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13 Days: 13 Seasons in Conference USA and counting

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Formed in 1995, Conference USA has been the home for Rice football and athletics for 13 years and there’s always been plenty of drama in the conference.

Long-standing members of the Southwestern Conference until 1996, Rice had an eight-year stint in the Western Athletic Conference before joining CUSA in 2005, a year of tremendous upheaval for the conference.

Formed in 1995, Conference USA has had 32 members across the full spectrum of athletic competitions over its 22 years of existence. Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida, Southern Miss, UAB, Memphis and Tulane were founding. all sports members while DePaul, Marquette, Saint Louis, Charlotte were non-football members.

Rice joined the conference in 2005 when more than half of the founding members left for the Big East and the Atlantic 10. Joining them that year were UCF, SMU, Tulsa, Marshall and UTEP. The American Conference poached half of CUSA in 2013 and 2014, opening up the door for current members FAU, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Old Dominion, UTSA and Western Kentucky to join across the span of those two seasons.

Conference USA has been the subject of two major realignments in the past 15 years, and more are likely coming. Rice has 13 years in the CUSA under their belt, but they too would be willing to move on if they find the right fit. The Owls, like many others among the Group of Five, are paying close attention to major television contracts as they expire and continuously looking for opportunities to improve their status.

The TCU model is where Rice is heading. The Horned Frogs parlayed success in the Mountain West with the perfect opportunity and made the jump to a better conference with more exposure and more money. If Rice wants to make the move any time soon, they’ll have to start with winning where they’re at. The rest will follow. For now, it’s time for year 14 in the CUSA.

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Depth charts are coming and 5 Owl Fest Scrimmage Notes (8/11)

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Rice football had their second fall scrimmage to kick off Owl Fest on Saturday. Here are five things that stood out from the session.

A crowd of a few hundred turned out to get their first glimpses at the 2018 Rice football team on Saturday. As they cheered for every big play and their fellow freshman, the audience was treated to an inside peek at the Owls’ second scrimmage of fall camp, another positive session for this team as the season opener draws near.

1. First team is starting to solidify

With two full scrimmages under their belts, the coaching staff is starting to piece together a depth chart. Coach Bloomgren called the current status “less fluid” than the team entered fall camp and expects to have a fresh depth chart expected within the week.

For the most part, here’s what the first team has looked like this week:

1st team Offense
QB – Tyner
HB – Aston Walter
WR – Cephus, Trammell, Cardwell
TE – Bull
OL – Pierce, Dill, Baker, Greene, Osuji

1st team Defense
DL – Abercrumbia, Garcia, Wilkins, Schantz
LB – Silcox, Ekpe, Nwakamma
DB – Bickham, Douglas-Dotson, Nyakwol, Robert

2. Running backs remain focal point of offense

This team is going to run the football, a lot. And teams better not get caught flat-footed. The offensive line has been sturdy enough to open up gaps in the middle to keep the chains moving, but Aston and Austin Walter have done the majority of their damage on the outside. One cut and they’re into the second level, picking up chunk plays. Keeping those two inside will be a must for the Owls opponents this season.

3. Quarterback battle still progressing

Bloomgren said Jackson Tyner won the day, but competition between him and Shawn Stankavage remains open. Freshman quarterback Evan Marshman looked impressive with the third team, but Bloomgren still expects the starter to be one of either Tyner or Stankavage, calling the quarterback competition “shut at two unless [Marshman] forces the door open.”

It’s worth noting as well that both Tyner and Stankavage are being asked to use their legs to make plays. Although neither of them would be described as your traditional “dual-threat” quarterback, both have the requisite speed to steal first downs and keep the defense honest.

4. Position changes of note

It was mentioned early in the week that quarterback Sam Glaesmann has been moved to wide receiver. He lined up as the wildcat quarterback on a few plays Saturday, an interesting wrinkle for the Owls to have in their back pocket moving forward.

Depth issues in the secondary have opened opportunities for a pair of running backs. Freshman Juma Octoviano and sophomore Collin Whitaker saw time with the second team at corner and both guys played really well. Octoviano came up with an interception on his second series.

With the surplus of depth at the running back position, it’s possible that both of these guys stay primarily on the defensive side of the ball. Bloomgren said he “wouldn’t rule out” both guys becoming two-way players this season.

5. Jack Fox is going to be busy

The primary punter last season, Fox has seen time in practice with the field goal unit as well. Unless someone blows the coaching staff out of the water in the next two weeks it’s very possible Fox could be handling all of the kicking duties this season.

