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Rice Football: Assessing the impact of Jake Bailey entering the Transfer Portal

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Rice football wide receiver Jake Bailey has entered the Transfer Portal. How will that affect the Owls going forward and how should they respond?

The Transfer Portal giveth; the Transfer Portal taketh away. Rice football suffered a significant loss on the transfer market this week with star wide receiver Jake Bailey opting to enter the portal on Tuesday. How does the impact the Rice offense? What will the Owls’ next steps be? We work through those questions and discuss the repercussions of Bailey’s decision below.

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Rice Football: Owls add UConn home game to 2023 schedule

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Rice football has announced a modification to its 2023 conference schedule, swapping a road game at BYU with a home contest against UConn.

Following the conclusion of the 2021 Rice football schedule, athletic director Joe Karlgaard took notice of just how grueling the Owls’ nonconference slate had been. Games against Arkansas, Texas and Houston wore the team down before conference play even began.

It was during that conversation with Karlgaard that he mentioned potential changes might be forthcoming. “As we go into the American I want to make sure that we’ve got some good balance in our non-conference schedule, which we did not have this year,” he said in early December. A few months later, Rice has adapted its 2023 schedule to better align with those notions.

Rice announced on Friday the addition of UConn to its 2023 schedule. The game will be played on October 7, 2023 and will replace a previously scheduled road game at BYU. The revised 2023 schedule is as follows:

Sept. 2 – at Texas
Sept. 9 – vs Houston
Sept. 16 – vs Texas Southern
Oct. 7 – vs UConn

With a trip to Texas already on the slate, swapping out BYU for UConn makes a lot of competitive sense. BYU reached the AP Top 10 in each of the past two seasons, accruing a 21-4 record over that time. UConn has 21 combined wins since 2013. This scheduling change has a high likelihood of setting the Owls’ up for one more win, further aiding in their chances to return to a bowl game.

Rice football begins in 2022 schedule on the road against USC. Rice will then host McNeese and Houston before ending its nonconference campaign across town at Houston.

Rice begins spring practice on March 8.

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Rice Football: What I’m watching in Spring Practices — Patreon Q&A

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Rice football kicks off spring practice soon. This month’s Patreon Q&A focuses on what I’ll be following closely during these sessions.

In season or not, Rice football frequently appears as a focal point in these Q&A posts. Our February Q&A follows suit, focusing on the upcoming weeks of spring practices and which items I’ll personally be keeping a close eye on as the weeks progress. Practices are currently slated to start sometime in early March.

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Rice Basketball edges Southern Miss on Senior Day

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It took overtime to get it done, but Rice Basketball sent off its seniors on a high note, topping Southern Miss on Senior Day at Tudor Fieldhouse.

It had been a back-and-forth game from the start with no obvious moments of separation. Rice basketball traded runs with Southern Miss but both teams stayed neck and neck through regulation and beyond. It was always close. Right up until the moment Chris Mullins let a three-point shot fly with just under 90 seconds remaining in overtime.

The three-point shot would dive through the hoop and give Rice a 5-point advantage with time ticking off the clock quickly. From that point, forward Rice made their foul shots and played out the string, but it was Mullins’ triple that afforded the pivotal moment.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball furious rally not enough vs LA Tech

“Fitting. Appropriate. Whatever word you want to use. A four-year warrior. He’ll never forget that shot as long as he lives. I probably won’t either,” head coach Scott Pera said of Mullins’ dagger three, reflecting on a Senior Fight victory. Ten of the Owls’ 13 points in overtime were scored by seniors, snapping a season-long losing streak and rejuvenating the entire roster.

“We needed a win,” Pera admitted.

That win didn’t come easily. Before Rice got to overtime they overcome an eight-point first-half deficit. Every time they came close, Southern Miss found a way to push their advantage up another few points. It wasn’t until a set of three three-pointers by Travis Evee at the midpoint of the second half that Rice would take their first lead in what felt like forever.

Southern Miss would answer. Then Rice volleyed back. The battle was fierce. Rice had the chance to end it in regulation but couldn’t get one more three-ball to fall as the clock expired. That would eventually set up Mullins’ deep bomb, a memorable way for the seniors’ last home game to end.

Player Spotlight | Chris Mullins

A four-year starter, Mullins is the most tenured player on the roster. He was shut out in his last game against Louisiana Tech, going 0-for-4 from the field with no rebounds. On Saturday against Southern Miss he scored 12 points, grabbed seven rebounds and played 40 minutes, the second-most court time he’s gotten in a game all season, behind only a 3OT outing against Evansville in November.

“I can still remember my first game here,” Mullins said as he attempted to take in the emotions of the final home game of his career. “It’s just come full circle. I started off with a win and I ended with a win here. I’m going to have so many memories here. It’s a great feeling.”

Stat Corner | Get to the line

Rice basketball shot 29 free throws. Southern Miss shot eight. One of the major differences in this game was how often Rice was able to get to the charity stripe. Even though they only converted 20 of those chances, good for a modest 69 percent, they still vastly outdid their opponents at the line and made one of their opposing players foul out.

Final Box | Rice 77 – Southern Miss 72

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball will finish out their regular season schedule on the road. Next up is UTEP, who they’ll visit on Mar. 3 for an 8:00 p.m. tilt. Then Rice will finish in San Antonio against UTSA on Mar. 5. at 2:00 p.m. After that, it’s onto the conference tournament which tips off on Mar. 8.

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Rice Baseball has plenty to work on following weekend sweep by Texas

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Things got away for Rice baseball quickly on opening weekend against Texas leaving the Owls with plenty to correct as they move forward.

THREE FOR THE ROAD | Rice baseball swept 3-0

In the words of Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr., “It didn’t go as we had hoped.” Those words seem optimistic at best following what was a rough awakening from the honeymoon offseason by the nation’s No. 1 team in their own ballpark. Texas outscored Rice by a combined score of 36-3, outclassing the Owls all around and sending them home with plenty to work on.

“We’re just starting,” Cruz Jr. admitted, adding that he’s hopeful players continue to progress and “we have some guys step up.” More on what went wrong and what good can be gleaned from a tough opening weekend for Rice baseball.

1. Someone might be walking home

On two separate occasions, Rice baseball issued five or more walks in the same inning. It would be disingenuous to boil an entire series down to a singular stat, but walks tell the preponderance of this story. 17 different pitchers took the mound for the Owls against the Longhorns this weekend.  Just as many left without recording an out (two) as left without issuing a walk (also two).

Of the two who went multiple innings without issuing a walk (Cristian Cienfuegos and Parker Smith), only Smith hit a batter. So in total, 16 of 17 Rice pitchers allowed a free base runner and only two (Brandon Deskins and Cooper Chandler) went at least three full innings on the mound.

More: Jose Cruz Jr. hopes to bring modern edge to Rice baseball

Cruz Jr. was blunt in his assessment. “Ultimately I chuck it up to lack of execution. I think we gave them too many chances.”

Five Rice pitchers through at least 60 percent of their pitches for strikes. Five through more balls than strikes, overall. The program can praise the technological advancements of its pitching lab all they want, but if they don’t throw strikes, it’s not going to matter.

2. Some answers in the lineup

Finding someone to fill the offensive void left by the departing trio of  Cade Edwards, Bradley Gneiting and Braden Comeaux was high on the priority list for the start of the season. While the Owls didn’t see any resounding offensive displays, there were enough encouraging at bats that indicate the offense should be better than its current one-run-per-game clip.

Guy Garibay appears to be as good as advertised and seems locked into a top-four spot in the batting order after collecting two doubles on the weekend and several hard-hit outs. Austin Bulman launched the Owls’ first home run of the season — the third consecutive year he’s delivered the first long ball for Rice — and is going to be a fixture as well.

Drew Woodcox struggled out of the gate, but his offseason performances will likely warrant him more than one weekend to work out of the slump. Justin Long and Pierce Gallo each left the weekend hitting .375 after three hits in eight at bats. True freshman Aaron Smigelski and Jack Ben-Shoshan delivered pinch hits, and while it might not get them in the starting lineup just yet, Cruz Jr. said he’d taken notice of their good approaches at the plate.

3. Texas is very, very good, but Rice beat themselves, too

Rice committed three errors at third base in the first 11 defensive innings of this series. They had four errors on the weekend. Texas had one. Add in 28 walks, six wild pitches, three passed balls and zero runs in the first 17 innings and you get the recipe for a sloppy weekend on the road — and that’s before any opponent enters the equation.

“[We want] guys to put together good at bats, play some good defense, just play baseball,” Cruz Jr. said. “for our pitchers to execute [and] just be able to attack the zone a little bit more than we have.”

Whether it was jitters, rust or some combination of both, Rice can put a tremendously improved product on the field by minimizing their own mistakes. Fortunately, Rice won’t be playing Texas every weekend. And fortunately, Rice has a lot of time left in this young season to work through warts that were put on display in Austin this past weekend.

THE PLAY BY PLAY

FRIDAY  | Texas 7 – Rice 0

Texas came after Rice starter Cooper Chandler early on Friday night. He allowed plenty of hard contact, but only one run in each of the first two innings. Trailing 2-0, he worked a scoreless third before two infield singles and an error in the fourth inning drove him from the game. By the time the inning was through, Rice trailed 5-0.

Christian Cienfuegos was a bright spot out of the bullpen, but it was too little, too late by the time he settled in. The Rice offense was quiet, largely unable to solve Texas starter Pete Hansen. The Owls only had seven at bats with runners in scoring position and produced no hits in those key moments. Those missed opportunities and the errors proved too much to overcome.

SATURDAY | Texas 15 – Rice 1

Even following a three-run third inning courtesy of a balk and an error and one more run across in the fourth, the game was very much in the balance on Saturday entering the fifth inning. Roel Garcia punched out the first two batters and was one strike from returning to the dugout with the Owls’ first 1-2-3 inning of the weekend. Then he walked the next batter on a full count and the spiral began.

Rice allowed six runs in the fifth, three more in the sixth and two in the seventh, watching a 4-0 deficit turn into a 15-0 hole as the offense continued to put up zeroes. At that point, the rout was on and Rice could only play out the string.

SUNDAY | Texas 14 – Rice 2

Austin Bulman lifted the first pitch he saw over the fence to give Rice baseball its first lead of the weekend. It would be short-lived. The 1-0 advantage turned into a 2-0 deficit before the Owls were able to get out of the first inning. That score held through three innings as starting pitcher Thomas Burbank was able to hold Texas at bay early on.

The Longhorns would breakthrough with crooked numbers in the fourth and fifth innings. The Owls’ offense was able to consistently generate baserunners but unable to drive them in until a wild pitch allowed catcher Manny Garza to score the final run of the game in the eighth inning. At that point it was 14-2 Texas, cementing the end of another one-sided affair.

ON DECK | Rice baseball at Houston Baptist (Wed)

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