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Rice Football: Owls hit open week in need of a reset

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Rice Football hits an open week in need of an introspective look. The Owls must make their extra week of preparation as productive as possible.

There’s hardly even been an off week that didn’t come at the right time. If the team is winning, the rest offers time for injured players to return and the team to rest up for another string of games. If the team isn’t, it’s a respite from the toil and time to reassess. Rice football finds itself in the latter rather position than the former.

Owners of an 0-6 record, what the team does with this week will reverberate for months to come.

More: Takeaways from Owls’ waterlogged loss to UAB

“I think this bye is going to be a defining moment for us,” linebacker Blaze Alldredge said following the UAB loss. “Hopefully we can use it as a turning point in our season. I know the coaches are going to do their best to help us do that and it’s going to be on us players to keep the right mindset and treat this bye week like professionals and come the week after ready to play.”

Coming back ready to play starts with an honest assessment of where the team has left off.

Where the Owls stand

Among their Conference USA peers, Rice has the tenth-most efficient offense, ninth-most efficient defense and the fifth most efficient special teams. SP+, an opponent-adjusted metric meant to evaluate the entire team as a whole, pegs the Owls as the 12th best team in C-USA.

Those numbers highlight what most have been able to digest from watching the team play this year. There are facets of all three phases that have been undeniably great — but hitting those highpoints consistently has been a challenge.

As they search for their first win, the team knows they’re capable of so much more. Bloomgren knows it too.

“I’m so glad we’re going into an open week so we can get better at some real fundamental things that we’ve just got to continue to work through,” he said, “I still think there’s a lot in the future of this football team. I certainly don’t think this any kind of death sentence or anything like that. What I do think is if we work, we’re going to win some games. And I don’t know how many. But if we position ourselves and work our butts off for the next two weeks, it should start then.”

It gets easier from here

That first win might not be far off. The difficulty of the nonconference schedule has been well documented, but the quality of the opponents that remain on the Rice football schedule has taken a noticeable dip too. Here are the first six opponents:

Army | 3-2
No. 11 Texas | 4-1
No. 19 Wake Forest | 5-0
No. 22 Baylor | 5-0
LA Tech | 4-1
UAB | 4-1

Three of them are ranked in the most recent AP Poll. Two of them are undefeated. Altogether, the Owls’ first six opponents are 25-5 with losses to LSU, Texas, Michigan, current C-USA leader WKU and current AAC leader Tulane. That’s a sterling resume.

Contrast that to the road ahead:

UTSA | 2-3
Southern Miss | 3-2
Marshall | 2-3
MTSU | 2-3
North Texas | 2-3
UTEP | 1-4

The next six opponents on the schedule have six combined victories over FBS teams with wins over UTEP (twice), Troy, Ohio, Marshall and UTSA. One of those teams has a record of .500 or better (Southern Miss) and that includes wins over Alcorn State and UTEP. That’s a stark difference from what the Owls have faced so far in which no opponent has yet to lose multiple times in regulation.

The next two weeks will be a gut check for the Owls on both sides of the football. Senior Aston Walter says “It starts with looking in the mirror,” adding that he’ll “never put a defined ceiling on what this team can be.” If the team can take to heart that message, the next coming weeks of Rice football should offer more promising results than the first portion of the season.

Tweaks, not overhauls

Rice isn’t going to fully reboot on either side of the ball, rather they’ll work to perfect what has already paid early rewards.

On the offensive side of the ball, identifying ways to ensure open running lanes in the second half of games will be paramount. Aston Walter has broken off two long touchdown runs in the past two games, but both came early in the game. What does Rice need to change, if anything, schematically to ensure those runs can pop later in the game too?

The passing game has been better, but protecting the quarterback should be a priority. Keeping Wiley Green upright will enable the offense to be more efficient as a whole.

A more decisive pass rush would go a long way for the defense. The Owls have gotten pressure, but haven’t gotten home consistently. That’s led to added strain on the secondary.

Defensively, Rice has probably had two of their better performances under Bloomgren in the last three weeks (LA Tech, Baylor). The offense has been their best in the first halves of the games against LA Tech and UAB. If the team can find a way to sustain those good things and iron out the inefficiencies, this team could get a lot better, quickly.

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Rice Football: Owls fall to UAB in delayed downpour

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Rice Football traded blows with UAB before the offense dried up under heavy rains as the Owls fell to the Blazers in a sloppy night.

Rain and lightning turned a promising start into a drawn-out, waterlogged affair on Saturday night in Birmingham. The Owls put together a strong first half but couldn’t overcome the elements, falling to UAB on a dreary night at Legion Field. UAB won by the final score 35-20 a few minutes past midnight. Here are a few takeaways from the game.

1. Throw the first punch. Check.

Playing with the lead is always a good thing, but it’s especially important if you want to run an offense predicated on grinding out games. Controlling the clock and running the football don’t complement comeback attempts well. That’s why it’s a good thing to have a smart running back and great blocking to set up plays like this:

Rice struck first against Louisiana Tech and never trailed in regulation. The encore performance against UAB included a shutout pitched by the Rice defense through the first quarter before UAB eventually equalized the score. Rice threw punches with UAB for a while before the Blazers pulled away in the second half.

2. Opening things up on offense

Rice snapped the ball in a five wide formation twice in the first quarter, including the very first play of the game. Wiley Green went downfield on the first play, looking for Bradley Rozner who drew a flag for defensive holding. The Owls converted the second five wide play on a post to Jake Bailey before it was called back on a hold by Rice.

Neither play will show up in the box score because of the penalties, but both were a clear indication Rice is willing to open up the offense and try some new things.

It wasn’t just new formations; Rice noticeably took more shots downfield than they had in previous weeks. Green was actively scanning further than the line of scrimmage and he connected on a few throws that traveled vertically down the field, rather than trusting his receivers to do most of the work after the catch.

Green had a season-high 161 yards passing, two touchdowns and somewhere around 100 yards of pass interference penalties along the way.

3. Secondary shows some leaks

UAB running back Spencer Brown left the ball after the first drive of the game. Not only was Brown a critical piece to the Blazers offense, he became the school’s all-time leading rusher this season. Without him in the game the Blazers took to the air, finding plenty of early success.

Quarterback Tyler Johnston connected on touchdown passes of 46-, 36- and 57-yards in the first half. UAB’s longest score driving lasted 2:41.

This wasn’t the first team to test Rice deep. Wake Forest took shots, so did Baylor. Rice had given up a few deep balls, but the secondary seemed nowhere near as suspect as it did last season when the Owls surrendered an average of 2.5 pass plays of 30 yards per game allowed. Entering the UAB game Rice had given up eight such plays, an average 1.6 per contest, a mark that sits roughly in the middle of C-USA.

Even with the imperfect pass defense, the Owls hung around. George Nyakwol registered the Owls’ first interception of the season in the closing minutes of the first half. Treshawn Chamberlain added to the total with a third quarter pick.

4. Loud and clear

An emphasis on downfield passing wasn’t the only noticeable change with the Rice offense on Saturday. The Owls played an aggressive brand of football. Even when Rice didn’t complete their passes down the field they forced UAB into uncomfortable situations. The opposing secondary was littered with flags all night for defensive holding and pass interference.

A few other decisions stood out. Trailing by seven in the second quarter, Rice went for it on fourth and 10 from the UAB 36 yard line. Not only did they get it, they finished the drive with Green’s first touchdown of the season — an endzone jump ball to Brad Rozner.

In like fashion, Rice rolled the dice before the halftime whistle. After getting possession of the ball with 90 seconds to play, Rice chose to push down the field rather than run off the final seconds. The Owls made it to midfield and did not score, but the decision not to neal the ball was a tone-setter for what this offense could become.

