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The Roost Podcast | BREAKING NEWS: Rice Football fires Mike Bloomgren

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Following a loss to UConn, Rice football has fired head coach Mike Bloomgren. We share our thoughts on the timing and what’s next for the program.

Mike Bloomgren has been relieved of his duties as the head coach of Rice Football. He leaves the Owls midway through his seventh season after compiling a 24-52 record. Given the direction this season had taken, this result isn’t surprising. What does the timing of the decision mean and where do the Owls go from here?

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 190.

Episode Notes

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The Roost Podcast is now part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You’ll still get the same content with the same hosts, but now under the DCTF banner.

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Recapping Rice Football fires Mike Bloomgren

  • First reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, The Roost was able to independently confirm the news of Bloomgren’s dismissal on Sunday
  • Logistics: Pete Alamar takes over as interim head coach
  • Why now? What about the timing of the decision made sense and what questions remain unanswered?
  • What’s next for Rice?

Where can you find us?

The Roost Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You can find this podcast and all of our partner podcasts on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

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BREAKING: Rice Football to part ways with Mike Bloomgren

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Mike Bloomgren will no longer be the head coach of Rice Football, effective immediately. The Owls are making a leadership change within the program.

The Roost can confirm reports, first from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, that Mike Bloomgren has been fired. This decision comes in the days following another disheartening loss, this time to UConn, sinking the Owls’ record to 2-6 on the season.

The 2024 record reflects what had become a disastrous seventh season for Bloomgren at Rice. Picked to finish seventh in the preseason media poll, the Owls’ lone win in their first five games came against FCS Texas Southern. They are now 1-3 in conference play

Bloomgren leaves Rice with a 24-52 record across seven seasons. He routinely delivered some of the best recruiting classes the program has ever seen, hauling in the top-rated class in program history on at least four separate occasions. He was one of just three coaches in program history to reach back-to-back bowl games. At the end of the day, though, he never won consistently enough to deliver on expectations.

Athletic Director Tommy McClelland released this statement:

“I want to express my sincere appreciation to Coach Bloomgren. Over his seven seasons of service as our head football coach, he has represented our university and football program with the utmost class and integrity,” said McClelland. “However, as I evaluated our program and compared our current and desired trajectory, I determined new leadership is necessary to guide us into the future.”

A national search is expected to begin immediately to find his replacement. Associate Head Coach & Special Teams Coordinator Pete Alamar will serve as the Owls’ interim head coach for the remainder of the 2024 season.

** Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker **
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AAC Football 2024: Week 9 Roundup

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AAC Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron this week.

Team Record  This Week Result Up Next
Army 7-0 (6-0) — OFF —  — vs Air Force
Charlotte 3-5 (2-2) at Memphis L, 33-28 vs Tulane
ECU 4-4 (2-2) vs Temple W, 56-34 — OFF —
FAU 2-5 (0-3) — OFF —  — vs USF
Memphis 7-1 (3-1) vs Charlotte W, 33-28 at UTSA
Navy 6-1 (4-0) vs Notre Dame L, 51-14 at Rice
North Texas 5-3 (2-2) vs Tulane L, 45-37 — OFF —
Rice 2-6 (1-4) at UConn L, 17-10 vs Navy
Temple 2-6 (1-3) at ECU L, 56-34 — OFF —
Tulane 6-2 (4-0) at North Texas W, 45-37 at Charlotte
Tulsa 3-5 (1-3) vs UTSA W, 46-45 at UAB
UAB 1-6 (0-4) — OFF —  — vs Tulsa
USF 3-4 (1-2) — OFF —  — at FAU
UTSA 3-5 (1-3) at Tulsa L, 46-45 vs Memphis

Notable Results and Storylines // (Standings)

Tulsa???

You wouldn’t be alone if you turned this game off at halftime. That’s typically what happens when one team faces a 35-7 deficit. The Golden Hurricane had other plans. Quarterback Cooper Legas threw for 333 yards and five touchdowns off the bench, rallying the home team past the reeling Roadrunners to pull off one of the more stunning finishes of the weekend.

Midshipmen mishaps

Navy hadn’t lost a fumble all season before losing five fumbles to Notre Dame on Saturday. The Middies were off their game from the start and things only continued to go downhill from there. The lone solace, the defeat came in non-conference play and Navy remains very much alive in the race for a spot in the AAC Championship Game.

