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Rice Football 2022: NFL Owls Week 17 Roundup

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Rice Football is well represented on 2022 NFL rosters. Here’s the latest from the NFL Owls in action in Week 17.

There are former Rice football players scattered across the NFL. Stay tuned each week for their game results and notables from each player.

Team NFL Owl(s) Week 17 Result Week 18
Denver Broncos Calvin Anderson (OL)
Elijah Garcia (DL)		 at Chiefs L, 27-24 vs Chargers
Detroit Lions Jack Fox (P) at Lions L, 41-10 at Packers
Indianapolis Colts Kylen Granson (TE) at Giants L, 38-10 vs Texans
LA Chargers Bryce Callahan (DB)
Christian Covington (DL)		 vs Rams W, 31-10 at Broncos
LA Rams Austin Trammell (WR) at Chargers L, 31-10 at Seahawks
Pittsburgh Steelers Chris Boswell (PK) at Ravens W, 16-13 vs Browns
Seattle Seahawks Myles Adams (DL) vs Jets W, 23-6 vs Rams
Tampa Bay Bucs Nick Leverett (OL) vs Panthers W, 30-24 at Falcons

Offense

Calvin Anderson – OT, Broncos

Anderson has now appeared in all 16 of the Broncos’ games this season, including seven starts. He was in a reserve role in Week 16 and inactive in Week 17.

Kylen Granson – TE, Colts

Granson has missed each of the past two games while dealing with an ankle injury.

Nick Leverett – OT, Buccaneers

Leverett started his ninth consecutive game this weekend. He’s appeared in every game for the Bucs since Week 7.

Austin Trammell – WR, Rams

Trammell has played a small role on the Rams’ offense in the past two weeks while being active on special teams. He’s appeared in five consecutive games.

Defense

Myles Adams – DL, Seahawks

Adams has been a part of the Seahawks’ core rotation on the defensive line over the last several weeks, managing three tackles in Week 16 against the Chiefs and two more against the Jets in Week 17.

Bryce Callahan – CB, Chargers

Callahan has six total tackles across his past two games and continues to be a key component of the Chargers’ secondary.

Christian Covington – DL, Chargers

Covington was placed on Injured Reserve after suffering a pec injury in the Chargers’ Week 10 game against the 49ers. He hasn’t played since but shared part of his recovery process on social media this week.

Elijah Gacia – DT, Broncos

After being signed off the Rams practice square a few weeks ago, Garcia saw his first action with the Broncos this week, playing seven snaps against the Chiefs in Week 17.

Special Teams

Jack Fox – P, Lions

Fox punted three times on Sunday with a long of 60 yards. He put one ball inside the 20 and averaged 50 yards per punt.

Chris Boswell – K, Steelers

Boswell made three of four kicks on Sunday, including a long of 51 yards and an extra point. Boswell’s final field goal of the day put the Steelers within striking distance against the Ravens, setting up a game-winning drive.

More Owls in the NFL

From practice squads to current free agents, there are other Owls on the cusp of returning to active rosters. Find more detail on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.

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Rice Football 2022 Defensive Newcomer of the Year: Chris Conti

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One of the few transfer additions on defense, linebacker Chris Conti quickly became a mainstay and our 2022 Rice Football Defensive Newcomer of the Year.

Rice football received commitments from two transfer linebackers from the Transfer Portal last winter. The hope, at least among the coaching staff, was that both would play meaningful roles for the Owls this coming season and beyond. But only one of them made it to campus and thus, though unspoken, a heaping mantle of expectations was unconsciously placed upon his shoulders.

Fortunately for everyone, Chris Conti had wide shoulders and was ready for the challenge.

The Rutgers transfer was a late addition to the portal, finding mutual interest from the Owls early on. By the time he announced his commitment, spring football was winding down. He didn’t arrived on campus until workouts in the summer, putting him behind the proverbial eight ball when it came to learning and mastering the Owls’ defensive schemes. That never seemed to phase him, though.

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Defensive Coordinator Brian Smith referred to Conti as someone with “starting ability” in the days leading up to fall camp, betting on talent that hadn’t seen the field very much at his previous stop. The high school film was exciting, but that had been so long ago.

Conti arrived on campus with three years of eligibility remaining. The hope was always that he’d become a key piece in the Owls’ linebacker room. How quickly that happened was up to him.