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2019 Cornerback Gabe Jeudy commits to Owls

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The 2019 Rice football recruiting class continues to keep rolling. Cornerback Gabe Jeudy became the newest member, committing to the Owls on Friday, August 10.

A little over a week removed from their last commitment, Rice football added another piece to their future on Friday. Joining Atlanta, Texas running back Jawan King in the fold is Charlotte, North Carolina defensive back Gabe Jeudy.

Jeudy received his offer to play at Rice on July 21, two weeks before he trimmed his finalists down to five. That says a lot about the impression the program made as the Owls vaulted to the top of his list in such a short time frame.

On August 3 Jeudy announced his final five: Air Force, Army, James Madison, Rice and Richmond. Those were a select few of his wide-reaching offer list that included more than 25 schools at the time of his commitment. For a player without a star ranking assigned to him by any of the major recruiting outlets, that’s an impressive number of offers.

A week after narrowing things down, Jeudy made his announcement, committing to the Owls in the form of a video posted on his Twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/GabeJeudy/status/1027994200783114243?s=19

In addition to those five, Jeudy also had offers from Harvard, Princeton, Navy, Villanova and Marshall, among others.

Jeudy is the 10th commit of the 2019 Rice football recruiting class and the fourth commitment from outside the state of Texas. Despite his many offers, Jeudy has yet to be given a star ranking, meaning his commitment did not impact the Owls’ standings in the Conference USA recruiting ranks. Rice currently has the No. 9 class in the conference.

At 6-foot-1, 172-pounds, Jeudy is not afraid to lower his shoulder and make tackles in the open field:

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Quarterbacks, offensive line updates from practice (8/9)

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Rice football continues to solidify the depth chart, thinning out the quarterback and offensive line positions midway through fall camp.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren spent the majority of the practice with the offensive line. A former offensive line coach at Stanford, Bloomgren got down and dirty teaching techniques first hand. At one point he had his hands on turf instructing one of the younger players in a one-on-one drill.

In addition to focusing on the offensive line, Bloomgren appears to have trimmed the quarterback competition down from three players to two. With that, here are a few tidbits from Thursday’s practice:

Movement in the quarterback battle

The most pressing news first: the quarterback position is down to two. As many of you saw late Thursday evening, I broke the news that Sam Glaesmann has moved to wide receiver. Coach Bloomgren wouldn’t say the move was permanent, but he did mention the need for additional reps for Jackson Tyner and Shawn Stankavage moving forward.

Offensive line is beginning to take shape

The first team is beginning to solidify. Tackles Uzoma Osuji and Sam Pierce have been consistent fixtures at left tackle and right tackle, respectively. Shea Baker appears to have locked down the job at center as well.

Jack Greene and Joseph Dill have the lead at the left and right guard positions, but redshirt freshman Corbin Smith is challenging for time in the interior as well. A notable omission from the first team is Florida transfer Andrew Mike. Despite joining the Owls from the SEC it doesn’t appear Mike has done enough in practice to vie for a starting job just yet.

Backup center Cole Elms went down with a leg injury during Oklahoma drills and had to be helped off the field. He was able to return to practice for goal line work later on.

Offensive line tests in short-yardage drills

It’s been no secret that the defensive line is one of the deepest units on the team. The offensive line has struggled to keep up with the power rushers opposite them, but Thursday was a huge step in the right direction.

Thursday’s practice was all about winning in the trenches. The team pitted the offense and the defense against each other in three drills: Oklahoma, short yardage and goal line. The defense, by and large, won the Oklahoma drill but the full team drills were dominated by the offense.

Both units met at midfield with one-yard to go for the first down in a series of reps. Play action, bootlegs and runs straight up the middle resulted in a series of first downs. Bloomgren preaches that everything is a competition, so the defense had to do push-ups as a result of their defeat.

Offense wins goal line drills

The same theme rang true on the goal line. Both quarterbacks beat the edge to the pylon and scored touchdowns with their feet. The real stars were the running backs and the offensive line. Boosted by enough space in front of them to operate, several tailbacks lept over both lines and landed in the endzone. When freshman tailback Antonio Faaeteete sailed through the air and into the endzone the entire offense went berserk, celebrating the head-to-head win over their teammates.

The offensive line wasn’t perfect. A few players were blown up in the backfield and they registered a sack at the goal line. On the whole, though, the efficiency of the quarterbacks and running backs proved that this starting group has enough umph to get the important yards when they need to.

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Veteran presence crucial to Owls’ rebuilding process

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Head coach Mike Bloomgren is in the early stages of turning Rice football into conference championship contender and he’s leaning on his most experienced players to help him get there.