5. Messy, messy, messy

UAB didn’t play a perfect game by any means. Multiple turnovers and flags all over the defensive secondary made it a relatively sloppy night for the home team. Then the rain — which somehow managed to stay away for nearly the entirety of the hour and a half lightning delay — began to come down in buckets.

Conveniently for the Blazers, Mother Nature opened the heavens around the time the home team had scored their second touchdown of the third quarter. Trailing by two scores, The Rice offense never got back in sync. Tom Stewart, inserted for his running ability, put the ball on the deck.

Including two rain-induced fumbles, the Owls tallied a season-high four giveaways. Rice also committed six penalties for 65 yards. That was bad, but not early as careless as UAB’s 167 yards of penalties. You can’t write a loss off based on weather, but there’s no doubt the rain played a significant factor in the second half of this game.

Rice football has played too well over the past month to not have any wins to show for themselves. A lengthy weather delay and sudden pouring rain made this most recent defeat a soggy one. There’s a lot of hurt in the Owls’ locker room right now making this the perfect time for an off week and a cooling off period.

We’re not taking a break

Rice football has the week off, but there will still be content going up on the site and on the podcast. A portion of next week’s episode is up for y’all to decide. Carter and I are going to work through some of your questions in a mailbag segment. We’ll cover everything from the UAB game to midseason thoughts and beyond.

Leave a question in the comments here or on the podcast post, shoot it to us on Twiter or email it to [email protected].

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Rice Football Film Room: LA Tech review and UAB preview

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The Week 5 edition of the Rice Football film room centers on Rice’s overtime loss to Louisiana Tech and their upcoming Week 6 opponent, UAB.

Hey y’all, Carter here, and welcome back the Rice Football Film Room. This week, we’ll take a quick look back at the heartbreaker against Louisiana Tech, before moving on to a couple plays from UAB quarterback Tyler Johnston III to get an idea of what the Owls will face in my hometown of Birmingham this week.

LA Tech

How the Rice Offense Should Look!

Rice’s offense, unfortunately, couldn’t get the job done Saturday night despite a stellar effort from the defense. That seems to be a theme this season. Still, in the first two drives we saw an extended glimpse of what the staff wants this offense to look like, and they were extremely effective in executing on those drives. Let’s take a look at Aston Walter’s first touchdown run.

Rice Football

Setup

We’re less than five minutes into the first quarter, and Rice has marched the ball downfield to the LA Tech 16-yard line on its opening drive. The Owls are in 22 personnel, with both Jaeger Bull and Jordan Myers on the left side of the line, Wiley Green under center, and FB Brendan Suckley and Walter in the I formation. LA Tech has three down linemen, three more guys walked up to the line, and four other guys in or close to the box to match Rice’s heavy personnel.

The Play

It’s a power toss, with Suckley kicking out the edge defender and RG Shea Baker pulling to lead the way for Walter. The OL do their jobs well. LG Nick Leverett does get driven back, but he stays engaged long enough to keep his man from blowing up the play (it’s not how you start a block—it’s how you finish it!). Suckley seals his man outside, Bull drives his two yards deep, Myers redirects his inside, and the gap is there for Baker to lead Walter through.

Amusingly, the LB that would’ve been Baker’s responsibility gets caught in the wash, and he never ends up having to block anyone at all. Bull’s man eventually manages to disengage, but only after he’s several yards downfield. At that point, Walter has built up too much speed for him to make the tackle. It’s a touchdown for Rice.

Great run blocking doesn’t mean every defender gets pancaked, especially when there are as many bodies involved as there are on this play. A lot of times it’s just about everybody doing their job just long enough to give the ballcarrier a chance to make the play. If Rice’s linemen, fullbacks, and tight ends can have the level of execution play in and play out that they did on these first two drives, they’ll be tough for C-USA teams to stop.

