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The Roost Podcast | Ep 84 – Conference USA Football with Phil Steele

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Creator of one of the most in-depth previews in college football, Phil Steele joins the show this week to dig into his 2021 Conference USA football outlook.

We were fortunate enough to cross paths this week with Phil Steele, create of the most jam-packed college football preview year after year. He was excited to step away debates about the Alabama’s and Texas’s of the world, turning his attention this week to the UAB’s and Texas San-Antonio’s of Conference USA.

Be sure to stick around for some Conference USA sleepers that Steele thinks could have big years, including a couple of picks from the Rice roster. You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 84.

Episode Notes

  • Housekeeping
    • Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice. Every little bit helps.
    • 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 our debriefing series on spring football, recruiting news and more.
      Become a Patron!
    • Pick up your copy of the Rice Football or Conference USA Season Preview today or as it’s been called by others, The Bible for Conference USA!
  • Phil Steele joins the show — Steele unpacks his Conference USA projections and dives deeper into the 2021 Rice Football season, including:
    • The impact Luke McCaffrey will have on Rice football
    • Where Rice fits in his Conference USA projections
    • The potential upside Rice football has in 2021
    • How the magazine comes together
    • Under-the-radar players to watch in Conference USA

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.

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CUSA Media Day Roundup: All eyes on the Rice football offense

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After a busy offseason, change was the pivotal word for Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren when speaking about his offense in 2021.

The Rice football defense was one of the most dominant units in Conference USA last year. The Owls climbed all the way up to No. 12 in the nation in scoring defense and blanked a Top 15 team on the road. If any facet of this team deserved to be the focal point of conversation when the 2021 season rolled around, the defense had done everything they conceivably could to put themselves in the spotlight.

But beginning with the first question Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren was asked during Conference USA Media Days and proceeding to the last, the focus was clear: offense, offense, offense.

To some extent, the defense is a known commodity at this point. They’re going to be good, really good. But minus one notable departure, former linebacker Blaze Alldredge, that unit will look the same. The offense is going to look different.

Read more in the 2021 Rice Football Season Preview, available for purchase now. 150+ pages on Rice football, their 2021 opponents and more.

“I’m not normally very comfortable with change,” Bloomgren admitted in his opening remarks, “but I’m excited about these changes,” he said, referring primarily to the hiring of new offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo. The addition of transfer quarterback Luke McCaffrey fits in that “change” category as well.

Bloomgren didn’t get too far into x’s and o’s, beyond specifying from a play design and scheme standpoint “a lot of it’s the same”, with only so many different combinations of blocks and routes. But how that offense is executed, and who’s executing on those instructions is what’s meant to be differential.

That’s where Luke McCaffrey comes in. Although he wasn’t guaranteed anything beyond a locker and helmet when he arrived, early returns are already positive. Bloomgren was effusive when praising his character and how he carried himself. The on the field production, that matters too.

“That’s a very talented individual that’s been successful on a big stage coming to our program,” Bloomgren said knowingly before getting into how the offense can utilize the run game to take shots downfield. They’ll also have the benefit of returning all five starting offensive linemen, what Bloomgren estimates is probably a first for him in his coaching career.

Add in 10 returning offensive starters overall and you get a delicate mix of familiarity and change. How the coaching staff sorts through the chaos and puts the pieces together will mean all the difference.

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Olympian Ariana Ince, a fitting ambassador of Rice Athletics, on and off the field

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Ariana Ince will represent Rice Athletics and the State of Texas in the Tokyo Olympic Games, the culmination of many years of preparation.

A decade removed from her time as an undergraduate student at Rice University, the former Rice Athletics star Ariana Ince hasn’t forgotten her roots. Even though she’s since moved out west to California and works full time in the Golden State, she’s still very much connected to her time in Houston and her journey that began there so many years ago.

