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Rice Football 2019 Game Preview: Owls vs Wake Forest

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Rice Football returns to Houston for their 2019 home opener against Wake Forest. How to watch, stats to know, x-factor picks for both teams and more.

A 1-0 start for Wake Forest and an 0-1 start for Rice were both results of games that came down to the final minutes. Neither team faced a deficit larger than seven points in their first game the difference was what each squad was able to accomplish when the clock ticked under two minutes.

Rice quarterback Wiley Green saw his fourth down pass fall to the ground incomplete. Wake Forest’s Jamie Newman found Kendall Hinton in the endzone on fourth down for the go-ahead score.

The Owls feel like their Week 1 loss to Army was a winnable game which got away from them. Here’s how they stack up with their Week 2 opponent, Wake Forest.

Broadcast Info

Kickoff time | 7:00 PM CT
Venu | Rice Stadium – Houston, Tx
TV | CBS Sports Network
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)
Streaming | CBSSN Online

Audio Preview

Episode 6 of The Roost Podcast is live. Find us on the podcast page or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. (And consider leaving us a 5-star review while you’re at it.) This week Carter and I broke down the good and the bad from the Army game then moved on to Week 2, discussing how Rice matches up with Wake Forest.

Sizing up the contenders

A year ago these teams didn’t look to belong on the same field. Wake Forest rolled at home, winning 56-24 behind the dangerous combination of quarterback Sam Hartman and wide receiver Greg Dortch. That duo combined for four touchdowns in the rout, but neither will be in the starting lineup against Rice on Friday. Dortch has moved on. Hartman was beat out for the starting job this fall.

The 2019 versions of these teams look slightly different. The Rice defense looked aggressive in their opener against Army while their offense stalled. On the other sideline, Wake Forest had a hard time getting off the field against Utah State, but overcame those deficiencies with a surplus of offensive firepower.

This matchup will pair strength against strength (Rice defense vs Wake Forest offense) and weakness against weakness (Rice offense vs Wake Forest defense).

Series History

All Time | Series tied 1-1
Last Five | Series tied 1-1
Last Meeting | Wake Forest won at Wake Forest 56-24 in 2018

Rice Stat Notables

Passing | Green – 7/14 (50 percent), 62 yards passing, 0 TD, 0 INT
Rushing | Ellerbe – 9 carries, 103 yards (11.4 yards per carry), 1 TD
Receiving | Trammell – 4 receptions, 40 yards (10 yards per reception)
Tackles | Montero – 11
Pass Breakups/Interceptions | N/A

Wake Forest Stat Notables

Passing | Newman – 34/47 (72.3 percent), 401 yards passing, 3 TD, 0 INT
Rushing | Carney – 25 carries, 105 yards (4.2 yards per carry)
Receiving | Surrat – 7 receptions, 158 yards (22.6 yards per reception), 1 TD
Tackles | Strnad – 12
Pass Breakups/Interceptions | Henderson, Strnad, Rucker – Tied with 1

Wake Forest X-Factor | The ground game

Quarterback Jamie Newman is not a traditional pocket passer. He has a good arm, but he’ll try to attack the Owls on the ground too, along with lead running back Cade Carney. That duo combined for 46 carries, 141 rushing yards and a touchdown in their Week 1 win over Utah State.

Stopping the run was a strength of the Rice defense a year ago and the notable bright spot of their Week 1 game against Army. That will make setting the tone in the trenches a necessity for the Owls in Week 2. If Rice can hold their own up front, they’ll limit force Wake Forest to be more one-dimensional, allowing the safeties to spend more time helping in pass coverage than plugging holes at the line of scrimmage.

Rice X-Factor | Corner play

This will be the first true test for a Rice secondary of the season. Army quarterback Kelvin Hopkins attempted just eight passes, but the lone touchdown came on a critical fourth quarter drive with no defender in the vicinity of the wideout who snagged what would be the game-winning touchdown.

Rice has had strong safety play, highlighted by the swarming defense of Treshawn Chamberlain and the intensity of George Nyakwol. The corners are unproven. Corners Andrew Bird, D’Angelo Ellis, Tyrae Thornton, Josh Landrum and Tre’shon Devones saw action against Army and should all be in the mix against Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons are going to throw the ball around the yard, something they succeeded in against the Owls last year. If the corner play doesn’t show improvement, the Rice offense is going to be tasked with digging out of a sizable hole.

Injury Report

A detailed injury update is available in our Sunday practice update. Further updates will be provided here as the week progresses. Here’s a quick synopsis.

Running back Juma Otoviano underwent a procedure and will be out for the foreseeable future. Given the depth in the backfield and the uncertainty of his recovery timetable, he could be a candidate to redshirt this season, possibly playing in a few games down the stretch.