Memphis keeps playing with fire

Memphis might only have one conference loss, a nailbiter to Navy, but the Tigers have struggled to get through their schedule in recent weeks, including an escape against Charlotte on Saturday. The 49ers had the lead in this game late in the fourth quarter. Mathematically, Memphis is still in the mix for a title game appearance, but they haven’t taken care of business to nearly the same degree as their one-loss-or-better counterparts.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Rivalry game?

Things get weird when rivalries are involved. That’s part of what makes college football so endearing. Army will be hoping for no wild antics this coming Saturday when they host Air Force. The Black Knights have won three of the last four in the series and five of the last even, but Air Force won 10-of-11 before that. On paper, Arny should win comfortably, but they don’t play these games on paper.

Sun Shine State Season Savers

Despite high hopes entering the year, neither Florida Atlantic nor South Florida are going to contend for a conference championship this season. Their realities are quite the opposite, actually, with postseason trips on the line in the weeks ahead. A loss in this game would significantly impact bowl game odds for the losing program making the intra-state battle all that more intriguing.

Bowl dreams on the line

Speaking of a long offseason starting sooner than they’d like, three AAC teams enter this coming week with six losses and are in danger of seeing their bowl dreams crushed a little over the midpoint of the 2024 campaign. Temple will have hope for at least one more week as the head to a bye, but Rice (vs Navy) and UAB (vs Tulsa) are playing for their postseason dreams starting Saturday.

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Offense flounders as Rice Football succumbs to UConn

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Rice Football delivered a dazzling defensive effort but never got the offense in gear, losing to UConn on the road and falling to 2-6 on the season.

“Obviously disappointed with the way we performed today on the offensive side of the ball,” head coach Mike Bloomgren, said, beginning his post game press conference at the heart of the Owls’ issues on Saturday. “I thought there were a lot of opportunities the defense gave us.”

Those offensive shortcomings were impossible to overlook and set the tone for what was an underwhelming afternoon on the East Coast. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Devillier debut comes up short

It wouldn’t be a Rice football season without a start from a backup quarterback. Seven years into his tenure, head coach Mike Bloomgren has not yet been fortunate enough to see the same passer take the opening snap in every regular season game. Facing a similar quandary this week, Bloomgren gave starter EJ Warner a shot to play against UConn on Saturday but when Warner was unable to go, it cleared the way (officially) for freshman Drew Devillier to make his first collegiate start.

Devillier had taken the vast majority of the reps with the first team offense during the week and his insertion into the starting lineup didn’t come as a surprise. But no amount of practice reps can simulate the real thing and mop-up duty against Texas Southern and Houston doesn’t produce the same stakes as a zero-zero tilt at the opening kickoff.

Add a strong wind, gusting up to 26 miles per hour, and a defense that ranks top five in the nation in third down stops to those first-start jitters and you get a tough day at the office for Devillier and the Rice offense.

“I think that’s what it comes down to. First start on the road against a very, very complex defense. That’s not an ideal situation,” Bloomgren said. “Those are tough things.”

Bloomgren was quick to acknowledge how difficult the UConn defense made it for Devillier, crediting their post-snap movement with confusion early in downs and acknowledging they were part of the reason for the young quarterbacks’ struggles.

“The ball disruption was real tonight,” Bloomgren said. They did a great job getting their hands up and not allowing some of those short completions that could have turned into big things to happen.”

UConn knocked down at least four passes at the line of scrimmage and sacked Devillier twice, including on the Owls’ penultimate snap of the game, thwarted any final hopes of a comeback.

Things would have looked even worse had it not been for a 100-yard kick return touchdown from Quinton Jackson, the longest in program history. His effort gave the Owls offense one more chance late in the fourth, but it would prove to be too little, too late.

“We know what kind of player QJack is,” his roommate, Tyson Flowers exclaimed after the game. “He’s explosive. It’s about dang time he got in the endzone. It was really cool, and for him to do it in a game at a time like this, as clutch of a score as that was, that was really, really exciting.”

Turnover fortune bounces back

Winning the turnover battle was a key talking point during practice this week, understandably so after Rice gave the ball away five times in their loss against Tulane. Even still, it was hard to be overly confident the Owls would be able to produce immediate results on this front given their struggles to produce takeaways of any kind during Bloomgren’s tenure.

