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Rice Football Recruiting: It’s move in day for 2019 signees

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The 2019 Rice Football freshman class arrives on campus today, complete with new living places and new numbers for their jerseys in the fall.

The calendar says June but it’s officially football season for the Owls’ incoming recruiting class. Wednesday is move in day for the freshman who will flock to South Main from as far away as California (four) and New Jersey (two).

Some players, like the Owls’ first commit Jack Bradley, have been waiting almost a year for their announcements to materialize into the full college experience. Others like walk on Hunter Hanley, have been committed to Rice for less than two weeks.

Although the time to don shoulder pads and start hitting on the field is a ways away each of the new Owls will benefit from this early time with their new teammates.

Each new addition has had a copy of the virtual playbook to study over the summer. The remainder of June and the beginning of July will be time for them to fully immerse themselves in the new language and establish a “new normal” before classes begin.

Along with new rooms and roommates, the freshman class has always received their jersey numbers. As will be the caveat with most football related information until the fall, those too could change in the coming months. For now, here’s what number each of the new Owls will be wearing:

3. Jovoni Johnson
9. Kirk Lockhart
11. Jake Bailey
13. Zane Knipe
14. Joshua Landrum
16. Zach Hoban
19. Tre’shon Devones
22. Jawan King
26. Hunter Henry
27. Ayden Noriega
29. Chike Anigbogu
38. Jashon Palmer
41. Garrett Braden
51. Will Martinez
54. Issac Klarkowski
56. Edmond Lahlouh
57. Myron Morrison
59. Jerry Johnson III
67. Connor Hughes
72. Hunter Jones
74. Nick Wagman
79. Regan Riddle
84. Bennett Mecom
87. Jack Bradley
89. Miles Adams
91. Charlie Mendes
94. Josh Pearcy
95. Izeya Floyd
96. DeBraylon Carroll
97. Adrian Bickham

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Rice Baseball: Anthony Rendon’s All-Star bid leads way for MLB Owls

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Anthony Rendon and the rest of the MLB Owls have had a strong start to the summer. How are the Rice baseball products fairing through mid-June.

The Rice baseball season has long since wrapped up. Postseason reviews for the starting pitching, the bullpen, the lineup and the defense have been logged, but the MLB season is still young. Here’s how the MLB Owls are fairing as the summer heats up.

JT Chargois

Chargois last pitched in April, appearing with the Dodgers in two games against the Cardinals. He was then sent back to Triple A and hasn’t resurfaced in the majors yet this season.

Tyler Duffey

Recalled as the 26th man for the Twins doubled header with the Detroit Tigers on May 11, Duffey has bounced back and forth between AAA Rochester and the big leagues for the past two months. During that time he’s been effective, sporting a 2.51 ERA in 12 appearances. He’s posted 22 strikeouts in 14.1 innings pitched and opposing batters are hitting .237 against him.

Jon Duplantier

After making his first career start on May 31, Duplantier made two more starts with the Diamondbacks in the month of June. His opponents (Los Angeles and Philadelphia) made for a tough task. He went five innings against the Dodgers, allowing two earned runs and three innings against the Phillies, allowing four earned runs. He was awarded the loss in the latter game, his first of his career. Duplantier was recently placed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.

Brock Holt

The month of June has been a good one for Holt. He’s hit safely in nine of 12 games with a .432 batting average and a 1.095 OPS. He has three extra base hits over that span with eight RBI. Since June 1, he’s raised his batting average 120 points.

Anthony Rendon

Rendon hasn’t slowed from his impressive early season pace as he vies for an All Star nomination. He’s hitting .321 this season and .340 over the month of June. He’s hit six home runs in his last 14 games, driving in 16 runs in that time period. As of Monday he ranked fifth in the voting among NL Third baseman, slightly behind the Braves’ Josh Donaldson and the Dogers’ Justin Turner. You can vote for Rendon here.

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Rice Football Recruiting: Owls soar up rankings as 2020 class bonds

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The 2020 Rice Football recruiting class is becoming a family, one that’s adding talent players to it at an almost unprecedented pace.

Sunday night was a big one for the 2020 Rice football recruiting class. The Owls hosted all of their in-state commits plus a few notable targets for an unofficial visit. Given the proximity of coach Bloomgren’s house to campus, the guys were able to gather at his place to hang out and bond with each other and the coaching staff.

From all accounts, the atmosphere was fantastic and everyone had a good time. Several of the guys met face to face for the first time. The most telling comment came from running back commit Khalan Griffin:  “It’s like we are already a family.”

