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Rice Football Recruiting: 2020 Offensive Tackle Mike Leone commits to Owls

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The 2020 Rice Football recruiting class has flipped a talented offensive lineman from the Northeast. Mike Leone has committed to the Owls.

More than a dozen members of the 2020 Rice Football recruiting class were under the radar prospects on the national stage. Most rating services hadn’t evaluated them yet. There was not list for the Owls to go off, instead they identified talent and got it to South Main.

Then there are guys like Hun School offensive lineman Mike Leone. The 6-foot-5, 270-pound offensive lineman is from New Jersey, about three hours away from Maryland, an ACC school that has been after Leone for a while. Not only did Leone pick the Owls over the Terps, he opted to fly down to Houston the weekend before the Early Signing Period rather than visit Maryland.

Rice Football Recruiting

Leone has bought into Mike Bloomgren’s proven track record of development in the trenches. The successes of young players like Clay Servin, Isaac Klarkowski and Cole Garcia juxtaposed with several successful transfers makes it a pretty easy sell to incoming recruits on the line.

Prior to making the flip, Leone had been committed to Yale. He maintained that commitment since July, even after Maryland offered him in October. Now he’s set to be a Rice Owl and is a rather prominent figure in a 2020 haul loaded with talent.

He and Jovaun Woolford, a grad transfer who also made his commitment this week, give Rice plenty of options at the tackle spot for 2020 and beyond. Rice is building an arsenal of high-caliber offensive lineman, setting themselves up for sustained success up front for years to come. Leone could be one of the best.

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Rice Football Recruiting: JUCO Offensive lineman Adam Sheriff commits to Owls

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The offensive line contingent of the 2020 Rice Football Recruiting class is getting bigger and better. JUCO tackle Adam Sheriff has committed to the Owls.

You can never have too many offensive linemen. That creed is truer few places than South Main. After watching true freshman walk on center Isaac Klarkowski finish out last season, the 2020 Rice Football recruiting class will not lack a sizable collection of trench-defending athletes. Even though they already have some talented prospects in the fold, the Owls continue to prioritize the position.

Rice nabbed grad transfer Jovaun Woolford from Colgate last week but didn’t ease up. 6-foot-4, 280-pound offensive tackle Adam Sheriff, a transfer from Butler Community College, was among their top targets at the position. Sheriff was on campus the final weekend before the Early Signing Period and saw all he needed to make his decision. Now he’s the latest member of an impressive haul in the trenches.Rice Football Recruiting

Sheriff had drawn interest from North Texas and Arkansas State, ultimately opting for the Owls. The addition is a nice head-to-head victory over a C-USA peer and a talented Arkansas State team that had posted a winning record in sixth consecutive seasons under head coach Blake Anderson.

 

Quarterback and offensive line were the biggest gaps the 2020 Rice Football Recruiting class needed to address. With Sheriff on board, the Owls have gone a long way to filling those holes. Rice could still opt to bring in another piece to man the front lines, especially with the potential loss of Uzoma Osuji to the transfer portal.

No matter how the rest of the pieces come together, Sheriff has the potential to be a mainstay on the Rice offensive line for several years. Rice has done well with their offensive line recruits. Sheriff looks to be the next in a great line of enforcers up front.

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Rice Football Recruiting: Owls ramping up as Early Signing Period nears

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The 2020 Rice Football recruiting class is coming together. The Owls added two commitments this week and are in pursuit of several additional targets.

December marks the busiest weeks of the recruiting calendar. The Owls paid visits to nearly every member of the 2020 Rice Football recruiting class over the past week while simultaneously preparing to host additional waves of new recruits.

Rice Football Recruiting

Entering the weekend, every member of the 2020 class was a high school senior. With football seasons done and school year’s wrapping up, several potential transfer targets made their way to Houston. Rice walked away with two commitments from transfers — JUCO quarterback TJ McMahon and former Colgate offensive tackle Jovaun Woolford. Several other players were impressed by what they saw from the Owls.

Names to Know

OL – Witt Mitchum

Near the top of the list of outstanding targets is Tennessee offensive tackle Witt Mitchum. Rice offered Mitchum in November. Since then he’s picked up offers from Georgia Southern, UConn, Kansas State and Kansas. His recruitment is blowing up, but Rice is hanging in with him for the long haul. Mitchum is originally from San Antonio and those Texas ties might help the Owls in this fight.

