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Matt Bragga to hire assistants Cory Barton and Paul Janish

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After the hiring of Matt Bragga as their new head coach, Rice baseball continues to flush out their coaching staff. Assistant Cory Barton is the newest member of Bragga’s staff.

Matt Bragga has only been on the job for two weeks. In addition to getting situated in a new city and a new campus, he’s been hard at work assembling his staff. His first move was to bring back assistant coach and former Rice baseball player Paul Janish. Next, he went outside the walls of Reckling Park, hiring current Louisiana Tech assistant Cory Barton. The hire was first reported by D1 Baseball’s Kendall Rogers.

More: Matt Bragga eager to usher in a new era of Rice baseball

Barton comes to Rice after a short stint as the pitching coach at Louisiana Tech. He joined the Bulldogs for the 2018 season following a successful career at McNeese State. His tenure, although brief, was effective. The Bulldogs posted their lowest team ERA of this century, 3.48. That led all of Conference USA and is much closer to the standard that Rice strives to achieve.  Five of the pitchers on his staff had sub-3.00 ERAs and three of them pitched complete games.

In addition to what he’ll bring as far as wisdom on the mound, Barton is also an excellent recruiter. Ties to the south are going to be important for Bragga, and Barton certainly checks those boxes. He’s been making an impact on the recruiting trail since his days as the recruiting coordinator at Louisiana-Monroe and has elevated the level of talent at each of his steps along the way.

If Rice intends to put themselves back in the postseason conversation they’re going to need a continual influx of talent, and that takes good recruiters to get. Barton is one more piece to what continues to be a promising staff that Bragga is assembling so far.

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Can Owls pull off a stunning upset in 2018?

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Rice football needs to focus on winning the easy game before they start thinking upset, but a signature win in 2018 is well within the realm of possibility.

At risk of stating the obvious, Mike Bloomgren has never been a college football head coach before. With the inexperience will come an inevitable learning curve, but it also sets the Owls up to play the role of spoiler. Unlike in years past, nobody truly knows what to expect from the Owls in 2018.

A meteoric rise overnight won’t be expected, then again, look at what Scott Frost did at UCF over the past two seasons.  Great coaching (and a little bit of luck) can overcome a multitude of roster issues.  As things stand right now, the talent gap is far too wide for the Owls to compete consistently with most major conference squads. However, a perfect game from the Owls combined with a bad outing from one of their tougher opponents could pave the way for a monumental upset.

Last year it was the Troy Trojans that went into Death Valley and downed the LSU Tigers. Although stunning, the upset wasn’t completely unforeseen. Neal Brown’s squad was coming off a 10-win season the year before and the Trojans were very much so a complete football team. Rice has too many question marks to be expected to exchange haymakers with LSU this go round, but the Owls could ruffle the feathers of their other non-conference foes.

Rice also plays Wake Forest and Houston in 2018. The Demon Deacons have to replace their long-time starting quarterback and have several questions on the other side of the ball. Their defense was subpar last season. They finished in the bottom half of the nation in scoring and were gutted by Texas A&M in the Belk Bowl to end the year. Dave Clawson is an adequate coach, but he’s not turning that unit into a shutdown group overnight. That gives Rice an opportunity, albeit a small one, to make their road trip to Winston Salem a little interesting.

Then there’s Houston. A win in the battle for the Bayou Bucket would be tremendous for the Owls, who have the added benefit of hosting the Cougars early on in the season. Rice opens the season a week before Houston and can use the Prairie View A&M game to work out some of their kinks. Houston, on the other hand, will be opening their season against Rice with not tune up games before their trip to South Main. If Rice can find any way at all to contain Houston pass rusher Ed Oliver they’ll have a fighting chance.

Rice needs to focus on becoming more competitive in their own division first before they start thinking upset. Nevertheless, the possibility of a marquee upset in coach Mike Bloomgren’s first season shouldn’t be ignored. Rice hired him to win games, and if he’s as good as the administration believes he is, that could start soon.

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3-star WR Calvin Wiggins Jr reflects on his recent visit

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Rice football recruiting is in full swing. We caught up with one of the Owls recent offers, wide receiver Calvin Wiggins Jr, to talk about his visit and outlook on the program.

In the last few days before the dead period began the Rice football staff hosted a handful of recruits for on campus visits.  One of those visitors, 2019 wide receiver Calvin Wiggins Jr., left with an offer and several kind words about the university.

