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For Mike Bloomgren rebuilding is hard, but hope remains

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Rice football hit a new low on Saturday, falling to a previously winless UTEP team at home. Mike Bloomgren is taking the loss harder than anyone else.

“We’re just past the point of moral victories. I love that they fight, but we’ve just got to win games.”

The frustration in the room was palpable following Rice’s stunning near-blowout loss at the hands of the now 1-8 UTEP Miners. Rest assured fans, head coach Mike Bloomgren hears you loud and clear and he feels the pain as deep as anyone else associated with this program, if not more so.

“I never thought I would be associated with a team that has had this little success,” Bloomgren admitted following the loss,” This has been very difficult.” It was a difficult result in more ways than one for Owls everywhere. Prior to Saturday, UTEP’s last win came in November of 2016 — nearly two years ago. The toll a defeat to a program that had been so bad for so long is ringing loud and clear through the Rice locker room and through Bloomgren’s ears. The reverberations are going to continue for some time.

“UTEP made more plays than we did down the stretch and that seems to be a common theme,” Bloomgren said in the aftermath of the defeat, adding that his team has been “given a lifetime of lessons this year.” If the team doesn’t start learning from these gut-wrenching moments, Bloomgren knows they’ll be in for more of the same feelings. And that’s not fun.

“It’s no fun right now to do this,” he said, “The fun is in the winning… life is not fun for me right now because this is such a big part of my life. It’s not fun for our coaches; it’s not fun for our players. It’s just not fun. Fun is in the winning.”

Life is not fun for me right now because this is such a big part of my life. It’s not fun for our coaches; it’s not fun for our players. It’s just not fun. Fun is in the winning.

It’s been a challenging season for Bloomgren and his staff. This team has been repetitively punched in the mouth and asked to respond. For every step forward the Owls seem to take two steps forward, but that doesn’t mean the steps forward should be ignored. This team has shown signs of progress, something evidenced by their willingness to fight back from a 31-3 deficit and turning it into a one-score game in the fourth quarter.

Bloomgren says there’s no “magic pill” and he “wouldn’t be able to sleep if I threw these seniors out with the bathwater.” This staff won’t throw in the towel and write this season off as lost, no matter how gruesome the record might be. Instead, they’re going to keep working, keep making adjustments and keep showing up on the field every Saturday with winning intentions.

This team needs to see progress, at whatever the cost. “At this point, everything is on the table,” said Bloomgren. The Owls’ new head man inherited a 1-win team with a monumental rebuild awaiting him. It’s been harder than even he could have anticipated, but it doesn’t mean all is lost. This is the valley. There’s nowhere to go but up.

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Rally falls short as Owls drop Homecoming game to UTEP

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Rice football missed a golden opportunity for their first Conference USA win, falling to UTEP on Homecoming at Rice Stadium.

This one stung a bit. Neither the Rice offense nor the defense woke up before halftime, putting the team into a 24-point hole that was too deep to overcome. After two promising outings against FIU and North Texas, the Owls’ slow start against previously winless UTEP ruthlessly cut down all goodwill built over the previous weeks only to build it up way too late.

Rice football now sits at 1-9, still winless in conference play with three games remaining on the year. It’s safe to say that’s nowhere close to how many hoped the Mike Bloomgren era would begin at South Main. Here’s a bit more on the good and the bad from Saturday’s performance.

1. The secondary is caught between a rock and a hard place

UTEP came out guns blazing. The Miners went over the top, completing a 42-yard deep shot on the first play of the game. That was the first of several deep passes attempted and completed by the Owls’ opponent on Saturday. The need for help on the back end has been well documented and UTEP did well to expose a known deficiency.

What they did even better though, was balance their deep shots with easy completions. For every long shot quarterback Kai Locksley threw the Miners had two or three dink and dunk passes. It felt like every time the defense had kept the ball in front of them the Miners would go right back over the top. This rhythm kept the Rice defense off balance from the opening whistle.

Justin Bickham and Brandon Douglas-Dotson both struggled to keep pace with receivers on the outside. One on one coverage, even with safety help, remains a problem for this unit. By the time the game ended it was Collin Whitaker and Tyrae Thornton playing most of the snaps. The Miners were trying to bleed the clock and the pass rush had picked up significantly at that point, but its worth noting both played well.

2. If you can’t tackle, you can’t win

The secondary has had their issues, but the biggest bone to pick with the defensive performance on Saturday was the tackling. You can’t boil down a game to one play, but take a look at this UTEP touchdown run midway through the second quarter.

https://twitter.com/swcroundup/status/1058818539694575617

Roe Wilkins has his arms wrapped around Quardraiz Wadley’s waist. A few other Rice defenders get hands on him as well. The initial push from the defensive line could have been enough to force UTEP to kick the field goal on fourth down. Instead, the Miners get the score. Wadley is a talented athlete and he made several big plays on Saturday, but the poor tackling did the Owls no favors.