Both running back Charlie Booker and wide receiver Zane Knipe were last minute scratches against Army, but both could have gone if the situation warranted it. Barring a set back during the week, it’s possible both play against Wake Forest.

Kicker Zack Hoban is out of his boot but not yet kicking in practice. His status for Friday’s game is unknown.

Need More?

The Roost’s 2019 Rice Football Season Preview has four pages dedicated to every opponent the Owls face. There are depth chart, important new arrivals and depth chart breakdowns for each foe. Better yet, it’s not just speculation, each profile was created with insight from local experts who cover those teams day in and day out. Pick up your copy today and get four pages and more than 1,000 words on Wake Forest.

Pick ‘Em Contest

If you haven’t yet, make sure you submit your entry for The Roost’s weekly pick’em challenge. Choose an answer to each of the six questions below and submit them on the forum thread to enter.

  1. How many players attempt a pass for Rice?
    (Over 1.5 / Under 1.5)
  2. Which team will have more rushing yards?
    (Rice / Wake Forest)
  3. Which happens first – Rice touchdown or Rice forces a turnover?
    (Touchdown / Turnover)
  4. How many sacks will the Rice defense get?
    (Over 2.5 / Under 2.5)
  5. Who is leading at the end of Q1?
    (Wake Forest / Rice or Tied)
  6. Who wins?
    (Rice / Wake Forest)

One Final Thing

There was plenty of good and bad to take away from the Owls’ Week 1 loss against Army, but it was just one game. The sample size is too small to draw too many meaningful conclusions. That’s what makes this next game all the more important. Rice can either solidify concerns leftover from their season-opening defeat or they can alleviate the worry with a strong showing in Week 2.

Wake Forest is a good football team, another quality opponent in a challenging non-conference slate. Rice showed their competitive spark against Army, now it’s time to see if they can get all phases working together at the same time. At this point in the season, it’s hard to be sure exactly what this team is going to be but the first impression was overwhelmingly positive.

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Conference USA Football 2019: Week 1 CUSA roundup

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Rice football dropped a one-score game to Army at West Point. How did the rest of the conference fare and what’s next for Conference USA football in Week 1?

Team Last Week Result This Week
Charlotte — OFF — W, 49-28 vs Gardner Webb
FAU — OFF — L, 45-21 at Ohio St
FIU  — OFF — L, 42-14 at Tulane
LaTech — OFF — L, 45-14 at Texas
Marshall — OFF — W, 56-17 vs VMI
MTSU — OFF — L, 40-21 at Michigan
North Texas — OFF — W, 51-31 vs Abilene Christian
ODU — OFF — W, 24-21 vs Norfolk St
Rice — OFF — L, 14-7 at Army
Southern Miss  — OFF — W, 38-10 vs Alcorn St
UAB — OFF — W, 24-19 vs Alabama St
UTEP — OFF — W, 36-34 vs Houston Baptist
UTSA — OFF — W, 35-7 vs Incarnate Word
WKU  — OFF — L, 35-28 vs Central Ark.

Notable Week 1 results

Rice fights

Army has the second-longest winning streak in the nation, but that didn’t stop Rice from pushing the Black Knights to the limit on Friday night. Missed opportunities, including a pair of missed field goals, stalled any hopes of an upset. Still, the Rice defense looked absolutely terrifying in their 2019 debut.

FCUpset

Two CUSA head coaches made their debuts on Thursday. One, Will Healy of the Charlotte 49ers, celebrated shirtless following his team’s blowout victory over Gardner Webb. The other, Tyson Helton at Western Kentucky, saw his team give up three fourth quarter touchdowns and lose at home.

Winner, winner

It came down to the wire, but UTEP won a football game on their own field for the first time since Nov. 26, 2016. A packed house of 34,646 fans watched anxiously before being rewarded by an exciting offensive display, including an 80-yard touchdown pass from Brandon Jones to Tre’Shone Wolf on the Miners’ first play.

Week 2 storylines

Conference play starts early

Western Kentucky and FIU face an added challenge next week when they kick off CUSA conference play against each other in Miami. After tough losses suffered by both teams in Week 1, an 0-2 start coupled with the sting of an 0-1 conference hole could prove devastating.

Can anyone stun a state power?

With a few exceptions, most of the conference started off their season against another Group of 5 team or an FCS squad in Week 1. Week 2 features a host of Power 5 opponents across the conference: Texas Tech, Baylor, Mississippi State and Virginia Tech. Will anyone be able to muster an upset?

