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Rice Football Recruiting: Owls soar up rankings as 2020 class bonds

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The 2020 Rice Football recruiting class is becoming a family, one that’s adding talent players to it at an almost unprecedented pace.

Sunday night was a big one for the 2020 Rice football recruiting class. The Owls hosted all of their in-state commits plus a few notable targets for an unofficial visit. Given the proximity of coach Bloomgren’s house to campus, the guys were able to gather at his place to hang out and bond with each other and the coaching staff.

From all accounts, the atmosphere was fantastic and everyone had a good time. Several of the guys met face to face for the first time. The most telling comment came from running back commit Khalan Griffin:  “It’s like we are already a family.”

It would be hard for the mood to be anything less than positive given the rampant recruiting pace Rice is on right now. The Owls own the No. 50 recruiting class in the nation at the midpoint of June. That’s the second best class in Conference USA and puts them above some notable programs:
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  • USC (No. 53)
  • Baylor (No. 64)
  • Michigan State (No. 65)
  • SMU (No. 67)
  • UCLA (No. 75)
  • Houston (No. 87)
  • Texas Tech (No. 89)

That highly regarded class could become even better soon. Beyond forging stronger bonds with the current class, Rice made significant headway with current targets, most notably corner Ricky Johnson. The invite list was short for non-committed players. Johnson was among the top of that list.

Johnson had spoken highly of Rice since he was offered following the Adidas 3 Stripe Camp. At that point, he called Rice his top choice. The time spent with the Owls over the weekend solidified those feelings. He’s planning to take a few more visits, but Rice has cemented themselves as the unquestioned leader in his recruitment.

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Rice Football: Unlocking explosiveness on offense

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Big plays were few and far between for Rice football in 2018, but when the offense was rolling they came frequently enough.

The 2018 Rice football offense wasn’t explosive. The lack of big plays not only put the Owls behind the eight ball on third down, but made scoring opportunities much harder to reach, let alone convert.

Rice had 29 pass plays of 20 yards or more last season, the 11th best in Conference USA. They ranked 13th in pass plays of 40 yards or more (five), ahead of only UTSA who finished dead last in the nation in total offense.

The ground was slightly more favorable. Rice had the seventh most carries of 20 yards or more (15) and the second most carries of 40 yards or more (six). The Owls were one of two CUSA teams with a run of at least 80 yards — courtesy of Juma Otoviano’s breakout performance against Old Dominion.

Altogether Rice finished in the bottom third of the conference in explosive plays. The Owls faired much better (57th in the nation and in the middle of the pack in CUSA) in IsoPPP+, a measure of explosiveness on a per play basis for a given team’s successful plays. In short, when the offense is moving the ball, how good are they at turning successful plays into bigger chunk plays.

Essentially that means that Rice, while not a frequent chain-moving offense, was able to create a decent portion of explosive plays when the plays worked. Blocking, scheme and better athletes with the ball in their hands are all things which should take another step forward for the Owls in 2019. Those numbers seem to point toward both the room for improvement and a foundation able to execute when things break the right way.

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Rice Football: Will the Owls find a bellcow running back in 2019?

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Run-first offenses often trust one primary rusher. That wasn’t quite the case last year, but could Rice football find a bell cow back in 2019?

Dating back to Mike Bloomgren’s days at Stanford, the current Rice head man has tended toward trusting one man to carry the brunt of the load in the backfield. The Owls didn’t have that one guy last year, or at least, they never settled on one back who was healthy enough and consistent enough to take on that role in this offense. Sort of.

Here’s what the distribution of carries looked among the top four Rice rushers in 2018:

By Raw Stats

Player Austin Walter Emmanuel Esukpa Juma Otoviano Aston Walter
Att 133 122 65 64
Yds 564 461 364 254
TD 4 3 3 0

By Percentage

Player Austin Walter Emmanuel Esukpa Juma Otoviano Aston Walter
% Att 27% 25% 13% 13%
% Yds 30% 25% 19% 14%
% TD 27% 20% 20% 0%

The apparent balance wasn’t really the case. One running back registered at least 50 percent of the Owls’ non-quarterback rushes in 10 of 13 games Rice played last year. In six of those games, the lead back was responsible for at least two-thirds of the attempts.

