The 2024 Rice Football season is over and the Transfer Portal is officially open. Here’s the latest on who’s coming and going from South Main.
2024 Rice Football Winter Transfer Portal Tracker
Rice Football: Behind enemy lines with a USF Insider
USF is next up on the 2024 Rice football schedule so we’re going behind enemy lines with Bulls’ insider Seth Varnadore from the Bay Area Examiner.
Bulls’ insider Seth Varnadore was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions about the upcoming matchup between Rice Football and USF. The answers below should shed some light on the Owls’ upcoming opponent.
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.
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“I Know the Road Map”: Rice Football head coach Scott Abell makes strong debut
Scott Abell has officially been named the next Rice Football head coach and while he’s new to the job, he doesn’t feel like he’s starting over.
Donning a cowboy hat for the first time, a gift from an enthusiastic supporter, newly appointed Rice football head coach Scott Abell never allowed his confident demeanor to waiver during his introductory press conference on Wednesday afternoon. While he’s new to the state, the Owls headman has an understanding of the program he’s inheriting. In his eyes, he’s seen this rodeo before.
“This is my strength. I’ve witnessed this,” he said. “I’ve walked this walk for seven years.”
Rice hired Abell from Davidson, a high-academic institution in North Carolina with a striking number of similarities to Rice. Like Rice, Davidson competes in what Abell called “a league that wasn’t like us,” in the midst of other institutions which didn’t face the same academic hurdles.
“He has a proven track record of success at multiple places where it has historically been difficult to win. He is a program builder who has established and maintained a winning culture at every step of his illustrious career,” Athletic Director Tommy McClelland said during his introductory remarks.
“This is my strength.
I’ve witnessed this.
I’ve walked this walk.”
Davidson, like Rice, had also been a place where it was historically hard to win. Both programs sit below .500 all-time in their football records. Abell left Davidson as the winningest coach in program history, pushing his winning clip past .600 with room to spare. He knows what it’s like to win at a place that’s hard to win.
And given those constraints, Abell’s operated under the assumption that places like that have to look at things from a different vantage point.
“You can’t do what everyone else does. You have to do something a little unique and you have to be specific about it,” he said. “And that’s really what we’ll bring here, offensively. It gets a lot of people involved. It’s exciting to watch. We typically score a lot of points. That’s not the goal. The goal is to win football games. And the offense will allow us to control aspects of the game that way.”
Roost Pod: Rice Football hires Scott Abell as its next head coach
Abell was speaking about his offensive scheme, a gun option system that draws influence from the triple option, zone read and run-pass option concepts that have grown and developed in the sport over time. It’s fast-paced, explosive and has allowed his teams to lead Division I in rushing “virtually every year,” a mark Abell quickly corrected to be six of the previous seven seasons.
His next task will be doing performing that resuscitation for Rice football. McClelland, the man who has tasked Abell with this work, has full confidence that Abell can indeed do it again.
“Winning is not easy. It does not matter where you are, it is hard,” McClelland said. “Winning consistently and at multiple places and at multiple levels is not a fluke.”
And so a new chapter in Rice football history begins. When Abell arrived at Davidson, the Wildcats hadn’t beaten a Division I opponent in almost five years. The cupboard isn’t quite that bare at South Main and thus, the expectations are elevated, albeit fairly reasonable.
Abell expects his team will “play high caliber football” in Year One. “I expect us to win football games. And as we get into the season we’re gonna challenge to compete at the top of our conference,” he said.”
Become a Patron!Those games are more than nine months away. First, Abell has to build a staff, sign a recruiting class and do so many other things to ensure Rice football begins his tenure on the right foot. The good news for Abell? He doesn’t feel like he’s starting from scratch.
“I know the roadmap. I’ve seen this happen,” Abell said. “We’ve been able to dream and accomplish things where really people didn’t think it was possible.”
“Knowing that I understood that road map. Understanding the uniqueness that comes with Rice football, where we fit in our conference. I just thought it was an ideal fit for Scott Abell.”
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Rice Football 2024: Bye Week 2 Practice Report
Rice football has two games left in the regular season and UAB is next on the docket. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.
After a lighter week of work on the practice field last week, Rice football returned to work in earnest this week following the bye. A relatively healthy group, all things considered, should be close to full strength for this final two-game set of the regular season. Here’s where the team stands prior to the UAB game this weekend.
More: Rice Football Head Coaching Search — Names to Know ($)
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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.
Offensive line opportunity
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Rice Football 2024 Game Preview: UAB
Rice football is back from the bye week and hopes to finish the season strong with a win over UAB. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.
Both Rice football and their upcoming opponent, the UAB Blazers, most recently squared off with UAB and met similar results. Rice fell 27-20 in a Friday night affair before entering being off this past weekend. UAB also saw defeat, but by a much wider 53-18 margin. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup between Rice and UAB.
Kickoff time | 1:00 PM CT
Venue | Protective Stadium – Birmingham, AL
TV | ESPN+ (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)
Audio / Visual Preview
We’ll preview Rice football vs UAB on this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, kicking off live on Wednesday 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.
