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Rice Football Burning Questions: How high is the team’s ceiling in 2021?

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Now in Year 4, Mike Bloomgren and Rice football will face the highest expectations they’ve encountered to this point. How far can they realistically go?

Things were never expected to get better for Rice football overnight. The roster needed retooling. New schemes needed to be put in place and other adjustments were necessary in the name of program-building. With three years* (two, plus whatever the COVID-19 season counts as) to tinker, the expectations are starting to mount.

Which brings us to the third installment in our Burning Questions series this offseason. What are fair expectations for Rice football in 2021 and more importantly, can they reach them?

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Ranking the Conference USA Football Quarterbacks: July 2021 Patreon Q&A

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The quarterback landscape is going to be interesting for Conference USA football teams this season. Where does Luke McCaffrey fit in among the league’s signal callers?

If you haven’t checked out any of our Conference USA team previews on The Roost Podcast yet, go ahead and subscribe to the show and put those episodes in your listening queue over the next few weeks. I bring that up because a recurring theme as we work through the Owls’ upcoming opponents is the lack of certainty at the quarterback position across the conference.

Among returning quarterbacks, at least from a purely statistical evaluation, it’s essentially Marshall’s Grant Wells and that’s about it. The list gets murky quickly with players like UTEP’s Gavin Hardison and UTSA’s Frank Harris showing up frequently in the Top 5 of major statistical categories like completion percentage, yards per attempt and touchdowns. That means, in all likelihood, the best quarterback that will play in Conference USA in 2021 wasn’t in the conference last season.

Which brings us to the question at hand? Who is the best quarterback in Conference USA and where does prospective Rice signal caller Luke McCaffrey fit into the mix?

Here’s my best projection of the conference quarterbacks, ranked from the best to worst:

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Rice Football Recruiting: Early impressions from current 2022 commits

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The 2022 Rice Football recruiting class has five commitments as the summer winds down. We caught up with a few of them to hear about their early impressions.

The 2021 season is right around the corner and while the Owls begin their preparations on the field, they’re working hard to build the future of the program off of it. The 2022 Rice Football recruiting class has five commitments to date, putting them in the middle of the pack among their Conference USA peers.

To understand how the class was progressing and get to know some of its foundational pieces, we caught up with a few of the Owls’ initial members of the class.

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Conference USA Football Media Days 2021: Live Blog

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The 2021 Conference USA Football media days have arrived. Bookmark this post for updates throughout the week regarding releases, quotes and more.

There’s already a lot to unpack from Conference USA Football Media Days. The full releases can be found on the league website, this thread is for the big rocks and some up-to-date analysis and reaction from the week.

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Rice Basketball: Breaking down the Scott Pera extension

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Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera has received a contract extension through 2024, a reward for a quick pivot and encouraging results.

Fresh off his best season as the head coach of Rice basketball, Scott Pera has received a contract extension that will keep him in Houston with the Owls through 2024. Rice Athletic Director Joe Karlgaard released a statement on Thursday, saying “the future of Rice men’s basketball is bright,” adding that “Scott Pera has steadily built a terrific foundation and has effectively steered our approach to the modern recruiting environment.

What is that strategy? Why did it work? What’s next for Rice basketball? Let’s dive in.

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