The source for Rice sports news

Rice Football 2023: SMU Game Week Practice Report

By

Rice football hosts SMU this week in their lone matchup as AAC members. Here’s what we learned from practice this week.

Much was made of the return of the rivalry between Rice football and SMU when Rice announced their move to the AAC, but with SMU departing for the ACC this offseason, the Owls will only get this one crack at the Mustangs before they separate conferences once again. With several Dallas natives on the roster, Rice hopes to make this game count.

Subscriber content.<br /> Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

This week’s roundup focuses on adjustments along the defensive line, the emergence of a potential pass-catching weapon for the offense and some thoughts on this very important matchup.

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.

The status of Josh Pearcy

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?
Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Football 2023 Game Preview: SMU

By

Rice football hosts SMU this week in their lone crossover season as AAC foes. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

SMU enters this game riding high, winners of four-straight in AAC play, one of only two undefeated teams in league play with Tulane being the other. Rice football knows that all too well, falling by two points to the Green Wave last Saturday before this upcoming class of Texan squads. Here’s everything you need to know about this week’s matchup between Rice and SMU.

Kickoff time | 6:30 PM CT
Venue | Rice Stadium – Houston, TX
TV | ESPNU (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs SMU on this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. Look for a recap of the game on the site afterward as well as on The Roost Podcast, which should be released early next week.

Sizing up the contenders

If the season ended today, SMU would be playing in the AAC Championship Game. It doesn’t. SMU still has some work to be done before they can have a chance to win a conference championship before departing for the ACC. That task is still manageable if they lose to Rice, but they’d have a much thinner margin for error.

On the other side, Rice football’s championship aspirations took a sizable dent last weekend against Tulane, putting bowl eligibility front and center. If Rice wants to reach six wins and clinch a bowl berth, they need two win two of their final four games and they’d rather not let things go down to the wire like they did a year ago.

Series History

All Time | SMU leads, 48-41-1
Last Five | SMU leads, 3-2
Last Meeting | Home 2012, Rice won 36-14

Get the Inside Scoop

Get access to practice reports, analysis and special features during the week when you subscribe to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon today. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to attack this week’s opponent, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. Don’t miss out! Join now!

Become a Patron!

Rice Football Stat Notables

Passing | Daniels – 173/272 (63.6 percent), 2362 yards, 19 TD, 6 INT
Rushing | Connors – 58 carries, 337 yards (5.8 yards per carry), 4 TD / Otoviano – 56 carries, 209 yards (3.7 yards per carry), 4 TD
Receiving | McCaffrey – 41 receptions, 692 yards (16.9 yds/rec), 8 TDs / MacNeill – 22 receptions, 290 yards (13.2 yds/rec), 2 TD
Tackles | Wyatt – 57/ Conti – 53 / Morrison – 47
Pass Breakups | Wyatt, Fresch, Taylor, Devones – 5 / Morrison -4, Jean – 3
Interceptions | Taylor -2 / Devones, Conti – 1

SMU Stat Notables

Passing | Stone – 151/254 (59.5 percent), 2138 yards, 19 TD, 5 INT
Rushing | Knighton – 83 carries, 456 yards (5.5 yards per carry), 4 TD / Johnson Jr. – 43 carries, 248 yards (5.8 ypc), 1 TD
Receiving | Kerley – 18 receptions, 319 yards (17.7 yards per reception), 2 TD / Maryland – 23 receptions, 315 yards (13.7 yds/rec), 5 TD / Bailey – 27 receptions, 311 yards (11.5 yds/rec), 0 TD
Tackles | Wilson – 44 / Nwokobia – 41 / Walker – 36
Pass Breakups | McGill, Sanders, Woods – 5 / Walker – 4
Interceptions | Six tied with one

SMU X-Factor | Protect the football

In the non-triple option category, SMU leads the AAC in turnovers lost through the first nine weeks of the regular season. Entering Saturday, they were in the Top 25 nationally in fewest turnovers, committing just seven giveaways in their first seven games. They did not turn the ball over at all against Tulsa. Their offense did the rest.

And while clean games have been the norm for the Mustangs so far this season, they haven’t been a guarantee. SMU has committed multiple turnovers twice this season, on the road against Oklahoma and on the road against TCU. SMU lost both of those games. They’ve had a plus turnover margin in every other game against FBS opponents this season.

