Next up for Rice football, the season opener against Louisiana. 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 end of fall camp and then looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with Louisiana.

The Roost Podcast: Previewing the Rice Football defense this season

We touch on those items, touch on the lack of a Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like heading into the weekend. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

Let’s be clear, Louisiana is a 10-win team from last year opening up a brand new stadium. My guess is expectations, what they’re feeling, is probably a little bit more anxious that what we’re feeling. We’re excited to play football. We’re excited to now put everything we’ve installed to work and see what it looks like at a very hostile environment on the road. I think all the pressure’s on them. I think for our guys, let’s put his shoes on, let’s lace them up, let’s tie time, and let’s go have some fun. Let’s get after and compete. That’s what I want to see. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on pressure in Week 1

I’m incredibly comfortable going into each week not really sure what we’re gonna see. When you’re a little unique offensively, game plans are unique against you. That is nothing new to me… How someone defends the previous week’s offense, it’s not going to look like how they defend us, so to me, these adjustments will be the same as I look at each and every week. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on what he’s expecting from the Louisiana defense

He’s incredibly multiple. He’s a guy that can get on the edge. He can be involved in the passing game and he can be a downhill guy. And man, that’s a really nice thing for any offense. He brings a lot of tools to that unit, now how do we utilize all those tools to make everything around him execute on a high level. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on running back Quinton Jackson

His ability to really utilize his legs and his arm to hurt defenses made a big impression on us. His ability to escape, to really make something out of nothing, I think is important in every offense and ours is no different. And the fact that he’s comfortable in this system. He played a similar system coming out of high school. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on Chase Jenkins winning the quarterback job

Chase is like a brother to me… I think he’s grown as a leader. He’s having fun. He has joy on his face. I’m just happy for him. People [will] get to see what I see every day in practice, his speed, his excitement for the game of football, his excitement to run his offense. I’m just happy for Chase. Glad he’s leading us and I’m willing to do anything for my quarterback, for sure. – Running back Quinton Jackson on playing with quarterback Chase Jenkins

It’s all about focusing, keeping our poise this week. I feel that’s the main thing that we’re gonna focus on this week, worrying about what we’ve got going on, not worrying about the outside noise, what other people think, because that’s just a distraction. At the end of the day, what you put on tape is your resume, so we’re just gonna focus on what we’re gonna put on tape this week. – Linebacker Andrew Awe on the team’s focus this week

Depth Chart

There was no depth chart provided in the Rice football pregame notes this week. Louisiana had previously declined to provide a depth chart of their own, likely leading the Owls to forgo issuing their first official depth chart of the season in response.

The Roost Podcast: Previewing the Rice Football offense this season

Stay tuned to practice notes later in the week for an unofficial best estimate of the current two-deep. As a quick reminder, you can get access to practice reports, analysis and special features during the week when you subscribe to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon today.

Recent Posts

• Rice Basketball Cruises Past Southwestern Christian
• Rice Football 2025: NFL Owls Week 15 Roundup
• Toot, Toot: A New Tradition for Rice Athletics
• Nick Anderson explodes late to lift Rice Basketball past Arkansas State