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2018 LSU Tigers Season Preview

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A road trip to Death Valley awaits Rice Football at the tail end of the 2018 season. How will the Owls stack up against the LSU Tigers in 2018?

The toughest test for Rice Football in 2018 will come on Nov. 17 when the Owls travel to Death Valley to take on the LSU Tigers. The SEC heavyweight has been in a state of flux since the firing on long-time head coach Les Miles and the start of the Ed Orgeron era.

After taking over as the interim coach midway through 2016, Oregon’s first full season came in 2017 and it was a bumpy ride. The Tigers started out 2-2 losing at home to eventual Sun Belt champions, Troy. The pressure on Coach O continued to mount, but a 7-1 end to the regular season quelled those calling for his job, at least for the time being.

The Tigers will be talented in 2018 thanks to an ever-abundant pool of talent in the south. Their success (or lack thereof) will depend entirely on their level of coaching and quarterback play. The 2018 game with Rice marks the first time these two teams will meet on the football field in 23 years.

It would take an upset for the ages for this Rice team to beat this LSU team, but there’s always the chance Rice is aided by chaos in the LSU camp. If the wheels fall off and Coach O struggles out of the gate again the team could elect to give him the boot before LSU meets Rice the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. If that does happen, all bets are off.

Here’s what to expect from LSU in 2018.

Offense

The Tigers primary objective of the offseason will be deciding on Danny Etling‘s successor under center. The former starting quarterback was selected in the NFL Draft this spring, which at the time seemed to open the door for sophomore quarterback Myles Brennan. The latter was uninspiring in limited action last season.

Brennan appeared in six games, completing 14 of 24 passes for 182 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. It was Brennan that replaced Etling midway through the Tigers home loss to Troy, only to be benched in favor of Etling later on in the game.

The starting job was between him and redshirt freshman Lowell Narcisse until Coach Oregon landed what he hopes will be an impactful grad transfer in former Ohio State backup quarterback Joe Burrow. He, presumably, will be handed the starting job at LSU after failing to beat out Dwayne Haskins at Ohio State.

Along with a new name at quarterback, LSU will have to break in several skill players. Texas Tech transfer Jonathan Giles should take over for DJ Chark as the No. 1 receiver while the running back position is completely wide open. There is no Derrius Guice waiting in the wings to replace a departing superstar. This year the Tigers will be forced to rely on a committee with the load shared between Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Nick Brossette.

LSU has a few new faces along the offensive line as well, but the Tigers depth and experience should enable them to plug and play. Don’t expect any major gaps on that front.

Defense

Only in the SEC West can a team lose their top three tacklers and not miss a beat. Arden Key, Donnie Alexander and Corey Thompson are all gone.  Still, potential first-round pick Devin White leads will lead the front seven from the linebacker position. White led the Tigers with 133 tackles, a mark which ranked 11th in the nation.

Averaging slightly more than 10 tackles per game, White had more total tackles than any two other defensive players combined. He also had 13.5 tackles for a loss, 4.5 sacks and one interception.

Backing White up in the secondary is another potential first-round pick, Greedy Williams. He nabbed six interceptions last season, accounting for half of the team total of 12 picks. He’s as lock-down as they come and will draw the task of shutting down the No. 1 pass-catching option in each of the Tigers’ games this season.

The defensive line will see some turnover too, most prominently the loss of veteran player Christian Lacouture. Waiting in the wings are a handful of less experienced, but still talented pass rushers including Texas Tech transfer Breiden Fehoko and host of incoming freshman.

Schedule

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2019 Running back Jawan King commits to Owls

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Rice football continues to add to their already strong 2019 recruiting class. 3-star running back Jawan King became the newest of the Owls’ commits on Wednesday.

More: Complete list of 2019 Rice football commits after the early signing period

On Tuesday morning Jawan King woke up while it was still dark and made a long drive to the campus of Rice University. For him, the 2:30 a.m. wake up time was well worth the sacrifice. He got to campus, spent the day with the coaches and left after making a verbal commitment to Coach Mike Bloomgren and the Owls.

