Next up for Rice football, a home tilt against FAU. Here’s what head coach Scott Abell had to say about the matchup and a few depth chart notes.
Head coach Scott Abell and a set of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the Navy game and looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with Florida Atlantic.
We touch on those items, then dig into the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like heading into the weekend. First, the quotes:
Press Conference Quotes
I think the takeaway this week from the group was we expected to win at Navy. We expected to go toe-to-toe with a preseason favorite and you love that mentality. Now, I don’t know if we handled it really well there midway through the first half, so now you gotta learn how to handle that. I want that expectation. We should expect to win those games, but if it doesn’t go your way early, you gotta handle it better. Now, we did regroup at halftime. I thought that was important to see your team do that. All that’s a learning opportunity. The key is, you gotta learn. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on his takeaways from the Navy game
He’s the reigning Conference USA Player of the Year coming out of Western Kentucky. Very talented. Got great size. He can see the whole field. The challenge is real for our secondary.. There’s a lot of catch and throw. He doesn’t hold it long. He’s getting it out of his hand [fast]. To me, we gotta force him to drive the field. He’s going to have some completions. We’ve got to rally and tackle well. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on FAU quarterback Caden Veltkamp and the FAU passing offense
They’re really athletic. They have good size. They want to lock you down. They’re gonna play man, they don’t hide from it. Most people play some type of man courage against us. We expect to see an aggressive defense. That’s what Navy was against us, Charlotte at times. The formulas are similar. People are going to be aggressive, they’re going to leave us some one-on-one situations in space and we got to make some plays.–Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on what he expects from the FAU defense
In terms of playing my last year of football, I wanted to come to a place where I could use my eligibility and feel like I’m making a difference, contributing on the field and in the locker room and, obviously, getting a valuable education. – Offensive lineman Sean Sullivan on his decision to come to Rice
I’m just glad that my opportunity is here… My journey hadn’t been the most smooth, but I’ve stayed the course and done what I needed to do and now my opportunity is here and I’m just doing my best to make the most of it.- Safety Marcus Williams on his opportunity after battling injuries in prior seasons
Full Press Conference
Depth Chart
Depth Chart Notes
The only changes to the depth chart this week are reflective of adjustments from last week’s injury updates. Luke Needham, who missed the Navy game, has been taken off the two-deep for the first time this year with an injury, Peyton Farmer is listed in his place. Also on offense, Braylen Walker makes his first appearance on a regular season depth chart following his return to the field against Navy.
Walker did leave the Navy game early. Stay tuned for the weekly practice report, available to those subscribed to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon, which should be published later this week for news on his availability as well as the status of other players who have missed some extended time. Among those, defensive lineman Ejike Adele is the only change on the defensive two-deep after missing last week.
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McCaffrey did not find the endzone during his rookie year, but now has reached paydirt on back-to-back Sundays, hauling in a touchdown reception against the Falcons this weekend. He’s also become a mainstay on special teams, totaling 285 return yards on nine kickoff returns so far this season.
Mariota throws a dart to Luke McCaffrey to get @Commanders on the board
Banks saw his second bout of action this week, playing a few snaps on special teams in the Packers’ Week 4 marathon tie against the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.
Fox punted five times in the Lions’ Week 4 victory over the Browns, averaging a 44.2 yards per kick with a long of 53 yards. He pinned all five of his kicks inside the 20 yard line.
Boswell is no longer perfect on field goal attempts this year after having one kick blocked against the Vikings on Sunday. He is 6-of-7 on field goals 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 details on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.
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Navy handed Rice football its first conference loss, winning in both trenches and controlling the game. Jason Metko joins us to react to the loss.
Rice football fell to 3-2 with a road loss against Navy. The game was rather one-sided, serving as an education for this program on just how far they have to go to reach the standard for option football as its being played in the FBS right now. Still, there were some encouraging nuggets to salvage from the defeat. Sideline analyst Jason Metko joins the show to help us dig into all of it. You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 214.