Sizing up the contenders
In years past, this has been a game pitting a conference heavyweight (UAB) against an upstart underdog hunting for bowl eligibility (Rice). Neither descriptor really applies this season. The Owls have an outside shot at a bowl berth should the five-win APR eligibility clause be necessary, but both of these teams haven’t reached their own expectations this year.
For the Blazers, their head coach still has his job. Whether or not Trent Dilfer remains employed beyond Saturday remains to be seen, but winning games tends to be more beneficial when one is trying to be retained than losing them.
Series History
All Time | UAB leads, 6-5
Last Five | UAB leads, 3-2
Last Meeting | Home 2022, Rice won 28-24
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Become a Patron!Rice Football Stat Notables
Passing | Warner – 217/348 (61.5 percent), 2058 yards, 13 TD, 10 INT / Devillier 2038 (52.6 percent), 137 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
Rushing | Connors – 126 carries, 678 yards (5.4 yards per carry), 8 TD / Jackson- 40 carries, 217 yards (5.4 yards per carry), 0 TD
Receiving | Sykes – 55 receptions, 645 yards (11.7 yds/rec), 5 TD / Campbell – 26 receptions, 295 yards (11.3 yds/rec), 1 TD / Connors – 55 receptions, 351 yards (6.4 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Taylor – 50, Morris – 49, Fresch- 42
Pass Breakups | Fresch – 9, Ahoia – 6, Taylor -5
Interceptions | Taylor/Flowers – 2, Fresch/Williams/Mutombo – 1
UAB Stat Notables
Passing | Kitna – 152/253 (60.1 percent), 1755 yards, 12 TD, 10 INT
Rushing | Beebe – 131 carries, 641 yards (4.9 yards per carry), 4 TD / Jacobs – 41 carries, 162 yards (4.0 yards per carry), 7 TD
Receiving | Thomas – 56 receptions, 610 yards (10.9 yds/rec), 8 TD / Shanks – 51 receptions, 581 yards (11.4 yds/rec), 5 TD / Beebe- 26 receptions, 199 yards (7.7 yds/rec), 0 TD
Tackles | Moore – 82, Roussaw – 63, Bryant – 58
Pass Breakups | Dempsey – 8, Hill – 5, Maddox – 4
Interceptions | Five tied with one
UAB X-Factor | Cut down on the penalties
UAB is the second most-penalized team in the AAC. The Blazers inability to play clean football games has cost them on multiple occasions and they’ve had to overcome nine or more infractions in each of their wins on the season. Just because UAB has made that uphill climb before doesn’t make it any easier to replicate.
The Blazers had a chance to upset Arkansas earlier this season but had 10 penalties for a combined 109 yards. Five penalties for 65 yards aided in their come-from-ahead loss at UConn two weeks ago. This is a team that can’t stay out of their own way, at times. If they want to win a conference game against someone not named Tulsa, they need to clean up their act.
Rice X-Factor | Run the dang ball
When Rice football choses to run the ball, they’ve done so effectively. The Owls average 4.8 yards per carry on the season, a mark that puts them right in the middle of the pack in the conference and is more than a yard better than they averaged all of last season. They’ve done this with a ever-rotating offensive line.
It’s not quite that simple, though. Rice ranks dead last in the nation in rushing attempts. For whatever reason, Rice hasn’t pounded the rock this year. And it’s not because they’re not capable of doing so.
UAB ranks dead last in the AAC in rush defense, allowing more yards per game on the ground than anyone else in the league. Conversely, they’re neck-and-neck with the Owls for the best pass defense in the conference. Sometimes the formula isn’t complicated. When you’re good at something and your opponent isn’t, expose that discrepancy. This week in particular, Rice must run the ball.
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One Final Thing
The transitive property does not apply to college football. But…
Rice and UAB have five common opponents this season: Army, Navy, Tulane, UConn and Memphis. Rice is 1-4 in those games. UAB is 0-5. The Owls’ average margin of defeat is 7.4 points, generally playing all of their opponents closely except for a one-sided loss to Army.
UAB’s average margin of defeat in those games is 48-18. Roll the ball out against just about anyone and the Blazers typically lose by four touchdowns.
Again, the transitive property does not apply to college football. But…
Even the most pessimistic view of the 2024 Rice Football season casts the Owls as a challenged team that can’t get everything functioning as it was meant to be. At their best, they can beat Navy and push conference frontrunners (Tulane, Memphis) to the brink in the fourth quarter. UAB’s best… probably still ended in a multi-score defeat.
Vegas has Rice as about a touchdown favorite on the road this week, only the third time they’ve been favored in a game this season. They lost the previous two (SHSU, Charlotte). What does that have to do with Saturday’s game? Absolutely nothing.
Rice football is probably a better program than UAB right now, even under an interim head coach. It sure would be nice to make that reality plain an obvious on the field this weekend.
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