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This week in CUSA – Looking ahead at Week 1

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Rice football was the only Conference USA football team in action in Week 0. The Owls defeated Prairie View at home. What’s next for the CUSA squads in Week 1?

Your weekly check in for all things Conference USA is underway. CUSA went a perfect 1-0 in the opening weekend of college football as the Rice Owls bested Prairie View at home. It was a nailbiter with several notable takeaways for the Owls and their new head coach. Most importantly, their culture of Intellectual Brutality survived its first test.

Week 0 results

Rice 31 – Prairie View 28

Week 1 games

  • Savannah State at UAB (Thr)
  • Western Kentucky at Wisconsin (Fri)
  • FAU at Oklahoma
  • Houston at Rice
  • Marshall at Miami (OH)
  • Old Dominion at Liberty
  • Fordham at Charlotte
  • Louisiana Tech at South Alabama
  • Indiana at FIU
  • Jackson State at Southern Miss
  • SMU at North Texas
  • Northern Arizona at UTEP
  • Middle Tennesse at Vanderbilt
  • UTSA at Arizona State

Week 1 storylines to follow

FAU’s upset bid

Devin Singletary and FAU against the might Oklahoma Sooners will be a game watched well beyond the typical Conference USA spectrum of fans. Oklahoma starts MLB Draft pick and $5 Million man against Lane Kiffin and the upset-minded Owls. FAU enters as a hefty underdog (21.5 points) but there’s always a chance things could get weird.

UTEP’s quest for No. 1

UTEP went winless in 2017, falling to Rice in a battle of cellar dwellers. The Miners host Northern Arizona this weekend. If they can’t beat NAU, it could set up another tough season in El Paso. ESPN FPI currently has the odds dead even at 50-50.

FIU has the potential to surprise

Butch Davis led his FIU squad to eight wins last season and hosts an Indiana squad that won’t be very good this year. If Conference USA is going to get an upset over a Power 5 program in Week 1 the Panthers have the best chance to make that happen.

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Owls put Intellectual Brutality culture to the test

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Rice football edged out Prairie View A&M on a last-second field goal. The come-from-behind victory exemplifies the culture Mike Bloomgren has built so far.

When Mike Bloomgren looked up at the scoreboard midway through the third quarter of the Owls’ season opener against Prairie View he was greeted with an inauspicious sight. Rice was trailing the SWAC squad 28-19 and the clock was starting to run out. Bloomgren didn’t panic, instead, he pushed his team to focus and get back to the fundamentals of the Owls’ new offensive identity “Pound the rock, control the clock and play great defense.”

A fourth quarter deficit turned into the perfect test for the Owls’ identity, a test they passed with flying colors. “I’m really glad our culture showed through tonight and our guys fought forever. We found a way to win this game,” said Bloomgren in the post-game conference. “I believe in what we’re doing,” he added, “I believe in these guys and I knew they were going to keep fighting.”

And fight they did.

Rice turned things around quickly, outscoring Prairie View 12-0 in the final quarter and outgaining the Panthers 110 yards to minus four yards in that frame. That comeback hinged on one all-important fourth down conversion.

The stage was set. Fourth-and-1, the game hanging in the balance. Mike Bloomgren is on the headset, assessing the situation with offensive coordinator Jerry Mack. It’s a short conversation that ends like this: “I think we go for it. It’s who we are.”

“Who we are” and the theme of identity was the theme of the night. Almost to the man, every player that spoke with the media after the game made a comment to that effect. “Adversity struck,” admitted quarterback Shawn Stankavage, “we showed the culture we’ve built here.” That was echoed by running back Emmanuel Esupka, “When adversity hits, we can’t just panic,” he echoed, “we just got to keep doing what we do.”

Esupka took the ball through the heart of the defense and picked up two hard-fought yards and the first down. That’s what they drew up, and it’s become part of a positive mindset that has permeated the Rice locker room. “We just knew we were going to get it done,” Esupka admitted matter-of-factly. This time, they did. Fellow running back Austin Walters shared that sentiment. “At the end of the day, football is football.”

Rice still has a lot of football to be played. One win over Prairie View won’t alter the course of their season drastically, but the way they went about it helped solidify the kind of culture that Mike Bloomgren has been championing all offseason long. It’s that positivity and confidence that kept the Owls in this game at all. “I believe in what we’re doing,” said Bloomgren, “I believe in these guys and I know they were going to keep fighting.”

They fought until the final second, when kicker Jack Fox booted what had become a walk-off field goal to beat Prairie View A&M. The field goal capped off a night that had its fair share of bruises. but was also littered with “fun”, “confidence”, “trust” words that ultimately play a significant role in determining the culture of any institution.

Stankavage hit the on the head when asked about his fourth quarter comeback. “This is something you dream of as a kid, a fourth quarter comeback,” he recounted, “The offense gathered around me and I gathered around them and we went out there and made plays. We were all confident in each other.”

That confidence will be tested next weekend against Houston, but for now, it’s being woven into the DNA of the Rice Football program bit by bit. “That’s just how we do it,” Esupka closed. There’s a new era underway in Rice football, starting with the culture and bleeding onto the field.

