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Rice Football 2020 Practice Notes, Presser Quotes and the next men up

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After another postponement, Rice football is ready to take the field again, hopefully as soon as this weekend against North Texas. Here are the latest practice notes and press conference quotes.

Rice football is two weeks removed from their most recent football. Oddly enough, the Owls’ first game against Middle Tennessee was the week following a matchup between North Texas and Middle Tennessee. The Mean Green haven’t returned to the field since.

Owls’ head coach Mike Bloomgren met with the media today to share some of his thoughts on the game ahead.

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There is a lot of encouraging news on the injury front. Bloomgren said the team didn’t have “many people left to get healthy.” That should include a few starters returning to the field soon as well as a practice sighting on the offensive side of the ball. Injuries and depth chart fluidity has afforded several players additional opportunities. We’ve also got some notes on a few guys that have stepped up in the interim.

Press Conference Quotes

“We want to make this the most exclusive offer in the country… one out of every four offers is committed to you or signing with you, we feel good about that because we get a chance to really develop real relationships, get to know the parents, the families and otherwise.” – Director of Recruiting Alex Brown on the upcoming 2021 class

With the way we prepare and with our process and what it’s all about, I don’t know if I’m real excited about those possibilities… I really would like more than 48 hours of notice that you saw UCLA and Cal last week. I certainly think that that would cause a lot of coaches in this building not to sleep for 48 hours. But hey, we’ll make it work if that’s the case. We want to play a game. And right now, we’re certainly planning on playing Seth Littrell and North Texas.” – Mike Bloomgren on the possibility of last-minute scheduling changes

“I think they probably found their guy in Jason Bean, and he’s the one that we’re going to prepare to stop. If Austin [Aune] jumps in there, their offense won’t change too much. They’re still going to try to find number one Jaelon Darden, and they should.” – Bloomgren on the North Texas offense

Who’s back and who’s not

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Rice Football 2020 Game Preview: North Texas

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Rice Football hopes to get back on the field this weekend in Denton against North Texas. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

It’s been a long while since either Rice football or North Texas played a football game. The Owls have been off (unintentionally) for two consecutive weekends, losing games against UTSA and Louisiana Tech because of COVID-19 concerns within their respective programs.

Things haven’t been much better for North Texas. Off weekends and COVID-19 complications have forced the Mean Green into a break that stretches back all the way to October 17 against Middle Tennessee, the week before the Blue Raiders visited the Owls in Houston. That’s four weekends in a row without a game.

Broadcast Info

Kickoff time | 1:00 PM CT
Venu | Apogee Stadium – Denton, Tx
TV | ESPN3 (Streaming)
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs North Texas on Episode 61 of The Roost Podcast which will be released on Thursday. Find us on the podcast page or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. (And consider leaving us a 5-star review while you’re at it.)

Visual Preview

Make sure you check out Inside the Hedges, a weekly show with myself and former Rice football quarterback Taylor McHargue. Watch it live on Wednesday nights at 7:00 p.m. here or watch it at your leisure on the Rice Athletics Youtube page.

Join the Conversation

What are your keys to victory this week? What pitfalls must the Owls avoid? Did you like that third down call? Share your thoughts on the matchup on the forum and make sure you tune in Saturday for our live game blog keeping track of every score and key moment.

Sizing up the contenders

Rice looked to have shaken off the rust in a big way when they blew out Southern Miss in Hattiesburg in their last game before a string of last-minute postponements. When they have been on the field, they’ve been playing well. Rice has won four of their last five games, dating back to last year. They just want a chance to extend that streak further into 2020. A win over North Texas would help solidify their up-and-coming surge is legitimate.

North Texas is coming at things from a very different angle. The Mean Green are 2-3 and haven’t been able to stop anyone on defense. Head coach Seth Littrell has been praised for his quarterback development, but the dreams of perennial C-USA contention could be falling by the wayside. Back-to-back losses to Rice would certainly knock them further from that rosy expectation.

