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Rice Football Recruiting: JUCO QB TJ McMahon commits to Owls

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The 2020 Rice football recruiting class has a quarterback in the fold. JUCO passer TJ McMahon has committed to the Owls.

If Rice football has learned anything about the quarterback position, they know depth matters. In 2018, the Owls turned to scout team quarterback Wiley Green in their first conference win. Last season, true freshman JoVoni Johnson and grad transfer Tom Stewart provided an effective tandem. Who takes the majority of the snaps in 2020 remains to be seen, but the Owls have a new contender in the race.

TJ McMahon, quarterback for Cerritos College in Norwalk, CA has committed to Rice. McMahon just completed his freshmen season, giving him potentially three years of eligibility to play at South Main. That first year of college ball was productive for McMahon, who threw for 2,667 yards in 11 games, completing 65.8 percent of his passes. He threw 24 touchdowns and 5 interceptions.

Rice Football Recruiting
McMahon represents an upgrade in the passing game from the current roster. As a group, the Owls’ tallied 1,992  passing yards, 13 touchdowns and 56.3 percent completions. Last year’s leading passer Tom Stewart won’t return.

Unlike Stewart who arrived in the summer last year, McMahon intends to enroll early, joining the team in January. He’ll be in attendance for spring practices, getting the extra time to learn the offense which Stewart wasn’t afforded.

McMahon is being brought in to compete for the starting job. He’ll battle returning quarterbacks JoVoni Johnson and Wiley Green. There’s plenty of time before Mike Bloomgren will have to make a decision, but McMahon checks all the boxes with his athleticism, arm talent and mental ability. McMahon is an exciting talent and a name Rice fans need to know.

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Conference USA Football 2019: Bowl Updates and Championship Recap

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FAU has won the 2019 Conference USA football championship. Now eight teams venture on to bowl season, with the first game approaching soon.

Team Opponent Bowl Time Date
Charlotte Buffalo Maker’s Wanted Bahamas Bowl Fri. Dec. 20 1:00 p.m.
FAU* SMU Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl Sat. Dec. 21 2:30 p.m.
FIU Arkansas St Camellia Bowl Sat. Dec. 21 4:30 p.m.
UAB Appalachian St R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Sat. Dec. 21 8:00 p.m.
Marshall UCF Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl Mon. Dec. 23 1:30 p.m.
LA Tech Miami Walk-on’s Independence Bowl Thr. Dec. 26 3:00 p.m.
WKU Western Michigan SERVPRO First Responder Bowl Mon. Dec. 30 11:30 a.m.
So. Miss Tulane Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Sat. Jan. 4 10:30 a.m.
*Won Conference USA Football Championship Game

Conference USA Championship Week 15 results – Standings

The Conference USA Football Championship was a total non-event. FAU jumped out in front of UAB quickly, turning a 14-3 first quarter lead into an overwhelming 35-6 halftime advantage. All the while the Ole Miss football Twitter account was tweeting out gifs in regards to the not-so-secret future of one Lane Kiffin. That ended up being more entertaining than the game itself.

Updates from elsewhere in C-USA

Time runs out for Frank Wilson and Bobby Wilder

Now former head coach Frank Wilson was fired from UTSA following the season. Shortly after, former Old Dominion head coach Bobby Wilder elected to resign from the program. At the time, those were the only Conference USA football head coaching jobs to open this offseason.

What’s next for some of C-USA’s best?

For the past few seasons, Bill Clark and Lane Kiffin have represented the best coaching Conference USA has to offer. Rumors of both coaches potentially being on the move surfaced during the lead up to the conference championship game. Kiffin made the leap to the SEC. Clark is staying put, for now, but the coaching carousel hasn’t stopped spinning just yet.

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Rice Football 2019 Offensive Newcomer of the Year: Bradley Rozner

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Former junior college wide receiver Bradley Rozner went from a question mark to a game changer for Rice Football in 2019, becoming an easy selection for Offensive Newcomer of the Year.