In addition to enjoying his discussions with the staff and the football talk, Wiggins impressed by the beauty of the campus and its unified culture. “It’s like a town in itself,” Wiggins recalled, “I like how everyone is connected and close.” For Rice student-athletes, the commitment to the university lasts much longer than four years. Students, like Wiggins, that realize the importance of the trimmings around the football field are important for this program going forward.

Rice is going to have to work to get Wiggins into the fold. The 3-star recruit from Trophy Club, Texas has 14 offers, including the one from Rice he picked up in late June. Right now, the Owls are up against programs like BYU, Kansas, Army, Navy and Arkansas State, among others.

For now, Wiggins is focussing on getting his feet grounded. “This process is something I’ve never been through before,” Wiggins admitted when discussing his visit. “It’s been exciting to get the opportunity to talk to the coaches and view the campus. My experience on campus was really good.”

Rice can’t have students back on campus for an official visit until the fall. For now, coach Mike Bloomgren and his staff will have to stay in contact with guys like Wiggins and others remotely. Perhaps if that relationship continues to strengthen the Owls can get Wiggins back to Houston soon.

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Rice Football: Owls focused on winning first season opener since 2015

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Rice football hasn’t won a season opener since 2015. Besting FCS foe Prarie View A&M in 2018 should provide the Owls with an early chance to build momentum.

It’s been three seasons since Rice football won their opening game. Perhaps not coincidentally three years ago was the last time Rice came anywhere close to a postseason appearance, finishing 5-7 in 2015 and just missing out on a bowl invitation.

Getting within striking distance of a bowl game should be the goal for year one of the Mike Bloomgren era. Winning the first game of his tenure is an important piece of that roadmap. The Owls open the 2018 season against Prarie View A&M at Rice Stadium. Not only will the Owls be heavy favorites in that game, it’ll be one of only two games this season that feel like “gimmes”, at least out of the gate.

Rice’s other likely opportunity for a victory will come Nov. 3 when they host UTEP who failed to win a single game last season. The quest for four more additional wins on top of that will be challenging and the margin for error will be slim to none. That makes defeated the Prarie View Panthers on Aug. 25 all the more important.

Despite the Panthers proximity to Houston, the two have only met on the gridiron once before. Rice defeated Prairie View 65-44 in 2016, one of three wins in David Bailiff’s penultimate campaign. Prarie View won’t go out without a fight, but the Owls should be able to take care of business if they’re able to neutralize quarterback Neiko Hollins who through for 1,853 yards and 21 touchdowns last season.

A loss in the opener, especially to an FCS squad, would be an inauspicious beginning for a coaching regime that, up to this point, has shown plenty of promise. Rice should handle PVAMU rather easily, setting up the Owls for what looks to be a promising year under their new head coach.

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2019 Kicker Zach Hoban commits to Owls

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Rice Football picked up a commitment from Zach Hoban (West Orange, New Jersey), their first specialist of the 2019 class.

More: Complete list of 2019 Rice football commits after the early signing period

The 2019 class continues to grow. Over the span of a few weeks, the Owls have climbed the recruiting ranks. After lingering at the bottom of Conference USA they own the No. 7 class in the conference and the No. 93 class in the nation thanks to their most recent addition, kicker Zack Hoban from West Orange, New Jersey.

Hoban is the second out-of-state commitment for the Owls this cycle. He joins fellow New Englander Garrett Braden. Hoban made his announcement on Twitter:

A punter and kicker in high school, Hoban first earned the attention of the Rice staff when he won the field goal competition at the Owls’ camp in early June. His strong leg earned him an offer which later turned into a commitment. Hoban picked Rice over an offer to kick at Army.

In 2017 Hoban connected on 7-of-11 field goals and 27-of-28 point-after tries. His long of the season was a 42-yarder. He also handled kickoffs and punt duty while in high school. Whether its placekicking or punting, Hoban will have an opportunity to get on the field early at Rice.

The Owls leading kicker from last season, Will Harrison, attempted four field goals last season and made two of them. That’s a small sample size. He’ll have one more year to earn the spot, but will be short on eligibility by the time Hoban gets to campus for the 2019 season. The same is true for the rest of the kicking competition – both Jack Fox and Haden Tobola will be seniors this coming season.

There’s a bit more depth at punter. Fox handled the punting duties last season, but Rice has two other punters on the roster: Nick McQuarry and Chris Barnes. Hoban could be in the mix there as well.

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