UAB

UAB’s defense has led the way for them so far, with the Blazers in the top 15 in the country in both total and scoring defense thus far. Those measures aren’t opponent- or tempo-adjusted (UAB hasn’t played any Power 5 opponents so far as compared to Rice’s three), but it’s safe to say they’re playing well on that side of the ball. The offense has lagged behind some—RB Spencer Brown (19.5 carries a game) and QB Tyler Johnston III (10.5 carries a game) are averaging a combined 3.4 yards per carry.

The Blazers use that ground game to set up aggressive play-action shots from Johnston. They’re at the best when he’s executing those, as he did in their 35-3 victory over South Alabama, when he threw for 313 yards and 3 TDs. But if he’s not on his game, that aggression can backfire, as it did in his 4-INT performance in their 20-13 loss to WKU last week. Let’s take a look at a play from each game to show the good and the bad for Johnston.

You Win Some . . .

Rice Football

Setup

It’s early in the first quarter against South Alabama (no score yet), and UAB has the ball 1st and 10 on their own 33. UAB’s in 12 personnel, with an inline TE to the boundary and an H-back, the RB, and two receivers to the field. USA’s in nickel personnel, showing a split safety look.

The Play

It’s a play-action rollout, cutting the field in half for Johnston. As the camera pans to Johnston, we lose sight of the receivers and DBs, but UAB looks to be running some form of the smash concept, with the outside receiver’s underneath route drawing the corner in to let the inside receiver Kendall Parham isolate on a safety with his corner route. This is exactly what happens, and Parham beats the safety cleanly. Johnston hits him over the top, and it’s a long touchdown for UAB.

Notice that Johnston hesitates a bit before throwing the ball once he finishes his rollout, but he drives the ball well enough that Parham only has to slow a little bit to catch it. The safety almost catches him afterwards, but Parham slips through his diving tackle attempt. It didn’t hurt Johnston here, but that hesitation can be costly for quarterbacks, as we’ll see in the next clip.

. . . You Lose Some

Rice football, film room

Setup

We’re about halfway through the 1st quarter of what will eventually be a tight loss for UAB. The Blazers have the ball 1st and 10 at about their own 38, up 3-0. They’re in 11 personnel, with two receivers to the field and a single receiver, the back, and an H-back to the boundary. WKU’s in nickel personnel with a split safety look.

The Play

It’s play action again, and Johnston is looking to hit the post route by the #2 receiver (the slot) to the field side. WKU drops into what looks to be Cover 4, commonly known as Quarters. It’s a 4-deep, 3-under look which is a very common way of defending spread offenses (which most college football offenses are now, of course) in today’s game. It’s predicated on having safeties who can read their keys quickly and flow downhill against the run, while also being athletic enough to play man on vertical routes by the inside receivers.

Here, the outside receivers release vertically, so the corners play man on them. The safeties read the releases of the No. 2 receivers (the slot and the H-back). If they go vertical up the seams, the safeties have them in man. The slot does so, so the free safety bails deep to stay over the top of his route. The H-back stays in to block, so the strong safety stays put and reads the QB. Meanwhile, the nickelback and the SAM (strongside) linebacker head to their zones in the flats. The MIKE, No. 36 Kyle Bailey, sinks back into the shallow middle (the “middle hook”) zone.

More: Why Intellectual Brutality remains a staple of the Rice offense

Johnston wants the slot receiver on the post route. Neither of the safeties have really bit on the play action and there are no, so he needs to throw it in front of the sinking free safety, but away from the strong safety, who’s read his eyes and is breaking hard underneath the route. Bailey, the MLB, takes a few steps forward on the run action, and I think that’s what keys Johnston to make the pass. Here’s what he sees as he reaches the end of his dropback.

Decision time

Rice Football, film room

The slot hasn’t made his cut yet, but the ball has to come out now. This is what we mean when we talk about throwing with anticipation. A great QB has to know when the ball needs to get to a receiver and trust that his guy will be there when it does. If Johnstown throws now and is accurate, the ball will get to his receiver right after he’s broken toward the middle of the field, with space to run away from the FS, who is still sinking to keep from getting beat. Neither the MIKE nor the SS will have time to get under the throw before it arrives.