For SMU, keeping this explosive offense on schedule has to be priority number one. Everything else will balance itself out. And Rice has shown on several occasions so far they can be dangerous if left to linger late in games. SMU best not play with fire and put the ball in the box instead of in the arms of Rice defenders.

Rice X-Factor | Get off the field

The Rice offense has had its lulls, but more often than not, it’s able to get points in bunches. If the Rice defense can generate a turnover or two and find a way to force a few punts, the Owls possess the necessary talent to win a shootout against one of the conference’s most prolific offenses.

Against Tulane, Rice forced exactly one punt and allowed Tulane to go 2-for-2 on fourth down before Pratt chucked the ball a mile high to milk clock in the final seconds of the fourth quarter. Had Rice managed even one more stop, they might be talking about one of the bigger wins in program history right now, but they’re not.

SMU hasn’t beaten themselves very often this year, and it’s probably a fool’s errand to hope for the Mustangs’  offense to stay out of sync for long. No, if Rice wants to win this one, the defense is going to have to combine its opportunistic abilities with clutch plays on third and fourth down. That might very well be the difference.

Injury Report (Subscribers only)

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?

Become a Patron!

One Final Thing

Rice football has a choice during this week of practice. They can choose to allow the Tulane defeat to be disappointing and move forward or allow it to be defining and impact how they move forward with four games to go. The latter obviously has the potential to be much more detrimental to their upcoming matchup with SMU than the former.

And for whatever reason, this team has shown itself to be rather resilient. It’s hard to believe they’ll let this game beat them again, but it also feels like a bit of wishful thinking to dream they’ll have all their issues ironed out before going toe-to-toe with another of the AAC’s best teams.

Beat SMU and people won’t dwell on the Tulane game or start to assume the worst as the season enters its final quartet of games. Having the added bragging rights element of a win over the Mustangs on their way out of the conference would be something for the Rice fanbase to hold on to for who knows how long until these two teams play again down the road.

So, as cliche as it sounds, Rice football has to figure out a way to go 1-0 this week. Do that, and a bowl berth starts to look much more plausible. Do that this week, and it’s hard to come up with a reason Rice can’t hang with anyone left on their schedule

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

Recent Posts

Rice Football rally falls short against Tulane

By

Rice Football came up short against defending AAC champs Tulane, spotting their visitors a 20-point halftime lead from which they couldn’t recover.

Despite being double-digit underdogs at kickoff, nobody was happy when Rice football fell by just two points to Tulane at home on Saturday. The Owls rallied from a massive deficit, only to give Tulane the ball with 8:10 remaining and essentially not see it again. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

The Green Wave won in the trenches

On both sides of the ball, Tulane was better up front. If you want to boil the game down to a single-sentence synopsis, that might be it. The Green Wave offense got an incredible push off the ball, opening up running lanes and giving quarterback Michael Pratt time with the football. The Owls hit him, but often the blows came too late and Pratt found his man downfield anyway.

Look no further than Tulane’s final possession in this game. They took over with 8:10 on the clock in the fourth quarter and did not give Rice the ball back until four seconds remained and the result was all but decided.

Spotty tackling only compounded those efforts. Safeties Plae Wyatt (12) and Jojo Jean (11) led the team in tackles. That typically only happens when the seven men in front of them fail to get the runner down before he reaches the second level.

The Rice offensive line was similarly maligned. Quarterback JT Daniels was able to turn lemons into lemonade as he often does, but there’s no denying his job was made much more difficult this week and it contributed to some of the Owls’ early offensive scuffles.

Still searching for consistency

What separates teams like Tulane from the rest of the conference is their consistency. On good days and bad days, on good plays and bad plays, this team has demonstrated a remarkable ability to be ready for action. That was demonstrated on the very first snap of the game when running back Makhi Hughes rumbled for 43 yards up the gut. Then on the first snap of their second drive, a 38-yard completion.

On the other side of the ball, Rice had its moments but did not demonstrate that same level of consistency. Three-and-outs sandwiched a seven-play, 82-yard touchdown earlier in the game. Pass interference penalties — one apiece from the offense and the defense — hampered each side of the ball.

