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Rice Football 2022 Season Preview: Linebacker

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As part of our 2022 Rice Football Preseason Preview series, next we’ll examine the linebacker position and discuss the Owls’ plans for that group.

Linebacker will be one of the positions under the most scrutiny when Rice football opens fall camp. Neither of the team’s primary starters at the position last season (Antonio Montero or Desmyn Baker) return, opening the door for new faces to play significant roles. Who emerges in the middle of the Rice defense this season? Here’s our 2022 Linebacker Preview.

Rice Football Preseason Preview: Check out the rest of the series here.

This piece is part of our 2022 Rice Football Season Preview. Get access to it, as well as all other preview posts such as positional breakdowns, depth chart and schedule analysis and more when you subscribe on Patreon today. New subscribers get our Conference USA Football Season Preview for FREE! 

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Rice Football: Could depth be the difference for Owls in 2022?

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The Rice football roster was a focus of Conference USA Media Day conversations, especially the depth the Owls have developed over time.

Conference USA Media days were held at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas for the first time this summer. It was different from the zoom-only sessions of the past two years and it showcased what figures to be a different kind of season for the conference as it undergoes so many changes. Although Rice football maintains a good amount of continuity, the Owls hope to leverage some unique differences this year, too.

For Rice, it’s the sameness that feels the most different. “You’ve heard of them,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said when discussing the second-team players on his depth chart following a media availability that featured questions about the depth along the offensive and defensive lines. To his point, they’re not new faces. They’re players who have produced at the collegiate level. At Rice.

That hasn’t been the case in years past. The next-man-up hasn’t always been a proven commodity. Along the offensive line, Rice could turn to a former Big 12 starter at West Virginia as the second-team right tackle. Along the defense, the likes of Miles McCord and Josh Pearcy will have to fight for snaps with other proven players — both have served as starters in prior seasons.

Then there’s George Nyakwol and Treshawn Chamberlain, also former starters who missed the majority of last season with injuries. Nyakwol hasn’t played a conference game since 2019. Now he’s back manning center field for the Owls once again.

“It’s a great thing when you have guys that want to play every down but its an even better thing when you can put someone in the game that you don’t have to pray for when someone breaks a shoestring and they have to enter,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said. “We’ve worked really hard to get to the point where we have this kind of depth.”

Rice football will hit the practice field for the first time this fall on August 3. They’ll have a few weeks to iron out exactly what the depth chart will look like. But regardless of who ends up on the first or second team — provided they stay healthy — Rice will have options, experience and depth. For a team seeking their first bowl appearance since 2014, there’s no bigger change.

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Rice Baseball: 2022 MLB Owls update – July 27

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The 2022 MLB season is underway and Rice baseball alums are busy on the mound and at the plate. Here’s the latest from the MLB Owls.

Tyler Duffey – Minnesota Twins

Duffey endured his first bad outing in more than a month on Tuesday, allowing his first earned run since June 12, scored by a walk-off sacrifice fly against the Brewers. The run saddled him with a loss, dropping his record to 2-4 on the season. Prior to that, he posted a clean 1-2-3 outing against the Tigers.

Through July 26, Duffey has a 4.02 ERA with a 1.314 WHIP. He’s averaging 8.0 strikeouts per nine innings.

Lucas Luetge – New York Yankees

Luetge was tremendous in his first appearance since the All-Star break, hurling 2.1 scoreless innings against the Orioles, earning his third win of the season. Luetge is now 3-3. He struck out three batters, allowing just one hit.

Through July 26, Luetge has a 2.88 ERA with a 1.223WHIP. He’s averaging 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings.

Glenn Otto – Texas Rangers

Otto worked 5.1 innings against the Mariners on Monday night, his second consecutive start against the Rangers’ interleague foes. Although he came just shy of another quality start, he was able to hold the Mariners to three runs, striking out five while allowing seven hits.

Through July 26, Otto has a 5.37 ERA with a 1.463 WHIP. He’s averaging 7.0 strikeouts per nine innings.

Injured List

J.T. Chargois – Tampa Bay Rays

After an extended time off, Chargois has returned to rehab, making multiple appearances in the Florida Complex League as he awaits his big league return. He hasn’t pitched since the beginning of the season.

Chargois has a 0.00 ERA with a 0.000 WHIP. He’s averaging 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings.

Anthony Rendon – Los Angeles Angels

The Angels announced on June 17  that Rendon would undergo season-ending surgery on his right wrist. His season is done.

Rendon finished the year hitting .228 with 15 extra-base hits, 23 walks and 32 strikeouts. His OPS is .707 and he’s collected 24 RBI.

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Conference USA Football Media Days 2022: Live Updates

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The 2022 Conference USA Football media days have arrived. Bookmark this post for updates throughout the week regarding releases, quotes and more.

There’s already a lot to unpack from Conference USA Football Media Days. The full releases can be found on the league website, this thread is for the big rocks and some up-to-date analysis and reaction from the week.

