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Rice Football 2022: UTSA Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football hosts UTSA in their final home game on Senior Day, their final home game of the 2022 season. Here’s what we learned from practice this week.

The final quarter of a rigorous 2022 Rice football schedule begins this week with a road trip to Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are just ahead of the Owls in the current conference standings with both teams in need of one more win to reach bowl eligibility (WKU needs seven wins this year because of their 13th game with a trip to Hawaii).

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This week’s roundup focuses the quarterback situation, the running game and injury questions in the secondary and the pass-catching corps, and more.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

Houston: We might need a quarterback

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Rice Football 2022 Game Preview: UTSA

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Rice football is preparing for their final home game of the season, a tall challenge against UTSA. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Neither Rice football nor UTSA played a competitive game last weekend. The Roadrunners ran past Louisiana Tech at home while Rice watched Western Kentucky run away with their contest in Bowling Green, KY. Here’s everything you need to know about this week’s game.

Kickoff time | 12:00 PM CT
Venue | Rice Stadium – Houston, TX
TV | ESPN+ (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs UTSA on this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. Look for a recap of the game on the site afterward as well as on The Roost Podcast, which should be released early next week. 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

UTSA is playing out the stretch on their way to a second consecutive appearance in the Conference USA Championship Game. Meanwhile, tensions are much higher in Houston. The Owls have two more chances to reach six wins and an elusive bowl eligible season. This is the last home game of the year for Rice, who would love nothing more than to send their seniors out on a high note.

Series History

All Time | UTSA leads, 6-3
Last Five | UTSA leads, 5-0
Last Meeting | Away 2021, UTSA won 45-0

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Rice Football Stat Notables

Passing | McMahon – 160/266 (60.2 percent), 2102 yards, 18 TD, 14 INT
Rushing | Montgomery – 70 carries, 452 yards (6.5 yards per carry), 0 TD / Otoviano – 43 carries, 274 yards (6.4 yards per carry), 1 TD
Receiving | Rozner – 35 receptions, 733 yards (20.9 yds/rec), 8 TDs / McCaffrey – 51 receptions, 656 yards (12.9 yds/rec), 6 TD / Esdale – 29 receptions, 353 yards (12.2 yds/rec), 0 TD
Tackles | Conti – 58 / Morrison – 53 / Taylor – 48
Pass Breakups | Dunbar – 7  / Taylor – 6 / Fresch – 5
Interceptions | Taylor – 2 / Morrison, Nyakwol, Chamberlain, Fresch, Narcisse – 1

UTSA Stat Notables

Passing | Harris – 246/356 (69.1 percent), 3039 yards, 22 TD, 6 INT
Rushing | Brady – 146 carries, 623 yards (4.3 yards per carry), 9 TD / Barnes – 63 carries, 419 yards (6.7 ypc), 5 TD
Receiving | Cephus – 73 receptions, 823 yards (11.3 yards per reception), 5 TD / Franklin – 65 receptions, 791 yards (12.2 yds/rec), 9 TD
Tackles | Ligon – 64 / Chattman – 53 / Harmanson – 45
Pass Breakups | Chattman, Mayfield – 11 / Fortune – 5 / Taylor – 3
Interceptions | Mayfield – 3 / Griffin – 2 / Chattman, Morris, Jones – 1

UTSA X-Factor | Take away the air

UTSA hasn’t lost yet, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t survived a few scares along the way. They won one-score games against UAB, North Texas and Western Kentucky. What did each of those contests have in common? Aggressive quarterback play by the Roadrunners’ opponents. WKU averaged 7.6 yards per attempt. North Texas averaged 10.5 . UAB averaged 8.5.

Austin Reed has made a name for himself as a passer this season, but Austin Aune and Jacob Zeno aren’t world-beaters.

Conversely, UTSA has been pretty stingy on the ground, averaging less than 160 total yards per game allowed, fourth best in the conference. If the Roadrunners can limit Rice through the air and force them to run into their fierce front seven, they’ll cap the Owls’ offensive upside. So although it might sound counterintuitive to entice Rice to run, UTSA can find the most success if they stop Rice through the air.