Now 32, Ince spends her days in the ergonomics industry. But that’s where the similarities between her and many of her classmates stop. Ince isn’t like every other young business professional. While others juggle commutes and deadlines, Ince has added another, much more expeditious projectile: the javelin. And she’s taken that passion as far as it can go, earning a spot to represent the United States in the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Her journey began at Rice in 2010 where she won Conference USA Championships in the pole vault. Then one day, during a workout at Herman Park, her focus began to shift. She’d stumbled upon a collection of apples near the bottom of a hill near the auditorium. In a bid to get out of the remainder of the workout, Ince made a bet with her coach that she could hit a chain fence at the top of the hill.

“I don’t remember how far away it was,” Ince recalled, “but it was car enough that [coach] thought I couldn’t do it.”

Ince grabbed an apple and let it fly. It sailed through the air, not only hitting the fence but going straight through it and exploding into a million pieces. And so the switch to javelin began. In the years that followed, she’s continued to hone her craft, spending time as a volunteer coach at Texas A&M and later training at the Olympic Training Center in California.

“Zoom doesn’t have a smell function,” she jokes as she relays the daily rigors of training in conjunction with the more normative challenges of the 9-to-5 life. Whether it’s dashing back and forth from the track to meetings without time to shower or the contrast of teaching others proper posture while contorting her own body to hurl a spear after hours, Ince has remained focused in the midst of it all.

Ince qualified for the Olympics based on her World Rankings score after placing fourth at the US Olympic Trials in late June. That comes months after the Games were delayed by COVID-19 and Ince, like many others, saw their professional athletic aspirations put on pause.

During the limbo, she continued working, spending time with a teammate in Colorado to train before returning to California. Months later, with a spot in the Games secure and a ticket punched to Tokyo, she can hardly process the magnitude. “I think probably I’ll feel a little bit incredulous,” she said, “that like, I actually did it.”

When she steps onto the field in Tokyo later this month, she’ll join Funmi Jimoh as the only two female Rice athletes to represent the United States at the Olympics. Ince says she knows Jimoh and the two have already joked about having meetings as the lone members of the exclusive club. The magnitude of that realization continues to loom large.

That connection, to Jimoh, to Rice and to her hometown of Gonzalez, Texas are things she’ll proudly bring with her on the journey. “Those ‘Come and Take It’ Flags,” she said with a grin, “We’re very proud of that.”

When the Olympic fanfare comes to an end, Ince has no plans to slow down. She’s already charted out a course of international competitions that span the next five years beyond Tokyo. The javelin is still very much in her future, just like it’s been a part of the present. And all the while, she’ll be helping others with their posture when the time comes to her “day job”.

“It makes me feel really balanced,” Ince says of her simultaneous pursuits of athletic and professional life, “I don’t have that same concern like ‘What do I do after sport?’ My whole thought process is life after sport is going to be so easy. All I have to do is go to work? Please, that’s going to be too easy.”

An observer of our zoom call to this point, current Rice Track and Field coach Jim Bevan chimes in with a brief, but a fitting review. “It’s such a treasure to listen to a Rice athlete being interviewed because they bring more to the page than just athletics,” he said. “I think it speaks well to Rice because we do truly feel we’re the home of the true student-athlete.”

Student. Check.

Athlete. Check.

At the risk of mixing metaphors, in so many ways, Ince has knocked both facets of her life out of the park. She admits she’ll probably have to find a new hobby when it does come time to hang up the cleats. But for now, she’s enjoying the ride. Now it’s onto Tokyo, and hopefully, a spot in the Finals.

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Rice Baseball: Jose Cruz Jr. brings in immediate reinforcements

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Rice baseball hit the Transfer Portal hard this summer, adding several reinforcements that will help the Owls on the field next season.

Newly named Rice baseball head coach Jose Cruz Jr. hit the ground running in Houston roughly one month ago. He hasn’t slowed down his pace since. In the past few weeks he’s hired pitching coaching Colter Bostick, invited current Houston Astros’ star Alex Bregman to stop by Reckling Park and hammered the Transfer Portal.

Rice baseball has picked up commitments from three new Owls, all of which have the potential to make an impact for the team on the diamond in 2022. Here’s a quick rundown of the new commits:

Tom Vincent, LHP – Texas A&M

Vincent was a two-way player during his days at Memorial High School in Houston, hitting .545 his senior year at the plate with a 2.55 ERA on the mound. He signed with Texas A&M last year but did not play for the Aggies during the 2021 season. Perfect Game tabbed him as the No. 10 LHP in Texas in his class. He has four years of eligibility remaining.

