The source for Rice sports news

Rice Football: Madden Ratings for NFL Owls released

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There are several former Rice football players on NFL rosters for this coming season. Each of those NFL Owls received their Madden 21 rating this week.

The extended hiatus from sports was briefly interrupted this week by the release of the Madden 21 ratings. Dozens upon dozens of variables were combined to reach one overall rating for the video game. Players from all 32 teams were assigned numerical grades. That included 10 former Rice football players.

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Post-NFL Draft free agent signees were omitted from the initial round of grades. That group included several Rice football alums hoping to get onto an NFL roster this fall. If you’re curious about other players, an exhaustive list including all of their categorical breakdowns is available here.

Top ratings weren’t handed out like candy. No Rice players received grades of 90 or above, but several received grades in the high-60s to low-80s range. That seems to roughly translate to starting caliber players. Here’s the breakdown of the overall scores for the NFL Owls. Fun fact, Jack Fox got a higher speed score than either of the Bosa brothers.

K Chris Boswell, Pittsburgh Steelers – 82

DB Bryce Callahan, Denver Broncos – 80

TE Vance McDonald, Pittsburgh Steelers – 76

Saf Andrew Sendejo, Cleveland Browns – 76

DE Christian Covington, Denver Broncos – 71 (update NFL Owls sheet)

TE Luke Willson, Seahawks Seattle – 69

DB Phillip Gaines, Houston Texans – 69

P Jack Fox, Detroit Lions – 65

LB Emmanuel Ellerbee, Seattle Seahawks – 60

OL Calvin Anderson, Denver Broncos – 55

Keep tabs on where every Rice football alum in the NFL is playing on our NFL Owls page. We keep that sheet up to date as players are signed, cut and move from team to team. The newest wave of signees following the 2020 NFL Draft are included.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 42 – North Texas Football Preview with Matthew Brune

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The Roost Podcast welcomes Matthew Brune, who covers North Texas football for Mean Green 247 to break down expectations for the Mean Green this fall.

Rice Football opponent previews continue this week with another opponent from Conference USA West. This week we welcomed our friend Matthew Brune with Mean Green to give us the inside scoop on North Texas football and the interesting coaching trajectory of Seth Littrel.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. All of the Conference USA team shows are there as well as the beginning of our Extended Offseason Series. That features popular Rice alums like Anthony Rendon, Christian Covington and James Casey, among others. For now, give a listen to our chat with Matthew on Episode 42.

Episode 42 Notes

  • Housekeeping — This week only: Leave us a five-star review and include what you like about the show. Also, make sure you follow Matthew on Twitter and let him know you enjoyed having him on the pod.
  • Subscribe on Patreon — If you enjoy the site and want to be a part of what we’re building at The Roost, please consider supporting us on Patreon.
  • Matthew Brune joins the show — Matthew shares his insight on North Texas football under Seth Littrell and what to expect from the Mean Green in 2020, including:
    • Littrell’s uncertainty coaching trajectory after the down season
    • The future at quarterback after Mason Fine
    • The array of weapons North Texas will have on offense
    • Which players could be difference-makers on defense
    • The Lightning Round

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.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Rice Football Recruiting 2021: Mid-July update and targets to watch

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The 2021 Rice Football Recruiting class is continuing to gain steam. Here are a few targets to keep an eye on this summer.

Here are four names to follow as we get past the midpoint of the summer. Evan Jackson is one of the newer offers, but that relationship is off to a great start. Of the earlier offers, Rice is still very much in the mix for Katy Taylor safety Trevor Woods. I have some notes on both of those guys as well as lineman Coco Lukirch and Bryce Goodner.

RB/CB Evan Jackson – Woodland, GA

Evan Jackson is an incredible athlete with top-end speed. Rice has prioritized getting faster in recent classes. Jackson can run a 10.83 100-meter dash and could run track in college if he goes that route. He likes playing with the ball in his hands and likes playing in the slot as a receiver, but he might actually have a better long-term role at Rice as a corner.

At this point, Jackson’s offers have been all over the board. He’s been heavily recruited by the Ivies and has a quarterback offer from Army.

He said the facilities stood out from what he’s seen virtually. His relationships with the coaching staff continue to progress and he’s looking to narrow things down in late July. The everchanging COVID-19 situations have made nailing specific dates difficult, but it sounds like he hopes to have a decision made in the next few weeks if possible. Rice is in a very good place with him.