Rice X-Factor | Take it away

At this point, it seems like wishful thinking to hope for a turnover-free game from Rice football. While that would, of course, be ideal, there is one other way for the Owls to find success in that respect: take the ball away.

More takeaways would also be a boon to a defense that has struggled to get off the field. At this points, more risks and more potential takeaways might be the best solution. Granted, defensive coordinator Brian Smith will put together a game plan that’s more nuanced than this, but at the end of the day, if you can’t stop them, take the football away.

Winning the turnover battle is something the Owls haven’t done with any regularity this season. If they’re going to try and beat the only team still standings that hasn’t lost a Conference USA game yet, they’ll need to do so on Saturday. There’s no way around it.

Injury Report (Subscribers only)

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One Final Thing

Rice football has not lost following a loss this season. Put another way, the Owls are undefeated following a defeat. If they can extend that streak to one more series, they’ll clinch bowl eligibility and secure another marquee win in a season smattered with highs and lows.

If we’ve learned anything this season about the Owls, it’s how frustrating and unpredictable this team can be. Every unit has gone through the same bouts of inconsistency and results have gone from encouraging to quite unwatchable on a week-to-week basis. Which version of the Owls shows up next weekend? Who knows?

What the Owls do possess is a certain level of fearlessness that goes beyond understanding. They aren’t scared when they step into the ring with the best Conference USA has to offer. And quite often, if they can start out on the right foot and avoid a disaster snowball, they’ll give the top teams a run for their money.

Perhaps that then is the x-factor of all x-factors. Can Rice throw the first punch and avoid shooting themselves in the foot? When they’ve been able to do that this season, they’ve won.

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Rice Football cedes too many turnovers into road loss at WKU

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Too many turnovers turned an otherwise promising Rice Football start into another Owls’ loss, this time on the road against Western Kentucky.

Turnovers, injuries and a porous defense produced a gut-punch on the road as Rice football fell in what ended up becoming a lopsided affair, despite the many early opportunities. Western Kentucky clinched a bowl berth. Rice didn’t.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren summed it up in a blunt, but honest postgame comment. “We picked a bad day to have a bad day,” he said. “You just can’t win football games [when you play] like that.”

Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

The offense *almost* goes according to plan

The formula for Rice football to beat Western Kentucky wasn’t complicated. In fact, it was a script the Owls had leaned on before, often to much success. Rice wanted to control the football, keeping Austin Reed and the Hilltoppers’ offense off the field as much as possible.

When it came time to execute, Rice worked the plan nearly to perfection. The Owls’ first offensive drives were almost pristine. On 10 plays, Rice went 55 yards in 5:08. Then on the ensuing possession, Rice went 50 yards on 12 plays, taking 7:34 off the clock. The problem? Both of those drives ended in redzone interceptions by TJ McMahon.

The third possession was a disaster — McMahon was sacked on third down and injured — as WKU scored a defensive touchdown. The fourth possession was perfect. 13 plays, 75 yards and a one-yard touchdown run to finally get Rice on the board.

If Rice simply did not turn the ball over (yes, a feeble dream at this point), the Owls could have entered halftime tied or even leading. Instead, they faced a 24-7 deficit which spiraled further after the break. Rice moved the football really well on Saturday. They just convulsed at the wrong moments, and when they did, disaster ensued.

Houston, you’ve got a turnover problem

If there were still any doubts, Rice football has clearly moved from unlucky to clearly deficient when it comes to turnovers. The Owls did have another tipped pass interception in this game for good measure, at least the seventh time that’s happened this season, but the overwhelming inability to protect the football was frankly exhausting.

Rice turned the ball over on their first three possessions, spoiling what should have been a very competitive game and forcing the team into comeback mode as a double-digit favorite on the road with backup quarterback Shawqi Itraish at the helm. If you were to write a horror story for any college football staff, that’s how it would start.

What makes this problem particularly frustrating is the lack of one person to point to as the root cause. On some days, it’s McMahon. On others, it’s the return game. Yet others still, it’s the running backs that put it on the ground.“It’s not one person,” Bloomgren said. And therein lies the problem. One person you can bench. A whole team? Some other solution has to emerge.

“I think you talk about it. I think you coach it the right way. I don’t know really what else to do,” Bloomgren admitted.

