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The Roost Podcast | Ep 59 – Rice Football vs USM Recap, UTSA Preview

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Carter and Matthew breakdown the first Rice football win of the 2020 season over Southern Miss and preview the Owls upcoming game against UTSA.

Rice football picked up its first win of the 2020 season, smashing Southern Miss in a much-needed rebound following a heartbreaking loss to Middle Tennessee. Comparing and contrasting the two-game sample size led to an interesting discussion about the long-term potential of this team.

But, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we addressed the game at hand. Tune in to hear our recap of the Southern Miss win and our preview of the upcoming matchup with UTSA.

Quick note: the addition of the UAB and Marshall games were announced after we hit the stop button this week. The UTEP cancelation came after we recorded as well — begin the question, if the game didn’t happen, was UTEP ever favored? We’ll cover all of that on next week’s show.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 59.

Episode 59 Notes

  • Housekeeping — Don’t miss this opportunity to subscribe on Patreon. You’ll get practice reports, film room sessions, recruiting news and the latest analysis and updates on all things relating to Rice Athletics.
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  • Conference USA news and notes
    • UTEP favored to beat an FBS team (note: the game was canceled after recording)
    • Conference standings and where Rice football fits in the mix
  • Rice Football vs Southern Miss game recap
    • Mike Collins is playing on another level
    • Austin Trammell is the best version of himself
    • Defense impressive, especially with so many key pieces missing
    • Aggressiveness pays off on multiple occasions
  • Rice Football vs UTSA game preview
    • Limiting Sincere McCormick is a must
    • What’s the best game Frank Harris can put together? Will it be enough to outscore the Owls?
    • Impact of this game on C-USA West

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Rice Football: UAB and Marshall games rescheduled for December

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The previously postponed Rice football games against Marshall and UAB have been officially rescheduled. Both contests wil be played in December.

The fifth (and hopefully final) adjustment to the 2020 Rice football schedule was announced on Wednesday. After a delayed start to their season, which began in earnest at home against Middle Tennessee on Oct. 24, Rice has finalized it’s 2020 slate.

Conference USA has rescheduled both games. Rice will travel to West Virginia to play Marshall on Dec. 5. The Owls will host UAB on Dec. 12. Adding both games back to the 2020 schedules gives Rice a complete C-USA schedule. Should they play out their games, they would be eligible for a spot in the conference championship game, meeting the treshold for games played.

More: Rice Football vs UTSA Game Preview

This is the first time Rice football has added games to its 2020 schedule since the delays began. The LSU game was the first to go on July 30. Son afterward, games against Houston and Army were postponed on Aug. 10 with the removal of the Lamar game following sooner after on August 21.

Here is the newly revised schedule as it currently stands: The Owls are home against Middle Tennessee (Loss, Oct. 24), UTSA (Nov. 7) and UTEP (Nov. 28) and UAB (Dec. 12). Rice plays at Southern Miss (Win, Oct. 31), Louisiana Tech (Nov. 14), North Texas (Nov. 21) and Marshall (Dec. 5).

The Conference USA Championship game is scheduled to take place on Dec. 18. With the conference’s bowl slate beginning almost immediately afterward, there’s no more wiggle room to push that game back furter. If Rice were to play in every game, that would account for nine consecutive weekends of football with no off weekend.

Rice football returns to the field this Saturday at home against UTSA. Kickoff time is set for 2:30 p.m. with the broadcast on ESPN. The Owls are 1-1 on the season.

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Rice Football Film Room 2020: Southern Miss Review, UTSA Preview

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Rice quarterback Mike Collins might be the real deal, but so is UTSA running back Spencer McCormick. We look at both guys in this week’s Rice Football film room.

So that was fun! I, for one, would enjoy it if Rice won by 24+ points every game. For this week’s Rice Football Film Room, we’ll look at one of my favorite plays from the offense this week (somehow from a drive that resulted in no points for the Owls, oddly enough), and then get a quick look at Sincere McCormick and the UTSA offense. 

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(I’d have loved to do a defensive play from Southern Miss, but it was pretty slim pickings in terms of readily-available-online highlights from the defensive side. Check this week’s edition of The Roost Podcast for mine and Matt’s thoughts on the defense.)

This play showcases what we hoped all offseason, which has been validated in the first two games for the Owls: Mike Collins is a serious talent, y’all.

Mike Collins: The Real Deal

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Rice Football 2020: Post Southern Miss presser and practice notes

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There’s a lot going on in the world of Rice football. Here’s a rundown of the weekly press conference and an update from practice headed into the UTSA game.

The season is back in full swing and we’ve got a full slate of Rice football updates on deck for everyone this week. I’ll include a few snippets from today’s press conference here as well as updates from practice on Monday. The players were off on Tuesday for the Election.

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Press conference notes and quotes

Head coach Mike Bloomgren did note a few players of the week following the victory:

  • Defensive Player of the Game – Chike Anigbogu
  • Offensive Player of the Game – Austin Trammell
  • Special Teams Player of the Game – Charlie Mendes
  • Offense Scout Team Player of the Week – Caleb James
  • Defense Scout Team Player of the Week – TJ McMahon
  • Special Teams Player of the Week – Terreance Ellis

“Anytime you are giving up big plays the way we did in the first game, that’s never a good thing. I think we talked a lot about eliminating the big plays, keeping it in front of us, and I think the guys got the message and we played a lot better in those critical situations at the end of the half and on third down.” – Brian Smith on the what the defense did differently from game one to game two

It felt good to get a win, it really did. It felt great to get a win on Saturday. An incredible effort from start to finish from our guys. I think, really the opening kickoff all the way through the fourth quarter you saw a lot of strain, a lot of physicality. And I can’t say enough about how proud I am of that team for continuing to work the way they did.” – Bloomgren on the Owls’ first win of 2020

“Mike [Collins] is the biggest change. It’s the best play we’ve had out of a quarterback in our time here… Mike is changing the game for our football team. He’s giving everybody a chance to showcase their talent. And it sure doesn’t hurt that the offensive line and the blocking unit is giving him time as well. Everything’s working together, but if I were to identify one change, so far, it would be Mike Collins.” – Bloomgren on the biggest change in the offense from last year to this year

“Two games in, we’re in a good spot… I just don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves I think we’ve got so much we can improve on right now. Yes, we’re better, but that was a pretty low bar. I want to see how good this offense can perform.” – Bloomgren on how the offense meets his expectations

Practice updates and Southern Miss takeaways

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Conference USA Football 2020: Week 9 C-USA Roundup

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Conference USA Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 9.

Team Week 9 Result Week 10
Charlotte at Duke L, 53-19 at MTSU
FAU vs UTSA W, 24-3 vs WKU
FIU vs Marshall CANCELED at UTEP
LA Tech vs UAB W, 37-34 (OT) at North Texas
Marshall at FIU CANCELED vs UMass
MTSU — OFF —  — vs Charlotte
North Texas at UTEP CANCELED vs LA Tech
Rice at Southern Miss W, 30-6 vs UTSA
Southern Miss vs Rice L, 30-6 vs N Alabama
UAB at Louisiana Tech L, 37-34 (OT) — OFF —
UTEP vs North Texas CANCELED vs FIU
UTSA at FAU L, 24-3 at Rice
WKU at BYU L, 41-10 at FAU

Notable Week 9 results – Standings

That didn’t last long

Week 8 marked the first time this season that Conference USA had no games canceled and all teams planning to play this season underway. That brief honeymoon lasted a few days before two Week 9 games were canceled, including a highly contentious postponement between North Texas and UTEP.

Welcome to the win column

Rice football shook the rust off quickly. Following an overtime loss to Middle Tennessee, Rice crushed a downtrodden Southern Miss squad on their third head coach of the season. The Owls kept Southern Miss out of the endzone, allowing just two field goals. That marks the first time Southern Miss has failed to score a touchdown in a game since 2014.

Wild, wild west

Marshall still holds a commanding lead in the East, but C-USA west is officially wide open thanks to Louisiana Tech’s overtime victory over UAB in Week 9. Now four teams: UAB, Louisiana Tech, UTSA and Rice have records of .500 or better in conference play. If things stay tight, a yet to be officially rescheduled UAB visit to Rice could have division title implications.

Week 10 storylines

One is better than none

Marshall has dealt with the impacts of 2020 scheduling as well as could be expected. The Thundering Herd added a game against UMass midseason which, although it should be an easy win, will have the added bonus of keeping Marshall from another multi-week bye, an oddity multiple C-USA teams have already had to deal with to this point.

Texas-sized tussle

When Rice and UTSA met last season the two teams were a combined 1-10 against their other 11 FBS opponents. It was a race to the bottom of the conference standings. This time around, the winner will keep themselves among the leaders in the West. What a difference one year can make.

At the bottom

With Rice picking up their first victory in Week 9 against Southern Miss, there are only two remaining teams without a conference win: FIU and UTEP. One of those will be walking away a victor next week when FIU visits El Paso, assuming that game is played as scheduled.

Rice Football Opponent Scouting Report

A weekly update on who the Owls will be playing this season including updates on key storylines, injuries and more.

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