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Rice Football Recruiting: 2023 National Signing Day Live Blog

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The 2023 Rice Football Recruiting class wraps up on National Signing Day. Follow all the action here as the Owls close out the class.

Like in years past, Rice football recruiting looks to close out another successful class on National Signing Day. This live tracker will follow all the latest news and updates throughout the day, with further updates on the class as its finalized. If you’re not a subscriber yet, here’s your chance.

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As we did during the Early Signing Period, we’ll have a Live Blog up and running with updates throughout the day. (Not a subscriber, we’ve unlocked this post to give you a flavor of what to expect — live updates, when we get them).

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Which newcomers are program-changing talents? Who is the diamond in the rough? More to come. For the time being, let’s dig into the latest from National Signing Day, below.

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Rice Football: 2022 Postseason Transfer Portal update

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Rice football has lost a handful of players to the Transfer Portal since the season ended. Who is heading out and what impact will that have on the Owls?

If the Rice football season spans from August to November, the month or so that follows is Transfer Portal season. After making a bowl game for the first time in eight years, outgoing transfers have been few this offseason.

Why are players entering the portal now? Exit interviews are done. A new semester has arrived. All parties involved from the athletes to the programs want a clear picture of where things stand before spring practices get underway in a few months. For better or worse, it’s transfer time.

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No program is immune from that rhythm. Just as Rice football has benefited from the portal, it’s had its defectors too.

For every Blaze Alldredge or August Pitre that leaves, there’s a Chris Conti or Luke McCaffrey that arrives. In fact, the Transfer Portal has been remarkably beneficial for Rice Football. Here’s a quick rundown from last February on the matter, but a recent update with JT Daniels, Isaiah Esdale and others included would only be even more compelling.

With signing day looming, here are the Rice football players that have reportedly entered the Transfer Portal thus far:

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Rice Football 2022 Defensive Player of the Year: Josh Pearcy

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A first-year team captain, Joshua Pearcy did not disappoint, leading the team in sacks on his way to becoming our 2022 Rice Football Defensive Player of the Year.

Having too many good players is a coach’s dream. That’s one of the reasons head coach Mike Bloomgren wasn’t too worried about how the preseason rotation on the edge would play out. Regardless of who “won”, Rice would be better. Joshua Pearcy emerged from the competition and parlayed that into an outstanding season worthy of being named our 2022 Rice Football Defensive Player of the Year.

Through camp, the conversation at Pearcy’s position centered around how the defensive staff would get both Pearcy and fellow edge rusher Kenneth Orji on the field. Pearcy was coming off a tremendous 58 tackle, four sack performance when the competition began to heat up in earnest this spring.

It was during those spring sessions that defensive coordinator Brian Smith began to drop some breadcrumbs. “He’s playing better than he ever has,” Smith said of Pearcy, going on to detail what sort of packages they could use to get both him and Orji on the field. In the end though, not only did Pearcy win the job, his rapid ascent just continued to reach new heights.

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Pearcy was named a captain prior to the season, in part because of his impressive work on special teams. Special teams coordinator Chris Monfilleto singled him out as one of the key voices of the unit. Pearcy had tied for the team lead in special team tackles the season before.

In addition to his special team’s work, Pearcy became a leader of the defense too. He finished fourth on the team in tackles in 2022, the most among any defensive lineman on the roster. His 10 tackles for a loss and 6.5 sacks put him in the top seven in both categories among all Conference USA defenders. He had become a force.

“We got to stop the run [and] make the plays that we’re supposed to make,” Pearcy said of the defense heading into the regular season finale. “But when it comes down to those plays where talent takes over, beyond just doing your job, you got to make those plays too.”

Those plays, the ones that prove differential, game-changing. Those are the plays that Pearcy gravitated to the most.

More: Offensive Player of the Year — Luke McCaffrey

It’s no coincidence that Pearcy started in what was arguably the most emphatic defensive play of the season, cementing an upset win over UAB for the second consecutive year. The Blazers had the ball on the Rice 35-yard line with time ticking under one minute to play. After a sack by Trey Schuman on first down, Pearcy was credited with a forced fumble on the next play, forcing third and long.