As it turned out, it wouldn’t take much time at all. Conti started his first game in a Rice uniform on the road against USC, making four tackles, tied for third-most on the team. From there, the ascent began.

”He’s playing exceptionally well. He’s still getting more and more comfortable with the system every day.” head coach Mike Bloomgren said following Conti’s second game against McNeese State. “I’m not sure he’s where he’ll be three weeks from now.”

Bloomgren did go on to note that the base package Rice deployed against McNeese State was the only reason Conti wasn’t officially listed as a starter in that contest. Bloomgren reiterated Conti had already earned a starting spot and Conti quickly backed up that praise.

Podcast: More superlatives and awards on the Fourth Annual Roosties

He would officially be tabbed as the starter in 11 of 12 games during the 2022 season. He had a season-best 11 tackles against Houston and things started to really click.

“I’ll be honest, I love the culture. I love the guys,” Conti said. “Right when I came they brought me in with open arms and I’ve loved every second of it.”

Conti would reach double digits tackles again a few weeks later against Louisiana Tech. Throughout the year he added four tackles for a loss and one sack. For someone Rice had hoped would become an important piece, he became a key cog for the Rice defense.

After a parade of reliable all-conference caliber linebackers that have passed through the Rice football locker room in recent years, finding someone who could fill those shoes was a daunting task. The Owls found at least one such man in Conti. And fortunately enough, he still has two more seasons of eligibility to make a difference at South Main.

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Rice Athletics: Top 10 Moments from 2022

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2022 was filled with highs and lows for Rice Athletics. The Roost picked out 10 moments that stood out the most along the way.

10. Rice Swimming wins Open Water Title

Ella Dyson led the way for Rice swimming in Open Water Championship, finishing the 5K course in first place, becoming the first Rice swimmer to win an individual championship in the history of the event. It was enough to propel the Owls to a team title at the event, its first since 2019.

9. Men’s Tennis boasts Freshman of the Year

Haoyuan Huang went 17-5 record in singles in his first year in college tennis. His 13-3 mark at the first line was the best mark at the top position in the lineup by a Rice freshman since former All-American Richard Barker was 15-8 in 2001.

8. Men’s basketball makes a big recruiting splash

Winning on the recruiting front is the easiest way to secure wins on the court down the line, that’s what made the commitment of 4-star guard Keanu Dawes so massive this year. To earn his pledge, Rice had to beat out offers from Texas A&M, Texas Utah, BYU and Oklahoma State. Needless to say, he’s going to be a difference-maker when he arrives on campus in 2023.

7. Women’s basketball upsets Texas A&M

Rice Athletics had several big singular game wins this year but when it came to wins over teams from the Lone Star State, what the women’s basketball team did against the Maroon and White in November takes the cake. The Owls beat the Aggies in College Station for just the fourth time in program history.

6. Men’s basketball upsets UAB

Speaking of upsets, the men earned one of their most notable victories under current head coach Scott Pera way back in January, knocking off UAB — a top 50 KenPom team and a C-USA giant — at Tudor Fieldhouse. Pera was almost speechless. “I don’t remember one bigger than this,” he said at the time.

5. Rice soccer goes undefeated in conference

In 10 regular season matches, Rice soccer went a sterling 9-0-1, an undefeated record with just one tie in their final conference game of the season. The finish tied the 2017 team for the Owls’ best conference record in program history.

4. Women’s Basketball starts 9-0

A year after taking over a program in transition, head coach Lindsay Edmonds has turned Rice women’s basketball into a force. Edmonds and Co. accomplished what no coach had ever done before with a perfect nonconference record and she did it without eventual WNBA draft selection Erica Ogwumike or star center Nancy Mulky, who dazzled in the Owls’ most recent run of dominance on the court.

3. Rice football finally goes bowling

The expressed goal of the 2022 Rice football season was for it to not finish before December, specifically for the Owls to punch a ticket to a bowl game for the first time since 2014. While the Lending Tree Bowl didn’t end well, it was a meaningful milestone for the program as it wraps up its final season in Conference USA.

2. Rice volleyball sends off WKU in C-USA Tournament Finale

Rice and Western Kentucky have been the gold standard in Conference USA for quite a while, but the Owls hadn’t quite figured out how to climb into the driver’s seat in the conference with WKU in the way. The Hilltoppers defeated the Owls in the C-USA Championship match five times since 2014, including the past three seasons — at least until Rice notched the victory in their final C-USA Tournament game ever. How sweet it was.

