems. The Miners’ starters left the game on the final drive before halftime with a wrist injury. UTEP looked lost without their dual-threat quarterback at the helm, going three and out twice and picking up just two third down conversions after halftime.

Rice can’t control injuries, but they can control their own defensive effort. The second half performance was a fantastic response, enabling Rice not only to take the lead but to extend it.

4. The no-quit attitude is paying off

Someone asked an interesting question during a mailbag segment on The Roost Podcast earlier this season: how many plays is Rice football from a winning record? The Owls were 0-6 at the time but had played well in their losses. After pondering things for a moment, Carter and I concluded they were probably only seven or eight plays from three wins, which could have potentially included Army and Baylor, currently ranked ninth in the nation.

Plenty was questioned during the 0-9 start. The effort wasn’t. The team was ready in the fourth quarter, physically prepared to do battle for a full 60 minutes. In theory, those close games would begin to balance out. The Owls had lost a disproportionate amount of nail-biters. They were “due”.

The Owls’ effort never waned. The results have been as good as they could have imagined and should give plenty of optimism for what this team will be able to accomplish in 2020 and beyond.

5. Don’t miss the trees for the forest

An old adage would warn us not to miss the forest for the trees. Although undoubtedly sage advice, the inverse is also true, particularly for the current Rice football team.

The talk of “big picture” plans and building for the future have been ubiquitous as the team endured an onslaught of near misses and close losses. Patience was preached. There will be plenty of time to break down the wide-angled view of where this program is and where it’s going. Today, focus on the most immediate results.

Black Friday

Rice has won three games in a row against Conference USA opponents. Two of those victories came on the road. Three wins is short of where this program wants to be, but let’s not lose sight of the accomplishments the Owls have achieved in the past month. After winning twice in their first 22 games (.091 winning percentage), Rice is a perfect 3-3 after their bye week.

All those hopes and dreams of the program Mike Bloomgren and his staff are working to build? It’s become a reality over the past several weeks. We don’t have to theorize how they’ll win in 2020. They’ve already proven it can be done. In the midst of a particularly dark stretch, Rex Ryan challenged an 0-9 team to win three-straight. They did. Rice football has finally taken flight.

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Rice Football 2019: Quarterbacks, redshirts and UTEP practice notes 🔒

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Rice football wants to close out its 2019 season on a high note. The Owls haven’t slowed down as the work through Thanksgiving week to prepare for UTEP.

It’s hard to believe we’ve almost reached the end of the Rice football regular season. Be sure to check out the game preview and this week’s podcast. Here are some of the most notable takeaways from practice this week.

Development of the offense and game-planning for the second half

The emergence of Bradley Rozner has been crucial over the last month of the season. Being able to throw the ball up to him on third down and watch him win one-on-one battles has changed the Rice offense. “[Rozner has] really given our offense another threat that we didn’t really know we had early,” wide receivers coach Mike Kershaw admitted. “[Rozner has] really helped us … stretch the ball down the field, flip the field.”

Rozner’s growth has been a boon to the rest of the receiving corps as well. Austin Trammell had more than six receptions for just the second time this season in the win over North Texas, including a wide-open 31-yard gain on third down in the second half.

The Roost Podcast | Episode 19 — North Texas recap and UTEP Preview

Trammell has noticed the added space, saying “It’s nice having more options and be able to make plays down the field.” Even still, the team captain has higher aspirations for himself and this offense. “We just can’t get complacent,” he said of the second half scoring droughts, which by the time the team takes the field against UTEP, will have grown to 35 days without a point scored after halftime.

As for new wrinkles, we might see against UTEP, the speed of Zane Knipe should get more opportunities to flash. Kershaw called him “a different type of weapon,” adding that, “that’s rare to have a guy that has that type of speed [at Rice].”

Quarterback

Bloomgren confirmed during his Tuesday press conference that Tom Stewart would remain the starter for the final week of the regular season. He has taken the majority of the reps with the first team early in the week and performed well. His deep ball continues to be an asset to his game and he’s proven comfortable in the offense.

As good as Stewart has been, there’s a good chance we still see JoVoni Johnson on Saturday. The reps Stewart hasn’t gotten with the one’s have been held for Johnson, who’s worked primarily with a read-option and more run-centric packages.

The running game with Johnson seemed to be the best thing the offense had going for it before the bye. Instituting some of those plays, particularly during any second half stalls could be extremely beneficial. Two quarterbacks shouldn’t be the norm, and I think Bloomgren and his staff will be judicious about how and when they employ their second signal caller against UTEP. They’ve had plenty of learning opportunities.

Redshirt watch

Rice has already begun to shuffle in some of their younger players as the season has progressed. There wasn’t a sudden deluge of new faces when Rice reached the last four games of the year, rather the staff has done a good job of getting many of the freshmen experience in meaningful moments.

These players have played in their allotted four games. I wouldn’t expect we see any of them on Saturday: Jacob Grams, Kebreyun Page, Cole Garcia, Josh Pearcy, Joshua Landrum, Miles McCord, and Brandt Peterson.