It’s not a one man problem. If the defensive staff could pinpoint the breakdowns to one man he’d long since have been relegated the bench. It’s a collective issue that has plagued the Owls all season and continued against UTEP. Poor tackling makes even the least talented players look like superstars. The UTEP offense looked to be a well-oiled machine throughout the entirety of the first half.

3. Starting a true freshman quarterback is going to have highs and lows

In a perfect world, Wiley Green probably isn’t the starting quarterback for the Rice Owls, yet. There’s a lot of things to like about Green and the talent and arm strength make him should get Rice fans excited for the future. If the coaching staff is able to develop him and he can add some muscle in the offseason he stands a good chance to be the frontrunner for the starting job in 2019.

In the meantime, he’s still a true freshman playing meaningful D1 football for the first time in his life. The greenness of Green showed Saturday. He wasn’t asked to do too much through the air, but he overthrew way too many receivers. Austin Walter and Austin Trammell were safety nets, ready for short completions to help their young passer. He just couldn’t get them the ball, particularly when faced with pressure.

The upside of Green couldn’t be any clearer than the Owls final drive before halftime. With 19 seconds on the clock Green hit two long passes, each to Austin Walter, driving the offense 50-yards in 16 seconds to set up a field goal as the clock expired.

Green was masterful on his fourth quarter touchdown, delivering a perfect pass over the top of the coverage and into the outstretched arms of Trammell (below). He doubled down, hitting Trammell on a 53-yard bomb for a touchdown on a fourth down scramble.

https://twitter.com/swcroundup/status/1058842310409101313

It took him a while to knock off the dust and get going. He finished 17-of-32 for 313 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. There’s no doubt he has a long way to go, but Green is going to be a very good quarterback. Give him time.

4. Optics matter, to an extent

There were several recruits on campus for this game who were looking to see signs of progress from Rice on Saturday. Letting the clock expire as big losers on your home field would have been a bad look, to say the least. The fact that this ended up being a close game doesn’t impact the box score but does go a long way for those watching.

Simply put, perception is important. The administration that hired Bloomgren and helped put this team together understands and believes in the process. The decision makers are not going to make hasty decisions and bail on this team, nor should they.

But recruiting isn’t a battle for the well-reasoned administrators, it’s a fight for 17-year-old and 18-year-old kids. Thankfully in Rice’s case, the Owls are targetting those who, hopefully, can look past an immediate result and understand the bigger picture. That bigger picture includes an offense which, when the second half rolled around, proved it has the pieces to move the ball effectively.

Several of the priority targets on the Owls’ 2019 and 2020 wish lists could contribute to this team right now. There are depth concerns at a variety of positions and the allure of early playing time and a unified culture are going to get some important signatures on National Signing Day. A loss to UTEP on your home field stings, and it should. Nevertheless, if Rice can make progress on the recruiting front despite the noise, things will get better.

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Owls prep for Homecoming vs UTEP, practice notes (11/1)

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Rice football put the finishing touches on their gameplan for their Homecoming game against UTEP, the Owls’ Week 10 opponent.

After a few rough weeks in the middle of the season, the Rice offense is starting to come together. The atmosphere with the unit at practice was extremely positive on Thursday. Injured quarterbacks Shawn Stankavage and Evan Marshman were both there to offer encouragement and participate in the offensive huddle.

They stood by as receivers Austin Trammell and Aaron Cephus flashed in redzone work. Cephus has come a long way from where he started the season and is beginning to understand how to use his large frame to go up and rebound the basketball. His technical skills still need some refinement, but there are few better endzone targets on this offense than him right now. High-pointing the ball was a significant component of these sessions.

Dubbed “Mr. Consistent” by head coach Mike Bloomgren during fall camp, Trammell might have had glue for hands on Thursday. Coming off a career-best 10 reception, 94 yard game against North Texas last weekend, Trammell continues to be the focal point of the passing attack in practice and will continue to absorb targets in the games.

Injury update

The biggest new addition to the Owls’ this weekend will be cornerback D’Angelo Ellis. He’s been close to a return for a few weeks now, but Saturday should be his first action. He credits the strength program with the strides he’s made in recover thus far, saying Hans Straub’s program has helped him gain weight and get bigger and stronger.

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Rebuilding starts in the trenches

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Rice football yearns to be a team that pounds the rock and relies on strong offensive line play. It’s taken some time, but the players in the trenches are starting to gel.