It would be hard for the mood to be anything less than positive given the rampant recruiting pace Rice is on right now. The Owls own the No. 50 recruiting class in the nation at the midpoint of June. That’s the second best class in Conference USA and puts them above some notable programs:
Rice Football, Rice Football Recruiting

  • USC (No. 53)
  • Baylor (No. 64)
  • Michigan State (No. 65)
  • SMU (No. 67)
  • UCLA (No. 75)
  • Houston (No. 87)
  • Texas Tech (No. 89)

That highly regarded class could become even better soon. Beyond forging stronger bonds with the current class, Rice made significant headway with current targets, most notably corner Ricky Johnson. The invite list was short for non-committed players. Johnson was among the top of that list.

Johnson had spoken highly of Rice since he was offered following the Adidas 3 Stripe Camp. At that point, he called Rice his top choice. The time spent with the Owls over the weekend solidified those feelings. He’s planning to take a few more visits, but Rice has cemented themselves as the unquestioned leader in his recruitment.

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Rice Football: Unlocking explosiveness on offense

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Big plays were few and far between for Rice football in 2018, but when the offense was rolling they came frequently enough.

The 2018 Rice football offense wasn’t explosive. The lack of big plays not only put the Owls behind the eight ball on third down, but made scoring opportunities much harder to reach, let alone convert.

Rice had 29 pass plays of 20 yards or more last season, the 11th best in Conference USA. They ranked 13th in pass plays of 40 yards or more (five), ahead of only UTSA who finished dead last in the nation in total offense.

The ground was slightly more favorable. Rice had the seventh most carries of 20 yards or more (15) and the second most carries of 40 yards or more (six). The Owls were one of two CUSA teams with a run of at least 80 yards — courtesy of Juma Otoviano’s breakout performance against Old Dominion.

Altogether Rice finished in the bottom third of the conference in explosive plays. The Owls faired much better (57th in the nation and in the middle of the pack in CUSA) in IsoPPP+, a measure of explosiveness on a per play basis for a given team’s successful plays. In short, when the offense is moving the ball, how good are they at turning successful plays into bigger chunk plays.

Essentially that means that Rice, while not a frequent chain-moving offense, was able to create a decent portion of explosive plays when the plays worked. Blocking, scheme and better athletes with the ball in their hands are all things which should take another step forward for the Owls in 2019. Those numbers seem to point toward both the room for improvement and a foundation able to execute when things break the right way.

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Rice Football: Will the Owls find a bellcow running back in 2019?

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Run-first offenses often trust one primary rusher. That wasn’t quite the case last year, but could Rice football find a bell cow back in 2019?

Dating back to Mike Bloomgren’s days at Stanford, the current Rice head man has tended toward trusting one man to carry the brunt of the load in the backfield. The Owls didn’t have that one guy last year, or at least, they never settled on one back who was healthy enough and consistent enough to take on that role in this offense. Sort of.

Here’s what the distribution of carries looked among the top four Rice rushers in 2018:

By Raw Stats

Player Austin Walter Emmanuel Esukpa Juma Otoviano Aston Walter
Att 133 122 65 64
Yds 564 461 364 254
TD 4 3 3 0

By Percentage

Player Austin Walter Emmanuel Esukpa Juma Otoviano Aston Walter
% Att 27% 25% 13% 13%
% Yds 30% 25% 19% 14%
% TD 27% 20% 20% 0%

The apparent balance wasn’t really the case. One running back registered at least 50 percent of the Owls’ non-quarterback rushes in 10 of 13 games Rice played last year. In six of those games, the lead back was responsible for at least two-thirds of the attempts.

That distribution was largely a function of the roles each of those four backs played as the offense evolved. Emmanuel Esupka was the bruiser north-south runner who started the year as the primary ball carrier before falling out of the rotation with injuries. Splitting time with him initially was Austin Walter, who shifted out to receiver midway through the year.

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That left Juma Otoviano and Aston Walter as the remaining options. Otoviano took the lead back duties, increasing his role from the wildcat quarterback earlier in the year. Aston was the glue, filling in whenever the pieces moved around him, registering a career-high 23 carries against LSU.

As the 2019 season looms, Austin and Esukpa are gone. Aston and Otoviano remain with an interesting crop of talent behind them including Harvard transfer Charlie Booker and incoming freshman Jawan King. Will Bloomgren have a lead guy to trust for the duration of the 2019 season? We might just have to wait and see.

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