Series History

All Time | Series tied 5-5
Last Five | North Texas leads 3-2
Last Meeting | Home 2019, Rice won 20-14

Rice Stat Notables

Passing | Collins – 30/52 (57.7 percent), 475 yards passing, 8 TD, 1 INT
Rushing | Otoviano – 45 carries, 195 yards (4.3 yards per carry)
Receiving | Trammell – 10 receptions, 219 yards (21.9 yards per reception), 5 TD | Myers – 6 receptions, 65 yards (10.8 yards per reception)
Tackles | Alldredge – 21, Montero – 17, Garcia – 13
Pass Breakups/Interceptions | Devones – 1 PBU / McCord – 1 INT

North Texas Stat Notables

Passing | Aune – 76/137 (55.5 percent), 1233 yards passing, 8 TD, 4 INT | Bean – 27/44 (61.4 percent), 427 yards passing, 6 TD, 1 INT
Rushing | Torrey – 67 carries, 444 yards (6.6 yards per carry), 4 TD
Receiving | Darden – 46 receptions, 689 yards (15.0 yards per reception), 10 TD | Simpson – 16 receptions, 328 yards (20.5 yards per reception), 3 TD
Tackles | Davis – 34, Sanders – 28, Nixon III – 28
Pass Breakups/Interceptions | Whitlock – 3 PBU / Sanders, Johnson – 1 INT

North Texas X-Factor | No self-inflicted wounds

North Texas has won two games this season, both of which required the Mean Green to score 50+ points with their opponents crossing the 30-point plateau. This is a team that is going to have to win shootouts and put up points in bunches. This offense has been productive for several seasons under Littrell and hasn’t shown signs of stopping yet.

If anything can slow them down, it’s their own mistakes. North Texas has lost the turnover battle in all five of their games this year. They turned the ball over three times in their loss to Southern Miss and three times in a win over Middle Tennessee.

Scoring 50 points a game isn’t easy to do, no matter how frequently you’ve done it in the past. Upping the ante by spotting the other team extra possessions makes it even harder. If North Texas is going to win, they have to limit the free possessions they hand to Rice. The Owls, who milked 13 minutes of clock in the fourth quarter against Southern Miss, might just not give the ball back.

Rice X-Factor | Pound the Rock

The easiest way to contain an explosive offense is by keeping them off the field. That should be fairly easy for the Owls to do given the putrid state of the North Texas run defense. The Mean Green are allowing 5.6 yards per carry, the worst in Conference USA. Their opponents have averaged 243.2 yards per game.

Rice has multiple running backs they trust to run with power and fall forward for extra yards. If North Texas can’t get them down at or behind the line of scrimmage, the Rice offense is going to continue to operate at a pace similar to their first two games.

Quarterback Mike Collins has proven he can distribute the ball and move the team downfield quickly, but allowing him to remain poised and work at a more comfortable pace will only aid his efficiency. Rice is a team committed to running the football. There’s no reason for them to let up this weekend.

Injury Report (Subscribers only)

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Need More?

The Roost’s 2020 Rice Football Season Preview has four pages dedicated to every opponent the Owls face. There are depth charts, important new arrivals and depth chart breakdowns for every team in Conference USA. Better yet, it’s not just speculation, each profile was created with insight from local experts who cover those teams day in and day out. Pick up your copy today and get four pages and more than 1,000 words on every foe.

Pick ‘Em Contest

If you haven’t yet, make sure you submit your entry for The Roost’s weekly pick’em challenge. Choose an answer to each of the six questions below and submit them on the forum thread to enter.

  1. Which team scores the first rushing touchdown?
    Rice / North Texas (or neither)
  2. How many total points are scored?
    Over 64.5 / Under 64.5
  3. Which team registers the most first downs?
    Rice / North Texas (or tie)
  4. How many players throw a pass in this game
    Over 2.5 / Under 2.5
  5. How many Rice wide receivers catch at least three passes?
    One / Two / Three / Four or more
  6. Who wins?
    Rice / North Texas

One Final Thing

At this point, getting to Saturday will be a win. Both of these teams are chomping at the bit to get back onto the field, especially Rice, which is one of only five C-USA teams that hasn’t been the at-fault party for a postponement since they began their season in late October.

This was a tight game last year, decided on a violent fourth-down pass breakup by Treshawn Chamberlain in the endzone to save the day. Building on that monumental play with a winning streak over a conference opponent would be huge for this team which believes they’ve turned the corner. All they want now is a chance to prove it.

Hopefully that chance comes on Saturday against North Texas.

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Rice Football Recruiting: Owls launch new wave of 2021 offers

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The 2021 Rice Football recruiting class is off to a great start, but the Owls aren’t done. Here’s a quick roundup of the most recent offers.

COVID-19 concerns with their opponents have kept Rice football off the field, but they’ve been hard at work on the recruiting trail in recent weeks. The Owls have extended four offers in the past three days, and six since mid-October.

Most notably, Rice has ventured onto the transfer market. For the first time during this cycle, Rice has extended offers to transfer players. Here are the new names that have been added to the offer list in the last week and a bit more about each target.