But Johnston hesitates at the top of his drop, and that makes the difference. Bailey, who does a great job of recovering, has time to drop back into his zone and turn his eyes back to the QB in time to snag the ball.. Additionally, the SS has had time to break under the throw and probably would have made the pick if Bailey hadn’t. If Johnston releases the ball on time, he has space to fit this throw in. As it is, the receiver is essentially triple-covered by the time the ball arrives. It’s the first of four picks on the day for UAB’s QB.

More: Check out the game preview for Rice vs UAB

Now, I don’t mean to pick on Johnston here. Even very very talented QBs can take a long time to develop the skill to make anticipatory throws—Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts, who’s putting up superhuman stats so far this year, struggled to get the ball out on time during his first two years at Alabama. And UAB’s offense has him making very aggressive throws, which means that his INT numbers are going to be higher than they would in a safer system.

My point though, is I think Rice football has a really good shot of nabbing their first interception (maybe more) on Saturday. If the Owls’ DBs can be in tight coverage as they have most of the year, UAB’s aggressive throws and Johnston’s slow trigger will give them some opportunities to turn the ball over and maybe spark some life into their offense as well.

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Rice Football: Owls all in on Intellectual Brutality

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The Rice football offense hasn’t lived up to expectations yet in 2019, but Mike Bloomgren and his staff still believe they’re close to a breakthrough.

Mike Bloomgren isn’t one to shy away from conflict. An offensive line guru at heart, the second-year head coach has gone all in on the concept of Intellectual Brutality. At its core, the mantra relies on being tougher than the opponent in every respect, mentally and physically.

On defense, Rice is going to be relentless. They’re going to hit and hit some more. Coaches at schools the team played last season credited the Owls’ with that much, calling the Owls one of the most physical opponents they faced all season. Year 1 contained more growing pains than many on South Main would have hoped for, but the defensive effort was there even if the pieces weren’t fully in place.

This year the pieces on defense are there, and Rice has stormed out of the gates with zeal on that side of the ball. The Owls held C-USA’s top-scoring offense, Louisana Tech, to 17 points in regulation, but lost the game in overtime.

While the defense has been superb, the offense has drawn criticism. Committed to pounding the rock in the truest sense of the word, there is no trickeration or scheming. The Owls don’t beat around the bush. They come after their opponents with calculated aggression. But those calculations haven’t fully synced up just yet.

Close, but not close enough

If operated to perfection, the Rice offense works. Senior offensive lineman Brian Chaffin, who played with Bloomgren while the two were at Stanford, said the proof was evident in the Owls’ first two series. “I think the first quarter of the game we really shows what we can be,” he said, “We can go in big personnel… We can move the ball with the pass and we can get into goal line and get grimy, put everyone in the box and put them in a telephone booth and score touchdowns.”

For Chaffin, it’s not pie-in-the-sky optimism. He’s seen it happen in real life. At it’s best, Stanford averaged 37.8 points per game during the 2015 season with Bloomgren calling the shots. The jersey colors are different, but the scheme is more or less the same.

On their first two drives last Saturday the Owls racked up a combined 111 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 6.9 yards per play. Things were looking as good as they have on that side of the ball this season.

When it’s wasn’t working, though, you saw a team that was held to three points in their final 10 drives in regulation.

In the team’s first meeting since that loss, Bloomgren iterated the plays where the Owls fell short. “I showed them 16 clips,” he said, “If any one of them goes the other way, we win the ballgame.”

Missed blocks. Poor coverage. Dropped passes. Wrong decisions. The list of woulda-coulda-shoulda is long after such a heartbreaking defeat. The scoring woes, understandably, stick out. As Bloomgren saw it, “We knew it was a very winnable game. We knew we put ourselves in position to [win] and we know we shot ourselves in the foot.”