OL – Mike Leone

Leone has been a priority for a while now, staying in close communication with the staff despite being tucked away in New Jersey. He’s coming down to Texas for a visit, skipping over opportunities much closer to home to come to South Main. Building the offensive line pipeline is crucial for this program, making the importance of Leone’s visit tremendous.

OL – Adam Sheriff

If the addition of Woolford earlier this week didn’t make it abundantly clear, Rice will always be on the market for experienced production on the offensive line. Sheriff spent last season at Butler Community College and has three years of remaining eligibility. He’s being courted by a few other C-USA schools like North Texas and Western Kentucky.

What’s Next?

In addition to some new targets, Rice will have the majority of their non-transfer commits on campus this coming weekend. Most of the local commits have been back for a few games during the year, but the out-of-state additions have had fewer chances to get back to campus. Despite the distance, the class has remained close. They’re looking forward to all getting back together.

As of right now, I expect Rice to sign at least a dozen, if not more, of their current commits during the Early Signing Period, which starts on Wednesday, Dec. 18. That will leave a handful of additional spots to lock down prior to National Signing Day in February, similar to how the team filled out their 2019 class a year ago.

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Rice Football Recruiting: Grad transfer OT Jovaun Woolford commits to Owls

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The 2020 Rice football recruiting class has added a big grad transfer target up front. Colgate offensive lineman Jovaun Woolford has committed to the Owls.

The Rice football offensive line was completely retooled entering the 2019 season. The Owls brought in three grad transfers: Brian Chaffin (Stanford), Nick Leverett (North Carolina Central) and Justin Gooseberry (Ouachita Baptist).

All three of those new additions are out of eligibility, and although players like walk-on Isaac Klarkowski have emerged, bringing in a veteran presence in the trenches was a focal point of the Owls’ recruiting efforts in the 2020 cycle. Head coach Mike Bloomgren’s background with offensive lines continues to pay dividends.

Rice Football Recruiting

Rice has answered that priority with its most recent commitment. Grad transfer Jovaun Woolford — a three-year starter from Colgate, who stands 6-foot-5, and weighs 300-pounds — will play his final season of eligibility at South Main.

A former high school wrestler, Woolford is going to bring an infusion of physicality and proven production to the Rice football offensive line. Woolford redshirted in 2015 and missed the majority of the 2018 season with an injury. His breakout year came between those campaigns, in 2017 when he started all 11 games at right tackle, earning first-team All-Patriot League honors.

Clay Servin will most likely hold down his spot on the left side of the line. The right tackle spot is open with the departure of Gooseberry, seemingly a natural spot for Woolford to slide into.

With Woolford committed, the Owls can be a bit more selective on other potential additions in the trenches. At the very least, Rice football has two quality offensive tackles to block for their deep stable of running backs. New additions beyond Woolford or not, this a big get for the Owls.

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Rice Football Recruiting: JUCO QB TJ McMahon commits to Owls

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The 2020 Rice football recruiting class has a quarterback in the fold. JUCO passer TJ McMahon has committed to the Owls.

If Rice football has learned anything about the quarterback position, they know depth matters. In 2018, the Owls turned to scout team quarterback Wiley Green in their first conference win. Last season, true freshman JoVoni Johnson and grad transfer Tom Stewart provided an effective tandem. Who takes the majority of the snaps in 2020 remains to be seen, but the Owls have a new contender in the race.

TJ McMahon, quarterback for Cerritos College in Norwalk, CA has committed to Rice. McMahon just completed his freshmen season, giving him potentially three years of eligibility to play at South Main. That first year of college ball was productive for McMahon, who threw for 2,667 yards in 11 games, completing 65.8 percent of his passes. He threw 24 touchdowns and 5 interceptions.

Rice Football Recruiting
McMahon represents an upgrade in the passing game from the current roster. As a group, the Owls’ tallied 1,992  passing yards, 13 touchdowns and 56.3 percent completions. Last year’s leading passer Tom Stewart won’t return.

Unlike Stewart who arrived in the summer last year, McMahon intends to enroll early, joining the team in January. He’ll be in attendance for spring practices, getting the extra time to learn the offense which Stewart wasn’t afforded.

McMahon is being brought in to compete for the starting job. He’ll battle returning quarterbacks JoVoni Johnson and Wiley Green. There’s plenty of time before Mike Bloomgren will have to make a decision, but McMahon checks all the boxes with his athleticism, arm talent and mental ability. McMahon is an exciting talent and a name Rice fans need to know.

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