The source for Rice sports news

The Roost Podcast | Ep 72 – Aston Walter and spring practice “Believe it or Not”

By

We catch up with former Rice football running back Aston Walter on this week’s show and dive into trends and surprises from spring practice.

Spring is in the air and Rice football is on the grass. More than half of the spring sessions have passed, giving us a decent sample size to draw conclusions from. You can find the full practice reports when you subscribe on Patreon.

On this week’s show, we broke down those observations by playing a quick game of “Believe it or Not.” Then we were joined by former Rice football running back Austin Walter, now a graduate assistant at Vanderbilt. He detailed his dreams of being a coach and his journey since he left Rice.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 72.

Episode Notes

  • Housekeeping
    • Plan on hearing more from The Roost Podcast in your feed every other week as we continue our interview series. We’ll have some returning guests and hopefully a few new Owls to talk with over the next few months.
    • Please support us on Patreon. Be the first to get the inside scoop on what’s going on with Rice football and stick around for even further analysis. That includes spring football practices, currently underway.
      Become a Patron!
  • Aston Walter joins the show to discuss…
    • His journey into coaching
    • His work as an assistant under David Bailiff at Texas A&M Commerce last year
    • What he’s learned about scheme and skills along the way
    • The move to Vanderbilt and life as a graduate assistant

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball: Rally falls short vs MTSU in CUSA Tournament finale

By

Rice women’s basketball lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds to Middle Tennesee in 2021 Conference USA Tournament Championship Game.

Middle Tennessee was picked to win Conference USA in the preseason polls. Rice women’s basketball were the defending champs and finished with the best record in the regular season. It was only fitting that these were the two teams pitted against each other in the conference championship game on Saturday night.

A rematch of the 2019 Championship Game between these two teams, the 2021 edition shared an eerie resemblance early on. Middle Tennessee took a modest 32-26 lead into halftime, never getting too far ahead, but doing enough to keep Rice off balance. Courtney Witson’s five three-pointers in the first half were crucial to Middle Tennessee’s early success.

Both teams went on runs in the third quarter, with Rice clawing ever so slightly closer. In the fourth quarter, Nancy Mulkey got hot. She scored the first six points in the final frame, giving Rice the lead for the first time since they led 6-5 in the first quarter.

Podcast: Former Rice football star Christian Covington talks football, Marvel

Then came a heart-stopping finale. Middle Tennessee went on an 11-0 run to go up by 10. Rice responded with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to three. Trailing by two, Rice had the ball with a chance to force overtime, but a pass to Mulkey in the paint was knocked away leaving Rice with little more than a full-court hail mary on the ensuing possession that fell short.

Mulkey finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Katelyn Crosthwait and Jasmine Smith both had 13 points, with Smith tallying a double-double with 10 rebounds.

After the game, head coach Tina Langley took the blame for the heartbreaking result: “In the end, I thought I could have made some better decisions for our team,” she said. “I thought they fought their tails off. Really this is on me.”

With the win, Middle Tennesee clinches an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Rice women’s basketball will now await their postseason fate, announced on Selection Monday. By RPI, the Owls stand a decent chance to earn an at-large berth, but the NET Rankings have them as a fringe team, at best. Given the weighting toward NET, the Owls’ season could very well be done.

No matter what happens on Monday, it was another remarkable run for this team.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball 2021: Owls explode past FIU in CUSA Tourney

By

Rice women’s basketball picked up where they left in Conference USA Tournament, roaring past FIU to advance to the semifinals.

What ended as another dominant conference win didn’t start that way. Rice women’s basketball found themselves trailing 23-14 at the end of the first quarter in their opening game of the Conference USA Tournament against FIU. The Panthers were fresh off a first-round win over Southern Miss and came out of the gates red-hot.

Head coach Tina Langley didn’t call a time out to settle her squad down. She didn’t hesitate to take Nancy Mulkey out of the game and cycle through the Owls’ rotation. Instead, she stuck to her guns and trusted her experienced team to figure things out.

Over the span of the next quarter and a half, Rice outscored FIU 45-14.

Read More: Rice Football spring practice notebook – Week 1

“Resiliency” was the word Langley used in the aftermath of the Owls’ fourth consecutive Conference USA Tournament win. This team doesn’t often get punched in the mouth, but when they do, they respond well. Lauren Schwartz exploded with a career-high 27-point performance. Jasmine Smith and Sydne Wiggins put on a clinic of their own, dishing out 11 of the Owls’ 26 assists, a tournament record.