King informed the coaches of his decision on Tuesday, the same day he received his offer. He released the news to the public on Wednesday via social media.

https://twitter.com/jawank23/status/1024825202738425856

247 Sports tabs King as the No. 83 running back in the nation and the No. 157 player in the state of Texas. He is now the highest rated player in the Owls’ 2019 recruiting class. Better still, he’s a higher rated prospect than any member of the 2018 class. Rice hasn’t signed a player rated this highly since Zack Abercrumbia and Carl Thompson in 2015.

He picked the Owls over offers from Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Houston Baptist, Louisiana Monroe, Texas State, Texas-San Antonio and others. The 5-foot-10 speedster is going to see his offer list continue to grow, making getting in first and securing a commitment a huge win for Rice and Coach Bloomgren.

Rice’s 2019 class is now ranked 93rd in the nation and sixth in Conference USA. The level of talent that the Owls are getting on campus continues to rise, and with it, so do the profile of the commitments. If Rice can continue to reel in guys like King the rebuilding process could be completed much quicker than anticipated.

King is quick, decisive and has the potential to be a big-play machine for the Owls in the coming years.

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24 Days: Remembering the consistency of Trevor Cobb

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Trevor Cobb is the gold standard for Rice football running backs. His incredible career still reigns atop the majority of the Owls’ record books.

In January Trevor Cobb became the seventh Rice football player to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. When he is formally inducted on Dec. 4, 2018 he will join an illustrious list of former players including Buddy Dial, Weldon Humble, Tommy Kramer, Dicky Maegle, Bill Wallace and Froggy Williams.

Cobb is more than deserving of his place in college football history. What he accomplished at Rice may never be equaled. His 1,091 career rushing attempts are more than the next two closest rushers combined (Chad Richardson and Charles Ross combined for 980 carries). He holds the first, second and third spots in the single-season rushing ranks, topping out at 360 carries in 1991.

Pick whatever statistic you like, Cobb remains one of the most dominant offensive players in Rice football history.

Rushing for 4,948 yards over his four-year career, Cobb’s most impressive statistic is his 24 100-yard games. He played 44 games, meaning he was more likely to top the century mark (54.5 percent) than not.

Not only is that a jaw-dropping feat, it’s something that the Owls haven’t seen anyone come close to since. The official record book doesn’t list any other running backs under the 100-yard game statistic. It appears that Charles Ross came the closest, registering 11 100-yard games over five years.

In 2017 Rice had one 100-yard performance by a running back. Nashon Ellerbe went off for 153 yards on 22 carries with four touchdowns against Southern Miss on Nov. 11. Rice has several options in the backfield this year – even if someone does emerge as the premier back, it’s going to take an astounding effort to come close to Cobb’s highwater mark of nine 100-yard games in a single season (a feat he accomplished in 1991).

 

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Quarterback battle wide open entering fall camp

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Rice football is still searching for their starting quarterback for the 2018 season with several players in the mix to earn the job. How will this battle play out over the course of fall camp?

The click-clack of cleats jogging down the concrete ramp onto the field echoed through Rice Stadium as the team began to trickle in for the first practice of the season. Scattered among the masses of blue and white jerseys were a handful of red-clad athletes. The red, meant to symbolize no contact, is reserved for players working their way back from injury and, perhaps more so, is the designator of the quarterbacks.

As the team spread out into position groups the quarterbacks gathered together as well, talking amongst themselves, going through their warmups and tossing the ball back and forth between them. From afar, everyone looked somewhat similar. No one player had distanced themselves from the group. Not only was that true of their physical proximity, but it’s reflective of the current state of the depth chart too.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren called the depth chart “fluid as water” and another staffer commented that it was “worth the paper it’s printed on.” From cornerback to wide receiver, from the specialists to the offensive line, every position is up for grabs. Including the quarterback.

“Everything is going to be evaluated. Everything is going to be filmed. Everything will be watched. The assessment is real and constant,” Bloomgren said with a passionate, yet even-keeled temperament. “Everything will be earned.”

More: Breaking down the options at quarterback for the Owls in 2018

Rice football enters the 2018 season with a fair amount of uncertainty at the quarterback position. Jackson Tyner and Sam Glaesmann both saw meaningful snaps last season. Joining Tyner and Glaesmann is graduate transfer Shawn Stankavage from Vanderbilt. That trio, at least for now, represents the primary contenders for the starting job.

