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AAC Football 2023: Week 11 Roundup

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AAC Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 11.

Team Record  This Week Result Up Next
Charlotte 3-7 (2-4) vs Memphis L, 44-38 (OT) vs Rice
ECU 2-8 (1-5) at FAU W, 22-7 at Navy
FAU 4-6 (2-4) vs ECU L, 22-7 vs Tulane
Memphis 8-2 (5-1) at Charlotte W, 44-38 (OT) vs SMU
Navy 4-5 (3-3) vs UAB W, 31-7 vs ECU
North Texas 3-7 (1-5) at SMU L, 45-21 at Tulsa
Rice 4-6 (2-4) at UTSA L, 34-14 at Charlotte
SMU 8-2 (6-0) vs North Texas W, 45-21 at Memphis
Temple 3-7 (1-5) at USF L, 27-23 at UAB
Tulane 9-1 (6-0) vs Tulsa W, 24-22 at FAU
Tulsa 3-7 (1-5) at Tulane L, 24-22 vs North Texas
UAB 3-7 (2-4) at Navy L, 31-6 vs Temple
USF 5-5 (3-3) vs Temple W, 27-23 at UTSA
UTSA 7-3 (6-0) vs Rice W, 34-14 vs USF

Notable Results (Standings)

Still Perfect

SMU, UTSA and Tulane all took care of business this week to stay unbeaten in league play. Tulane’s played some squeaker in recent weeks and this outing against Tulsa was certainly closer than it probably should have been, but the result is what matters. We’ve got a three-horse race atop the conference standings with two weeks remaining in the regular season.

Watch out for the Bulls

USF has been one of the more pleasant surprise stories in the AAC this season. The Bulls beat Temple in a close one, keeping their chances to make a bowl in Alex Golesh’s first season within the realm of possible. To be able to write that in mid-November, after the tough stretch of season’s they have in recent years, is remarkable in itself.

So long, postseason

No AAC teams clinched a postseason berth this week but four squads notched their seventh loss signalling the end of their postseason aspirations. North Texas, UAB, Temple and Charlotte are all heading for no offseason. For the Owls and 49ers, that’s not too surprising. They were picked to finish near the bottom of the league. UAB and North Texas however, to be out of the running with two weeks to play is less understandable.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Finally, a heavyweight fight

Part of the reason the AAC has three remaining unbeaten teams is the lack of compelling matchups along the way. Next week’s meeting between SMU and Memphis is one of the most compelling regular season conference games remaining for that reason, it pits the talent against talent. Memphis is still alive in the conference title game hunt and could get much closer with a win over SMU whereas the Mustangs might all but clinch a title game spot with a win.

No margin for error

Both Rice and FAU enter this coming weekend with six losses before squaring off with each other in the final weekend of the regular season. Bowl eligibility could be on the line for both squads in that game, bu they’ll have to win this coming week to get there. Rice draws Charlotte. FAU will have to upset Tulane. No small task.

Don’t sleep on the troops

Navy has an outside shot at a six-win season under first-year head coach Brian Newberry. That’s what makes their upcoming game against East Carolina so intriguing. Win that, and the Midshipmen can keep the faith. They haven’t had a .500 season since 2019.

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Nightmare Third Quarter Dooms Rice Football at UTSA

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Rice Football hung around for a half, but couldn’t finish the job against UTSA, falling to the Roadrunners for the eighth consecutive time.

The first 30 minutes of Saturday night’s AAC matchup in the Alamodome felt like a heavyweight fight. Rice football traded blows with UTSA, matching one of the conference’s few remaining teams that was unbeaten in league play. Then things fell apart.

Suddenly the proverbial clock hit midnight and the Owls turned into a pumpkin, withering in the third quarter in what felt like a winnable game to that point. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

The defense brought the heat

Rice football has seen plenty of UTSA quarterback Frank Harris over the past several seasons and they’ve learned a lot of what didn’t work. Harris has gashed Rice through the air and on the ground — and he got his fair share of yardage on Saturday night — but the Owls’ defensive gameplan against him proved effective.

Over and over again, Rice brought pressure in high-leverage situations. On third downs, Harris was met with white-clad Owl jerseys with haste, forcing the veteran passer to make split-second decisions with the football.

The strategy put a heavy burden on the Rice secondary. If the rush didn’t get home, the defensive backs had to make one-on-one plays. For the most part, they did and the Owls’ gameplan gave them a chance. Tack on a few key havoc plays, and Rice was very much so in this game.

UTSA entered the redzone five times, they scored three touchdowns. One of those touchdowns came after the Roadrunners were gifted a free first down on a crucial fourth down play. Rice was all over Harris from the snap, forcing him to break toward the sideline. Michael Larbie came in late and was flagged for a roughing the passer. The call was correct. The play was devastating. UTSA scored three plays later.

