Next up for Rice football, a home game against North Texas. Here’s what head coach Scott Abell had to say about the matchup and a few depth chart notes.
Head coach Scott Abell and a set of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the UAB game and looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with North Texas.
We touch on those items, then dig into the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like heading into the weekend. First, the quotes:
Press Conference Quotes
The advantage we got in this bye week compared to the first one is that we were healthier going into it. The first bye week, three weeks ago now, it became more how do we catch our young football players up? How do we manage the roster to try and get ourselves healthy to head into the back half of the season? This time we hit the bye week, we were fairly healthy, so we could grow in the bye week. We could really take a hard look at what we’re doing. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the bye week
I see a football program, they’re playing with a ton of confidence. Incredibly skilled on both sides of the football. They recruited players that fit their scheme… and here they are now, they’re playing as good of football as anybody we’ve played all year.”– Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the UNT program
They’re very opportunistic. They’ve forced 24 turnovers on the year, defensively. We need to take care of the football. That’s been a secret sauce that probably doesn’t get talked about. Their offense overshadows their defense but their defense has 24 takeaways on the year. That makes every offense better. That makes every program better. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the North Texas defense
[QB Drew Mestemaker and RB Caleb Hawkins are] just two really talented people. When I look at their offensive roster, you gotta talk about [Wyatt] Young, right? He’s a deep ball threat. He’s incredibly athletic and really fast. They find really creative ways to get him the football… they give you a lot to defend. Mestemaker, he does a really good job of getting the football to all of his athletes. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the North Texas skill players
My time at Rice has been unbelievable. It’s taught me so many lessons. I’ve been through so many trials and tribulations and those trials and tribulations ultimately got me to where I am today. Without God, I wouldn’t be here standing at this podium right now. If you would have told me two years ago you would be standing here, you would be a captain of the Rice football team, I would have said, you’re a liar. Because of God and because of people that he brought to my life like coach Abell I’m able to stand at this podium right now and be a captain of this Rice football team. – Tight End Micah Barnett on his time at Rice
They do have a good quarterback They’ve got a pretty good running back as well. I just feel like they all complement each other very well. In some offense you see some groups doing better than others and some not, but I feel these are very well put together team, a very experienced team. I feel they all mesh together as a unit and come together very well. – Defensive lineman Blake Boenisch on the North Texas offense
Full Press Conference
Depth Chart
Depth Chart Notes
There were two minor changes to the depth chart this week, both accounting for injuries that were preexisting before the Rice football bye week. Tackle Brad Baur was removed with freshman Justin Michaelis inserted in his stead. On defense, Daveon Hook was removed with Jack Kane sliding up and Bailey Fletcher re-enntering the two deep behind him.
Any other adjustments will likely be injury-related or driven by the subtle schematic shifts the Owls employ for this game. We’ll cover those in depth on this week’s practice report, available to those subscribed to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon, which should be out later this week.
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Trammell played in his third game of the season on Sunday against the Chargers, catching his lone target for 14 yards. He also played on special teams.
Granson was more involved with this offense this week seeing two targets and catching his first pass since Week 2. He also played his typical allotment of special teams snaps.
Fox punted four times in the Lions’ Week 11 loss to the Eagles, averaging 42.3 yards per kick with a long of 55 yards. The slight dip in average was driven by two well-placed balls pinned inside the 20 yard line.
Boswell was a perfect 2-of-2 on his field goal tries against the Bengals in Week 11, converting all four of his extra point attempts, as well. He is 19-of-22 on field goals this season, including one blocked kick.
McCaffrey was placed on injured reserve with a broken collarbone suffered during the Commanders’ loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 9 and is expected to be sidelined for the foreseeable future.
More Owls in the NFL
From practice squads to current free agents, there are other Owls on the cusp of returning to active rosters. Find more details on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.
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Rice basketball kept things competitive in the early goings before faltering in the second half, falling to the No. Tennessee Volunteers on the road.
Tennessee scored first and never trailed in what proved to be a rather comfortable win for the home team. Rice Basketball head coach Rob Lanier, who spent eight seasons as an assistant to Rick Barnes in Knoxville was correct to be warry of returning to town to play against the Vols.
“I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today if it weren’t for him. I’m so indebted. It’s a place that I look forward to going back to,” Lanier said in the days leading up to the game. “I don’t really want to coach against Rick, but I’m excited to get back there. It’s a great place.”
Thompson-Boling Arena was indeed rocking on Monday evening, slowed only briefly when Rice cut their deficit to five points near the end of the first half on a three-pointer from Nick Anderson. The Vols answered with a 5-0 run to get back in front by double-digits,
Tennessee would take a 13-point lead into halftime and maintain at least a 10-point advantage through the second half. Rice remained competitive for the first couple of media timeouts before Tennessee began to pull away in the later moments, stretching their advantage to as many as 26 points before closing things out with a 25-point margin of victory.