Projected Order of Finish

  1. UTSA (14)
  2. UAB (8)
  3. WKU
  4. Florida Atlantic
  5. North Texas
  6. UTEP
  7. Charlotte
  8. Middle Tennessee
  9. Louisiana Tech
  10. Rice
  11. FIU

I was one of the media members polled for this list and like the majority, I voted UTSA as the predicted champion this year. (My entire ballot was discussed in detail in a microcast for our Booster Level subscribers). Stay tuned for our next episode of The Roost Podcast where we’ll digest the results of the poll in detail.

Preseason “Watch” List

Conference USA continued its unique and bizarre tradition for its preseason player recognition. In most conferences, this is an all-conference team selected by the league’s head coaches or members of the media. In Conference USA, it’s a Top 5 list for every program strung together. In doing this, nobody gets left out. But to pretend that FIU and UAB have an equal number of deserving preseason honorees is unconventional at best.

That said, once again each of the conference’s head coaches submitted five players on his team to be recognized as “key players to watch ahead of the 2022  season”.

These five players were honored from Rice:

  • WR Bradley Rozner
  • SAF George Nyakwol
  • OL Shea Baker
  • DL Ikenna Enechukwu
  • PR Sean Fresch

Rozner and Baker were both preseason honorees last year as well. The complete watch list is available here.

2022 Conference USA Football Season Preview

Coaches Preseason Awards

  • Offensive Player of the Year: Frank Harris, QB, UTSA
  • Defensive Player of the Year: Rashad Wisdom, Saf, UTSA
  • Special Teams Player of the Year: Brayden Narveson, PK, WKU

Team notes

  • Western Kentucky — Head coach Tyson Helton mentioned he’d previously recruited quarterback Jarrett Doege the last time he’d elected to transfer. Helton said that relationship — along with the success of Bailey Zappe at WKU last season — helped land Doege this time around.
  • FIU — Wide receiver Tyrese Chambers was confident “talent was not the problem” at FIU last season. He believes better organization and some small adjustments will help the Panthers get back on track.
  • FAU — Head coach Willie Taggart said the team was missing “competitive depth” last fall was part of what contributed to the late season slide. He says new reinforcements and an improved culture (“less babysitting”) will go a long way toward righting the ship in 2022.
  • Louisiana Tech — The quarterback battle should be a good one in Ruston this year. Head coach Sonny Cumbie said experience in the scheme was the driving factor in bringing in transfers quarterbacks Matthew Downing and Parker McNeil. He praised Downing’s “ability to extend plays a little bit more” while saying McNeil “has the ability at times to see things over the middle of the field.” This will be a battle throughout fall camp.
  • North Texas — Linebacker KD Davis said his experience in the Transfer Portal taught him the “grass isn’t always greener on the other side”. He said he believes you can get the same exposure in Conference USA as at other places.
  • Middle Tennessee — It’s officially a wide open quarterback battle for the Blue Raiders. Last year’s initial starter Chase Cunningham, who was injured midseason, will battle Nicholas Vattiato for the starting job. Head coach Rick Stockstill has not named a starter at this time.
  • UTEP — Head coach Dana Dimel says returning starter Gavin Hardison has “complete freedom” to check any play and will enable UTEP to lean more heavily on the passing game this season.
  • UTSA — Head coach Jeff Traylor seems aware of the increased scrutiny placed on the team this season. “The climb up is always fun, because nobody expects you to do anything,” he said. “But once you get there, staying there is the hardest part.”
  • Rice — The Owls believe they finally have the depth they’ve been searching for along both lines. Guard Shea Baker said it would be “really good for the body and really good for the soul” to not have to take every rep and being able to help push the younger players behind him.
  • UAB — Offensive lineman Will Rykard doubled down on comments from interim head coach Bryant Vincent, saying the goal of the offensive line this year is “to go out there this year and prove that we’re the best in the conference, best in the country.” Vincent maintained the UAB front five was the best o-line unit in the conference.
  • Charlotte — Chris Reynolds intimated it was a no-brainer when it came to his decision to return to Charlotte this season, expressing gratitude for the coach Will Healy, the program and the culture. Then he said this:

From the Conference USA Football office

From Rice football…

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Rice Football: Schedule, depth, recruiting — July Patreon Q&A

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A host of great questions came in this month targeting various areas of Rice football so we’re answering them all in this month’s Patreon Q&A.

Our subscribers came through with a host of Rice football related questions for this month’s Patreon Q&A. We’ll start by discussing optimal results for non-conference play, segue into the backup, backup quarterbacks, check in on the depth along the edge behind Kenneth Orji and Josh Pearcy before landing the plane with a brief recruiting discussion in this month’s Patreon Q&A.

Want to get your questions answered? Subscribe on Patreon for our monthly mailbag, get access to this and our Rice football season preview content PLUS a free copy of our Conference USA Season preview for our new patrons.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

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