There were plenty of new faces on the Rice football offense this season. The freshman class had high expectations, but the most notable newcomers on that side of the ball were transfers. Rice brought in three graduates on the offensive line. They added a quarterback and a running back from Harvard. There was also one receiver from the junior college ranks.

When it came to sorting through which new face had the biggest impact, the answer was fairly straight forward. Former JUCO wide receiver Bradley Rozner, whose journey began with little fanfare, is our 2019 Rice Football Offensive Newcomer of the Year.

Bradley Rozner didn’t make it a week into Rice football spring practices before his head started spinning. The rigors of Rice academics combined with a thick playbook and a brand new offense had his mind working overtime. He looked at ease in one-on-one drills, but wasn’t able to translate that inate ability into the Owls’ scheme. Not yet.

By the time the 2019 season arrived, Rozner was more or less prepared. He wouldn’t be eased in, rather, the 6-foot-5, 195-pound junior college product became the de facto replacement for big-bodied wideout Aaron Cephus who had been suspended indefinitely prior to the team’s first game.

“At the beginning of the year, the only guy who had ever caught a ball for us was Trammell. Rozner was a question mark,” recalled wide receivers coach Mike Kershaw. Although the staff had noticed a progression from their new offensive weapon, there was still uncertainty about his ability to win one-on-one balls and out-muscle defenders in the air.

Rozner had one catch for six yards in his D1 debut.

After that, something clicked. “Once he learned the offense, actually learned where to line up, that started slowing things down. Then he could just play.” Rozner averaged nearly five receptions for 70 yards a game across his final 11 contests of the season. For the year, he led Rice football in receiving yards (770) and touchdowns (5). His highwater mark came on the road against Middle Tennessee, a game in which he caught three touchdowns.

If there was ever any doubts as to his ability, the Middle Tennessee game erased them entirely. No. 2 by jersey, Rozner became the No. 1 downfield threat for the Owls’ offense, which snapped out of a scoring funk to average 27 points per game in their final three contests. Prior to the winning streak, Rice had managed 27 points just once: a road game against UTSA in which Rozner had a season-high nine receptions for 138 yards.

Rozner was the big play machine for an offense desperate to be woken up. “There’s no doubt I struggled earlier on during the season, but I’m starting to hit my stride,” he said following his big day against UTSA. “Hopefully I can just keep progressing and the offense can keep working.”

The offense didn’t transform overnight solely because of Rozner. The veteran arm of quarterback Tom Stewart and production in the rushing game from Aston Walter helped push the Owls back in the right direction. But the impact Rozner had when he was on the field was always notable.

Against North Texas, an offensive staff that had intentionally grounded the football the game prior, trusted Rozner to make a big play when the team needed it most. Lined up in single coverage on third and long on what Rice hoped would be the clock-killing drive, Bloomgren took to the air. Stewart threw a jump ball up to Rozner who caught it in stride. From there, the Owls picked up another first down and the win.

The season was a collection of moments like that for Rozner. He led all of junior college in touchdowns last season. In his first year at Rice, he led the Owls’ pass catchers in scoring, too. Not only did South Main become his home, he proved he belonged on this stage time and time again.

Many hoped Rozner could become a useful piece of the Rice football offense. Instead, he became an integral component, one the Owls needed to move the ball. And when they did throw it his way, he made play after play.

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Rice Football 2019 Defensive Newcomer of the Year: Naeem Smith

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It didn’t take long for Rice Football safety Naeem Smith to earn his place at South Main, easily earning the title of 2019 Defensive Newcomer of the Year.

2019 Defensive Newcomer of the Year Naeem Smith is what Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren likes to call one of his needles in a haystack. No, the moniker has nothing to do with the locale of Smith’s previous football team in Iowa. It references the transition from the team Smith once played for to the blue and gray uniform he wore at South Main this season.