Black Friday

As for those who have played in fewer than four games, there should be several players who get into the game in some form or fashion.

On offense, keep an eye on the aforementioned JoVoni Johnson as well as running back Juma Otoviano (game time decision), wide receiver Zane Knipe and walk-on offensive lineman Isaac Klarkowski. On defense, Chike Anigbogu and Izeya Floyd were both singled out by members of the coaching staff this week as players who could see bigger roles.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 19 – 2019 North Texas Review, UTEP Preview

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Rice Football earned their second straight win, upsetting North Texas at home in Week 13. Carter and Matthew break down the win and preview UTEP.

A win on Senior Day made for positive vibes and an upbeat locker room this week. Rice football has their first winning streak under Mike Bloomgren and has their eyes on fulfilling the 3-0 challenged handed to them by former NFL coach Rex Ryan when visited the team during the previous bye week. More on how the team go to this point and reasons to believe these recent changes could bring sustained success.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, Give a listen to Episode 19 below.


Episode 19 Notes

  • Rice Athletics updates —  Rice Basketball had a whirlwind of a week. The men took two of three in the Bahamas Showcase with their only loss coming to the tournament champion Liberty Flames. The women dropped their second road contest of the season falling in lopsided fashion to Oklahoma State before rebounding against McNeese State on Wednesday. Volleyball dropped a heartbreaker to WKU.
  • North Texas Review — Rice has won back-to-back games despite not scoring any points after halftime. Carter and Matthew discuss the big picture offensive adjustments, the play of true freshman walk-on center Isaac Klarkowski, and the stunning defensive performance of Treshawn Chamberlain and the secondary against one of the best quarterbacks in Conference USA history.
  • UTEP Preview — For the second time this season, Rice football enters a game as a favorite. The Owls won’t let their momentum catch them off guard. Instead, the focus this week is sustained production on offense and containing the dual-threat abilities of UTEP quarterback Kai Locksley.

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 Football: Center Isaac Klarkowski latest of Owls’ walk-on successes

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For Rice football, recruiting efforts go well beyond scholarship players. Freshman center Isaac Klarkowski is the latest in a growing line of walk-on successes.

It’s harder for Rice football to win than it is for some other state schools with deep pockets and fewer academic restrictions. Head coach Mike Bloomgren knew that when he took the job; he faced similar constraints in his prior stint at Stanford. To compete against the schools who don’t face those challenges, Bloomgren and his staff were going to need to find unique advantages.

When walk-on center Isaac Klarkowski took the first snap in the Owls’ most recent game against North Texas, one of those advantages was thrust into the spotlight.  Finding and/or equipping walk-on players like Klarkowski, Chris Barnes and Tre’shon Devones — all of whom started against North Texas — is something Rice football likes to think they do better than most. The results so far speak for themselves.

A team that had their fair share of struggles protecting the quarterback this season with their staters healthy didn’t seem perturbed by the last-minute substitution in the heart of the offensive line. Instead, the low-profile, scout team defensive lineman became the hero of the Owls’ first home win of the 2019 season.

There were plenty of places and people Bloomgren could have keyed in on following his team’s win on Senior Day. The most notable was probably Treshawn Chamberlain, who arguably won the game with a stadium-shaking endzone pass break up. But Bloomgren opened his comments on the win with a nod to Klarkowski.

“I know many of you might not have known his name until he started on Saturday,” Bloomgren said. “He is a walk-on true freshman from Green Bay, Wisconsin who joined our team three days before camp. We’re sure glad he did.”

Klarkowski had a tough decision to make on his way out of high school. An All-State wrester from the midwest, he was entertaining multiple Big Ten wrestling scholarship offers when he got the call from Rice. Suddenly he was faced with a decision, which ultimately ended up with a commitment to play for the Owls with no scholarship promised.

Preview: Rice Football vs UTEP in Week 14

The out of state product is studying mechanical engineering with aspirations of working for NASA, who sets up shop not far from Rice campus. Klarkowski wants to be a rocket scientist and he’s a D1 caliber athlete. Somehow, someway, programs around the country didn’t prioritize him to the same degree Rice did.

The intelligence was crucial to his big moment on Saturday. With starter Shea Baker sick with the flu and backup Brian Chaffin injured, Klarkowski wasn’t notified he would officially be the guy until Saturday. He didn’t take first-team or second-team reps during the week when the team implemented their game plan.

Klarkowski’s training came by way of a crash course hotel room session with Chaffin. Arguably as well versed in this offense as any of the coaches, Chaffin’s fifth year in Bloomgren’s system gave him ample knowledge to impart. The pair moved the beds to the side of the room and drilled down on every play. That process took less than an hour. Then Klarkowski strapped on his pads and took the field to snap the ball for the very first time in a college game.

Every walk on doesn’t turn into a starter. In actually, the hit rate leans heavily toward microscopic. But as more players like Klarkowski show up, it might be time to give credit to where credit is due. Rice football has a way with walk-ons. And those walk-ons just helped win some important football games.

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