When Tulane did show some signs of mortality via a missed chip-shot field goal, Rice responded with a dropped pass on third down and another three-and-out. Rice had their final drive of the first half stall out near midfield, giving the ball back to Tulane with 16 seconds to go on their side of the field. Somehow, the Green Wave ended that drive with points, putting Rice further into the hole.

The high points were there — let’s be honest, this touchdown catch from Daniels to Luke McCaffrey was mesmerizing:

Gabe Taylor’s 72-yard interception return was fantastic, too. Yes, there were fireworks. But they weren’t nearly consistent enough to be described as a cohesive performance. And when you don’t play a full 60 minutes of football, it’s hard to beat the teams that do.

“They got it done. We didn’t,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said postgame. “I thought it was a great game and we’ve got a lot to learn and grow from.”

Get rid of the second quarter lull

The Rice offense has been fantastic this season. They’ve scored in every conceivable fashion and kept this team in almost every game, but it’s been choppy at times. The first scripted drive? No problem. Rice entered Saturday outscoring their opponents 90-13 in the first quarter.  The second quarter, though, has been their kryptonite.

Rice has scored 28 points against FBS teams in the second quarter of games so far this season, an average of 4.7 points per game in that quarter. In every other quarter, Rice has tallied 173 total points, equating to 9.6 points per quarter, more than twice as productive. Why the disparity?

Truthfully, the Owls have been their own worst enemies. Dropped passes and penalties have ended drives and the defense has struggled to get them more frequent opportunities. A three-and-out might mean Daniels and company are standing on the sideline for twenty minutes as they wait for another opportunity.

Rice had two drives in the first quarter. It’s hard to score when you don’t have the ball. And it probably doesn’t help when the mountain you have to climb keeps getting higher and your opponent adds to their point total every time you leave the field.

Another missed opportunity

Now in year six, Rice Football head coach Mike Bloomgren has won some big games with the Owls. The first shocker came in 2020 when Rice upset N0. 15 Marshall on the road in shutout fashion. Then there was the Bayou Bucket victory over Houston at Historic Rice Stadium just a few weeks ago.

Knocking off Tulane on Saturday might have topped them all, but those dreams seemed all but dead by the halftime whistle.

Tulane won the AAC last year, went to the Cotton Bowl and dispatched a USC team that dismissed Rice fairly quickly in their opening game. Tulane entered this game as No. 22 team in the country. Rice hadn’t beaten a ranked team at home since 1997. That streak persists after Saturday’s deflating result.

“We just had to get off the field one more time. My hats off to them. I thought they did a great job,” Bloomgren acknowledged. “We’ve got to find a way to make one or two more plays if we want to beat a championship team.”

In some ways, the result is more agonizing when you consider how close the final margin was. A two-point game against the best this conference has to offer. And they won’t have time to lick their wounds. SMU comes to town next weekend fresh off a 69-10 shellacking of Tulsa.

Digging deeper

Every week we’ll have a stat, storyline or key learning from the game reserved for our subscribers. Haven’t joined yet? Sign up here:

Become a Patron!

Field position failures

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?


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

Recent Posts

Rice Football: Behind enemy lines with a Tulane Insider

By

Tulane is next up on the 2023 Rice football schedule so we’re going behind enemy lines with Green Wave insider Kelly Comarda from Fear The Wave.

Green Wave insider Kelly Comarda from Fear The Wave was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions about the upcoming matchup between Rice Football and Tulane. The answers below should shed some light on the Owls’ upcoming opponent.

Subscriber content.<br /> Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

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.

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?


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

Recent Posts

Rice Football 2023: Tulane Game Week Practice Report

By

Rice football heads home this weekend for a massive game against AAC frontrunner Tulane. Here’s what we learned from practice this week.

It was back to business as usual for Rice football on the practice field this week. The Owls came out firing early in the week, looking crisp on both sides of the ball as they prepare for one of their toughest challenges yet: a ranked Tulane team visiting Rice Stadium this weekend. Before kickoff, Rice had a few things to iron out on the practice field.

Subscriber content.<br /> Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

This week’s roundup focuses on some of the successes Rice football unearthed against Tulsa and how they plan to keep those good things going, plus some special teams and injury updates and a few nuggets on offensive playmakers who could be on the rise.

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.

Take it away

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?


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

Recent Posts