Saf Trevor Woods – Katy, TX

Rice was the first to offer Katy Taylor standout safety Trevor Woods, and that initial vote of confidence has stuck with him as he’s picked up offers from Arizona, Colorado and others.

He’s remained in close communication with the Rice staff through the in-person shutdown. He said it’s possible his rate of communication has increased with the lack of camps and other summer activities. To some degree, all he and the staff has to do is build relationships.

The recruiting restrictions have probably played into the Owls favor in Woods’ recruitment. He has the talent to be a special player in Conference USA and his lack of exposure this summer has helped secure Rice a spot at the table when it comes time for him to make a decision. The pandemic has made things hazier, but Woods says he’d still like to make a decision by the end of the summer.

OL Coco Lukrich – Park City, UT

Initially listed as a two-way guy on the Offer Tracker, Rice prefers Coco Lukrich on the offensive side of the ball. He’s been a guard at the high school level and could stick there at the college level, especially with the bookend of tackles Rice brought in last season with Trey Phillippi and Mike Leone. Lukrich himself made it clear he’s fine playing on either side of the ball and expects he’ll line up at defensive end frequently this year as well.

Lukrich’s offers are fairly robust. In addition to several Ivy League schools and service academies, he has Power 5 offers from Boston College, Syracuse and Washington State. All three came this summer prior to his offer from Rice. So far it sounds like the Owls are still somewhat in the mix, but the competition has heated up significantly in the last few weeks.

DL Bryce Goodner – Mcminn, TN

Of all the recruits Rice is currently after that don’t have any sort of rating on 247, Goodner might be the one I’m most excited about. First, he’s a monster that moves big things with ease. Second, he’s somehow flying under the radar and has Rice in the hunt when it comes time to make his decision.

Goodner says he’s narrowed his list down and is content with the collection of offers he has so far. He picked up Tulsa over the weekend and already had offers from Air Force, Arkansas State, Charlotte a few Ivy League schools and several more from the FCS ranks.

Goodner doesn’t have a timetable for his decision but says he’s in constant contact with Rice and is going to trust his gut. He said a decision could come “tomorrow morning or right before our first game.”

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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 41 – UTSA Football and CFB news with Jared Kalmus

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The Roost Podcast welcomes Jared Kalmus, who covers UTSA football for Underdog Dynasty to breakdown the Roadrunners and the latest breaking news.

When arrangements were made for Jared Kalmus of Underdog Dynasty to join the show we intended to steer the conversation toward UTSA Football. We did spend some time on this in the podcast, but only after we discussed the tidal wave of uncertainty that hit the sport this week. (Patreon subscribers can get the full breakdown of Wednesday’s events and an outlook of what to expect moving forward here).

You’re not going to want to miss this.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. All of the Conference USA team shows are there as well as the beginning of our Extended Offseason Series. That features popular Rice alums like Anthony Rendon, Christian Covington and James Casey, among others. For now, give a listen to our chat with Jared on Episode 41.

Episode 41 Notes

  • Housekeeping — This week only: Starting point certain or not, our Rice Football Preview and Conference USA Preview are still on sale. You can get those at The Roost Shop. Also, make sure you follow Jared Kalmus and let him know you enjoyed having him on the pod.
  • Subscribe on Patreon — If you enjoy the site and want to be a part of what we’re building at The Roost, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Here what those inside the Rice program had to say about Wednesday’s events, and more.
  • Jared Kalmus joins the show — Jared shares his insight on Louisiana Tech football under Jeff Traylor and what to expect from the Roadrunners this coming season, including:
    • The state of college football and the outlook for the 2020 season
    • Changes we’d make if the season is moved to the spring
    • The challenges of Traylor beginning his tenure in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic
    • The sky-high potential of running back Sincere McCormick
    • The Lightning Round

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.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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The State of College Football: COVID-19 changes are on the way

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The college football world is reeling from a series of announcements this week. What happened? And what’s going to happen next?

On Wednesday afternoon, the Ivy League released a detailed, powerful statement that included this telling line:

“It will not be possible for Ivy League teams to participate in intercollegiate athletics competition prior to the end of the fall semester. ”

No intercollegiate athletics competition means no football. And no football is a very, very uncomfortable notion for many in this country. This piece is not going to get into the politicization of the current environment. There are other forums for that conversation. Instead, let’s address the why and the impacts currently reverberating around college football.

