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2025 Rice Football Season Preview: Safety

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Next up in our 2025 Rice Football Season Preview: safety. Here’s our breakdown of the Owls’ plans for the group this season.

A revamped Rice football defense will have plenty of new faces, but the safety room will be more familiar to Owls’ fans than most. A mix of longtime contributors and returning starters, supplemented with key transfers, makes for a fascinating dynamic on the back end of the defense that will be tasked with keeping everything in front of them this season.

Rice Football Preseason Preview: Check out the rest of the series here.

This piece is part of our 2025 Rice Football Season Preview. Get access to it, as well as all other preview posts such as positional breakdowns, depth chart and schedule analysis and more when you subscribe on Patreon today. 

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2025 Rice Football Season Preview: Linebacker

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Next up in our 2025 Rice Football Season Preview: linebacker. Here’s our breakdown of the Owls’ plans for the group this season.

Once again, the Rice football linebacker room is fully stocked with top-of-the-line talent hindered more by the lack of available starting positions than by a lack of athletes to fill those roles. Sorting out playing time will be the challenge here, but that’s exactly the kind of problem defensive coordinator Jon Kay would prefer to have.

Rice Football Preseason Preview: Check out the rest of the series here.

This piece is part of our 2025 Rice Football Season Preview. Get access to it, as well as all other preview posts such as positional breakdowns, depth chart and schedule analysis and more when you subscribe on Patreon today. 

Subscriber content. Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.
Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?

** Photo credit: Maria Lysaker **

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Rice Baseball: Dodgers select Davion Hickson in 5th Round of MLB Draft

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Rice pitcher Davion has been selected in the fifth round of the 2025 MLB Draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Davion Hickson was an outstanding pitcher across two seasons with Rice baseball, finding success as a closer and then a Friday night starter. Those effort did not go unnoticed as Hickson was selected in the fifth round of the 2025 MLB Draft by the Houston Astros on Monday. He became the highest Owl drafted since Trei Cruz went in the third round to the Detroit Tigers in 2020 and a sixth top-five round selection for the program in the past six years.

Hickson was the most reliable arm the Owls fielded over the last two seasons, leading Rice in innings (73.0), strikeouts (90), ERA (3.82) and opponent batting average (.220) as a starter this past spring. He’s is the sixth Rice player drafted by the Dodgers and the first since Jeremy Rathjen (11th round) and Matthew Reckling (14th) were selected by Los Angeles in 2012.

Update: Reliever Garrett Stratton joined Hickson among MLB Draft selections, going to the Mets in the 20th Round

Rice Baseball MLB Draft selections (since 2015)

PlayerDraft YearTeamRound
Davion Hickson2025Dogers5
Garrett Stratton2025Mets20
Parker Smith2024Astros4
Justin Long2023Braves7
Hayden Durke2023Diamondbacks13
Matthew Linskey2023Diamondbacks16
Roel Garcia2022Rays14
Trei Cruz2020Tigers3
Matt Canterino2019Twins2
Evan Kravetz2019Reds5
Garrett Gayle2019Astros12
Roel Garcia2019Blue Jays27
Trei Cruz2019Nationals37
Addison Moss2019Rays37
Ford Proctor2018Rays3
Ricky Salinas2018Reds25
Cody Staab2018Marines30
Glenn Otto2017Yankees5
Dane Myers2017Tigers6
Tristan Gray2017Pirates13
Jon Duplantier2016Diamondbacks3
Blake Fox2016Brewers10
Jordan Stephens2015White Sox5
Leon Byrd2015Rangers10
Kevin McCanna2015Astros13
Austin Orewiler2015Reds14
Matt Ditman2015Roayls16
John Clay Reeves2015Nationals20
John Williamson2015Cubs23
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2025 Rice Baseball Transfer Portal and Staff Updates

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The Transfer Portal will impact the 2025 Rice Baseball season with players coming and going throughout the offseason. Here’s what we know so far.

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Rice Baseball 2025 Season Review: Lineup

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The offense started slow but grew more consistent as the season progressed, helping Rice baseball stay competitive down the stretch.

It took the Rice baseball offense some time to get going, but by the time head coach David Pierce had taken over and solidified the lineup, the team began to hit its stride at the plate. A delicate mix of talented freshmen and the right veteran pieces made the Owl competitive hitters and provided support the pitching staff needed.

More: Rice Baseball embarks on crucial offseason

Compared to a season ago, this year’s squad had twice as many players hit .270 or better (six), a testament to a deeper lineup with a host of players capable of delivering clutch hits rather than putting all the pressure on any one individual.

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