Smith spent 2018 as a member of the Ellsworth Community College football team, a junior college tucked away in Iowa Falls, IA. There are thousands and thousands of JUCO athletes long for the opportunity to play at the next level. The best make the jump. The top JUCO prospect in Smith’s class, Jermaine Johnson, signed with Georgia. Other top junior college athletes ended up at Texas A&M, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee and Texas.

The list of junior college players who enrolled at high-caliber academic institutions like Rice, Stanford, Northwestern, Vanderbilt or Duke is much shorter, almost nonexistent. Finding a JUCO product with the talent level to play D1 football and the grades to get into Rice is almost impossible. Almost.

Enter Smith. Alongside fellow JUCO products Brad Rozner and Blaze Alldredge, Smith represents some of the most remarkable recruiting work the current staff has done. Not only did Smith leap the academic hurdles, he passed the on-field challenges with flying colors.

Smith enrolled early and was on campus for spring ball. It was there he began the process of assimilating into a defensive scheme flush with complexities. At that time, Rice football had incumbent starters at the safety spot. George Nyakwol was one of the few veteran defensive backs that had retained his starting job through the coaching transition. Prudy Calderon, dubbed the 2018 Defensive Rookie of the Year by The Roost, had emerged beside him. There was no rush to get Smith onto the field. Smith had other plans.

To some extent, Smith spoke his own future at Rice into existence. “We have one goal, and that’s to get better each day,” he said prior to his first game at South Main. That mission, to always improve, has paid it’s dividends.

Calderon started the first game. Smith started the remaining 11. It wasn’t so much that Calderon’s production had slipped — he was the same centerfielder-type safety that led the team in interceptions last season — Smith was just better.

Smith is a dual-threat asset. He’s as comfortable playing near the line of scrimmage as he is in the back of the secondary. He moved downhill fast, engaging blockers and ballcarriers with a fury that few expected from the 5-foot-11-inch dynamo.

Like Calderon the year prior, Smith led the team in interceptions (tied with fellow defensive back Treshawn Chamberlain). He tacked on 50 tackles, fifth-most on the team, 3.5 tackles for a loss and one sack. He also forced a fumble and had three pass break ups. Smith gave the secondary an edge, propelling everyone lined up with him to play to their absolute best.

Smith and the secondary capped off their season with a near-perfect outing against preseason Conference USA Player of the Year Mason Fine on Senior Day. The North Texas quarterback was held without a touchdown pass, in a game in which he attempted at least 15 passes, for the first time since Sep. 16, 2017 at Iowa. Nobody keeps Fine out of the endzone, but Rice football did. And Smith was a crucial piece to that puzzle.

As dominant as he felt he and the secondary had played, Smith still wanted more. “I really wish we would have gotten a shutout,” he said, a perfect snapshot of his laser focus. It’s also a sign that 2019 could be the beginning of a very special career. Smith is already one of the best defenders Rice football has, and he’s on a mission to get even better.

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Rice Football Film Room 2019: UTEP Review

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Rice football finished out the season on a three-game winning streak, making for an exciting finale in our 2019 film room series.

Hey y’all! Welcome back to the final Rice Football Film Room of the 2019 season. We’ll highlight one play to Austin Trammell that I just enjoyed, and two plays by redshirt freshmen that show how bright the future is for the Rice offense.

Texas Flood

Setup

About midway through the third quarter, Rice is down 16–14. The Owls have the ball 1st & 10 at the UTEP 34. They’re in 12 personnel from the shotgun: Aston Walter is the back, Jaeger Bull is the inline TE to the left, Jordan Myers is at H-back to the right, and Trammell and Bradley Rozner are wide to the right with Trammell in the slot. UTEP’s in a 3-3-5 look with one deep safety on defense.

The Play

Rice goes max protect, keeping 7 guys (the OL, Walter, and Bull) in to protect. That’s more than enough, because UTEP drops all the linebackers and DBs, leaving only the three DL to rush. Eight in coverage vs three guys running routes should make things easy on UTEP in coverage here.

