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Rice Football Recruiting: 2022 Early Signing Period Live Blog

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The majority of the 2022 Rice Football Recruiting class will become signees during the Early Signing Period. Follow all the action here.

Amidst all the highs and lows that have transpired at South Main in recent years, the past several Rice Football Recruiting classes have been among the more encouraging moments. Rice has signed three of its five highest-rated recruiting classes under head coach Mike Bloomgren and the 2022 class looks to be flush with talent as well.

This live tracker will follow all the latest news and updates through the day, with some notes along the way on the class as it is finalized. If you’re not a subscriber yet, here’s your chance.

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Which newcomers will make sizable impacts like Cedric Patterson, Jake Constantine and others did this year? This class has plenty of talent which could find its way to the field soon.

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Now, let’s dig into the latest from the Early Signing Period, below.

Updates

10:45 p.m.

For any night Owls, here’s an early preview of the latest edition of The Roost Podcast where we break down the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class.

The Roost Podcast | Ep 104 – 2022 Rice Football Recruiting class review

1:37 p.m.

Mike Bloomgren wasn’t afraid to talk numbers when introducing the Owls’ third consecutive Top 5 class in program history.

2022 Rice Football Recruiting class nets Owls another historic haul

12:40 p.m.

Rice officially announces the addition of former Washington kicker Tim Horn.

9:31 a.m.

Mike Bloomgren announces live on Twitter Spaces that Tulsa WR Sam Crawford will transfer to Rice. Big pickup for the Owls. Here’s more on Crawford:

Rice Football Recruiting: Transfer WR Sam Crawford commits to Owls

And here’s wide receivers coach Mike Kershaw on Crawford.

9:16 a.m.

The first official additional from the Transfer Portal today is JUCO running back Dean Connors. He’s in. | #WhyRice

9:10 a.m.

As we listen in to the recruiting talk, consider taking a moment to fill out a quick postseason survey. Tell us how we did this fall and enter for a chance to win an Amazon gift card.

9:00 a.m.

Rice recruiting direct Alex Brown and head coach Mike Bloomgren are hosting a Twitter Spaces session to introduce the 2022 class. Give it a listen.

8:59 a.m.

Another one! Safety Tyson Flowers is in. He’s the eighth signature today.

8:41 a.m.

Things are starting to quiet down. Still possible we get another signing or two, but at this point, the Owls have the majority of their guys locked in. Head coach Mike Bloomgren has a press conference scheduled for noon today. We’ll have more comments from that as well as several follow-up pieces on this class in the afternoon and the next few days.

Make sure you keep an eye (or rather, an ear) out for the next edition of The Roost Podcast, as well.

8:01 a.m.

Athlete Quinton Jackson is in. Very versatile playmaker that Rice fans will enjoy seeing on the field. | #WhyRice?

Here’s running backs coach Robbie Picazo on Jackson.

7:55 a.m.

Quarterback AJ Padgett is in. No drama on the signal-caller front, Padgett committed in June and seals the deal today. | #WhyRice?

Here’s offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo on Padgett.

7:52 a.m.

That’s five NLIs in so far. That puts the Owls about halfway through their high school commitments. Keep an eye out for a player or two from the Transfer Portal. They’re not subject to the same timing restrictions as incoming high school players, so whether or not the Owls can officially introduce any new additions is TBD.

7:46 a.m.

Onto the skill players! Wide receiver Braylen Walker is in. | #WhyRice?

Here’s wide receivers coach Mike Kershaw on Walker.

7:38 a.m.

There’s something very on-brand with this. Rice gets the morning stater with three linemen. Defensive end Chibby Nwajuaku is in. | #WhyRice?

Here’s defensive line coach Cedric Calhoun on Nwajuaku.

7:27 a.m.

Defensive lineman Davion Carter commits to the Owls in April, the first commitment of this class. Now he’s officially a Rice Owl.

Here’s defensive line coach Cedric Calhoun on Carter.

7:16 a.m.

The other commit from the Eastern Time Zone, wideout Rawson MacNeill is in. | #WhyRice?

Here’s wide receivers coach Mike Kershaw on MacNeill.

6:58 a.m.

The first National Letter of Intent is in! Florida offensive lineman Miguel Cedeno is officially a Rice Owl. 6-foot-7, 320-pounds. This is a big get, literally.

Rice is rolling out a nice package on social media for these guys, too. Here’s Cedeno’s #WhyRice? and more on him from offensive line coach Sanders Davis.

Wednesday, 6:08 a.m.

We should see announcements start rolling in at any point now. The first group to keep an eye on is the East coast commits.

Tuesday night

The first new addition to the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class checked in before the Early Signing Period officially opened. Washington kicker Tim Horn announced he was transferring to Rice on Tuesday night. He fills an immediate need for the Owls moving forward.