UAB nearly converted a game-winning hail mary to upend the Owls last season, but Rice was saved via penalty. This time, it was Pearcy, who sacked quarterback Dylan Hopkins on the final play of regulation to secure the win and enable Rice to move to 3-2 on the season.

Pearcy would go on to make more plays, including tying a season-high seven tackles with one sack and 1.5 tackles for a loss in the Owls’ Lending Tree Bowl matchup with Southern Miss. All three of those measures tied or lead the team outright. In another big moment, Pearcy showed up. Because that’s what great players do. The answer to the preseason musings had been solved. No matter what Rice football chooses to do, they’d better make sure Josh Pearcy is on the field.

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Rice Football 2022 Iron Man: Shea Baker

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In a season filled with ups and downs, offensive lineman Shea Baker steadied the offense on his way to being named our 2022 Rice Football Iron Man.

To some extent, everything about the Rice football program has changed in the past five seasons. A new head coach, upgraded facilities and a revamped roster make it hardly recognizable from the scene head coach Mike Bloomgren walked into when he was hired following the 2017 season. But at least one thing has been constant, our 2022 Rice Football Iron Man award winner Shea Baker.

When Baker donned his helmet for the final time against Southern Miss in the Lending Tree Bowl he put an exclamation point on a Rice football record that won’t soon be broken, if ever. Baker leaves Rice as the all-time leader in career starts, making 53 starts over his six-year career.

Prior to Baker, Chris Boswell held the record at 51 starts. Starting statistics weren’t officially kept in Rice game books until the mid-1990s. Even then, redshirt rules weren’t what they are today and teams didn’t even play 12-game regular season schedules with regularity for many years afterward. Few players in Rice football history have appeared in 53 games, let alone started.

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Setting start records was never what Baker set out to achieve when he arrived at South Main. He wanted to leave a legacy and help rebuild a program that had fallen on hard times. “It makes you realize how long I’ve actually been here,” Baker said of the record. “It feels good that I’ve broken a record, I can leave a footprint or a legacy and in the process helping this program get to a bowl game.”

How Baker reached that record only served to further amplify how impressive it was. Baker became the skeleton key along the offensive line, flip-flopping between center and guard, sometimes on a week-to-week basis.

Frequent position changes might have fazed some, but not Baker. “I’m used to it,” Baker admitted. “Over the years I’ve gone guard and center more times than I can count. I think I’m about even on starts with guard and center so to me, both are natural positions now. It’s really no issue at all.”

By mid-September, Baker had played more than 3,000 snaps in his Rice football career, a number that is probably closer to 3,500 now. He missed just one start — he was sick during the week with the flu and missed the walk-through — but entered that game in the first quarter anyways.

More: Rice Football Rising Star — Blake Boenisch

It’s going to be surreal watching a Rice football game without number 58 lined up somewhere in the middle of the line. Whether with the ball in his hands or standing just next to center, Baker has been a mainstay in a program that’s changed so much in such a short time. For Baker, he wouldn’t have his legacy remembered in any other way.

When asked about his legacy, Baker’s everyday availability was near to his heart. “Playing as hard as I can, whenever I can, every play,” Baker said. “Being dependable, being the most consistent and best player I can be.”

Because of Baker’s example, Rice football has a standard in the offensive trenches that will live on well past the time he’s done strapping on shoulder pads. Baker was a true iron man, someone that showed up every day to work and set the stage for what he, and others, hope will be an even better future.

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Rice Basketball: 2022-2023 New Year’s State of the Program

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Rice basketball is riding high after a strong winter. Here’s where the Owls stand with the bulk of Conference USA play ahead.

There hasn’t been a better start to a Rice basketball season since the turn of the century, at least, that’s the sort of statistic that creeps up on you when you’ve won 10 of your last 12 games. The Owls are 11-4 on the year to date, their best start since the 2003-2004 season.

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There have been a few dominant showings and some too-close-for-comfort games interspersed. What does what we’ve seen so far and how does it compare with the expectations for this program entering this stretch? Let’s dig in.

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