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Rice Football: Bloomgren era opens with back-and-forth win over Prairie View

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Rice football took down Prairie View 31-28 in their season opener. It was closer than expected, but the Owls are happy to walk away from this one with the victory.

Things started off well, with Rice taking a 16-0 lead as the offense marched up and down the field. Then things went downhill, fast. Then they turned around. That’s how the Rice football season opener played out on Saturday night. There was a little bit of everything in this one, including a scare of historic proportions.

The last time a current SWAC team beat an FBS squad was 1985 when Grambling State beat Oregon State. Current SWAC members are now 2-99 against FBS teams in their history, the aforementioned win by Grambling State and Alkorn State’s upset over Central Michigan in 1978.

Fortunately for the Owls, Rice wasn’t added to that list. Prairie View came dangerously close, but Rice was ahead when the clock hit zero, and that’s what matters.

There will be plenty to digest coming from this game in the following days. Here are a few initial thoughts.

1. Houston, we don’t have a quarterback, we have two… sort of

Stankavage started strong out of the gate, going 3-of-4 through the air for 24 yards. He wasn’t asked to stretch the field, but he hit the open man and kept the offense moving with a couple big third down conversions with his legs.

After Jackson Tyner entered the game on the final play of the second quarter the offense spread out a bit more. The Owls ran a lot of plays out of the gun and the pistol with Tyner, letting him stretch the defense with his arm. Tyner didn’t have a great day throwing the ball, completing 5-of-9 passes for 44 yards. He did not play in the second half.

Coming into camp it didn’t seem like a platoon between a primary passing quarterback and a primary running quarterback was in the cards, but that’s more or less what we saw on Saturday. When the Owls had to manufacture a comeback in the second half they left Stankavage in but pounded the rock on the ground.

2. Get used to seeing tight ends and fullbacks

The first play of the game was a two-tight end set with a fullback. Emmanuel Esupka took the handoff straight up the middle for a first down. The Owls lined up in a host of different formations after that, but the bread and butter of this offense will always be based on a strong ground game.

11 of the Owls’ 14 plays were rushes. The trend continued as long as Stankavage was in the game. The first quarter was a clinic in how this offense is supposed to operate. Heavy on the ground with short, quick passes mixed in to keep the defense honest. That’s what we saw when the game was tied up in the fourth. Lots of blocks paving the way for several of the Owls talented backs.

Emmanuel Esupka led the charge, racking up 168 yards on 31 carries and one touchdown. Austin Walter had a big day out of the backfield as well, carrying the ball 11 times for 83 yards and two scores.

3. Defensive woes loom large

Everything seemed to be working out well for the Owls early on. The first three Prairie View drives ended with punts, but things started to break down when Prairie View started pushing the ball on the perimeter.

Former 4-star receiver Tristen Wallace, once enrolled at Oregon, absolutely had his way with Brandon Douglas-Dotson and the rest of the Owls corners. When all was said and done, Wallace turned five catches into 147 yards and one touchdown. That’s a rate of 29.4 yards per catch.

When the pass rush couldn’t reach the quarterback (three sacks, two quarterback hurries, one forced fumble) the Owls’ secondary struggled. The defensive scheme is predicated on corners that can win on the perimeter and that remains a work in progress for the Owls. Prairie View tallied 244 yards through the air.

4. Starting off on the right foot

Two decades ago Mike Bloomgren was a graduate assistant for Bobby Bowdon at Florida State. He’s held a variety of jobs all over the country as he climbed the latter, but he’d never been a head coach – not until Rice offered him the job last winter.

Fast-forward to the final weekend of August when the Rice Owls defeated the Prairie View A&M Panthers in front of an energetic crowd at Rice Stadium. Not only is Mike Bloomgren a head coach, he’s a winning head coach. The 2018 season is only one game old and there’s plenty more for Bloomgren to achieve before he calls his time at Rice a success, but you can’t start better than 1-0. Was it messy? Sure. But it was still a win.

1-0 isn’t as easy as it seems. Fred Goldsmith, who coached the Owls from 1989 to 1993, was the last head coach at Rice to win his first game. Since then, Ken Hatfield, Todd Graham and David Bailiff combined to go 0-3 in their inaugural games. That included a loss to Nicholls State in 2007 who failed to defeat any other FBS teams that season.

Yes, it came against Prairie View. Houston will be a much larger challenge next week. But the Owls equaled last season’s win total on Saturday night. That’s as good of a start as anyone could have asked for.

Next up

Rice plays Houston. The Cougars weren’t active in Week 0, so this will be their first taste of game action in 2018. Houston defeated Rice 38-3 last season.

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2018 Rice Football Schedule: How to watch, tv channels and broadcast info

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The 2018 Rice football schedule spans a variety of networks with different programming restrictions. Here’s everything you need to know to watch the Owls.

All 13 of Rice football’s 2018 games will be available over the radio and either via tv or an online streaming service. You don’t need to worry about which games are on which channels and where to go. That’s what this guide is for.