Kiffin complex

Lane Kiffin has come a long way from his debut season at FAU. The Owls were shellacked by Ohio State in Week 1 and face a ranked UCF squad which blanked Florida A&M 62-0. The wheels aren’t coming off in Boca Raton just yet, but FAU needs a win in the worst way to avert things heading in that direction.

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Former Rice Football punter Jack Fox released by Chiefs

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Per Dani Welniak, Former Rice Football Jack Fox has been released by the Kansas City Chiefs. What’s next for Fox in his NFL journey?

The NFL is a tough business, particularly for specialists. While wide receivers and offensive lineman view for more than 100 starting jobs and dozens of other backup roles, there are only so many special teams positions open at any one time.

Jack Fox finds himself in the midst of that unfortunate roster crunch. Competing with NFL vet Dustin Colquitt in Kansas City, Fox held his own, matching the long-time pros leg throughout the preseason. When it came time for the Chiefs to make a decision, they opted for the guy that’s been around for a decade.

More: Owls fall short of upset, drop heartbreaker to Army

That puts Fox in an uncomfortable state of limbo, for now. After his release from the Chiefs, Fox was put on waivers. Teams will have until Sunday at 12:00 p.m. ET to claim Fox and other players off waivers before teams will begin to construct their practice squads.

As he demonstrated during the preseason, the talent is there for Fox to take another run at a full-time gig. Here are a few things to keep a look on over the weekend.

1. Teams need punters

Kansas City was forced to make a decision between two good punts. Not every NFL squad is that fortunate, and that bodes well for Fox. Teams like the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers had particularly suspect punting games. It’s well within the realm of possibility that Fox is signed to a team like that and given another chance to win a starting job as early as this season.

2. The Chiefs aren’t off limits

It’s also possible that Kansas City liked what they saw in their rookie punter. The extended audition through the preseason might not have been enough for him to win the job outright, but the Chiefs may be open to keeping a close eye on Fox to see how he develops throughout the season. Another team could claim him from the practice squad or he could get another shot at battling Colquitt in the future.

3. Injuries and performance issues

There’s no circumstance where anyone would root for a player to be hurt, but the NFL is a dangerous business. The same 32 punters who begin the year might not make it through the season healthy, opening the door for others like Fox. Beyond that, those who remain healthy might not perform to expectations.

Similar possibilities exist for Fox’s former teammate, Austin Walter, who was released by the 49ers this weekend.

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Rice Football: Owls salvage hope from tough loss at Army

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Losing isn’t fun, but although they suffered a tough loss to Army in Week 1, Rice football proved to themselves and the nation they’ve come a long way.

“Defensively I just don’t know if we could have asked for more.” That’s how Mike Bloomgren opened his comments following what can only be labeled a heartbreaking loss on the road to Army in Week 1. The Owls defense had indeed stood tall, limiting a high-powered Army offense to 14 points — the Black Knights had dropped 70 points on crosstown rival Houston in their last game.

That defense, led by Antonio Montero’s 11 tackle performance, helped set the Rice offense up with a one-score game in the fourth quarter. The Owls were able to push the ball into Army territory but failed to convert on a fourth and one.

Seven points from the offense was disappointing, but the end result, a narrow defeat to a quality opponent, gave the entire team a confidence boost. “[We] took a team to deep water,” Bloomgren remarked,  “took a team of that caliber to deep water… and we came up a play short at the end of the day. We’re going to learn from it.”

Montero echoed those sentiments. “If we can hang in with a really good team like Army we can win a lot of games this season and down the road,” he said.

Hope is a dangerous thing. Entering Friday night, that belief was the only thing Bloomgren and his players had to hold onto. Now they have data, real life results of their hope in action. It wasn’t perfect and the taste in their mouthes is decidedly bitter. But something clicked on Friday. The Owls were able to prove to themselves they were different from a year ago.

More: Read more about the Owls’ next opponent, Wake Forest, in our 2019 Season Preview

Bloomgren said it best. “There’s so many things that will be so obvious to so many people that we are no the same team from 2018, we’re just not,” he declared. “The programs different. The way guys are working is different. Everything is just different.”

Following a 2-11 season, different is a very good thing. Thus far in 2019, Rice Football is 0-1 with 11 more opportunities to turn that confidence into reality. The next game can’t come soon enough.

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Rice Football 2019: Owls miss chance to upset Army on the road

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Rice Football tussled with the Army Black Knights on Friday night at Michie Stadium, narrowly falling in a one-score game decided in the final minutes.

Rice football entered Friday’s tilt with Army as underdogs. The Knights were coming off an 11-win season and came close to being ranked in the first edition of the AP Poll. Rice had won twice in their past 13 games and was playing far away from home. From the first snap, neither of those converging storylines seemed to matter.