It starts up front

Precision is the bedrock of this offense. Offensive line coach Joe Ashfield, another Rice football leader who was with Bloomgren in Palo Alto, can point to the specific moments where his unit had breakdowns.

Ashfield called the Louisiana Tech game “as physical a game that we’ve had since I’ve been here.” He was proud of how his guys handled the pass rush and commended the entire unit on their ferocious blocking in the running game. But he did note there were a few plays where four of the five linemen did the right thing while the fifth man didn’t. Those were the plays, he said, were “really frustrating.”

The offense is complicated, featuring a playbook significantly thicker than most of the teams Rice will face on a given Saturday. The responsibilities put on starting quarterback Wiley Green and each offensive player are large. The opportunities for pitfalls will always be there, making the margin for error slim. For a team that prides itself on being disciplined, that’s one frontier they haven’t mastered.

What happens next?

It seems Rice football has two choices. They can push for perfection — eliminating the errors while remaining committed to their scheme. Or they can pivot to something new.

Reflecting on his unit’s respectable, but not quite perfect outing, Ashfield remained confident. “That last step, the smallest step to take, is the hardest step,” he said, “I just don’t know how long it’s going to take to overcome it. So you just keep working.”

At this point, the Owls feel they’ve come too far to do anything else. There’s no magic bullet, but early returns indicate the team might be closer than their winless record currently indicates.

“You can’t get any closer than that,” Bloomgren mused following the most recent loss. Acknowledging his team needs to learn how to win. “We’ve got to find a way and I really believe that when we break through, it will be habit forming.”

More: Rice Football game preview for Week 6 vs UAB

There’s no better time than the present. Rice takes on defending Conference USA champion UAB this coming weekend. The Blazers blanked the Owls 42-0 last year and haven’t lost a home game since their program was reinstated in 2017. A win, regardless the circumstances, would be loud.

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Rice Football 2019 Game Preview: Week 6 vs UAB

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Rice Football hits the road in search of their first road win Saturday against UAB. How to watch, stats to know, x-factor picks for both teams and more.

On Saturday Rice football will square off with UAB in the Owls’ first road test in conference play. Rice is still looking for their first victory of the season after falling in overtime to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs last weekend. Despite never trailing in regulation, the Owls were unable to close things out at home.

The test won’t be any easier this week against a UAB squad coming off their first defeat of the young season. The Blazers weren’t able to must much in the way of offense, falling on the road to Western Kentucky, 20-13.

Both teams are 0-1 in Conference USA action. One will take home their first conference victory this weekend. Here’s what you need to know about both teams prior to their Week 6 game.

Broadcast Info

Kickoff time | 6:00 PM CT
Venu | Legion Field – Birmingham, Al
TV | ESPN+ (Streaming ($))
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio Preview

We’ll preview the UAB game on Episode 10 of The Roost Podcast which will be released on Wednesday. Find us on the podcast page or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. (And consider leaving us a 5-star review while you’re at it.)

Sizing up the contenders

Rice has fallen just short too many times to count. The Owls have discovered a formula to keep things close — physical defense and methodical offensive attacks. Finishing has been the struggle. Rice needs to find whatever switch they need to flip this week. If they can do that, the Owls could be a dangerous team in the second half of the season.

UAB has had quite a different road. Rather than face a slew of Power 5 teams like Rice, the Blazers whipped through a slate of relatively weak foes in nonconference play. The defending Conference USA champs’ toughest test came last week; they lost. Nevertheless, Bill Clark’s squad didn’t raise the trophy a year ago on accident. UAB will be out to prove last week was an aberration, not the norm.

