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45 Days: Owls searching for depth after 45 different tacklers in 2017

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45 different players registered at least one tackle for Rice football in 2017. Who will step up for the Owls this coming season?

One of the glaring deficiencies of the Rice football team in 2017 was a top-heavy defense. After you got past Emmanuel Ellerbee, who led the team in tackles with 95, the Owls got thin, fast. Not only is Ellerbee out of eligibility, so too are the Owl’s four leading tacklers from last season. That leaves a lot of questions that need to be addressed going forward.

In addition to Ellerbee, Rice will have to replace Brian Womac, Destri White, D.J. Green and J.T. Ibe. Those five players combined for 282 tackles, 30 tackles for a loss and 11.5 sacks. All told, that’s 55.6 percent of the team’s tackles out the door. That leaves a gaping hole in the defense and plenty of opportunity for some moderately experienced players to step up.

Even with those big departures, the Owls won’t be left empty-handed. After the top four, the Owls return the vast majority of their defensive starters and a few key depth pieces. Senior linebacker Nick Uretsky is the only one that saw any semblance of meaningful time in 2017 that won’t be back next season. That leaves coach Mike Bloomgren with a new challenge: development.

Returning starters are a nice idea, but improvements in record will only go as far as the improvements in talent on the field. The talent profile should continue to climb under the new coaching staff — Bloomgren has already begun to bring his own recruits in — but only a handful of them will be expected to make sizable contributions this season. If Rice is going to take a step forward, someone on the defensive side of the ball (or two) is going to have to make major strides in 2018.

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46 Days: When will Owls add to their 46 seasons of .500 or better?

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Rice football has seen spurts of winning spanning more than a century of competition, but they’ve struggled to find sustained success. Can that change any time soon?

Beyond reaching the mountaintop and bringing home conference championships, new Rice football head coach will be tasked with one primary objective: consistency. Rice is entering its 105th season of college football. In that span, they’ve had 46 seasons in which they finished .500 or better.

Reaching 6-6 should be this program’s baseline. They’ll have better years and win some conference titles. They’ll have worse years and struggle to 3 or 4 wins. But by and large, they should be averaging somewhere around seven .500 seasons every decade. That level of consistency hasn’t existed at Rice since the 1950’s and the end of the Jess Neely era.

In the decades following the Owls haven’t stayed close to .500 for long:

 Decade .500+ seasons
 2010’s   3
 2000’s   3
 1990’s   4
 1980’s   0
 1970’s   2
 1960’s   3

Since 1960, Rice football has won 35.6 percent of their games. The good ‘ol days were good, but finding a way to tread water will be a tremendous accomplishment in itself. That takes investment, and that’s something that the university has taken seriously since the arrival of athletic director Joe Karlgaard. Bringing in a respected coordinator and recruiter like Bloomgren speaks volume’s about his intentionality and the focus on rebuilding Rice into what it once was.

Winning cures all ailments. And the administration has put a staff in place which they believe can reach that end goal — it just might be a messy process. Rice has been down for longer than many would like to admit. Despite a few positive blips on the radar, there’s plenty of work to be done. Bloomgren and his group will be given time to rebuild the program in the way they best see fit, but they’ll truly be starting from square one.

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47 Days: Rice stadium needs to fill its 47,000 seats

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Rice football stadium has the capacity for 47 thousand fans, but the Owls have struggled to fill it up over the last several years.

Old Rice Stadium held less than 37,000 people. While it served its purpose at the time, the defending Southwest Conference Champions needed something grander. The Owls historic 1949 season included an undefeated conference record, a Cotton Bowl win and a No. 5 ranking in the final AP Poll. The banner year led to the proposal and construction of a brand new stadium which was ready for the season opener next September — the Owls won.

That new stadium was built to seat 70,000 people. At the time, it was the second-largest stadium in the SWC, trailing only the Cotton Bowl in size. Since it’s creation it hosted Super Bowl VII (1974), the Bluebonnet Bowl (1959-67, 85-56) and the Houston Oilers (1965-67). In 2006 tarps were brought in, reducing the normal seating capacity to 47,000.