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Rice Football vs Navy Game Recap
Crisis Averted: Owls avoid what could have been a blowout
Offense has some growing up to do, and that’s probably okay
Chase Jenkins could probably learn a lot from Blake Horvath
Defense has been great, in spite of their third down woes
A turnover check? And Plae Wyatt’s big moment
Where can you find us?
The Roost Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell’s College Podcast Network. You’ll still get the same content with the same hosts, but now under the DCTF banner. If it’s happening in college football in Texas, we’re talking about it. You can find this podcast and all of our partner podcasts on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.
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September is over and North Texas and Navy have yet to see the loss column and while the Mean Green did have a scare a few weeks ago against Western Michigan, both of these teams have largely looked the part through the first month of the season. Both handled potentially troublesome opponents with relative ease this week.
Memphis has to work for it
Memphis trailed Florida Atlantic midway through the second quarter and never truly had a comfortable advantage until the midpoint of the fourth quarter when Cortez Braham Jr. hauled in a 73-yard touchdown reception from Brandon Lewis. An onslaught of later scores made the final score appear more one-sided than this game actually was. Nevertheless, 5-0 is 5-0.
Army’s struggles compound
The same cannot be said for Army, which looks to be falling fast from their perch atop the American Conference standings they held at the conclusion of last season. It looked for a moment as if they would rebound from their defeat against an FCS opponent with an upset win over Kansas State, but they’re completely one-sided loss at East Carolina proves there are more systemic problems at hand.
Looking ahead – Key storylines
First Conference Test
Some quirky scheduling have left three American Conference teams without a conference game under their belts entering Week 6: South Florida, UTSA and Temple. The Bulls have established some street-cred with impressive non-conference wins, but the Roadrunners and Owls are less proven. Naturally they taken on each other to open conference play.
Armed Forces, Defenders of Rivalry Games
With so many rivalries going by the wayside with conference realignment, it’s refreshing to take in the ones that have stuck around. Air Force had been riding a four-game winning streak before Navy snapped that streak last season. Can the Midshipmen remain undefeated a make a bid for their second consecutive claim to the Commander in Chief Trophy?
Dilfer Watch Continues
As previously established, Army isn’t quite the same team they were a year ago. They’re mortal, in every sense. That’s what makes their trip to Birmingham next weekend intriguing. UAB head coach Trent Dilfer needs to start stacking wins to save his job. And while a down-on-their-luck Army team seems beatable, a poor performance could serve as just another strike against his ledger.
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A slow start proved too much for Rice Football to overcome as the Owls suffered their first conference of the season, falling to Navy 21-13 on the road.
First place in the American Conference standings was on the line when Rice football visited Navy on Saturday afternoon. The Midshipmen got off to a fast start and seized the momentum early, sinking the Owls’ upset hopes and handing Rice it’s first conference loss of head coach Scott Abell’s tenure. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:
Dominated up front
By far the most concerning development of the afternoon was the Owls’ inability to get push in either the offensive or defensive trenches. The Rice offensive line, down their starting center and a rotational tackle could not handle the strength of Navy’s Landon Robinson on the interior. He routinely won at the point of attack and created negative plays, starting with a five yard loss on the Owls’ first snap from scrimmage.
The Owls’ base offense accounted for 19 total yards on 15 plays through four drives. The running game had been effectively silenced with the penetration on the interior and the Midshipmen’s ability to get to the edge on the handful of times Rice tried to win there. Chase Jenkins was sacked two times and Navy tallied seven tackles for a loss.
Head coach Scott Abell didn’t shy away from that harsh reality. “I thought Navy won the battle in the trenches,” he said. “Offensively, we let their movement kind of dictate early what we were going to try to do… we overthought that.”
He went on to emphasize Navy’s offensive experience and execution as the biggest differentiator on the other side of the ball. Navy was routinely able to exploit the spacing of the Rice football defense, averaging a staggering 7.9 yards per play in the first half, finishing the game with a still robust 7.5 yards per play.