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Rice Football Film Room 2020: Louisiana Tech Preview

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Rice football has a new challenge ahead of them this week against Louisiana Tech. We break down the Bulldogs on both sides of the ball in this week’s film room.

Well, any thought that Rice football’s delayed start to the season would save of from the vagaries of scheduling in 2020 can be put to bed. With no tape from a delayed matchup with UTSA, we’ll turn our attention to this Saturday’s (scheduled for now, anyway!) opponent, Louisiana Tech. In an odd but maybe not surprising bit of symmetry, the Bulldogs also had last weekend’s game canceled due to a COVID outbreak in their opponent’s program.

Louisiana Tech’s schedule looks a lot like many C-USA teams to this point in the season: a couple of close conference wins, a shootout with Houston Baptist, and blowout losses to Marshall and BYU. Perhaps we should give some credit to Skip Holtz’s team for managing to win four of their seven games thus far while not looking especially good at any particular aspect of the game.

More: LA Tech Press Conference Quotes and Practice Notes

They’re dead last in the conference in rushing offense, with a paltry 2.8 yards per carry (that only rises to 3.7 without sacks). They’re second in passing yards per game, but average just 6.7 YPA and have been shuffling back and forth between Luke Anthony (176 attempts) and Aaron Allen (75). Overall, they’re 11th in C-USA in yards per play on offense and eighth on defense.

Their best win of the season thus far is their most recent game against UAB, which they pulled out in double overtime, 37–34. UAB is probably the best team in C-USA West and second behind Marshall in the conference as a whole, so that’s a great win—but results can be deceiving. The Blazers outgained the Bulldogs by a significant margin on both a total and per-play basis and had three turnovers to Louisiana Tech’s one.

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In fact, per ESPN’s Bill Connelly, the victory over UAB was the sixth-lowest postgame win expectancy by a winning team this season*. Postgame win expectancy is a metric Bill creates by looking at the in-game stats which correlate most strongly with winning (success rates, explosive plays, and so on), then projecting a winner based only on those stats. While a game’s outcome is all that matters in the standings, for predicting a team’s performance going forward, you have to take a deeper look, beyond the final score.

*As you can see in the tweet, their earlier win over Southern Miss was the fifth-least likely win of the season. The Bulldogs are fortunate to be 4–3 instead of 2–5.

Still, it’s not wise to take any opponent lightly in this conference. So we’ll take a closer look at a play from each side of the ball in the aforementioned win over UAB to show how the Bulldogs can be dangerous.

On defense, one thing the Louisiana Tech defense does well is get picks. They’re tied for the conference lead in interceptions and have scored twice on pick-sixes, including the play we’re looking at.

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Rice Football 2020 Practice Notes: Presser quotes and o-line growth

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Rice football took advantage of the off week to rest up and get healthy. The Owls are working toward this week’s game at Louisiana Tech.

There was plenty to observe and talk about as Rice football got back to practice after an unexpected free Saturday following the postponement of the UTSA game. Head coach Mike Bloomgren shared his thoughts on the future of that matchup. I recapped those thoughts, shared a few quotes from Tuesday’s press conference and dug into some observations from the Rice o-line at practice this week.

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UTSA postponement

At this point, both UTSA and Rice have made it abundantly clear who they want to be playing on Dec. 5. The Owls were originally free that day before Conference USA slated Marshall into that open weekend only days before the Rice vs UTSA game was postponed.

UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor has gone on record saying he wants to see that game rescheduled. Bloomgren echoed those sentiments on Tuesday, saying “if we had our choice, we’d love to play the team down the road.” Bloomgren reiterated that would ultimately be a conference decision.

Notes and Quotes

“We all love the rhythm of a college football season. We love the routine, but 2020 has been anything but routine, as we all know. And something we’ve asked our players for is flexibility and adaptability … I would love to get into a routine for the next six or seven weeks … but at the same time I think we’re probably going to have more opportunities where we’ve gotta be flexible.” – Mike Bloomgren on the unexpected schedule change

“We’ve been in the system — this is our third year — now it’s just like riding a bike … They’re great young men. They have great balance on and off the field and when we come in here it’s just football.” – Defensive line coach Cedric Calhoun on the improvements this year

I know that we’ve been really efficient on first and second down and then that’s allowed us to be really efficient on third down. I think it’s been a really notable thing from this season. We’ve had a couple third and shorts that we converted on. It’s something we take a lot of pride in. But I also think what you’re seeing is that we’re finding ourselves being pretty dang dynamic, because we’re being so efficient on first and second down… if we do our job up front, this offense is really going to shine.” – Sanders Davis on the overall – on the growth of the offense

Giving some love to the offensive line

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