Tuesday afternoon

The initial group of December signees for the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class may end up slightly smaller than in previous years. That’s due in part to some of the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 waivers and their impact on future rosters as well as a strategic decision by the Rice coaching staff to save a few spots down the road for a Transfer Portal that seems to constantly be churning out new names on the hour.

As is typically the case, there were several Rice signees would had yet to receive a 247 Sports rating. Those last couple of rankings were added by Tuesday morning. Here’s where the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class stands as of Tuesday night. Players are eligible to fax in their signatures starting at 7:00 a.m. local time.

Rice has the No. 3 class entering Wednesday morning, but you’ll notice they only have nine commitments, the fewest of the top three rated teams. They’re in a good position so far and aren’t accounting for quantity over quality.

Make sure to stay tuned on Twitter and follow our live blog here during the day for updates. Get the latest list of the 2022 Rice Football Recruiting commits by clicking the tracker below.

Rice Football, Rice Football Recruiting

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Rice Football: After-season Transfer Portal updates

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

If the Rice football season spans from August to November, December is Transfer Portal season. The Owls aren’t alone in this modern college football phenomenon. There have been more than 250 transfers in the past week across the country and more are certainly coming.

Why now? At first glance, the end of the regular season seems to be a natural breakpoint in the calendar, but it’s what coincides with that break that is the more likely impetus. College programs around the country hold what many call “exit interviews” where players and staff sit down and talk through the season with individual players and discuss the future. If that future doesn’t align with the desire or expectations of a particular student-athlete, some will choose to part ways.

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That sort of changeover is happening at Rice right now, just as it’s happening in football facilities around the nation. To this point, Rice football has largely benefited from this process. For every Blaze Alldredge that enters the portal, Rice has found a Bradley Rozner or Naeem Smith. Current NFL offensive lineman Nick Leverett was a transfer addition, too, as have been five Rice starting quarterbacks.

With that as a preamble, here is the latest list of Rice football players that have reportedly entered the Transfer Portal this week:

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Rice Football: 10 Takeaways from 2021 season

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The 2021 Rice football season was a roller coaster, and the ride wasn’t always enjoyable. What can we take away from the Owls’ four-win campaign?

The upset of UAB in Birmingham will be the pinnacle of a Rice football season that spanned the full range of emotions. Two shutout losses, two overtime losses and two-wins shy of the postseason proved the sobering reality that this program isn’t quite where they want to be. Not yet.

Nevertheless, our coverage of Rice football is far from over. We’ll be presenting The Roosties soon, our take on an annual Rice football awards show from The Roost Podcast. There will also be Team Superlatives released throughout December featuring more traditional awards like Team MVP, Offense and Defensive Player of the Year and more.

But before we get there, here are a few final thoughts on the 20201 Rice football season with some forward-thinking questions scattered throughout and promises of more to come.

Good

1. The offense is better

It was a rocky start, but Rice football topped 21 points each in seven of its final nine games and each of its final six. That included a 48-point outing against Texas Southern and 35 points in the finale against Louisiana Tech. Rice hadn’t strung together more than three consecutive 21-point outings under Bloomgren entering the year, so capping the season of with consistent touchdowns is a step in the right direction. OC Marques Tuiasosopo deserves a lot of credit.

2. The wide receivers might be the best unit on offense

That offensive evaluation came without Bradley Rozner on the field and without Jake Bailey in the Owls’ final game. Cedric Patterson stepped up and proved to be a difference-maker. August Pitre had some big catches in key moments. Kobie Campbell made several key plays when he was called upon. Rice has weapons in the passing game and they’re starting to make noise.

3. Return of key defensive pieces

This defensive might not have been anywhere close to the level of dominance they displayed during parts of the 2020 season, but it would have been better had De’Braylon Carroll and Treshawn Chamberlain played a part in it. Rice hopes to have both men back in the fold next season, starting the defense off on a better foot than they ended this past fall.

4. Up-and-coming talent

The lass several Rice football recruiting classes have been loaded with talent. We saw several key Bloomgren-era recruits play big roles this season. Jake Bailey became the go-to pass catcher. Braeden Nutter slotted in seamlessly on the offensive line. Jordan Dunbar, Sean Fresch, and Gabe Taylor secured starting roles on defense. True freshman Aidian Siano tallied multiple starts and never looked out of place. The talent is there and it’s starting to make an impact.

5. Four wins is better than two (or three)

Rice saw a modest tick upward in the win column this season. While that was short of the six-win expectation, the decision was made to retain head coach Mike Bloomgren heading into 2022. More will be said on that move in the coming days and weeks, but it’s worth noting that we shouldn’t miss the forest for the trees. Rice won more games this year than they had since 2015. That’s important, even if it comes alongside some real disappointments.

