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Rice Football 2022: WKU Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football travels to WKU this week with bowl aspirations in their sights. Here’s what we learned from practice this week.

The final quarter of a rigorous 2022 Rice football schedule begins this week with a road trip to Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are just ahead of the Owls in the current conference standings with both teams in need of one more win to reach bowl eligibility (WKU needs seven wins this year because of their 13th game with a trip to Hawaii).

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This week’s roundup focuses in on a new adversary the Owls are facing this week, stakes for this game, the offensive line, special teams adjustments, a few individual standouts and more.

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Rice Football vs the Flu

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Rice Football 2022 Game Preview: WKU

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Rice football is one win away from bowl eligibility as they travel to play Western Kentucky. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Both Rice football and Western Kentucky enter their upcoming matchup fresh off a win. The Owls rallied late to beat UTEP while WKU routed Charlotte. Both programs would like nothing more than to keep up their winning ways with another victory this weekend. Here’s everything you need to know about this week’s game.

Kickoff time | 1:00 PM CT
Venue | LT Smith Stadium – Bowling Green, KY
TV | ESPN+ (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs WKU 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

Western Kentucky is officially bowl eligible after a beatdown of Charlotte last weekend. The Hilltoppers are playing for an outside shot at a conference championship game appearance, although they’ll need some help to get there.

On the other sideline, Rice football is one win away from a trip to the postseason. The Owls (3-2) are also a win away from being third place in the conference standings, leapfrogging WKU with a win. As the calendar turns to November, there’s plenty at stake for both programs.

Series History

All Time | WKU leads, 3-0
Last Five | WKU leads, 3-0
Last Meeting | Home 2021, WKU won 42-21

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Rice Football Stat Notables

Passing | McMahon – 152/255 (59.6 percent), 2037 yards, 18 TD, 12 INT
Rushing | Montgomery – 59 carries, 391 yards (6.6 yards per carry), 0 TD / Broussard – 91 carries, 251 yards (2.8 yards per carry), 9 TD
Receiving | Rozner – 33 receptions, 721 yards (21.9 yds/rec), 8 TDs / McCaffrey – 51 receptions, 656 yards (12.9 yds/rec), 6 TD / Esdale – 26 receptions, 313 yards (12.1 yds/rec), 0 TD
Tackles | Conti – 53 / Morrison – 49 / Taylor – 44
Pass Breakups | Dunbar – 7  / Fresch – 5 / Taylor – 4
Interceptions | Taylor – 2 / Morrison, Nyakwol, Chamberlain, Fresch – 1

WKU Stat Notables

Passing | Reed – 276/407 (67.8 percent), 3171 yards, 28 TD, 6 INT
Rushing | Robichaux- 65 carries, 458 yards (6.7 yards per carry), 3 TD / Ervin-Poindexter – 82 carries, 357 yards (4.4 ypc), 3 TD
Receiving | Corley – 64 receptions, 863 yards (13.5 yards per reception), 7 TD / Davis – 56 receptions, 755 yards (13.5 yds/rec), 6 TD
Tackles | Knight – 84 / Hylton – 66 / Wallerstedt – 58
Pass Breakups | Hailassie – 8 / Williams – 5 / Evans, Simpkins – 3
Interceptions | Stout – 3 / Hailassie, Oliver – 2 / Six tied with one each

WKU X-Factor | Stay on schedule

It comes as no surprise that Western Kentucky has kept its point-scoring machine rolling, even with a new quarterback at the controls. The Hilltoppers lead conference USA with 37.2 points per game. One subtle secret to their success has been their ability to avoid negative plays.

Western Kentucky ranks first in Conference USA in tackles for a loss allowed. They rank third in sacks allowed (just 1.2o per game) and lead the league in turnover margin. All offenses are naturally more effective when they don’t have to overcome mistakes and negative plays. That doesn’t mean the Hilltoppers can’t, but they haven’t had to do so very often.

Getting Western Kentucky off schedule and forcing them to make plays in pressure situations is a must if Rice is going to pick up this road win. Letting Austin Reed sit back and pick the defense apart won’t work.

