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Rice Football 2022: USM Insider gives his take on the Golden Eagles

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Rice Football is bowling against Southern Miss. Golden Eagles’ insider Jamie Arrington of To the Top Talk fills us in on what to expect in this game.

Golden Eagles’ insider Jamie Arrington was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions about the upcoming Lending Tree Bowl matchup between Rice Football and Southern Miss. The answers below should shed some light on the Owls’ upcoming opponent.

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Rice Football 2022: USM / Lending Tree Bowl Week Practice Report

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Rice football is midway through bowl prep with several questions to answer before they take on Southern Miss. Here’s what we learned from practice this week.

The last time Rice football took the field, they did not know if it would be their last. Now that the Owls are guaranteed that extra game, they’ll hope to make the best of it. Rice will have roughly two weeks of prep for Southern Miss before the two Conference USA departers meet in the Lending Tree Bowl on December 17 at 4:45 pm.

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This week’s roundup focuses on which players Rice football might get back for the bowl game, what the team has been doing since we last saw them on the field as well as a few additional individual notes.

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It has to start with quarterback

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Rice Football Recruiting: Official Visit weekend hits high note

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Rice football recruiting season is in full swing. With 20 official visits on campus over the weekend, there’s a lot going on.

Things have been somewhat quiet on the Rice football recruiting front over the end of the regular season. A few offers have gone out, but the Owls were waiting with anticipation for the Transfer Portal to open and calendars to free up for official visits. Both coincided this past week and fireworks ensued at South Main.

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In the boat

First and foremost, there have been four new members of the 2023 Rice football recruiting class who have announced commitments this past week. Safety Jabaria Ellison was first, soon followed by fellow high school commit Ashton Ojiaku and then the Owls’ first pair of transfer portal additions, both along the defensive line.

JUCO product Jordan Campbell and Colgate transfer Coleman Coco are on board. And that might not be the last of the noise. The labors of this weekend are expected to produce more fruit before the Early Signing Period begins next Wednesday. There are at least two additional commitments forthcoming.

What’s next?

Because of the fluid number of scholarships amid transfers in and out, nailing down an exact number of scholarships is challenging at this stage of the game, particularly with so few announced departures at this point — more on that in a minute — propping that number upward.

For the time being, it’s safe to say the Owls’ primary strategy is going as planned. Rice loaded up on high school targets in the spring and summer, selectively adding in a few key pieces here and there where they were able to flip targets from elsewhere (Dalean Alexander from Air Force, Justin Williams from Louisiana).

Next up, the portal. Look toward last year as a blueprint for what Rice wants to do in the portal. Add depth at key positions with a deep rotation (defensive line, offensive line, wide receiver) and cherry-pick potential starters at positions of need. Last year that looked like Chris Conti at linebacker, Gavin Reinwald at tight end, a few specailists and a slew of wideouts.

Given the fluctuations at the quarterback position, it might behoove the Owls to look at the growing market of signal callers to see if there’s a fit. It’s worth noting Rice has had its best production at the position under Bloomgren from transfers (Mike Collins, Tom Stewart, TJ McMahon). That said, the staff is really high on current high school commit Chase Jenkins, so adding a transfer there isn’t necessarily a must.

Transfer Portal tango

There’s one interesting twist Rice is experiencing with the portal this season that they haven’t in years past, namely where it falls on the calendar and what the team is doing this December. The prime portal season now overlaps bowl season for the Owls, setting up an interesting situation for potential outgoing players.

To that end, Rice has only seen three players announce they would be entering the portal thus far with the potential for other departures once the Owls’ postseason is done. That would logistically leave them with time to find a new home before the early signing period ends, or afterward if they don’t latch on anywhere initially.

Right now, linebackers Aidan Siano and Garrett Braden have announced their intentions to transfer as well as safety Treshawn Chamberlain. The twist? All three were at practice this week and preparing for the Owls’ bowl game against Southern Miss. Like he has all season, Chamberlain is slated to start and there doesn’t appear to be any changes to the depth chart despite his publicly announced intentions.

Whether this becomes the norm going forward might depend on several factors. The bowl game occurring before the early signing period is certainly an unusual quirk based in large part because the signing period is later this year than in prior seasons. Still, it remains uncharted territory. For now, they’re all set to play and then move on.

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Rice Football 2022 Bowl Game Preview: Southern Miss

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Rice football takes on Southern Miss in the Lending Tree Bowl this week. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Southern Miss secured bowl eligibility on the final week of the regular season, defeating Louisiana Monroe on the road for their sixth win. Rice football wasn’t assured of a bowl trip until all of that weekend’s games had concluded and a shortage of six-win teams remained. The Owls are bowling because they were the program with the highest remaining APR score.

How they got here doesn’t matter now, though. Here’s everything you need to know about this week’s game.

Kickoff time | 4:45 PM CT
Venue | Hancock Whitney Stadium – Mobile, AB
TV | ESPN (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs Southern Miss 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. 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.)

Sizing up the contenders

This is a bowl game that means a lot to both programs, despite the appearance of modest stakes. The Owls and Mike Bloomgren are looking to secure win number six, something that many around South Main viewed as an understood prerequisite to even be in this game. Southern Miss, on the other side, could clinch a win season for the first time under coach Will Hall with a victory.