It wasn’t a perfect day, but holding Frank Harris to 175 yards and one touchdown and making plays in the redzone was more than sufficient enough to give the Rice offense a chance. Defensive coordinator Brian Smith crafted a solid game plan. Against an elite offense, the defense did their part.

Quarterback quandaries

Turning to their fourth quarterback to see the field in the past eight days, the Rice football offense took a while to show life in this one. AJ Padgett, who drew his first start since the Lending Tree Bowl against Southern Miss, started the game 1-for-4, stepping into a drive-ending sack and overshooting running back Dean Connors on a screen with blockers ready on another third down opportunity.

On the Owls’ third drive, Padgett threw it into an empty area of turf, vacated by a running back cutting back toward the middle of the field and a tight end breaking out. It was clearly a miscommunication, but regardless of the culpable party, it killed another drive.

Every quarterback that takes a snap for the Owls this season will be compared — fairly or not — to the high bar JT Daniels set with this offense. Daniels has showcased an uncanny ability to make plays happen despite adverse conditions. He’s good for a few “did-you-see-what-he-just-did” plays in each game.

There wasn’t much time between the drive Padgett started to settle down and the UTSA defensive line turned into the Monstars, or at least, something frighteningly close. Padgett led the offense on a 22-second touchdown drive to close the half but the second half began with three consecutive three-and-outs.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren said afterward that, for the most part, the offensive line held its own. And while he did lead with the reminder that the quarterback gets too much credit and too much blame, he noted Padgett’s role in the negative plays was not insignificant.

There were moments when it felt like Rice might have won this game had Daniels been on the field, but the final score seems to suggest otherwise.

Offense out of sync

The result of this game swung on the play of the offenses. The Rice offensive line was under duress for most of the night. When you can’t win one-on-one, it’s hard to mount a formidable protection. Free rushers got past Clay Servin on back-to-back plays in the third quarter. On the next drive, Ethan Onianwa was the victim.

“I really want to hesitate to blame this on the line because we got to remember everybody plays a role in protection,” Bloomgren said, including himself in the following summation: “I’m putting this on everybody.”

UTSA led the AAC in sacks coming into this game. They’re a very, very good front. But Rice played good fronts in their past two games and found a way to protect the quarterback and move the football. It’s confounding to see them struggle so mightily in that respect tonight, but it was impossible to overcome.

The Rice defensive line was largely good. They gave up a few chunk gains on plays that were well-blocked by UTSA, but they always bounced back with a tackle for loss or negligible gain to give themselves a chance.

Do or die*

Rice football falls to 4-6 with the loss, two wins away from six and securing bowl eligibility. Their upcoming opponents, Charlotte and FAU, both lost on Saturday as well. They’re certainly very winnable games against much more manageable opponents than the murder’s row of AAC heavyweights Rice has played in the past three weeks.

First and foremost, if Rice football is as good as they’ve given onlookers reason to believe, then they’re better than 4-6 FAU and 3-7 Charlotte. Winning out would put them at .500 in the conference with potentially each of their four losses coming to a bowl-eligible team that finished .500 or better in league play, assuming USF can find one more win down the stretch.

And don’t shoot the messenger, but Rice could very well be in the mix for a bowl berth if they finish with five wins. The latest Action Network projections would have room for Rice in the field based on how things currently stand.

It has certainly not been the season Rice football fans had hoped for nor the year the team itself spoke of following their marquee upset victory over Houston so many weeks ago. But six wins is still on the table. It sure would be nice for all parties involved if they could reach that plateau for the first time in the Bloomgren era.

“This is November and you’ll always remember what happens in November. We’ve said that quote a lot. With that being said, it’s like we’re in playoff football. You win this week, you get another meaningful game,” Bloomgren said in closing.

“This team wants to win. This team is working their butts off to win. There’s a lot of individual performances on this film that are going to be really good, really fun to watch. Team results’ not good enough.”

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Early deficit dooms Rice Basketball in home loss to Harvard

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Rice basketball rallied from an 18-point deficit on Friday night against Harvard, but could not finish the job, falling to the Crimson at home.

Days removed from a comprehensive drubbing of St. Thomas, Rice basketball was handed a much tougher challenge in their second game of the season. Harvard came out in a furry, delivering Rice their loudest wakeup call yet in their young season. From the opening score — a three ball from Chandler Pigge – throughout a barrage of Harvard baskets, Rice seemingly had no answer.

Harvard couldn’t miss early in this contest. The Crimson shot 51.6 percent in the first half, starting the game 6-for-9 from three. That onslaught would have been tough to keep pace with if the Owls were shooting well, but it wasn’t that kind of night for the home team. Rice opened the game 1-for-11 from three and struggled mightily from the floor.