Fix

1. The secondary needs an overhaul

Rice lost several starting defensive backs to injury prior to the start of the 2020 season, but still managed to piece together a formidable back end. A similar rash of injuries struck this year, but the results were very different. Whether it was the installation of a new safeties coach, the reliance on younger, less proven players or a combination of both, something didn’t click. If Rice is going to have success moving forward they have to be at least decent against the pass. They weren’t this year.

2. Injuries aside, who is playing QB?

The ever-rotating quarterback carousel almost makes the list of improvement opportunities. Jake Constantine, Wiley Green, TJ McMahon and Luke McCaffrey all saw meaningful snaps this season. The latter three will be back. We’ll have more to say on how the quarterback position played out this year, but 2022 needs to be the year of health and competence reach an all-time high in this room. Furthermore, whoever wins the job needs to be developed into a player than can be successful over the course of a season.

3. Rice needs a true RB

The Rice running back room was a work-in-progress this season. Khalan Griffin did not take the step forward many hoped he might. Beyond him, converted tight end Jordan Myers was a key cog while Ari Broussard might have been the best option after all, working his way up from scout team. A camp injury left Juma Otoviano working scout team duties. This is a prime opportunity for a transfer addition or a consolidation of roles.

4. Finding a kicker is near the top of the priority list

Rice made one field goal longer than 30 yards in 12 games. That make was a 41-yard kick from Christan VanSickle in his first game taking over placekicking duties from Collin Riccitelli. The offense got much better on fourth down, but having a hand tied behind their backs when it came to the kicking game was a tremendous detriment to the offense as a whole.

5. If 2021 wasn’t a prove-it year, 2022 is

Ending the 2021 season without a bowl trip was a major disappointment in year four of Bloomgren’s tenure. There will be no more mulligans in 2022. There’s a lot of work to be done to get this team and this coaching staff over the hump and Bloomgren will have another offseason to get them there. 2022 is the year this team goes to a bowl, Bloomgren’s future depends on it.

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Rally falls short as Rice Football falls to UTEP on the road

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Rice football rallied from an early deficit to take a halftime lead, but could not hold on, running out of time as they fell to UTEP on the road.

Saturday’s Rice football game in El Paso was anything but boring. The game had lead changes, turnovers, big plays, scoring runs and fourth-down theatrics. A desirable result for the Owls was all it lacked when the time came for the final whistle. The loss drops the Owls’ record to 3-8 before their regular-season finale against Louisiana Tech next weekend. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Weathering the storm

Starting fast has been an important talking point for Rice football all season long. No matter how you slice it, when they took the field at the Sun Bowl on Saturday, Rice was slow.

UTEP drove down the field with ease, cutting through the Rice defense on a 75-yard touchdown drive on their first possession of the game. Safety Kirk Lockhart was ejected for targeting during the drive, cutting an already thin secondary down even further for the remainder of the game.

The Rice offense took over after that sequence and proceeded to go three-and-out, gaining zero yards. The second drive wasn’t much better, a three-and-out netting three total yards.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week – Rice football vs UTEP

Yet when the dust settled, Rice trailed UTEP by just seven points at the end of the first quarter. The defense rebound with two straight four-play drives, including a huge play by Desmyn Baker to cut through a well-blocked screen and neutralize the play for no gain. That got the ball back to the Rice offense.

Jake Constantine and company then manufactured a 15-play, 75-yard drive to tie the game, with two fourth-down conversions along the way. After the slow start, Rice found themselves in the middle of the second quarter in a tied game. Not fast, but gritty. Rice weather the storm and made sure this would be a four-quarter game,

Waking up

Early on in the season, Rice football would fold when their opponent threw the first punch. That’s how non-conference games against Houston and Texas ended in one-sided routs, and how Rice was blanked in conference play by UTSA. Even though the Owls haven’t found the win column of late, they have shown the ability to fight for four quarters.

After falling behind against UTEP, Rice fought back, scoring 21 points in the second quarter. Rice had managed 21 points in a half just twice entering this game. To put up 21 points in a 15-minute span, including two touchdowns scored less than a minute from each other, was arguably the most explosive outing from the offense this year.

It was the highest-scoring quarter since Rice scored 28 in a quarter against UTEP in 2016.

But it wasn’t just the offense that deserves credit for the quick answer. The defense held UTEP to 81 yards in the second quarter, zero third down conversions and two rushing yards on four attempts. The big play came following the Owls’ second touchdown when Gabe Taylor lept in front of a Gavin Hardison pass to prevent a quick answer by UTEP before the second quarter came to a close. Instead, Rice found paydirt:

Cedric Patterson’s big play put Rice ahead at halftime for the first time since they played UAB which was, not coincidentally, their last win. Unfortunately for Rice, they seemed to spend all their points at once.

Out of gas and overwhelmed by injury

Jake Bailey was supposed to be “the guy” for Rice football this year. One of the highest-rated recruits in Rice history, the heir apparent to Austin Trammell had understandably high expectations entering the 2021 season. He was productive early on, hauling in his first touchdown of the year against Texas Southern and racking up a career-best 83 receiving yards against Southern Miss.

But it was really when Jake Constantine became the guy at quarterback that Bailey took his game to the next level. Bailey put up 143 yards against North Texas, 143 yards against Charlotte and 80 yards against Western Kentucky. He tallied 58 yards against UTEP before leaving the game midway through the third quarter after a hard hit.

With Bailey already sidelined, Jake Constantine scrambled on third down and was tripped up two yards short and injured on the tackle. Luke McCaffrey came in cold and could not hit Patterson on a deep shot. Rice turned the ball over on downs.

Jordan Myers did not play in this game. Ari Broussard was limited solely to two short-yardage carries, scoring once. Cam Montgomery had a career-long 43-yard carry. Kobie Campbell came in for Bailey and had a pair of important receptions. The next-man-up played well, but in the end, Rice ran out of steam.

Amidst the turmoil, UTEP scored 24 unanswered points. Rice’s first score in the second half would come with 5:42 to play in the fourth quarter, a two-yard fourth-down touchdown run by McCaffrey. Unfortunately for Rice, it was too little, too late.

Searching to snap a streak

The difference between a four-win season and a five-win season might not matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, but finishing the season 2-0 felt much more important for this after coming painstakingly close in a couplet of overtime finishes in weeks prior.

Not only will the Owls not finish within striking distance of six wins, they’ll have started and ended the season on low notes, the bright spots coming in the middle of the year. Fair or not, how teams start and how they finish tend to linger in memories with more staying power than what happened in say, Week 7.

It also sets the stage for a dangerously crucial finale against Louisiana Tech. Rice football is currently riding a four-game losing streak. If they are unable to beat Louisiana Tech at home next weekend, they’ll bump that trend to five consecutive defeats. Selling an upward trajectory gets tougher when the team goes winless in the final month of the season.

The totality of the year will be evaluated once the dust settles, and that goes beyond any singular result. Nevertheless, going 1-0 this week just became even more important.

Digging deeper

Every week we’ll have a stat, storyline or key learning from the game reserved for our subscribers.

Fourth down frenzy

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Rice Football 2021: UTEP presser quotes, updates and depth chart

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Up next Rice football visits UTEP in the Owls’ last road game of the season. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about the matchup, injury updates and depth chart notes.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren and a pair of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They discussed the loss to Western Kentucky and how the team planned to approach their upcoming game against UTEP. We’ll include updates from Bloomgren and those players, then dig further into the details of the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

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The depth chart continues to fluctuate, although most of the changes of late can be attributed to injury. Rice football is been beat up down the stretch, but there shouldn’t be too many surprises this week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I think Coach Dimel sees winning championships the same way I do. I think he’s had success doing it at whatever level of football he’s been at. When he’s won, we’ve talked about this before, that’s kind of the formula. We’re able to do those things and yeah, it’s interesting. I think both of us are over 35 minutes time of possession so something’s gonna have to give in this game. One of us is is going to lose that battle. But in any case, I think we see the game very similarly and probably because of our backgrounds, both being at the offensive line spot, we love the ability to control the game that way.” – Mike Bloomgren on similarities between himself and Dana Dimel

“Aidan is a guy that we saw on recruiting film and fell in love with instantly. He’s sideline-to-sideline, making plays. My concerns with recruiting Aidan were never if he was good enough, it was whether we would be able to hold onto him throughout the whole recruiting process. We were able to get him and his family to fall in love with this place and this team.

I’m so thankful that he’s here. I’m thankful to see his role grow pretty much every week of the season to the point where he’s now a starter for us. I’m really excited for him to be in that role all week in practice and get to see the results against what we know is going to be a physical offensive line from UTEP” – Mike Bloomgren on linebacker Aidan Siano

“That first start was everything I could have asked for. It was a lot of fun. I was definitely nervous going into the game but… it was a lot of fun. I definitely wish the game could have gone a little bit differently, but it was a blast and I’m just blessed to be in this role” on his first start Saturday vs WKU” – Linebacker Aidan Siano on his first career start against Western Kentucky

“This offense, just day in and day out, seeing the guys come in and go to work every week. It’s college football, every week you’re not going to have the greatest game of your life. But if you can come back and work every week and continue to perfect your craft and continue to go through the scheme and continue to just practice and work together and practice hard throughout the weeks of the season with the same guys over and over. I believe that you’re obviously going to have some progression. What we’ve done is pretty nice, and I look forward to keep going.” – Running back Cam Montgomery on the growth of the offense

Depth Chart

There were no changes on the official Rice football depth chart heading into the Western Kentucky game. That’s not the case this week. There are a few changes, impacting both sides of the ball.

Rice Football

Injuries

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