Rice X-Factor | Win third down

Third down has been a problem for Rice football, on both sides of the field. The offense converted third down at one of their most proficient rates of the season against UTEP (61.5 percent) and the Owls won, moving to 3-0 in games in which they’ve converted at least 50 percent of their third down opportunities on offense.

The defensive side has been problematic, though. Excluding the Charlotte game, Rice has been fairly effective on first and second down. It’s been third down that has given this defense trouble, particularly on third and long.

Since the bye week, a span of four games, Rice is holdings its opponents to a 31 percent conversion rate on third and short (four yards or less). On third and medium and third and long (5+ yards to go), Rice opponents are converting on 40 percent of their tries. That’s backward. The further to go, the less often it should be occurring. The Rice defense needs to find ways to get off the field.

Injury Report (Subscribers only)

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One Final Thing

The topsy-turvy 2022 season has maintained a steady cadence of unpredictability thus far and there’s no reason to believe that is going to stop anytime soon. Rice football isn’t the best version of themselves right now, but they’ve found ways to scratch out wins in two of their last three games, the first of which came on the road. This weekend’s road test will be an important one.

Western Kentucky isn’t quite in the same class as Marshall was in 2020 or UAB was in 2021, but the Hilltoppers have been one of the better teams in Conference USA since Tyson Helton arrived in Bowling Green. When it comes to sorting out whether Rice belongs in the top or the bottom half of the conference, the Owls have teetered back and forth from week to week.

A win on Saturday would not only clinch a bowl berth, but it would put Rice squarely in the top but it would also secure at least a .500 record in conference play. That’s a far cry from where the Owls have been in recent seasons. Rice has a few more weeks to get that elusive sixth win, but the sooner they do find it, the more notable it will be.

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2022-2023 Rice Women’s Basketball Season Preview

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The 2022-2023 Rice women’s basketball season is around the corner and the team can’t wait to build on last season’s successes.

The most common word Rice women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Edmonds would use to describe last season was whirlwind. Coming in as a first-time head coach in the midst of a program in transition with a minimal roster and the lingering challenges of COVID-19 was never going to be easy. Edmonds and her team persevered.

One year later the program seems poised to continue its ascent. For one, they have more bodies. Edmonds added the No. 1 recruiting class in Conference USA to supplement a much more experienced roster than they had at this point last season.

Edmonds joked that one of the biggest differences from last year’s squad to this one is readily apparent when you walk into the gym. “Last year we took half of a court to stretch,” she laughed. “[This year] we take up an entire sideline!”

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2022-2023 Rice Basketball Season Preview

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It’s been a slow build for Rice basketball. Will the 2022-2023 season be the time when it all comes together and the Owls truly take flight?

Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera knows there’s no silver bullet. He’s coached a lot of basketball to this point and was honest in his preseason assessment of the 2022-2023 team and what he felt the program needed to do to take another step in the right direction.

“You can’t take huge jumps. It’s really hard to improve a lot in certain areas,” he said. “We’ve got to be a little better defensively. We’ve got to be a little bit better offensively. We’ve got to shoot the ball from the free throw line a little better.”

Little by little, Pera theorized, those gradual improvements stack up to meaningful change.

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Last minute rally lifts Rice Football past UTEP for big win

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Rice Football delivers the wining score in the final moments, dashing past UTEP to secure a much-needed win at home.

Thursday’s nationally televised game against all the makings of a bowl-elimination bout between Rice football and the UTEP Miners. The Owls had had the upper hand in the series, particularly at home, winning nine of 12 in Houston. On Thursday night, Rice added one more important victory to the tally. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Withstand the first punch

On the first play from scrimmage, UTEP quarterback Gavin Hardison tried to thread a ball through a mass of blue and gray-clad defenders. Gabriel Taylor was nearly there to meet it, but was unable to make the one-handed stab to force a quick turnover. Instead, UTEP recovered and marched quickly down the field, going 78-yards in 3:13, deflating a defense in need of that instant jolt of confidence.