Sure enough, Rice, not UConn, put the ball on the ground first. A botched exchange between the center and Devillier on a third and short produced a mass of blue and white jerseys fighting for the ball. The Owls were fortunate to come out of the pile with the pigskin, preserving an even turnover margin for at least a while longer until fortune finally found the turnover-starved Rice defense.

Daveon Hook came streaking out of the secondary on a safety blitz and hit UConn quarterback Nick Evers. As the signal caller was headed to the ground, reinforcements arrived allowing Hook to punch out the ball. Rice recovered. A few plays later Tim Horn kicked a field goal, putting Rice ahead and turning that takeaway into points.

Two drives later, Gabe Taylor stepped in front of a quick pass from Evers and picked it off, the second takeaway in the span of a few minutes of real time.

The jury is still out on whether or not any of this is sustainable. Another fumbled snap and a muffed punt from return man Tyson Thompson, who was able to fall on it, all went the Owls’ way. There’s another version of this game in which Rice loses the turnover battle despite those important takeaways they forced early on.

Penalty problems persist 

Whether it was the cold or the angst of two teams that really needed this game, the level of tension and angst was palpable in this contest from start to finish. Neither team played a clean game and mistakes and penalties were plentiful. Rice was the beneficiary of the games’ most impactful mishaps, the aforementioned turnovers, but the Owls shot themselves in the foot way too many times to pass over.

Rice committed 12 penalties for 95 yards in the game. At halftime, the Owls’ 70 penalty yards at that point were equal to UConn’s combined offensive output: 70 yards on 36 plays. The final Rice penalty before the break came on a botched center/quarterback exchange, the second of the afternoon. That resulted in a 10-second runoff, taking the game clock to zero and preventing Rice from attempting what would have been a 49-yard field goal attempt.

During Bloomgren’s first three years with the Owls, Rice averaged 3.97 penalties per game. The program might not have had the talent to contend, but they didn’t beat themselves with foolish mistakes very often. That hasn’t been the case for the last several seasons and it’s been noticeably problematic this year. Rice committed a season-high 11 penalties for 93 yards against UTSA.

Rice is now averaging seven penalties per game.

When you’re playing with margins as slim as the Owls have been working with this year, every yard counts. This team can’t afford to be giving so many of them away for free, particularly when it comes to dead ball, unsportsmanlike conduct fouls, which Rice was whistled for on multiple occasions on Saturday.

Out of options

Earlier this year after the Owls had gotten off to a tough start, Bloomgren commented that no more reinforcements were on the way. If this team was going to figure it out and get back to their winning ways, they were going to have to find their answers internally.

Those comments weren’t directed at individual players who had yet to see the field, but any illusions that there were remaining personnel waiting in the wings to save the Owls’ season were quelled on Saturday in East Hartford.

Against UConn, Rice saw extensive run from their backup quarterback — often the assumed savior whenever a starter struggles — and finally got receiver Thai Bowman back on the field. Neither was able to produce a meaningful difference in an offense that has been stuck in the mud in recent weeks. There aren’t any other players to turn to. This is the team. This is the coaching staff. And they’ve almost run out of time.

Sitting at 2-6, any subsequent loss will knock Rice football out of bowl contention. A failed season is staring Bloomgren and Co. in the face and putting his future at the head of the program in jeopardy. Running the table feels improbable, at best, but that’s the only hope this team can cling to as they move ahead.

“We have been playoff football mode many times, where we got to win out and we gotta get this thing done to get to a bowl,” Bloomgren said. “I think this team wants to play in a bowl, badly. And I think this team can earn the right to do that. But you also know, 1-0 next week ain’t going to be easy. We’re gonna have to play our butts off and we’re gonna have to find a way to score some points and get our defense to stop an offense that’s been scoring a lot of points in Navy.”

Digging deeper

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Defensive prowess not enough

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Rice Football: Behind enemy lines with a UConn Insider

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UConn is next up on the 2024 Rice football schedule so we’re going behind enemy lines with Huskies’ insider Joe Arruda from The Hartford Courant.

Huskies’ insider Joe Arruda was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions about the upcoming matchup between Rice Football and UConn. The answers below should shed some light on the Owls’ upcoming opponent.

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