Series History

All Time | UAB leads 4-3
Last Five | UAB leads 3-2
Last Meeting | Home 2018, UAB 42-0

Rice Stat Notables

Passing | Green – 37/64 (57.8 percent), 387 yards passing, 0 TD, 0 INT
Rushing | Walter – 76 carries, 293 yards (3.9 yards per carry), 3 TD
Receiving | Rozner – 20 receptions, 314 yards (15.7 yards per reception)
Tackles | Alldredge – 42, Montero – 33, Chamberlain – 32
Pass Breakups/Interceptions | Thornton – 5 PBU, no team interceptions

UAB Stat Notables

Passing | Johnston – 63/101 (62.4), 927 yards passing, 8 TD, 6 INT
Rushing | Brown – 78 carries, 262 yards (3.4 yards per carry), 5 TD
Receiving | Watkins – 15 receptions, 289 yards (19.3 yards per reception), 3 TD
Tackles | Wilder – 25, Boler – 20, Moll – 19
Pass Breakups/Interceptions | Marino – 2 PBU, no team interceptions

UAB X-Factor | Winning the line of scrimmage

Spencer Brown is one of the best running backs in Conference USA, but he’s averaging 3.4 yards per carry, the 21st best mark in the conference. As capable as Brown is, a relatively young offensive line hasn’t done enough up front to open up room for him to operate.

The status of senior center Lee Dufour, injured in practice last week, is up in the air. If he can’t go for the Blazers their ability to win against a stingy Rice defensive front would be made much more challenging.

Regardless of Dufour’s status, if the Owls can force UAB to be one dimensional, they’re going to be better off. Quarterback Tyler Johnston attempted a season-high 31 passes last week and threw a season-high four interceptions.

Rice X-Factor | Third down

What eventually doomed Rice against Louisiana Tech last week was of their own doing. The Owls could not stay on the field and sustain drives. They converted 4-of-16 third downs (including 2-of-11 in the second half), half the number of third down conversions they managed a week prior against Baylor.

Whether its more aggression, better run blocking or a higher level of play from quarterback Wiley Green, Rice is going to have to find a way to win on third down.

This has been a sticking point for the team since Bloomgren’s arrival. The Owls were dead last in third down conversion rate last year (28.7 percent) and enter the UAB game 12th in the conference (32.4 percent). If they can solve this problem, they’ll open up the offense significantly.

Injury Report

Freshman receiver Zane Knipe got off the injury list and made his collegiate debut last week against Louisiana Tech. While he should be set going forward, the status of fullback Reagan Williams remains in limbo. Bloomgren wasn’t confident he would be back this soon, but we’ll be monitoring the situation going forward. Stay tuned here for updates later in the week.

Need More?

The Roost’s 2019 Rice Football Season Preview has four pages dedicated to every opponent the Owls face. There are depth chart, important new arrivals and depth chart breakdowns for each foe. Better yet, it’s not just speculation, each profile was created with insight from local experts who cover those teams day in and day out. Pick up your copy today and get four pages and more than 1,000 words on every foe.

Pick ‘Em Contest

If you haven’t yet, make sure you submit your entry for The Roost’s weekly pick’em challenge. Choose an answer to each of the six questions below and submit them on the forum thread to enter.

  1. Will Rice commit more than four accepted penalties?
    Yes / No
  2. How many third downs will UAB convert?
    Over 8.5 / Under 8.5
  3. Which team registers the longest play from scrimmage?
    Rice / UAB
  4. Will Wiley Green throw at least one touchdown pass?
    Yes / No
  5. How many total yards will the Rice defense allow?
    Over 365 / Under 365
  6. Who wins?
    Rice / UAB

One Final Thing

Anything can happen in Conference USA. The talent differential between the top teams in the conference and the lower-tiered squads is slimmed than in the Power 5 conferences. At this point in the season, it’s still too early to decipher who belongs with the top dogs anyways.

Coaching and execution are where games are won and lost. Mike Bloomgren and his staff have been hard at work preparing a gameplan capable of taking down the Blazers. Members of the staff were up through the later hours of Sunday morning following last week’s loss, literally not sleeping until they found answers.

The Owls are committed to finding a breakthrough. The groundwork has been laid. All that’s left is to put the pieces together for four quarters.

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