“We got punched in the mouth out of the gate. I don’t know if it’s guys’ effort so much as if they’re not having success how they handle it internally,” Pera said. “I didn’t think our effort was bad. I thought our execution was bad, especially when we go the lead.”

The segue to that lead came with Rice trailing by a game-high 18 points in the first half. Pera called a timeout. The players settled down and responded with an 11-0 run. Reaching halftime trailing by only 10 points felt like a victory in itself.

At the halfway mark in the second half the game didn’t seem any closer. Rice trailed by 12 at the under-12-minute media timeout. Then, out of the timeout, Rice got to work. The 12-point deficit was vaporized. Over the course of the next three minutes, Rice thundered back to take the lead. It would not last.

Harvard found the plays in clutch moments whereas Rice was held without a field goal for more than four minutes before an inconsequential layup from Max Fiedler fell, accompanied by the muted applause of a full Tudor Fieldhouse. Rice falls to 1-1 with the loss.

“In every category that matters, they outplayed us,” Pera said.

Final Box | Harvard 89 – Rice 76

What They’re Saying

“If you can do it in practice, you gotta be able to do it in a game. It’s gotta transfer. I gotta figure out why that didn’t happen so that the next time we play, whether it’s Texas or Saint Thomas, we do what we’re supposed to do and what we work on. That is the frustration for me.” – Head coach Scott Pera.

Key takeaway | Defensive frustrations

Fair or not, the defense will be the first culprit assigned blame when Rice loses. To this point of Pera’s tenure, it’s been his largest vexation and the most frequent offseason talking point. And to his credit, Pera never promised — nor should onlookers have expected — a top-tier defensive unit. The aim was always to be competent enough and the offense would do the rest.

The bar was rather low. Rice lost their opening contest last season at Pepperdine 106-67. Keeping Harvard to a slightly more stomachable 89 points is technically an improvement, but the progress rings hollow when the result isn’t a win.

“In practice, we do the right things. It’s just effort, paying attention in games and locking in instead of having these little mental lapses,” guard Anthony Selden said. “Mental lapses at this level, teams are going to take advantage of it. I think we can’t afford to have little mental lapses every possession.”

The defense was better in stretches after half time. Rice doesn’t get back into this game without five key second half turnovers and two blocks to help spur their comeback bid. Ultimately, though, it was an inability to maintain that level of defensive intensity for more than a few possessions that sank the Owls on Friday night.

Three times in his postgame comments Pera used the word disappointing, frustrations evident from the loss. For coaches and players, the disconnect from practice to the game was agonizing. And they don’t have very long to figure it out. Rice plays Texas in four days’ time.

Pera’s message was crystal clear. “Forget about beating Texas or beating Harvard. Just play like we’re capable of playing. You have an opportunity then, because we have good enough players, that you’ll give yourselves a chance to win the games,” he said. But if you play like this for 30 minutes tonight, you’re not winning.”

Up Next: at Texas (Wed. Nov 15)

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Rice Football Recruiting: 2025 ATH Semaj Pierre commits to Owls

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The 2025 Rice Football recruiting class grabbed its first pledge this week, earning a commitment from Port Arthur Memorial wideout Semaj Pierre.

There’s nothing like dreams of the future to help ease the pains of the present day. After falling on the gridiron a few times in recent weeks, the 2025 Rice Football Recruiting provided some encouragement off the field in the form of its first commitment of the class. Port Arthur Memorial wide receiver Semaj Pierre has committed to the Owls.

Pierre picked up an early over from Mississippi State, adding offers down the line from Louisiana Tech and Rice. The Owls jumped at the chance to offer Pierre after watching him at their camp they hosted earlier this summer. He impressed the coaches and earned an offer. Then the race for his services was on, with Rice finally winning out this fall.

A two-way player in high school, Pierre will most likely land with the offense at the next level.

The first member of the Owls’ 2025 class, Pierre will be a building block for this next wave. Given the current state of the Rice roster and the revised Transfer Portal rules, it remains to be seen how big this class will get. Beginning it with a playmaker like Pierre is a great start.

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Standing 5-foot-7 and tipping the scales at 160 pounds, Pierre isn’t going to be confused for a traditional outside wide receiver, but his ball skills are real and the Rice offense has proven time and time again it’s able to utilize players of Pierre’s stature. He’s a playmaker that is truly dynamic with the ball in his hands. He’ll fit in well on South Main.

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Rice Football: Behind enemy lines with a UTSA Insider

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UTSA is next up on the 2023 Rice football schedule so we’re going behind enemy lines with Roadrunners’ insider Jared Kalmus from Alamo Audible.

Roadrunners insider Jared Kalmus from Alamo Audible was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions about the upcoming matchup between Rice Football and UTSA. The answers below should shed some light on the Owls’ upcoming opponent.

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