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2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

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Rice Baseball is set to enter Year 4 under Jose Cruz Jr with what he believes to be the Owls’ most talented team of his tenure. Can Owls take flight this season?

Head coach Jose Cruz Jr. was quick to not promise the moon when he arrived on campus in the summer of 2021. He spoke then about building things the right way, acquiring talent and developing that talent within the Rice baseball culture. From there, the next step was winning games. It was always a long term plan, at least, that’s how the message was conveyed.

Three seasons in, Cruz and the Rice faithful are hoping enough of a foundation has been laid to turn those aspirational ideals into tangible wins. “We’re getting better every year, we’re getting better. The mentality is better. The athletes are better. The physiques are better,” Cruz said. “Every year we’re just going to keep getting better.”

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Rice Football Recruiting: Breaking Down the 2025 Signees – Defense

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The 2025 Rice Football Recruiting class includes several hand-picked impact players on defense and special teams. Here’s how those sides of the ball stacks up.

The 2025 Rice football recruiting class began with 12 signees during the Early Signing Period, the first recruiting haul for new head coach Scott Abell. That group has since been supplemented by a wave of transfers and an additional round of high school signees on National Signing Day. Of those players, 22 are current high school seniors, and 13 play on the defensive side of the ball as well as one specialist.

“It’s an exciting time for me,” Abell said upon welcoming his first signees in December. “These are my very first recruits that I have the opportunity to welcome here to Rice. I just can’t imagine anything better.”

When it came time to put a bow on that class in February, Abell remained just as emphatic. “Attracting the right recruits here, the right people [is] imperative. It’s the most important thing we do,” he said while introducing the class. “That means Year 1, the first opportunity to do that, it becomes incredibly important that we get make sure that we get the people part of that right.”

We’ve gone position by position breaking down each of those new people, dissecting how these Owls will help the program on the field.

* Denotes players who enrolled early in January

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** This piece has been updated to reflect new signees as of 2/5/2025 **
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Rice Football Recruiting: Breaking Down the 2025 Signees – Offense

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The 2025 Rice Football Recruiting class includes several hand-picked impact players on offense. Here’s how that side of the ball stacks up.

The 2025 Rice football recruiting class began with 12 signees during the Early Signing Period, the first recruiting haul for new head coach Scott Abell. That group has since been supplemented by a wave of transfers and an additional round of high school signees on National Signing Day. Of those players, 22 are current high school seniors, and 16 play on the offensive side of the ball.

“It’s an exciting time for me,” Abell said upon welcoming his first signees in December. “These are my very first recruits that I have the opportunity to welcome here to Rice. I just can’t imagine anything better.”

When it came time to put a bow on that class in February, Abell remained just as emphatic. “Attracting the right recruits here, the right people [is] imperative. It’s the most important thing we do,” he said while introducing the class. “That means Year 1, the first opportunity to do that, it becomes incredibly important that we get make sure that we get the people part of that right.”

We’ve gone position by position breaking down each of those new people, dissecting how these Owls will help the program on the field.

* Denotes players who enrolled early in January

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?
** This piece has been updated to reflect new signees as of 2/5/2025 **
Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Rice Football Recruiting: 2025 National Signing Day Live Blog

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The 2025 Rice Football Recruiting class wraps up on National Signing Day. Follow all the action here as the Owls close out the class.

National Signing Day marks the culmination of the 2025 Rice Football recruiting class. This live tracker will follow all the latest news and updates throughout the day, with further updates on the class as it’s finalized. If you’re not a subscriber yet, here’s your chance.

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As we did during the Early Signing Period, we’ll have a Live Blog up and running with updates throughout the day. (Not a subscriber? We’ve unlocked this post from a prior cycle to give you a flavor of what to expect — live updates as soon as we get them). Subscribers get access to the full list of Rice offers, commits, signees and more.

Premium: Rice Football Recruiting Offer and Commitment Tracker

Which newcomers are program-changing talents? Who is the diamond in the rough? More to come. For the time being, let’s dig into the latest from National Signing Day, below.

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2025 Rice Football Roster Analysis: January 2025 Q&A

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The Transfer Portal has closed and the 2025 Rice Football spring roster is set. Are there any gaps? Which positions need reinforcements before the fall?

New Rice football head coach Scott Abell has wrapped up a whirlwind first few weeks on the job, finalizing his staff and his initial roster before spring practices get underway in the coming weeks. Before the team gets onto the field, though, how did he and his staff do on the first pass of the roster? This month’s Q&A addresses that current state and digs into which positions made the biggest strides and a few areas potentially in need of more reinforcements.

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.

First, the Fine Print

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