Ultimately, in a game pitting two option offenses against each other, getting pushed around on both sides of the line of scrimmage put this team in a place that proved too difficult to overcome.
Dealing with the First Negative Game Script
The trench woes contributed to a two-touchdown deficit for the Owls on the road. That their opponent scored first is nothing new — Rice entered the game 3-0 when falling behind after the first score — but the lack of a counter punch from the offense was quite different.
After scoring in nine consecutive quarters, Rice was shut out at halftime. At the break, Navy was outgaining Rice 308-51 and Rice had picked up just three first downs and was 1-of-6 on third down tries. Remarkably, because both sides had only exchanged a handful of possession each, Rice hadn’t really been forced to abandon their primary offensive philosophy to that point.
That’s largely been true of this team through five games. The Houston game was the only one-sided result, but even that contest was competitive in the fourth quarter.
“My [game] script changed, but it changed more because of schematics. I didn’t feel like we had to change our approach and start slinging the football around, but I knew we needed to find some ways to stay on the field offensively and give our defense some breaks,” Abell shared.
“We didn’t really change the approach until midway though the fourth quarter.”
That Rice was able to cling to their core offensive philosophy was a credit to the resiliency of the defense and just enough progression from the offense from start to finish. It’s also a positive sign of things to come for the future.
Passing Problems More Pronounced with Low Volume
A scattershot passing game was responsible, at least in part, for the Rice football offense being stuck in neutral for so long in this game. The Owls had the right approach with how the dialed up their shots, but their ineffectiveness — for multiple reasons — really hamstrung the Owls’ offense, particularly in the first half.
A wide open Braylen Walker dropped what should have been at least a 25 yard gain. That the pass came in a constant rain in Walker’s first game back after an extended absence didn’t help, but the results were the same. A little while after, Jenkins couldn’t connect on a deep throw that landed just beyond the reach of a streaking Aaron Turner.
Again, that any singular passing play failed isn’t the point. But when you only run 22 total plays in the first half and attempt seven passes — even fewer thrown down the field — you end up at the mercy of variance, perhaps more often than you’d like.
Rice started to move the ball in earnest in the second half, but still saw the passing game thwart their momentum in key moments. Drayden Dickmann had the ball fall just out of reach in the front corner of the endzone. Rice settled for a field goal and kept the deficit at the time at two scores rather than pulling within a touchdown.
Jenkins did hit Dickman in the fourth quarter to set up the Owls’ touchdown on fourth-and-goal, but the effort would prove to be too little, too late.
If Rice hits a few more of those passing plays, the game might very well have gone differently. However, that they fell incomplete made it abundantly clear this offense desperately needed the boost they would have provided.
Wrestling with Elevated Expectations
The frame of reference for how we evaluate Abell’s program has shifted wildly in the span of a few short weeks. Fair or not, this team was projected to be a bottom dweller in the American Conference. That they started 3-1 and won their conference opener on the road made it clear they wouldn’t be keeping company with the worst teams in the league, but where was their ceiling?
A loss to a now 4-0 Houston team provided a glimpse of that upper bound. Saturday’s road tilt against Navy gave further clarity. Through five games, this 3-2 team has shown itself to be flawed, yet resilient.
“We’re still in the fight. As we get back to Houston, we’ve got to turn the page. We’ve got to see the film from right here and turn the page and get ready for FAU at home. One of the things I’m proud about this team is our fight and our grit. You can see it out on the field, every play, regardless of outcome, we fought. That’s something I’m proud of,” quarterback Chase Jenkins said after the game.
“We didn’t get the result we wanted, obviously, but going forward you’re going to see a team full of heart.”
Effort has never been in question with this group, they’ve mastered the want-to. Saturday’s result made it clear there is still work to be done on the how-to, on both sides of the ball.
Digging Deeper
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