Why did the Ivy League cancel football?

Football is the biggest financial driver in college sports. It’s no secret that the loss of a football season would push just about every athletic department further into the red. Staying in a positive place financially is important, but at what cost?

In this case, “the safety and well-being of students as their highest priority” outweighed the monetary gains that football would have brought. At the FCS level, that’s admittedly a much smaller purse than the upper echelon of the sport. At the end of the day though, this decision forced administrators to weigh the tradeoffs between safety and money. In the Ivy League, safety won out.

The ripple effects continue

Others will follow. We’ve already seen an array of FCS teams cancel games due to COVID-19 concerns. Some lower-level schools in D2, D3 and NAIA have gone so far as to cancel seasons. There will be more news along those lines.

Entering Thursday there were already FBS schools with holes on their schedule because of those canceled games. More than a half dozen programs had halted voluntary workouts because of positive test results, with notable programs like Ohio State and North Carolina suspending activities on Wednesday. Positive test results that were concerning in June will become increasingly more so as the calendar inches closer to September.

The ACC delayed all sports until no sooner than Sept. 1 on Thursday morning. Before the day was through reports surfaced that the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 would cancel all non-conference football games. 10 of 14 Conference USA teams will have lost games. Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion and Western Kentucky have already lost two. Marshall’s Week 0 game against East Carolina is scheduled for August 29. Players are scheduled to report for mandatory workouts soon, meaning a decision on whether or not that game (or other non-conference games) will be played at all.

25 percent “and dwindling”

In a statement given to the Denton Record-Chronicle, Conference USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod was noncommittal. “We are continuing to discuss with our membership, but no decisions have been made,” she said. “We are receiving advice from medical experts and examining all options.”

Earlier in the week, a source within the Rice program indicated he would be surprised if they played football this fall. Since then that same source said the likelihood of a fall season being played to be at 25% “and dwindling”. Conference USA coaches have been in constant communication throughout the day. This snowball isn’t slowing down. If anything, it’s escalating.

What’s going to happen next?

It took 72 hours for college basketball to be shut down. The Ivy League’s cancelation went out at 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday. Following that trajectory, we could be looking at a very different college football world by the time the weekend arrives.

But, before we get there, it’s important to note a few things.  First, the SEC indicated they wanted to wait “as long as they can” before making any decisions on their schedule. It’s expected Rice will wait and see what the SEC does before making a decision on the LSU game.

I’d imagine, and this is speculative on my part, that most conferences will operate under the notion that they will be playing football this fall for as long as possible. In the interim, that probably means pushing the season back, canceling non-conference games and assessing what things look like down the road. Playing an October to December scheduled would be preferred to any sort of spring arrangement.

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Conceptually, it’s possible, but I’d be surprised to see any Group of 5 conference able to operate under a different scheduling structure than the Power 5 leagues. If the financial powers of the sport can’t justify the risks, how could a Group of 5 team do so? Even if the logistics work, the risk at this point is hard to sell. If there is football this fall, and that’s getting to seem like a larger and larger if with every passing hour, it’s most likely going to feature a heavily abbreviated schedule.

Given the health risks and dollars potentially at stake, pushing the season back a month, at least, seems like the most likely outcome for the time being. If we get to the end of August and the situation isn’t improved it will be time for another, much more harrowing conversation. Canceling these games is more so about buying time than anything else.

What about football in the spring?

“We’re trying to figure out a way to play a season safely and responsibly,” he said. “But we’re also prepared not to play.” – Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren

Spring football is a legitimate option, but before consensus shifts there, it’s important to note there is no guarantee the COVID-19 situation will be any better in February than it will be in October. We all hope it will be, but we felt that same hope four months ago. And here we are.

There’s just so much we don’t know. Right now administrators are trying to make the best decisions they can in a time of incredible uncertainty.

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren was as direct as possible in a statement to Sports Illustrated. “We’re trying to figure out a way to play a season safely and responsibly,” he said. “But we’re also prepared not to play.”

This situation is going to continue to develop. If March was any indication, the world of college athletics as we know it might look very different in the coming days, if not hours. Stay tuned.

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