The phrase Intellectual Brutality traveled with Mike Bloomgren from Palo Alto to South Main. The practice is still a work in progress, and that’s largely because the Owls are still working to find their identity in the trenches.

The Rice offensive line started the year as a veteran-laden group of starters which has gotten progressively younger as the season has advanced. From left to right Uzoma Osuji, Jack Greene, Shea Baker, Joseph Dill and Sam Pierce started the Owls first six games together. Then some of the Owls’ true freshman pushed themselves into the mix and stayed there. Clay Servin from Richardson, Tx and Cole Garcia from Dallas, Tx each earned their first starts on the road against FIU at left tackle and left guard, respectively, and kept the starting jobs through the Owls’ next game at North Texas.

“I think this offensive line, with the five guys we’ve got right now, is the best five guys we can have on the field,” Mike Bloomgren said excitedly, adding that Pierce is playing at the best level he’s seen him play this year and center Baker continues to develop into a leader of the unit.

Rice FootballTo get to this point has been a journey. The message from Bloomgren and his staff has been clear to the entire team from day one, something offensive line coach Joe Ashfield echoed regarding his offensive line, “It’s a true meritocracy,” he confirmed, “It doesn’t matter what age you are or how long you’ve been here.”

As the season has progressed freshman have risen through the ranks of that meritocracy at several positions. This system isn’t easy, but the players that have picked it up the quickest have already made their marks on the program.

Players like Antonio Montero, Prudy Calderon and Treshawn Chamberlain have all risen from backups to starters on defense. Garcia, Servin and starting quarterback Wiley Green fought their way to the top of the depth chart in the same fashion. After weeks of churn, the Owls have found consistency. The next step is turning that familiarity into success.

For many of these young guys, adapting to the speed and tenacity of the college game has proven to be the most challenging learning curve. Understanding the schemes and protections are one thing, but being able to implement them in live action is another.

It’s a six-second street brawl every time we’re throwing the ballCole Garcia

Left guard Cole Garcia called it “a six-second street brawl every time we’re throwing the ball” while Servin emphasized the need to “put your hand in the dirt and just go.” That instinct and raw talent, refined with careful coaching, should produce fruit that will pay dividends for years to come. Balancing the long-term goals with the immediate needs is one of the challenges this staff is facing right now.

From a practical standpoint, the Owls need a combination on the line that can keep their quarterback upright. The current situation, as Garcia described it, is that the Owls are “really down to [their] last quarterback.” Something Garcia and the rest of the line take very seriously. “I want my quarterback to leave the game with the cleanest jersey on the field and no scuffs on his helmet,” he said with a jovial, yet serious demeanor.

The coaching staff believes they’ve found the right pieces to succeed. Now it’s time to see if those pieces can come together and play as one, protecting their young quarterback and giving this team an opportunity to win again. Bloomgren tasks every player with doing their one-eleventh, but the offensive line has to do their five-elevenths. If they can work as one, the future up front is bright, not just for this season, but for the very ethos of this Intellectual Brutality culture for years to come.

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UNT review and UTEP preview, press conference notes (10/30)

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Head coach Mike Bloomgren broken down Rice football‘s performance against North Texas and preview the UTEP game.

On learning how to start strong and finish games

We played well enough to win for about 47 minutes, but that’s not how long a football game is.

Our football team plays much better… when we get that early score. It carries over to all the other phases of our football team.

On Wiley Green‘s performance

He played a really solid game. He did a lot of things with his feet, he improvised on a couple and protected the ball to the best of his ability.

On the involvement of Juma Otoviano

It was not the intention for him to have 19 carries, but he ended up having a really hot hand. We saw him play physical. We saw him break tackles… He’s also somebody we know can be in that wildcat package, but he has the ability to throw the ball down the field as well. We could see more from Juma as this season continues.

On the play of Anthony Ekpe

Mason Fine is an outstanding quarterback and we hit him 10 times and sacked him three. Anthony Ekpe had those three sacks. I thought he was pretty unstoppable on some of those third downs. It was really exciting to see him dominate a game like that and I thought those hits paid dividends as the game went on.

On “Jack Fox doing Jack Fox things”

Jack Fox Had a career-long 76-yard punt against North Texas, averaging 47.3 yards on seven punts with five punts downed inside the 20.

For the fourth time this season he’s on the Ray Guy Award’s Eight List this week. We think he’s a deserving candidate of that award.

On the UTEP game and Homecoming

It’s a huge game for our football team, a huge game for our program and we’re working as such. We are attacking this week no different than we have other weeks. We’re putting in the work.

It’s our homecoming. We hope to have all our letterman and alumni back. We want our letterman to know how important they are to this program, so we hope they all come back and watch it and I hope we put on a show for them.

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