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Rice Football 2023: NFL Owls Week 6 Roundup

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Rice Football is well represented on 2023 NFL rosters. Here’s the latest from the NFL Owls in action in Week 6.

There are former Rice football players scattered across the NFL. Stay tuned each week for their game results and notables from each player.

Team NFL Owl(s) Week 6 Result Week 7
Denver Broncos Elijah Garcia (DL) at Chiefs (TNF) L, 19-8 vs Packers
Detroit Lions Jack Fox (P) at Bucs W, 20-6 at Ravens
Indianapolis Colts Kylen Granson (TE) at Jaguars L, 37-20 vs Browns
Los Angeles Rams Austin Trammell (WR) vs Cardinals W, 26-9 vs Steelers
New England Patriots Calvin Anderson (OL) at Raiders L, 21-17 vs Bills
Pittsburgh Steelers Chris Boswell (PK) — BYE —  — at Rams
Seattle Seahawks Myles Adams (DL) at Bengals L, 17-13 vs Cardinals
Tampa Bay Bucs Nick Leverett (OL) vs Lions L, 20-6 vs Falcons

Offense

Calvin Anderson – OT, Patriots

After being inactive in Week 5, Anderson returned to special teams duty in Week 6. That’s been his primary role this season after starting the first two games of the regular season.

Kylen Granson – TE, Colts

Granson was the second-leading receiver for the Colts in Week 5, trailing only wideout Michael Pittman Jr. Granson hauled in three passes, including the 45-yarder below, finishing with a career-best 67 receiving yards.

Nick Leverett – OT, Buccaneers

Leverett has yet to appear in a game for the Bucs so far this season despite being active again on Sunday.

Austin Trammell – WR, Rams

Trammel registered a career-best 30 return yards on three punt returns on Sunday, but did fumble, his first turnover of his professional career. He also added a few snaps at a wide receiver.

Defense

Myles Adams – DL, Seahawks

Adams registered another tackle in Week 5, bringing his season total to five. He’s seen more work in the last three games than he had at any point prior in the season.

Elijah Garcia – DL, Broncos

Garcia was inactive on Thursday night for the Broncos’ loss to the Chiefs.

Special Teams

Jack Fox – P, Lions

Fox boomed four punts on Sunday, averaging 45 yards including a long of 50. He downed two of them inside the 20.

Chris Boswell – K, Steelers

Boswell and the Steelers were on bye in Week 5.

More Owls in the NFL

From practice squads to current free agents, there are other Owls on the cusp of returning to active rosters. Find more detail on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.

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Rice Football 2023 Game Preview: Tulsa

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Rice football visits Tulsa in an important conference game on Thursday. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

It was a good time for a bye for both Rice football and Tulsa. The Owls and Golden Hurricanes both fell to .500 last time out with Rice dropping a home game to UConn and Tulsa losing at Florida Atlantic. Here’s everything you need to know about this week’s matchup between Rice and Tulsa.

Kickoff time | 6:00 PM CT
Venue | Chapman Stadium – Tulsa, OK
TV | ESPN+ (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs Tulsa on this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. Look for a recap of the game on the site afterward as well as on The Roost Podcast, which should be released early next week.

Sizing up the contenders

The middle of the pack is expansive in the AAC standings right now with Rice and Tulsa each sitting squarely in the midst of the mess. With games upcoming against some of the conference’s more formidable opponents, this midweek, prime-time matchup will be a golden opportunity to get back above .500 and notch a conference win before the games get tougher. It might not actually be a must-win for bowl hopes, but it sure feels like it for both sides.

Series History

All Time | Tulsa leads, 10-8-1
Last Five | Tulsa leads, 4-1
Last Meeting | Away 2013, Rice won 30-27

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Rice Football Stat Notables

Passing | Daniels – 131/206 (63.6 percent), 1831 yards, 15 TD, 5 INT
Rushing | Connors – 51 carries, 180 yards (4.4 yards per carry), 1 TD / Otoviano – 38 carries, 127 yards (3.3 yards per carry), 2 TD
Receiving | McCaffrey – 30 receptions, 514 yards (17.1 yds/rec), 6 TDs / MacNeill – 18 receptions, 236 yards (13.1 yds/rec), 2 TD
Tackles | Wyatt – 43 / Conti, Morrison – 38 / Taylor – 32
Pass Breakups | Fresch, Taylor – 5 / Wyatt, Jean – 3
Interceptions | Devones, Conti – 1