Rice turned the ball over a staggering six times against WKU. If they can’t fix that, they’re not going to find a way to win most of their games, regardless of how well they play in literally every other aspect of the game.

Third down defensive nightmares continue

Getting off the field on third down was a talking point for the Owls all week long. They knew it was something they had to do better if they were going to win. On Saturday against Western Kentucky, they might have actually gotten worse.

As the Rice offense milked the clock but failed to score, the defense forced Western Kentucky into six third down tries in the opening half. They converted five of them, including a deflating 62-yard touchdown pass on third and long in the second quarter.

Western Kentucky finished the game  8-of-11 on third down. Rice was nearly as good (7-of-11), but there was no keeping up with the Hilltoppers’ offense, especially with turnovers aplenty.

The extra plays led to extra big plays. Not only did Western Kentucky move the ball well, they got yards in chunks. Austin Reed clinically picked apart the Rice secondary. Five different receivers had a reception of at least 19 yards. Two caught touchdowns, with Reed running one in from the one-yard line himself. WKU punter John Haggerty never stepped on the field.

The Owls can run the dang ball?

It might have taken a quarterback to force the Owls’ hand, but when push came to shove, Rice ran the ball as well as they have in any game this season against Western Kentucky. Juma Otoviano led the way with 14 carries for 96 yards, averaging 6.9 yards per tote. Cam Montgomery and Dean Connors were both north of 4.8 yards per carry, too.

The running game was absolutely superb, perhaps even more so given the situation into which they were asked to run into. Western Kentucky knew what was coming and still couldn’t stop them. Had it not been for a holding penalty that negated a touchdown run, the numbers might have looked even more impressive.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week – Rice Football vs WKU

The unfortunate part, in this instance, was the disastrous way Rice started this game. Had they not handed over two red zone possession with interceptions, the running attack would have been able to do its job. Instead, Rice was forced to juggle a successful rushing attack against an ever-ticking clock. The result wasn’t what the Owls had been hoping for.

The bright spot — if there is any — was a resurgent performance by the offensive line and a strong rushing attack. If McMahon does miss further time, they’re going to need both aspects to succeed to scratch out another win. And even if McMahon does return, a balanced offensive attack is clearly the answer right now.

Digging deeper

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Keeping time

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Rice Football 2022: WKU Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football travels to WKU this week with bowl aspirations in their sights. Here’s what we learned from practice this week.

The final quarter of a rigorous 2022 Rice football schedule begins this week with a road trip to Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are just ahead of the Owls in the current conference standings with both teams in need of one more win to reach bowl eligibility (WKU needs seven wins this year because of their 13th game with a trip to Hawaii).

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This week’s roundup focuses in on a new adversary the Owls are facing this week, stakes for this game, the offensive line, special teams adjustments, a few individual standouts and more.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

Rice Football vs the Flu

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Rice Football 2022 Game Preview: WKU

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Rice football is one win away from bowl eligibility as they travel to play Western Kentucky. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Both Rice football and Western Kentucky enter their upcoming matchup fresh off a win. The Owls rallied late to beat UTEP while WKU routed Charlotte. Both programs would like nothing more than to keep up their winning ways with another victory this weekend. Here’s everything you need to know about this week’s game.

Kickoff time | 1:00 PM CT
Venue | LT Smith Stadium – Bowling Green, KY
TV | ESPN+ (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs WKU on this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. Look for a recap of the game on the site afterward as well as on The Roost Podcast, which should be released early next week. 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

Western Kentucky is officially bowl eligible after a beatdown of Charlotte last weekend. The Hilltoppers are playing for an outside shot at a conference championship game appearance, although they’ll need some help to get there.

On the other sideline, Rice football is one win away from a trip to the postseason. The Owls (3-2) are also a win away from being third place in the conference standings, leapfrogging WKU with a win. As the calendar turns to November, there’s plenty at stake for both programs.

Series History

All Time | WKU leads, 3-0
Last Five | WKU leads, 3-0
Last Meeting | Home 2021, WKU won 42-21

Get the Inside Scoop

Get access to practice reports, analysis and special features during the week when you subscribe to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon today. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to attack this week’s opponent, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. Don’t miss out! Join now!