Bloomgren gave Tyner the nod as the front-runner at Conference USA Media Days, but even Tyner is preparing himself for the battle he’s going to face for the starting job. “Competition is good.” he remarked after practice, “It’s going to make every single one of us better, perform higher. We’re going to push each other.” Glaesmann echoed that sentiment, going as far as to say that the quarterback room was all “good buddies” who “want the best for each other.”

As they went throughout practice they all saw highs and lows. The trio of Tyner, Glaesmann and Stankavage rotated with the starters throughout most of the first day. Each would take a rep, then step back and watch the next guy in line take his shot.

No one distanced themselves too much on opening day, but there’s a long way to go before the Owls kick off their season against Prairie View A&M on Aug. 25. Bloomgren would like to have a starter penciled in before that game begins, but said he had “no fear or qualms about letting this battle go to gametime and beyond if that’s what it takes.”

More: 2018 Season Preview – Prairie View A&M Panthers

On a talent basis, Bloomgren is not concerned, going as far as to say he believed there were four or five guys that had enough talent to win the job outright. When it comes to making his decision, he touted intelligence as the top differentiator. At the end of the day, the question he was asking himself was simple: “Who is going to be able to execute our offense the most efficiently?”

Without revealing his hand too much, Bloomgren did confirm that mobility was something he valued a fair amount. “We always want a better athlete. We always want someone that can get three first downs a game with their feet,” he said excitedly, saying that players that can move around well and steal first downs make the west coast offense operated as it’s designed to be run.”

That would play to the strengths of Glaesmann, who made a move with the ball that was so quick and elusive that Bloomgren called him a “magician” on the field. Glaesmann averaged 4.1 yards per carry last season and scored three touchdowns on the ground. Tyner averaged 2.0 yards per rush with one rushing score. Stankvage never recorded a carry at Vanderbilt but did rush for 1,058 yards and 13 touchdowns in his final year of high school in North Carolina.

All three quarterbacks were put in motion multiple times during the drills. Each looked comfortable on the move and no end to the battle is in sight quite yet. Tyner might have summed it up the best. Whoever wins the job, they’re all just excited to be back out of the field competing.

“Last year we had a rough year and a lot of guys got to the point where we just weren’t excited to play ball,” he admitted, somewhat begrudging before ending on a high note “We got the juice back and we’re ready to ball.”

“In my perfect world,” Bloomgren said, somewhat hopefully, “someone will jump up, snatch that job and never let go.” The quarterback race is wide open. May the best man win.

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25 Days: Aaron Cephus snubbed from Biletnikoff Watch List

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Rice football lays claim to one of the nation’s greatest wide receivers. Can Aaron Cephus put together another jaw-dropping performance in 2018?

Aaron Cephus tallied 25 receptions in 2017. That’s not a herculean amount of catches, but it led the Owls by a good margin. Austin Walter and Kylen Granson were second on the team with 18 receptions each, but Walter is a running back and Granson is no longer with the team. That’s not to say it’s going to be a one-man show in 2018, but Cephus will be the preeminent pass-catching threat for Rice. The numbers he puts up could be extraordinary.

As a freshman, the 6-foot-4, 205-pound Cephus was one of the most impressive receivers in the nation. His 622 yards were modest, but his 24.9 yards per catch topped not only Conference USA, but the entire nation. He averaged more than seven additional yards per catch than anyone else in the conference; Turner Smiley from North Texas was the No. 2 receiver in CUSA and he averaged 17.8 yards per catch.

Inexplicably, Cephas was left off the 2018 Biletnikoff Award Watch List, the award given to the nation’s top pass catcher. Several other CUSA players did make the cut; Teddy Veal (Louisiana Tech), Tyre Brady (Marshall), Ty Lee (Middle Tennessee), Jalen Guyton (North Texas) and Michael Lawrence (North Texas). Those five may very well be deserving but leaving Cephus off the list is short-sighted at best and ignorant at worst.

Like Cephus, the rest of the Rice receiving corps is extremely young. Sophomores Cameron Montgomery and Austin Trammell with line up opposite Cephus with redshirt freshman Rhett Cardwell and Chris Bourdeaux also factoring into the mix.

As long as Cephus takes the bulk of the targets the Owls won’t need to find another top-flight pass catcher, but getting a pair of players with 20+ receptions should be a realistic goal for this offense. That will clear things but for Cephus, providing him with one-on-one matchups he can exploit.

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