Tulsa Stat Notables

Passing | Williams – 62/102 (60.8 percent), 955 yards, 8 TD, 7 INT
Rushing | Watkins – 93 carries, 367 yards (3.9 yards per carry), 2 TD / Ford – 58 carries, 240 yards (4.1 ypc), 1 TD
Receiving | Williams – 19 receptions, 274 yards (14.4 yards per reception), 2  TD / Shoulders – 16 receptions, 283 yards (17.7 yds/rec), 5 TD
Tackles | Ray – 56 / Simon – 30 / Oliver – 28
Pass Breakups | Oliver – 4 / Kulkin – 3 / Seven others tied with 1
Interceptions | Oliver – 3 / Four others tied with 1

Tulsa X-Factor | Keep moving the sticks

Tulsa leads the AAC with a blistering 46.7 percent conversion rate on third down, a mark that ranks among the best rates nationally. It’s been imperative for this team to be that efficient on offense, given a defense that has been vulnerable to the big play. So far this season, they’ve more or less delivered on their side of the bargain even without compiling as many points as they might have hoped.

Improving their time of possession, which is currently in the middle of the pack among AAC teams, would be nice, but continuing to rack up first downs is what will allow this team to be productive on both sides of the ball. In this game, it would also keep the Owls’ offense on the sideline, something that would absolutely be in the Golden Hurricanes’ best interest.

Rice X-Factor | Protect the football, please

Everything was going according to plan until a four-turnover disaster for Rice football last time out against UConn. The Owls had given the ball away six times all season, the second-fewest in the AAC, prior to that game. Had it not been for the myriad of mistakes, they probably would have beaten the Huskies and the discourse surrounding this team is different. 

Thus, holding onto the football because the unmistakable focal point for the team this week. Winning on the road is hard enough when you’re spotting opponents extra possessions. The good version of this team can probably overcome a mistake here or there, but the erratic version the Owls are currently fielding as they work through consistency issues simply has to hold on to the rock.

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One Final Thing

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren is oft to say something to this effect: things are never as good as you think they are or as bad as you think they are. While it’s hard to see the optimistic, glass-half-full perspective coming off the loss to UConn, the underlying capabilities of this team don’t feel drastically different than they were two weeks ago.

JT Daniels is still the quarterback, and now he’s two weeks healthier than he was in that disastrous game. Luke McCaffrey is still poised for a ridiculous, clutch play at any moment. With both of those advantages, even more moderate improvements from the special teams and the defense should be enough to give Rice a chance against whoever lines up against them in the coming weeks.

Games like they played against UConn sap the faith of the fanbase, deservedly so. There’s no denying trust has to be rebuilt as the team begins the second half of their season.

Tulsa is far from the best the AAC has to offer, making this week’s test particularly important. If the team can find a way to win this one on the road, regardless of how impressive the victory looks, they’ll restore some of that faith and prove they can dictate, to some extent, their path in the AAC this season. But they’ve got to prove it first. 

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Rice Football 2023: State of the Special Teams Practice Report

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Rice football is off this week with plenty to address on special teams before heading to Tulsa. Here’s what we learned from practice this week.

Practice marches on for Rice football through the bye week. Rather than jam everything into a length report heading into game week, we’re going to split things up and address a topic that’s front of mind first: special teams.

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What did head coach Mike Bloomgren and special teams coordinator Pete Alamar have to say about the state of the unit? Let’s dig in.

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“This is Who We Are”: Rice Football wrestles with inconsistency

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Wildly inconsistent from week to week, Rice football enters the bye week in search of a steadiness that has eluded this program thus far in 2023.

It would prove challenging to find many college football teams more inconsistent than the 2023 Rice Owls, who suffered the ying to a previous yang on Saturday with a disappointing loss to the previously winless UConn Huskies. Rice football was a 10-point favorite. They lost by seven in a game in which they committed four turnovers, missed a field goal and turned it over on downs once.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren didn’t shy away from the painful reality. “This is who we are. We are a 3-3 football team who’s 1-1 in our conference with six games ahead of us, all conference games,” he said. “We can when them all. If we do things to beat ourselves like we did today, we won’t. That’s factual.”

Whether or not one buys into Bloomgren’s assertion of the road ahead, it’s undeniably true the path to get there has been uneven, to say the least. Rice is the only team in the AAC with a Power 5 victory this season. They’re also the only team to lose to UConn. Owning both mantles simultaneously creates a dissonance that is still reverberating around South Main.