Rice is running a route combination commonly referred to as a Flood concept, which involves running three routes of different depths all to the same side of the field. The idea is to stretch the defense vertically, and it’s particularly effective against a zone coverage like this one (which appears to be a variation on Cover 3). For the QB, the reads go high to low: first the go route from the outside receiver; next the out route from the slot; and finally the flat route from (in this case) the H-back.

Here, the outside corner sinks into his deep zone and stays over the top of Rozner, taking that read away. So Stewart’s next read is Trammell, who runs a double move, faking a post route before breaking back into a deep out. Both inside DBs to that side are preoccupied watching Myers in the flat (the apex guy falls over, but Trammell is long past him by the time that happens), and the deep safety is in no position to get over in time to defend an out route. So Austin finds a nice open spot in the zone, and the ball should go to him

Stewart does a great job of reading this play. He’s got the ball out right as Trammell is breaking back toward the sideline. His ball placement isn’t perfect; ideally you’d lead Trammell to the sideline with this throw. But Trammell shows fantastic body control, smoothly turning back to the ball and then continuing the spin to carry himself upfield without ever really breaking stride. Nothing special about this play. Just a well-run concept, a good read by Stewart, and a great play by Trammell.

The Need for Speed

Setup

Having kicked a field goal on the prior possession, Rice has the lead 17-16 and has the ball 1st & 10 at its own 48. The Owls are in 11 personnel, with Walter next to Stewart in the shotgun. Rozner is the X receiver to the boundary, and Trammell, Myers, and true freshman speedster Zane Knipe are in a bunch trips set, tight to the formation. UTEP is again in a 3-3-5 type look with a single deep safety.

The Play

Rice shows play action. Stewart fakes a handoff and Myers comes across the formation to sell split zone action. But ultimately we again end up with three rushers against seven blockers, though this time, with Myers charged with coming all the way across to block the edge rusher, the rush nearly gets home anyway. Walter helps out, though, and the two of them divert the rusher upfield in time for Stewart to step up and make the throw.

I can’t get a full picture of this concept since the camera doesn’t go wide enough, but it looks like Stewart’s first read may have been Trammell, because he looks that way for a while before coming back to Knipe. Here, since Rozner was the only receiver to the boundary, his go route completely clears out his side of the field.

With Knipe darting across the field on a dig route, he ends up wide open, with nobody even in his ZIP code by the time the ball arrives. The throw’s a bit late, but we can forgive Tom for that, because it’s not easy to get the ball out in time for a guy with Knipe’s raw speed. In any case, the placement’s a little better, and Zane turns it smoothly upfield for a big gain. The gif cuts off there (sorry, it was long already), but Knipe nearly manages to stiff arm the safety and get to the end zone. An offseason in the weight room might just fix that!

JoVoni on the Rise

Setup

Just one play later, Rice has it 2nd & Goal at the 8. The Owls are in a shotgun 12 personnel look, with Rozner and Trammell wide, Myers and Bull both inline to the left, and JoVoni Johnson and Walter in the backfield. UTEP responds with what’s basically a nine-man box and man coverage on the two receivers.

The Play

I picked this one because it’s the first of Johnson’s two TD runs and they were both the same play: QB power. This is exactly the same blocking scheme as the numerous big plays we’ve seen Rice get from that 22 personnel power toss play, but by having the QB carry the ball, the RB act as lead blocker, and subbing in another receiver, we now have one less guy in the box for the same number of blockers.

And y’all this one is blocked perfectly. From Myers inward, the TEs and OL completely wall off the defense inside, and there are basically two guys who can make the play. One gets erased by Shea Baker, the pulling guard. The other is expertly cut blocked by Walter. Johnson waltzes into the end zone.

Two plays by two freshmen who, eligibility-wise, will still be freshmen next year. Big things are coming for this Rice offense.

And finally, I just wanted to thank y’all for sticking with me and this column for the year. It’s been a blast doing it, and the work I’ve put in has made me a smarter football fan. I hope y’all have enjoyed it as well.

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