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Rice Football Stat Notables

Passing | McMahon – 152/255 (59.6 percent), 2037 yards, 18 TD, 12 INT
Rushing | Montgomery – 59 carries, 391 yards (6.6 yards per carry), 0 TD / Broussard – 91 carries, 251 yards (2.8 yards per carry), 9 TD
Receiving | Rozner – 33 receptions, 721 yards (21.9 yds/rec), 8 TDs / McCaffrey – 51 receptions, 656 yards (12.9 yds/rec), 6 TD / Esdale – 26 receptions, 313 yards (12.1 yds/rec), 0 TD
Tackles | Conti – 53 / Morrison – 49 / Taylor – 44
Pass Breakups | Dunbar – 7  / Fresch – 5 / Taylor – 4
Interceptions | Taylor – 2 / Morrison, Nyakwol, Chamberlain, Fresch – 1

WKU Stat Notables

Passing | Reed – 276/407 (67.8 percent), 3171 yards, 28 TD, 6 INT
Rushing | Robichaux- 65 carries, 458 yards (6.7 yards per carry), 3 TD / Ervin-Poindexter – 82 carries, 357 yards (4.4 ypc), 3 TD
Receiving | Corley – 64 receptions, 863 yards (13.5 yards per reception), 7 TD / Davis – 56 receptions, 755 yards (13.5 yds/rec), 6 TD
Tackles | Knight – 84 / Hylton – 66 / Wallerstedt – 58
Pass Breakups | Hailassie – 8 / Williams – 5 / Evans, Simpkins – 3
Interceptions | Stout – 3 / Hailassie, Oliver – 2 / Six tied with one each

WKU X-Factor | Stay on schedule

It comes as no surprise that Western Kentucky has kept its point-scoring machine rolling, even with a new quarterback at the controls. The Hilltoppers lead conference USA with 37.2 points per game. One subtle secret to their success has been their ability to avoid negative plays.

Western Kentucky ranks first in Conference USA in tackles for a loss allowed. They rank third in sacks allowed (just 1.2o per game) and lead the league in turnover margin. All offenses are naturally more effective when they don’t have to overcome mistakes and negative plays. That doesn’t mean the Hilltoppers can’t, but they haven’t had to do so very often.

Getting Western Kentucky off schedule and forcing them to make plays in pressure situations is a must if Rice is going to pick up this road win. Letting Austin Reed sit back and pick the defense apart won’t work.

Rice X-Factor | Win third down

Third down has been a problem for Rice football, on both sides of the field. The offense converted third down at one of their most proficient rates of the season against UTEP (61.5 percent) and the Owls won, moving to 3-0 in games in which they’ve converted at least 50 percent of their third down opportunities on offense.

The defensive side has been problematic, though. Excluding the Charlotte game, Rice has been fairly effective on first and second down. It’s been third down that has given this defense trouble, particularly on third and long.

Since the bye week, a span of four games, Rice is holdings its opponents to a 31 percent conversion rate on third and short (four yards or less). On third and medium and third and long (5+ yards to go), Rice opponents are converting on 40 percent of their tries. That’s backward. The further to go, the less often it should be occurring. The Rice defense needs to find ways to get off the field.

Injury Report (Subscribers only)

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One Final Thing

The topsy-turvy 2022 season has maintained a steady cadence of unpredictability thus far and there’s no reason to believe that is going to stop anytime soon. Rice football isn’t the best version of themselves right now, but they’ve found ways to scratch out wins in two of their last three games, the first of which came on the road. This weekend’s road test will be an important one.

Western Kentucky isn’t quite in the same class as Marshall was in 2020 or UAB was in 2021, but the Hilltoppers have been one of the better teams in Conference USA since Tyson Helton arrived in Bowling Green. When it comes to sorting out whether Rice belongs in the top or the bottom half of the conference, the Owls have teetered back and forth from week to week.

A win on Saturday would not only clinch a bowl berth, but it would put Rice squarely in the top but it would also secure at least a .500 record in conference play. That’s a far cry from where the Owls have been in recent seasons. Rice has a few more weeks to get that elusive sixth win, but the sooner they do find it, the more notable it will be.

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