In the early years of the Bloomgren era, getting the team to play up to their potential was the primary challenge. Eventually, though, they began to reach those apex moments, posting big wins over UAB (twice) and an undefeated, Top 15 Marshall squad. Now that those peaks have been reached, the challenge has remained staying on the mountain.

As Bloomgren acknowledged, this is too often a team that beats itself. Since Bloomgren arrived, Rice is 7-5 as a home favorite, seventh worst in FBS football. Limiting that scope to the 2022 and 2023 season, when this team started to come into its own, Rice is 4-2. Oddly enough, Rice’s 3-1 record since 2022 as a home underdog is the second-best mark in the nation among teams that have played four such games.

More: Mistakes doom Rice Football vs winless UConn

Is it the pressure? A lack of focus? No obvious throughlines underscore these erratic moments. Sometimes it’s the defense. Sometimes it’s the offense. On Saturday against UConn, the biggest culprit was probably the special teams.

“I knew for this to transpire there would have to be events done by the Rice Owls to allow it to,” Bloomgren said.”

Until further notice, it’s time to take Bloomgren at his word. This is who the Rice Owls are. They’re a team capable of posting the most impressive win in the conference on any given week and a team capable of floundering as a double-digit favorite. They’re both at once, and it’s maddening.

The real question now is how will this team respond.

“Everything that we want out of this year is still attainable and in our control ahead of us,” team captain Myron Morrison said on Saturday. “I don’t think what happened today is necessarily the story of our team this year, but it definitely is a time and a wake-up call to show what we need to fix to accomplish what we want to accomplish because it’s all still there.”

Rice needs three more wins to secure a bowl trip for the second consecutive season, a feat that has only happened twice in program history, dating back now 110 seasons. There’s that mountain top, again.

Getting there would do a lot to quell frustrations stemming from this zig-zag season, but it’s going to take the good version of the Rice Owls showing up more often than not. As fellow captain Luke McCaffrey said on Saturday night, “It all starts with our next game.”

Following a bye week, Rice visits Tulsa on Thursday, October 19.



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Rice Football 2023: NFL Owls Week 5 Roundup

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Rice Football is well represented on 2023 NFL rosters. Here’s the latest from the NFL Owls in action in Week 5.

There are former Rice football players scattered across the NFL. Stay tuned each week for their game results and notables from each player.

Team NFL Owl(s) Week 5 Result Week 6
Denver Broncos Elijah Garcia (DL) vs Jets L, 31-21 at Chiefs (TNF)
Detroit Lions Jack Fox (P) vs Panthers W, 42-24 at Bucs
Indianapolis Colts Kylen Granson (TE) vs Titans W, 23-16 at Jaguars
Los Angeles Rams Austin Trammell (WR) vs Eagles L, 23-14 vs Cardinals
New England Patriots Calvin Anderson (OL) vs Saints L, 34-0 at Raiders
Pittsburgh Steelers Chris Boswell (PK) vs Ravens W, 17-10 — BYE —
Seattle Seahawks Myles Adams (DL) — BYE —  — at Bengals
Tampa Bay Bucs Nick Leverett (OL) — BYE —  — vs Lions

Offense

Calvin Anderson – OT, Patriots

Anderson was inactive in the Patriots’ Week 5 loss to the Saints.

Kylen Granson – TE, Colts

Granson caught a pair of passes on Sunday on three targets, tallying 15 total yards. He’s had multiple receptions in every game so far this season

Nick Leverett – OT, Buccaneers

Leverett and the Bucs were on bye in Week 5.

Austin Trammell – WR, Rams

Trammell has found a role as the Rams’ punt returner, but that didn’t equate to much usage on Sunday against the Eagles who punted just one time. Trammell called a fair catch.

Defense

Myles Adams – DL, Seahawks

Adams and the Seahawks were on bye in Week 5.

Elijah Garcia – DL, Broncos

Garcia made his presence felt on Sunday against the Jets, registering his first career sack and stripping quarterback Zach Wilson of the football in the process. The Jets would recover the loose ball.

Special Teams

Jack Fox – P, Lions

Fox was only called upon twice in the Lions’ one-sided victory over the Panthers on Sunday, but he delivered on both occasions. Each of his punts was downed inside the 20 with the longest kick going 55 yards.

Chris Boswell – K, Steelers

Boswell was a perfect 3-for-3 against the Ravens, connecting from a long of 43 yards. He’s a perfect 15-for-15 on field goal tries so far this season.

More Owls in the NFL

From practice squads to current free agents, there are other Owls on the cusp of returning to active rosters. Find more detail on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.



Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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