There’s something to be said for guys that really have been there and done that. As the 2018 Rice football team embarks on their journey upward from a 1-11 season a year ago they will lean heavily on their veterans. That experienced hand will come from several sources but the net effect, hopefully, will serve as a catalyst toward what Mike Bloomgren is building at Rice.

Bloomgren knows there is wisdom in his locker room that can speak to the rest of the team in ways that he can’t. A head coach can dictate, but it takes ownership to build a culture. Ultimately, creating a culture of love, physicality and competition remains at the heart of what he has set out to do.

To that end, he’s assembled a 13-player leadership council to help him turn that vision into reality. That council and veteran players beyond it are crucial in laying the groundwork for Bloomgren’s program.

The most senior of those veterans is 23-yeard old Graysen Schantz who started playing football at Rice when the current freshmen class was still in middle school. Four times the victim of season-ending injuries, Schantz was granted a medical redshirt and one more season of college football this fall.

Schantz hopes to use these final months to prepare the younger players on the roster for the continuation of what he helped begin. “Those young guys are the future”, Schantz said of the incoming freshman. “They have to carry the torch when I’m gone.”

These freshmen are all talented athletes, making Schantz’s primary focus the film room. For many of them, this will be the first time breaking down film in a meaningful way and they’ll be learning a new system while they do it. Schantz has been doing that for five years and he’s learned a thing or two along the way.

“I’ve learned three defenses while I’ve been here. It’s the same process. It’s buying into the system. It’s absorbing as much knowledge as you can, taking notes, paying attention and giving your best effort on the field, but then also correcting it in the film room,” remarked Schantz when asked about what he plans to pass on to the next wave of Rice football players. His experience will prove invaluable to this team, but he’s not alone.Rice Football

Grad transfer Gio Gentosi has been on campus for a little over a month after spending the most of his college career at UCLA. He’s learning the ins and outs of Bloomgren’s program along with everyone else, but there are several aspects of the college game that he feels he can help the younger players with.

Gentossi called the college game “a different animal than high school football” adding “the knowledge they have to have goes a lot deeper.” For him, the knowledge came as a reserve offensive lineman and fullback under Jim Mora Jr. with the Bruins. He’s seen an uptick in his usage during fall practices with Owls and his can-do attitude has been evident. He’s lined up in the backfield, he’s been split out wide and he’s turned heads on special teams. Wherever the coaches decide to put him, he’s willing to put in the work.

These veterans have taken it upon themselves to help the “young bucks”, as Bloomgren calls them, learn as much as they can as quickly as possible. Senior defensive tackle Zach Abercrumbia summed it up like this: “We’re here at Rice, so it’s not a matter of if you can learn it, it’s how quickly you can learn it. I really feel like the guys are doing a great job of that so far.”

That’s high praise coming from a player that could be the most dominant players on the Owls’ roster this fall. Abercrumbia has been almost unblockable in fall camp, wreaking havoc on every combination of players along the offensive line. It’s evident he’s put in the work and understand the many changes that need to be made.

It’s going to take more than one offseason to get the team ready to take the next step and contend for conference championships. But that hasn’t dissuaded those on their way out from putting their all into final seasons.

“We’re here at Rice, so it’s not a matter of if you can learn it, it’s how quickly you can learn it. I really feel like the guys are doing a great job of that so far.” – DT Zach Abercrumbia

Senior offensive lineman Sam Pierce said it’s a challenging combination of emotions to process. “It’s both bittersweet and exciting. Exciting in that some of the stuff we’re doing is really exciting because we’ve seen in the spring and the fall camp how well it can work when we all work together. Also bittersweet just because I wish I had a couple more years with these coaches.”

The impact of this coaching staff cannot be undersold. From new strength and conditioning coach Hans Straub to the energy and detail being provided by the position coaches, every facet of the new program has been tailormade to produce results. Bloomgren is taking the model that worked at Stanford and bringing it to Rice. The players believe in what he’s doing and are committed to making it happen.

The tone from each of these men was both expectant and focused. They’re going to have fun, but they’re going to leave Rice football in a better place than where they found it. Pierce said he’s a firm believer in what Bloomgren is building at South Main saying “There’s no telling where this program is going to go in the next few years.”

Regardless of who gets formally recognized or how much extra work it takes, the Owls can count on their experienced members to lead the chrage. “[Leadership] comes with a lot of responsibility,” said Pierce, “but somebody has to do it… We’re all helping each other out as we go.” That help is paying big dividends in camp. This team will be ready for the fall, thanks in large part to its eldest members.

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