1. Rice Athletics makes AAC invite official

After the announcement that Rice would be headed to a new conference in 2021, things started to crystalize this past summer when an official date was announced. On June 15, Rice confirmed its AAC membership would begin on July 1, 2023. No longer just an idea, it was officially official. Rice is AAC bound with some sports already completing their final C-USA contests.

Honorable Mentions…

How about you? Which of these moments from Rice Athletics did you enjoy the most? Cutting this down to 10 was challenging. Which Rice Athletics events should be added to the list?

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Rice Football: 10 Takeaways from 2022 season

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The 2022 Rice football season was unpredictable and one-of-a-kind. What can we take away from the Owls’ five-win campaign?

An appearance in the Lending Tree Bowl served as the culmination of a five-year journey for Rice football under head coach Mike Bloomgren. The Owls were bowling for the first time in a long time, paying off on goals set many years ago.

That doesn’t mean the journey was full of roses. Rice football still finished with a losing record, leaving questions to be answered before the Owls take the field again next year. In the meantime, it’s time to unpack the year that was before turning our attention to the future,

Make sure you check out The Roosties, our take on an annual Rice football awards show from The Roost Podcast. There will also be Team Superlatives released throughout the next few weeks featuring more traditional awards like Team MVP, Offense and Defensive Player of the Year and more.

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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.

Here are a few final thoughts on the 2022 Rice football season, ordered with five initial positives from the year that was and five pressing questions for the future based on what we saw on the field this year.

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Historic Rice football recruiting class to send Owls “soaring to new heights”

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Another top-flight Rice football recruiting class is in the books and like many beforehand, it carries some history-making swagger.

“Today was a great day for the Rice Owls,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said as he opened up his Early Signing Period press conference. “We believe this class will take us soaring to new heights.”

The wording might have changed from year-to-year, but the refrain sure sounded the same. Rice was making waves on the recruiting front, and the best was yet to come.

It took a year or two to get things rolling, but the rhythm of the Rice football recruiting machine continues to amplify. Now, for the third time under head coach Mike Bloomgren, the Owls have made history.

If it feels like this story has been told before, that’s because it has. Under Bloomgren, the 2020 signing class was, at the time, the highest-rated recruiting class in program history. Then, two cycles later, the Owls broke that record with a new best-ever haul with the 2022 class. And now, again, Rice football recruiting has made history.

The rankings will fluctuate some between now and February when the traditional signing day occurs, but as things currently stand, the 2023 class is the No. 80 class in the nation, the highest ranking in school history. When it comes to average recruit rating, the class is second by fractions of a point to the 2022 class, but that could change when newcomers like transfer quarterback JT Daniels are accounted for.

And that’s one other noticeable change as the history-making continues. Daniels, a former high school national player of the year and five-star recruit, has signed with Rice. Daniels is the highest-rated signee in program history. He surpasses four-star commitment quarterback-turned-wide receiver Luke McCaffrey, who was also brought in by Bloomgren and his staff.

More: 2023 Rice Football Recruiting class early signing period live blog

On the high school front, the Owls added linebacker Ty Morris and defensive end Joseph Mutombo in this class. Both are among the 10 highest-rated signees in program history, five of which have been signed by this staff in the past five cycles.

No matter where you look, it’s all coming up Owl. “We were trending on Twitter,” recruiting director Marco Regalado mentioned, specifically addressing the late night announcement that Daniels was heading to South Main. “People were talking about the Rice Owls, and that’s recruiting. That helps.”

It’s going to take more than some social media shout outs to turn positive recruiting momentum into results. Regalado and the Rice staff know that as well as anyone. But it wouldn’t be fair to them not to acknowledge how they raised their level of recruiting as they prepare for a big test next season when they move to the AAC.

“What we recruited in the past to compete in that conference is not going to work in the next one. We saw that every year when we played Houston and how athletic they were across the street,” Bloomgren said. “Now, also playing Houston this year and being able to hit them in the mouth a little bit … gives us a lot of hope that as long as we’re signing the right kids from an athletic standpoint, we can make some noise in that conference.”

The Owls have made just about as much noise as they could on the recruiting front. Up next? The AAC.

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