Drew Woodcox, SS – Texas Tech

Woodcox played his high school ball at Lamar High School and made his collegiate debut this spring. He played sparingly for Texas Tech, tallying just 36 official at bats with seven hits, a .167 average. Perfect Game ranked him as the No. 49 player in the state of Texas coming out of high school. He has three years of eligibility remaining.

Jack Reidel, INF – North Carolina

A versatile infielder, Reidel is also returning home to Houston. The former Houston Memorial product saw limited action at North Carolina this past season, participating in eight games with two hits in 10 at bats, both of which came in his collegiate debut against James Madison. Reidel was the No. 19 player in the state of Texas coming out of high school and according to Mark Berman, drew interest from Texas A&M and TCU before choosing Rice.

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Conference USA Football: Breaking down C-USA Championship Odds

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The 2021 Conference USA Football Championship race is going to be wide open again this year. Who are the best bets to take home the crown?

First, the obligatory disclaimer —  The Roost is not a gambling site and is not advocating that anyone place any bets, just providing information. With that said, the odds markets are interesting right now regarding the 2021 Conference USA football championship. We’re using the latest odds from ATS.io.

In layman’s terms, +100 Odds equate to a 50 percent implied probably. When putting that into context here, Marshall’s +253 odds to win Conference USA means odds markets given the Thundering Herd a 28.3 percent chance of winning the title. On the other side of the chart, UTEP is +10,000 to win the conference, essentially a 1.0 percent chance.

In practice, positive numbers indicate how much a better would win if he placed a $100 bet. Wagering a Benjamin Franklin on UTEP could pay off handsomely in 2021 was somehow the Miners’ year.

Everyone else is somewhere in between and can be bucketed into a few groups.

The Favorites | Marshall (+253), UAB (+270), UTSA (+350)

UAB and UTSA finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the West last year. Marshall won the East. All three teams return deep and talented rosters, making it hard to decipher who’s odds are the best. As interesting of a bet as UTSA is, the Roadrunners played eight one-score games last year and don’t carry the same level of cache as the Blazers or the Thundering Herd. At +350, they’re not getting a newcomer discount. UAB and Marshall are the safer picks here.

The Subtle Values | FAU (+800), WKU (+933)

The next rung of teams provides longer odds, but more value if things break the right way. Coincidentally enough, both teams have strong defenses and are looking for an answer at quarterback. WKU brings in highly touted HBU transfer Bailey Zappe. If he lives up to expectations and Marshall stumbles at all, it wouldn’t take too much imagination to see the Hilltoppers in the Championship Game.

The Most Intriguing Bets | Rice (+1566), Southern Miss (+1933)

Southern Miss is breaking in a new head coach and a new quarterback, but the roster is more talented than their forgotten 2020 season might lead others to believe. That said, it’s hard to not consider Rice the best value on the board. The Owls are projected to have one of the best defenses in Conference USA and add transfer quarterback Luke McCaffrey. If he can give them a jolt, the defense could carry this team all the way to the Championship Game. If you’re going beyond the top three, Rice is a great value.

The Longshots | Louisiana Tech (+2866),  North Texas (+2933), Old Dominion (+2933)

These three teams have a combined three Conference USA Football Championship Game appearances in their collective histories. Mason Fine has since departed North Texas and Louisiana Tech hasn’t broken through under Skip Holtz and Old Dominion is breaking in a new coach after not playing football last fall. Out of this trio, Tech’s experience makes it the only reasonable long shot to take.

The No Shots | MTSU (+3200), Charlotte (+3200), FIU (+3766), UTEP (+10000)

It’s rare for any team that finished below .500 the season prior to making the jump to conference champion. While that bar might be somewhat easier to reach in Conference USA than the SEC, it’s still not a good bet to happen. Unless you’re seeking a novelty souvenir ticket, none of these four teams has a realistic route to a championship. For many, getting back to .500 isn’t even guaranteed.

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