Rice held FIU to seven points in the third quarter. By the time the Panthers had recovered, it was too late. After shooting 63 percent from the field in the first quarter, FIU would finish the game at a paltry 36 percent. They made 10 shots in the first quarter, but just nine shots in the second half. Once more, the Rice defense slammed the door.

Rice women’s basketball is scheduled to play Old Dominion at 5:30 p.m. Friday on Stadium. The Monarchs advanced to the quarterfinals following upsets of 3-Seed North Texas and 2-Seed Charlotte

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Football 2021: Spring Practice Week 1 Notebook

By

Rice football returned to the practice field this week. Here are a few initial reactions from the first week of spring ball.

For the first time in three months, Rice football put on the pads and hit the practice field. It was a refreshing sight that seemed almost normal after a winter that was anything but conventional.

There were a few new faces this time, including quarterback Jake Constantine. But there were things to be learned from players head coach Mike Bloomgren would dub “the old heads” as well. We dug into some initial thoughts on the depth charts earlier this week. This edition will focus on what transpired on the grass itself.

Subscriber content.<br /> Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

The Roost will have you covered every step of the way. Subscribers get access to all spring practice notes, recruiting updates and special features. Subscribe on Patreon and get access to it all today.

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?
Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Football: OC Marques Tuiasosopo brings new spin to familiar scheme

By

Rice football has hired Marques Tuiasosopo as its new offensive coordinator. His task: reinvigorate the Owls’ offense.

Marques Tuiasosopo was introduced on Tuesday as the new offensive coordinator for Rice Football. Tuiasosopo brings a wealth of experience from the Pac-12 with him to South Main. His path to Houston includes stops at Washington, UCLA, USC and Cal where he served in a variety of roles coaching tight ends and quarterbacks.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren said Tuiasosopo checked his three most important criteria, saying Tuiasosopo “see[s] the game the way I do”, can design and call the passing game, and can “build the quarterback room from the ground up.”

To quell any illusions of what would or wouldn’t be changing, Tuiasosopo was emphatic about what the Rice offense was going to look like under his direction.

“Hey, we’re going to run the ball.”

The son of a defensive lineman, Tuiasosopo explained the physicality and importance of winning in the trenches was something that had been ingrained in him from a young age.

He talked about a commitment to being able to “throw it over the top”. That will still be a component of the offense. But Tuiasosopo noted the ability to take those vertical shots starts with running the rock. He and Bloomgren are aligned on that central tenant.

That balance goes all the way back to his playing days. The former Washington quarterback became the first player to throw for 300 yards and rush for 200 yards in a game as he set a school record of 509 yards in a win over Stanford.

Listen: The Roost Podcast Offseason Interview Series

He credits a lot of his growth to this point to a handful of notable coaches he’s had the privilege to work under. From Jon Gruden, he learned the importance of protecting the quarterback. From David Shaw, he learned how to stay poised under pressure. Steve Sarkisian, who he’ll stand on the opposite sideline from this coming fall, instilled in him the value of executing at a high level without sacrificing all of the fun.

Now at Rice, the first-time offensive coordinator for the first time in his career seeks to bring all of that experience together into one coherent plan of attack.

When it comes to the X’s and O’s, Bloomgren reiterated he doesn’t expect a seismic shift in the scheme. The notable change, if any, would a deeper exploration into RPO’s and similar concepts Tuiasopopo has direct experience with in the past.

At the end of the day, no matter how Tuiasosopo and Bloomgren build it, the expectations are rising. The offense has lagged behind the defense, most notably in the past two seasons. The changes to the coaching staff reflected Bloomgren’s desire to reset and address that side of the ball. “I wanted some fresh ideas to come into the building,” Bloomgren said.

Tuiasosopo has been on campus for a matter of days. He has one spring practice under his belt. Both he and the Rice offense have a lot of work to do this spring. That could include another reset at the quarterback position

On that front, probably Tuiasosopo’s most imminent priority, the new OC stressed a fresh start. “There’s a clean slate for those four young men in the quarterback room here at Rice,” he said. “Let’s go out and see who can be the best guy this year.”

From the quarterback spot to the offense as a whole, Tuiasosopo will be busy.

Follow along with updates from Rice football spring practices by subscribing to The Roost on Patreon. Depth chart updates, notes on key position battles and more will be available in the coming days.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts