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Rice Football: Takeaways from UTSA game postponement

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Rice football’s game against UTSA has been postponed by COVID-19 concerns at UTSA. How will that impact the Owls in the long and near term?

Entering their third week of action, Rice football had yet to have a game postponed by an active COVID-19 issue. Head coach Mike Bloomgren first learned there was a potential storm brewing on Thursday night when AD Joe Karlgaard informed him there was a positive test and contact tracing underway at UTSA.

Bloomgren set up a meeting with his team for Friday morning. In the hours in between, the warning of a potential cancellation became reality. Bloomgren was tasked with delivering the bad news, and he wanted to make sure the team heard it from him first.

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“To some degree, I wanted to make the weather.” Bloomgren said, “I wanted to make them understand that as disappointed as we are, we’ve got to flush it, and we’ve got to move on to LA Tech.”

The abrupt change will have ramifications on Rice that stretch beyond this week. Most notably, on these two specific fronts.

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Rice Football 2020 Practice Notes: Breaking down the corners

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It’s been a wild ride for the Rice football corners this fall. Through two games and seven-plus weeks of practice, here’s where the Owls stand.

Last week I wrote in detail about the Rice football wide receivers, including comments on who would be the primary options against Southern Miss. Sure enough, Rice relied on essentially a three-wide receiver set in that game, with only five healthy wideouts making the travel roster.

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The Owls are at home against UTSA this weekend, so counting heads for a bus trip won’t be important. That said, who is healthy enough to participate is a pressing matter, especially in the secondary. I have confirmed Rice expects to get at least one member of their defensive back corps back on the field for the first time when they take on UTSA.

Below I’ve compiled notes from practice this week and some comments from cornerback coach Gerard Wilcher. Our subscribers should also check out our bonus podcast this week with UTSA insider Jared Kalmus of Alamodome Audible.

It’s time for a 2020 debut and a few injury updates

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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.
    Become a Patron!
  • 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

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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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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