Not once did Rice look out of place or overwhelmed. The Owls went toe to toe with the Black Knights, sparring with their service academy foes and looking every bit their equals. Army sustained one lengthy scoring drive, never finding a rhythm on offense thanks to the swarming white-clad Owls defense.

Here are a few takeaways from the Owls’ season opener.

1. The new-look defense is ready to play

Like Carter and I discussed on The Roost Podcast, Army likes to roll the dice and go for it on fourth down more often than most teams. Coach Jeff Monken put that to the test early, opting to go for it on fourth and one inside their own 10-yard line on the Knights’ first drive. Myles Adams blew up the play in the backfield and Treshawn Chamberlain finished the stop.

The theme of bigger, stronger and faster was talked about throughout the offseason. Still, it was hard to know how much of a difference that would make on the field until Rice hit someone wearing a different colored jersey. Rice opened the Army game with a statement and continued to out-muscle their foes for the duration of the contest.

2. He’s back!

Rice knew their time with the football was going to be disjointed because of the nature of the Army offense. The Knights had limited success with the ball early. The Rice offense missed a golden opportunity to set the tone and force their opponents into an uncomfortable position and were forced to play from behind, just not for long.

Nahshon Ellerbe, who led Rice in rushing in 2017 before injuries kept him on the bench for almost the entirety of the 2018 season, provided the equalizer.

Ellerbe is one of the most physically imposing players on the team. His potential was brought up in a conversation with Bloomgren during fall camp. Bloomgren mentioned he’d seen all the highlight videos of what he could do in the open field but had never watched him run on the field with his own eyes.

Well, Bloomgren has seen Ellerbe now. And so has a packed Michie stadium. Ellerbe’s touchdown run woke the offense up out of their slow start and gave the Rice sideline a much-appreciated confidence boost. He went on to finish the game with nine carries for 103 yards and the aforementioned touchdown run.

3. A mixed bag on special teams

Continuity was the buzzword for the Rice special teams throughout the offseason. The Owls were replacing Ray Guy semifinalist Jack Fox and veteran placekicker Haden Tobola. They hoped to keep things rolling by transitioning former running backs coach Drew Svoboda to special teams coordinator.

Under Svoboda’s direction, the special teams were a mixed bag. Punter Adam Nunez, who transferred to Rice after starting at TCU for three seasons, was phenomenal. His first punt went 61 yards and his second went 51. Both balls pinned Army inside their own 10-yard line, giving Rice a huge edge in field position.

Chris Barnes got a turn to start the third quarter before Nunez came back in, downing two more punts inside the 10-yard line. He was as perfect as you could ask a punter to be.

The placekicking was a different story. Will Harrison missed a 26-yard chip shot and a 44-yard attempt in the first half. Had he converted either of those, Rice could have walked into halftime with the lead. Freshman kicker Zack Hoban was expected to challenge Harrison for the starting job but had a brace on his non-kicking foot during practice this week. Once Hoban is healthy the competition should resume.

4. Offense remains a work in progress

On a night in which the defense dominated, the offense led by quarterback Wiley Green struggled to consistently move the ball. The Owls did not show a noticeable improvement from their third down struggles from a year ago, converting three times in 11 opportunities.

Green completed seven of 15 passes for 62 yards. He had some pretty balls downfield, connecting on a big play to Austin Trammell in the first half but for the most part seemed to leave a lot on the field.

His passes had plenty of zip but lacked accuracy. He was off on two screen passes which effectively halted separate drives. The run-focused game plan seemed to inhibit his ability to get into a groove.

The running game was more or less efficient, but there were definitely plays where the offensive line got a better push up front than others. When all the parts were working in concert, big holes appeared, setting up the backs for easy first downs. In addition to Ellerbe’s scamper, Aston Walter had a 24-yard run which was called back by a holding penalty.

5. This is a different team

Rice showed flashes of ability on both sides of the ball last season. In the end, that’s all it was though, flashes. The biggest question mark facing this team this year was always going to be their ability to play for four quarters and finish. One week into the 2019 season and the Owls have mustered some sort of answer.

Every phase isn’t running smoothly, but as a team, the 2019 Rice Owls are better than they were a season ago.

More: Read more about the Owls’ next opponent, Wake Forest, in our 2019 Season Preview

The heavy underdogs played mostly penalty-free football and had a quality opponent on the ropes on the road. Rice isn’t going to play the triple option every weekend, but the kind of defense they displayed on Friday night will travel.

It’s disappointing to leave West Point without a win, particularly with how close the game was from start to finish. Rice played well enough that they should feel scorned by the narrow defeat. That in itself is proof of a marked improvement.

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