Radio

  • Sports Map 94.1 (FM)
  • Stretch Internet (Online)

TV Schedule

  • 8/25 – Prairie View A&M: ESPN+
  • 9/1 – Houston: CBS SN
  • 9/8 – Hawai’i: Stadium (Streaming only)
  • 9/22 – Southern Miss: ESPN+
  • 9/ 29 – Wake Forest: ACCN
  • 10/6 – UTSA: ESPN3
  • 10/13 – UAB: ESPN+
  • 10/20 – FIU: ESPN+
  • 10/27 – North Texas: ESPN+
  • 11/3 – UTEP: ESPN3
  • 11/10 – Louisiana Tech: ESPN+
  • 11/17 – LSU: TBD*
  • 11/24 – Old Dominion: ESPN+

How to watch

CBS SN (DirecTv Channel 221, Dish 158, Uverse, 643, Xfinity 106). This is different than CBS and may require a premium cable subscription beyond the basic tier of channels. Check with your provider for more information.

ESPN3 is available with all major cable providers. The ACC Network is available on this service. Access the streaming service here.

ESPN+ is available as a stand-alone streaming service from ESPN. This is different from ESPN3 and is not included in a basic cable subscription. You can subscribe to ESPN+ here. They also offered seven day free trials at any time.

Stadium stream live games right here. No providers, no cable, no hassle. The Hawaaii game will be available on their app (in both Android and Apple app stores)

* LSU games is listed as TBD right now but will be updated with TV information as it is available. This will come no later than 12 days before kickoff. More than likely it will be available through ESPN in some fashion.

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2018 UAB Blazers Season Preview

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Rice football meets the UAB Blazers, a relatively new foe in the middle of the 2018 season. What can the Owls expect from the newly reformed team?

Three years ago UAB football ceased to exist. The university decided it was in its best interested to shut down the football program. That left head coach Bill Clark without a job and a multitude of the Blazers’ fans extremely disgruntled. That frustration turned into action, and soon enough the football program was reinstated.

After a two-season hiatus, UAB returned to action in 2017. In Year One of the new era, UAB shocked many. They finished the year 8-5 (6-2 CUSA) with both conference losses by a combined four points. It’s safe to say that nobody is writing off the Blazers as newbies this year, including Rice.

Rice fell at home to UAB 52-21 last season. The loss dropped the all-time series record even at 3-3, setting up an interesting rubber game for the two teams at Legion Field this season. Here’s how the Blazers will look this 2018:

Offense

AJ Erdely will once again lead the offense in 2018. The Blazers’ quarterback made Conference USA history last season against the Owls, completing 20-of-21 passes, a 95 percent completion percentage. His season average of 60.7 percent was right in the middle of the pack in CUSA as were his 16 touchdowns and 2,331 passing yards. Erdely’s mobility should be a plus for the Blazers as well. Last year, excluding sacks, he picked up 539 yards on the ground and added 13 rushing touchdowns.

Complementing Erdely on the ground will be one of the most productive running backs in school history. Sophomore Spencer Brown ran wild last season, racking up 1,329 yards on the ground as he shattered Jordan Howard‘s freshman rushing record of 881 yards. Spelling him will be Fresno State transfer James Noble (54 carries last season compared to Brown’s 250).

In front of them returns one of the more experienced offensive lines in Conference USA. Outside of the loss of Chris Schleuger at left guard, the rest of the line is intact.

Wide receiver should be another area of strength for the Blazers. Leading wideout Andre Wilson should be in line for another big year, assuming he can transition smoothly to new offensive coordinator Bryant Vincent. Vincent joins the team for a second time after spending two years at South Alabama during UAB’s hiatus from football.

Behind Wilson, Collin Lisa and JUCO transfer Austin Watkins will be in the mix for sizable roles with several contributors from last season returning as well. On paper, this is one of the deepest offenses in the conference. UAB was the No. 5 scoring offense in CUSA last season and has the potential to take another step forward in 2018.

Defense

If the someone can step up and fill the void left by Tevin Crews the Blazers defense could be as powerful as their offense in 2018. The senior linebacker led the team with 102 tackles, led the team with two forced fumbles and tied for the team lead with three sacks. They also lose Shaq Jones who also had three sacks and led the team with 13 tackles for a loss.

Sliding in behind those are Stacy Keely and rising sophomore Thomas Johnson. Johnson made waves when he spurned Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson and LSU when he committed to UAB in 2017. After playing sparingly in the deep unit a season ago, he’ll be trusted with the starting weakside linebacker spot moving forward.

The linebacker position is the most inexperienced on the team, which bodes well for the rest of the defense as a whole. Three starters return on the defensive line, led by 6-foot-5, 340-pound tackle Anthony Rush. The road grader tallied nine tackles for a loss last year and added an interception at the line as well.

Rush will ease the pressure on a secondary that finished second in CUSA in pass defense a year ago. Replacing strong safety Jordan Petty won’t go unnoticed, but the mostly intact unit should pick up right where they left off. UAB never allowed more than 270 passing yards in any game last season and had a five game stretch in which they registered eight interceptions.

Schedule

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