Down 7-0, Rice was forced to settle for a field goal on their first offensive possession as quarterback TJ McMahon was sacked on third and short inside the redzone. When Rice kicked the ball back to UTEP down by four, it felt like the rubber was about to meet the road. Was UTEP’s early touchdown — just their second touchdown in the first quarter this year — a fluke? Or would the defense figure it out?

The defense responded with a quick three-and-out and their second sack of the day. Then they found their groove. They got pressure. They forced three-and-outs (four on the day). Trey Schuman snuffed out a reverse for a loss of yards. The defense responded to a fumbled punt return with a stop and a 51-yard field goal try after the offense fizzled inside their own five-yard line. For the first time in weeks, they looked good. Not great. But good.

To say the Rice defense was “back” would be overly generous, but the unit that took the field on Thursday night looked a heck of a lot more like the one the Owls have gotten used to seeing in recent years. If they can find a way to get off the field on third down, they might just be dangerous.

Return of the big play

On the other side of the ball, the offense responded in kind. Rice had four pass plays of 15+ yards in four quarters against Charlotte last weekend. They reached that total just three minutes into the second quarter against UTEP and continued to gain yards in chunks. Bradley Rozner reached the century mark for the fifth time this season.

The Owls ended the game with 502 total yards and a slew of big plays. There were eight pass plays of 15+ yards and five run plays of 10+ yards. The offense was legitimately explosive.

What made the performance particularly compelling was the sheer quantity of contributors. Rozner, Luke McCaffrey, Isaiah Esdale, Kobie Campbell and Jack Bradley each had critical catches that extended drives or scored points. Cam Montgomery, Juma Otviano, TJ McMahon and McCaffrey each made big plays on the ground. Uriah West had his first touchdown as an Owl. Eveything just seemed to come together.

And then… the dagger!

The steady emergence of TJ McMahon

When McMahon took the field against UTEP for his eighth consecutive start, he reached a place no quarterback had gone before under Bloomgren at Rice. The previous record for consecutive starts (seven) was held by Shawn Stankavage, who led the way in the first seven games of Bloomgren’s tenure at South Main in 2018 before being injured.

McMahon already led all Rice quarterbacks under Bloomgren in passing touchdowns entering this game. He added two more to up his Rice total to 20. He also leads all of Bloomgren’s passers in interceptions, including an inexplicable additional tipped-pass pick against UTEP, a recurring nightmare that Rice fans can’t seem to escape.

After the Charlotte loss, McMahon said his job this week was “to make sure this game doesn’t beat us twice.” He did that tonight, leading his team down the field with regularity with a bit more of a boost from the running game than he’d had in recent weeks.

It’s been clearly established for several weeks now that Rice had its guy. As McMahon continues to progress, the hope for the future builds.

Breathing room

Two weeks ago, Rice football was 4-3. Being a game above .500 and two wins away from securing bowl eligibility was a breath of fresh air for the Owls, who have fought through their fair share of hardships to get to that point.

That was two weeks ago, and it feels like the program has been through a much more circuitous journey than one could have imagined in just a fortnight’s worth of time. Splitting a two-game homestand against Charlotte and UTEP was disappointing, considering the success Rice football has had to this point. But even still, the Owls have earned three chances to clinch a bowl berth.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week – Rice Football vs UTEP

It’s not time to start booking tickets to spend Christmas in Hawaii or the holiday season in the Bahamas quite yet. But the situation is objectively more positive than it could have been had Rice not found a way to win this football game, and win it in the manner they did. The Owls have been far from perfect this year, but they have been resilient.

Following a loss, Rice football is 4-0 this season. And now instead of being forced to grapple with the real possibility of their one-time storybook season ending in a nightmare, Rice has hope again. Hope can be a dangerous this at times, but right now, it’s exactly what the Owls need. That, and one more win down the stretch. But they’ll focus on that final W tomorrow.

Digging deeper

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When in doubt, be clutch

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