Even the reduced seating has been more than enough since it was installed. According to the NCAA’s latest figures, Rice brought in 96,770 in total attendance last season. When averaged across the Owls’ five home games that comes out to 19,354 attendees per game. Filling all 70,000 seats is a long way off, but the new direction of the program and the home game against Houston should get the Owls headed in the right direction on the attendance front.

As recently as 2016 the Owls’ student section was setting attendance records. The 1,830 students that came to the Owls opener against Baylor that year were the most at a single home game since 2008. Many of those same students are still around. They, along with some new classmates, can help jumpstart a new era of full stadiums for Rice football. It’s not going to happen overnight, but there’s plenty of room in the future.

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48 Days: Peter Godber on to CFL after 48 appearances with Owls

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Former Rice football offensive lineman Peter Godber is now playing in the CFL, following 48 appearances with the Owls over his four-year career.

The last few seasons were littered with low points for Rice football, but it wasn’t all bad. One of the bright spots was offensive lineman Peter Godber. After appearing in 48 games with Rice, Godber was the No. 3 overall selection in the 2018 CFL Draft. He’ll trade out the Rice blue for the orange and black of the BC Lions.

Appearing primarily at right guard for the Owls during his four-year career, Godber also saw some time at left guard. He would end his career with 19 consecutive starts. When his collegiate career was done, Godber made the trek back north to Canada. He grew up in Toronto, modeling his game after Chis Van Zeyl, an offensive lineman for the Toronto Argonauts. He’ll be facing the Argonauts several times this season.

The Lions were in desperate need of help along the offensive line, making Godber’s arrival all the more uplifting. The passing game, under quarterback Jonathan Jennings, was sporadic – at best.

Jeremiah Johnson was the bellcow on the ground. When he could get into space he made some terrific plays, leading the team in explosive runs (10+ yards). Both of those players will be better off with Godber in front of them this season — and they have been. BC won their opening game over the Montreal Alouettes 22-10, thanks to a career high in rushing yards from Jennings.

Rice will miss Godber in the lineup next season. It’s been a long time since the Owls had to pencil anyone in at his position. Coach Mike Bloomgren has a variety of options, but none are as proven as Godber was. He will be missed.

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49 Days: Remembering the legendary ’49 team

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Rice football has one finish in program history inside the AP Top 5, the 1949 season in which the Owls won the Southwestern Conference and the Cotton Bowl on their way to a 10-1 finish.

The 1949 Rice football team will forever be known as the greatest team in school history. They plowed through the Southwestern Conference, going undefeated in conference play. That earned them and a trip to the Cotton Bowl where they drubbed North Carolina 27-13 after jumping out to a 27-0 lead.

The 1o-1 season culminated in a No. 5 ranking in the AP Poll. That is still the highest finish in school history and one of four top-10 finishes. Coach Jess Neely, the head man in 1949, is responsible for all four of those top-10 results. Not only have the Owls not sniffed the top 10 since he departed following the 1966 season, they haven’t been ranked inside the Top 25 at all.

Recent shortcomings aside, what the Owls accomplished in ’49 is nothing short of extraordinary. They beat Heisman Trophy winner Doak Walker and SMU and topped Texas on a last-second field goal, faltering only to LSU early on in the season 14-7. If that result ended in the Owls’ favor they could have been in the mix along with undefeated Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Cal and Army for the school’s first and only national championship.

Even without the title, the accomplishments of the 1949 team were plentiful. Led by Froggy Williams, Tobin Rote and Billy Burkhalter the Owls combined a lethal offense with a stingy defense. Williams, who doubled as the team’s kicking specialist, ended his impressive career with 75 career PATs and 156 total points, both records that stood for more than three decades. He earned All-American honors as a senior following the 1949 season.

The 1949 season was so successful that it galvanized interest in the completion of Rice Stadium. The 70,000 full capacity structure was opened for the beginning of the 1950 season.

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