Series History

All Time | Tied, 6-6
Last Five | Southern Miss leads, 3-2
Last Meeting | Home 2021, Rice won 24-19

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Rice Football Stat Notables

Passing | Padgett – 20/40 (50.0 percent), 339 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
Rushing | Montgomery – 86 carries, 498 yards (5.8 yards per carry), 0 TD / Otoviano – 65 carries, 391 yards (6.0 yards per carry), 1 TD
Receiving | Rozner – 41 receptions, 834 yards (20.3 yds/rec), 9 TDs / McCaffrey – 51 receptions, 656 yards (12.9 yds/rec), 6 TD / Esdale – 39 receptions, 461 yards (11.8 yds/rec), 0 TD
Tackles | Conti – 69 / Morrison – 66 / Taylor – 55
Pass Breakups | Dunbar – 8  / Taylor – 6 / Fresch – 5
Interceptions | Taylor, Morrison – 2 / Nyakwol, Chamberlain, Fresch, Narcisse – 1

Southern Miss Stat Notables

Passing | Lowe – 55/103 (53.4 percent), 795 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT
Rushing | Gore Jr. – 207 carries, 1053 yards (5.1 yards per carry), 7 TD / Dean – 58 carries, 179 yards (3.1 ypc), 3 TD
Receiving | Brownlee – 52 receptions, 819 yards (15.8 yards per reception), 7 TD / Mims – 23 receptions, 361 yards (15.7 yds/rec), 2 TD
Tackles | Shorts – 91 / Latham – 81 / Gill – 76
Pass Breakups | Stanley – 6 / Latham – 4 / Shorts – 3
Interceptions | Stanley – 4 / Shorts – 3 / Scott, Brooks, Harrell – 2

Southern Miss X-Factor | Limit the big play

Southern Miss is going to try and make this a defensive struggle. The Golden Eagles lauded “Nasty Bunch” defense has made a significant jump this year, climbing to No. 80 in the nation in scoring defense to No. 43. The Golden Eagles allow 23.5 points per game. Keeping opponents out of the endzone is something they’ve largely excelled at compared to their peers.

The path to those points, has been suspect, though. Southern Miss ranks 12th of 14 teams in the Sun Belt in plays allowed of 20 or more yards with 63, an average of 5.3 such occurrences per game. Georgia Southern and Coastal Carolina — the two defenses in their conference that allow more explosive plays — each rank worst than 100th in the nation in scoring defense.

To some extent, the way this defense has been winning is unsustainable, but something is undeniably working. This is a defense that bends but doesn’t break. If something miss stiffens on the back end and allows less wiggle room, they’ll have Rice right where they want them.

Rice X-Factor | No turnovers

No team has turned the ball over this season more often than Rice football. None. Zilch. Zero. Nada. Rice football ranks dead last in the nation with 30 turnovers in 12 games, an average of 2.5 giveaways per contest.

When they don’t implode, this offense has proven itself adequate, perhaps even dangerous with its explosiveness and diversity. The Owls have put up more than 440 yards of total offense in four of their five wins and have largely moved the ball well with a variety of different quarterbacks under center. The bugaboo — and it’s been a big one — has been protecting the football.

Coaches are oft to say things like “we beat ourselves,” and in this case, that largely seems to be true. If Rice can avoid shooting themselves in the foot and give themselves a chance to complete their drives, they will be able to hang with a low-scoring offense on the other side of the ball. If they spot that other offense points, things could get dicey, quickly.

Injury Report (Subscribers only)

When Rice football last took the field, they were without quarterback TJ McMahon, wide receiver Luke McCaffrey and several other key players on each side of the ball. Subscribers, stay tuned later this week for a deeper dive on those key injuries with the latest on who is (and isn’t) likely to go in this upcoming contest. Not a subscriber (yet)?

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One Final Thing

Getting to a bowl game is an accomplishment in itself, but things could hardly have set up better for Rice football in this season-ending showdown with a familiar foe. Instead of having to travel a great distance, the Owls will be playing as close to home as they could have been beyond a return to Frisco. They’re not being shipped to Detroit or South Carolina.

Better still, this is a winnable game against a team with a commensurate level of talent. They’re not playing an underachieving SEC school that simply has better players who played tougher competition. No, Southern Miss is on Rice’s level and in fact, the Owls have beaten them as recently as last season.

This game matters to Rice football. It matters to the staff, the players and to the fans. To those who care, it’s not a random bowl sponsored by who’s-it-called or what’s-it-named. With that in mind, the effort should be equal to the task. Rice needs to play this game with the effort they put forth against North Texas in the season finale. If they can clean up the mistakes, they’re got all they need to walk away as winners.

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Where things stand: Rice Football, Mike Bloomgren and the future

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Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren is coming back for another year. What went into the decision and what’s next for the program?

Athletic director Joe Karlgaard and Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren met with the media last week to discuss the upcoming Lending Tree Bowl. Both men were asked about the game itself, the significance of potentially winning it and other postseason-related questions. The status of Bloomgren’s job security wasn’t discussed.

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This update will focus on that previously unspoken situation. After reaching a bowl game, but not six regular season wins, where does Bloomgren stand and what is the outlook for the Owls as they look forward to entering the AAC in 2022?

Officially, official

First, let’s start with the first official statement, given to The Roost this week from Karlgaard himself:

“Mike is coming back. He’ll be our coach next season. Our progress over the last several years has been slower than we had hoped but we did post our highest win total since 2015 and our players were exceptional in the classroom.

This is not the same college athletics that was in place the last time we went to a bowl game. We’ve seen all these environmental changes with Alston and NIL and the Transfer Portal and the deregulation of the NCAA rules. I’m proud of the roster and foundation that coach Bloomgren and his staff have built and how we’ve navigated the shifts to the environment so far. But for us to strive for excellence in the future, we’re going to have to be innovative, progressive and values driven.”

What other factors are in play?

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