That distribution was largely a function of the roles each of those four backs played as the offense evolved. Emmanuel Esupka was the bruiser north-south runner who started the year as the primary ball carrier before falling out of the rotation with injuries. Splitting time with him initially was Austin Walter, who shifted out to receiver midway through the year.

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That left Juma Otoviano and Aston Walter as the remaining options. Otoviano took the lead back duties, increasing his role from the wildcat quarterback earlier in the year. Aston was the glue, filling in whenever the pieces moved around him, registering a career-high 23 carries against LSU.

As the 2019 season looms, Austin and Esukpa are gone. Aston and Otoviano remain with an interesting crop of talent behind them including Harvard transfer Charlie Booker and incoming freshman Jawan King. Will Bloomgren have a lead guy to trust for the duration of the 2019 season? We might just have to wait and see.

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Rice Football: 2020 Offensive lineman Trey Phillippi commits to Owls

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It’s a busy time for the 2020 Rice Football recruiting class, who picked up their third commit of the week with the addition of offensive lineman Trey Phillippi.

Sometimes when you know, you know. That’s the story of Rice football’s latest addition to the 2020 class, Trey Phillippi. Rice hosted a camp over the weekend with several intriguing offensive line prospects. When the staff saw Phillippi work they didn’t waste much time, extending him an offer on Saturday.

Rice was the first school to offer the 6-foot-5, offensive tackle from Montgomery, Tx. The Owls knew what they were looking for and jumped at the opportunity to get Phillippi into the fold, perhaps wrapping up the process even more quickly than they might have originally expected.

Not only was Phillipi blown away by his weekend experience and the prestige of the university, he wasn’t willing to wait more than a week before he made his pledge to the Owls. So less than a week after he received his offer, Phillip committed to Rice.

Phillipi’s decision came less than 24 hours after fellow in-state recruit Devin Gunter committed to the Owls and a few days removed from Brentwood, TN wideout Andrew Mason’s Rice declaration. That’s three coveted additions to the 2020 class in the span of three days.

Phillipi is every bit the road grader his size suggests he ought to be. He’s an enforcer who throws rushers aside with ease and wins his one on one battles at the line of scrimmage. The Owls are always out to find those who fit the Intellectual Brutality culture. Phillipi fits the bill and he’s going to do some damage in the trenches as soon as he gets to South Main.

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Rice Football: 2020 Athlete Devin Gunter commits to Owls

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The 2020 Rice Football recruiting class is picking up steam, grabbing their second commitment of the week from potential two-way standout Devin Gunter.

The Adidas 3 Stripe camp gave Rice football an opportunity to showcase their facilities and their brand with some of the top recruits in college football. That busy day at South Main has already paid dividends. Camp attendee and 2020 athlete Devin Gunter has committed to Rice.

The Missouri City, Tx native had nothing but good things to say following his camp experience. He was impressed with the facilities and enjoyed his time working in person with the Rice coaches. Those relationships have continued to strengthen over the last few weeks.

Gunter has a lot of film at wide receiver, but where he’ll play in college remains up in the air. The tentative plan is to start him off at corner, but his athleticism and raw speed are going to have the offensive coaches chomping at the bit to get him the ball in space and watch him work. Another D’Angelo Ellis situation where he plays two ways could be possible in at least some capacity. He’s that talented.Rice Football, Rice Football Recruiting

Beyond his athleticism, Gunter has legitimate track star speed. He ran a 4.47 at camp and had that time confirmed with a laser timer later this summer. Rice needs speed on the edges and Gunter is undoubtedly one of the fastest guys they’ve landed thus far.

Whether he ends up on offense or defense, Gunter is a big play guy in the making. A 6-foot-1, 180-pound athlete, he has great hands and a knack for attacking the football in the air. He’s only to get better at the next level.

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