Rice Basketball falls to 2-3 with the loss. The Owls are 0-2 away from Tudor Fieldhouse this season.
That Nick Anderson led the team in scoring with 19 points on 3-of-7 from deep and a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. He’s been one of the most consistent scorers the Owls have had this season and will be expected to maintain that level of production if Rice is going to get where they want to go.
It’s that next man up that’s the focal point of the Owls’ early stretch of nonconference play and Cam Carroll threw his hat into the ring on Monday. 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting against against a defense as swarming as the Volunteers’ was notable as was the lone turnover in 23 minutes on the court.
Rice basketball has high expectations for the veterans on this roster. Getting a meaningful contribution from Carroll, or others with less proven D1 experience this season, would be massive.
East Carolina was flying under the radar after a 3-3 start with losses to a pair of power conference teams and Tulane on the road. Since then, the Pirates are 4-0 including this latest impressive win over Memphis. The Tigers can still reach 10 wins, but have effectively been eliminated from the conference championship game and the playoff. That’s a tough pill to swallow for Memphis.
Midshipmen Make it Happen
Memphis’ next opponent, Navy, posted a statement win this weekend. Following back-to-back losses against North Texas and Notre Dame on the road, the Middies returned to Annapolis and won a thriller over South Florida. The loss knocks the Bulls out of conference title contention with tiebreaker while the Midshipmen remain alive if they can get some help over the last two weeks.
North Texas, Tulane Hold Serve
While some of the other contenders stumbled, North Texas and Tulane posted rather mundane wins over teams in the bottom half of the conference standings. Neither game was particularly close or in doubt down the stretch, keeping both the Mean Green and the Green Wave in contention along with East Carolina with one loss in conference play.
Looking ahead – Key storylines
Beware, the Dome
East Carolina had best keep their eyes wide open as they travel to the Alamodome next weekend, a place where the Roadrunners seem to turn into the best version of themselves. If the Pirates play like they did this past weekend, they should be okay, but that’s the last place any contender wants to pay a visit to at the moment following UTSA’s drubbings of Rice and Tulane in their most recent home contests.
Post-bye Rice
As for Rice, they posted what’s looking to be one of the more impressive non-conference wins of the season following their first bye week, taking down UConn in double overtime. The Owls have had another two-week stretch to prepare, but they’ll still be heavy underdogs when they host North Texas on Senior Day.
Going North
Tulane also better be careful when they travel north to take on Temple. The Owls have their eyes set on bowl eligibility and gave a then-undefeated Navy squad a scare a few weeks back. Even the slightest potential for chilly weather wouldn’t help the southern squad in their hopes for a quick and easy road trip before their regular season finale at home against Charlotte.
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Rice Women’s basketball grinded out a four-quarter battle against Middle Tennessee, outscoring the Blue Raiders in the final minutes to clinch the win.
Days removed from a relatively comfortable win over rival Houston, Rice women’s basketball found itself in a dogfight against former C-USA foe Middle Tennessee at Tudor Fieldhouse on Saturday. The two squads were tied after the first quarter and separated by just two points at the break following six dead even scores in the first half alone.
After falling behind briefly on an MTSU three-pointer to open the third quarter, Rice started to got on the offensive with a thorough 10-0 run made possible by tremendous defense. MTSU would shoot 31 percent in the frame as Rice went inside, dominating the paint with Hailey Adams and Shelby Hayes accounting for 10 of the Owls’ 14 points in that 10-minute period.
Even a nine-point lead wouldn’t prove enough, though. MTSU knotted things back up at 51 all with 4:31 to play in the final quarter. And then, with the game on the line, Rice got a succession of huge shots from Louann Battiston and some clutch free throws from Hailey Adams to salt the game away. The Blue Raiders would make just three shots from the field in the final three minutes, another stout defensive effort.
Rice women’s basketball improved to 2-1 on the season and 1-0 at Tudor Fieldhouse.
When March comes around, Rice women’s basketball will need to find a player or two they can trust to make the big shot when it counts. As it stands, there hasn’t yet been one dominant player, but with where this team is at, that might not be a problem.
On Saturday, Rice got a team-high 18 points from Aniah Alexis. Her double-double paced the team, but the massive fourth quarter from Battiston and a four-steal, three-assist effort from Victoria Flores were equally vital to pulling out a close win. More often than not, a “team win” is cheesy line from a press conference. This time around, it really was a collective effort that made the difference.
