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Rice Football 2021 Game Preview: Charlotte

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Rice Football needs a bounce-back win in the worst way as they travel to Charlotte for a Week 10 tilt. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Both Charlotte and Rice football would rather forget their last trips to the gridiron. Charlotte was dismantled by Western Kentucky, falling on the road by a final score of 45-13. Rice played their opponent, North Texas, much closer, but an overtime loss was no more satisfying given the expectations they carried into the game. Both teams need a reset in the worst way. Here’s what you need to know:

Kickoff time | 2:30 PM CT
Venue | Jerry Richardson Stadium – Charlotte, NC
TV | ESPN+
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs Charlotte this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. You can also catch the recap of last week’s game on The Roost Podcast, which should be released shortly. 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

Charlotte and Rice each enter this game .500 in C-USA action with four more games to play. The winner is still probably on the outside looking in regarding a potential trip to the conference championship game, but the loser is in danger of tumbling even further down the standings.

Each program has flashed moments of success. Charlotte upset Duke earlier in the season. Rice knocked off UAB. Neither has been able to channel those everything-went-right games into the type of consistency they need to regularly win conference games so far. After being viewed as up-and-coming programs entering the 2020 season, this game has the potential to reinforce those aspirations or crush them, depending on who ends up on which side of the result.

Series History

All Time | Rice leads Charlotte, 2-0
Last Five | Rice leads Charlotte, 2-0
Last Meeting | Away 2016, Rice won 22-21

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Rice Stat Notables

Passing | Constantine – 65/96 (67.7 percent), 806 yards, 5 TD, 2 INT
Rushing | Myers – 82 carries, 316 yards (3.9 yards per carry), 7 TD
Receiving | Bailey – 39 receptions, 433 yards (11.1 yds/rec), 2 TD / Patterson – 20 receptions, 296 yards (14.8 yds/rec), 2 TD
Tackles | Montero – 54 / Smith – 44 / Garcia – 44
Pass Breakups | McCord/Dunbar – 5, Smith – 4
Interceptions | Smith/Nyakwol – 2, Four others tied with one

Charlotte Stat Notables

Passing | Reynolds – 127/192 (66.2 percent), 1537 yards passing, 16 TD, 5 INT
Rushing | Camp – 74 carries, 451 yards (6.1 yards per carry), 3 TD / Byrd – 92 carries, 375 yards (4.1 ypc), 1 TD
Receiving | DuBose – 37 receptions, 561 yards (15.2 yards per reception), 5 TD / Tucker – 40 receptions, 553 yards (13.8 yds/rec), 2 TD
Tackles | Murray – 55 / Watts – 45 / Alexander – 41
Interceptions | Alexander -2, Two tied with one apiece
Pass Breakups | Creamer – 4, Rogers – 3, Ursery – 3

Charlotte X-Factor | Take a few shots, and convert on them

Charlotte has one of the better “intermediate” offenses in Conference USA. The 49ers aren’t quite explosive — they’ve tallied six plays of 30+ yards against conference foes, tied for the second-fewest in Conference USA — but they have a knack for getting 10 yards, and they do it almost as well as anyone else in the league.

Charlotte’s 62 plays of 10+ yards rank third in Conference USA play. While they don’t hit home runs very often, they’ll nickel and dime defenses all the way down the field. If they do start producing players further down the field, the offense can get dangerous, quickly.

A veteran quarterback and two playmaking wide receivers have the ability to give the Rice defense all sorts of trouble. If they do, not only will they be ready to trade punches with the Owls, they might be able to deliver a few knockout blows of their own.

Rice X-Factor | Jake Constantine

Constantine hasn’t been perfect this season, but he’s been a key piece in two of the Owls’ three wins this year. He rallied the team last week, showing off some schoolyard improvisation skills to will the team down the field and force overtime.

With Wiley Green likely to miss extended time after suffering an ankle injury last week and the running game struggling to get going this year, Constantine is going to have to take charge. If he doesn’t, it’s hard to decipher how the Rice offense is going to find enough success to win on the road without his help.

If he plays as well as he’s played up to this point, Rice will put points on the board. And that’s something Charlotte does not want any part of this year. The 49ers rank second to last in conference play, allowing 38.8 points per game.

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One Final Thing

Up until last week, Rice hadn’t lost a game to someone they were “supposed to beat” and they’d engineered one of their most memorable upsets in recent memory when they took down UAB on the road. Not that oddsmakers would have had faith in the Owls before, but now they’ve put Rice back in the underdog role. Given how this team faired last week, easing up the pressure can’t be a bad thing.

Still, this team has to be feeling some pressure. They’re on the precipice of losing control of a postseason bowl appearance. To get there, Rice needs to win three of four, a feat they’ve done once already this year. They haven’t won three in a row yet, though, a feat the Owls’ haven’t achieved since the final three games of the 2019 season. For a team that has been erratic from week to week, preserving that margin of error seems like an absolute necessity.

Whether it’s a coincidence or not that the Owls have been more proficient on the road than they have been at home doesn’t really matter. All that matters right now is finding a way to win this game. After the UAB win, it was easy to think ahead at what could be. Now that luxury has passed and all eyes have to be on Charlotte. The wiggle room is running out.

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Conference USA Football 2021: Week 9 C-USA Roundup

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Conference USA Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 9.

Team Week 9 Result Week 10
Charlotte at WKU L, 45-13 vs Rice
FAU vs UTEP W, 28-25 vs Marshall
FIU at Marshall L, 38-0 vs Old Dominion
LA Tech at Old Dominion L, 23-20 at UAB
Marshall vs FIU W, 38-0 at FAU
MTSU vs Southern Miss W, 35-10 at WKU
North Texas at Rice W, 30-24 at Southern Miss
Old Dominion vs LA Tech W, 23-20 at FIU
Rice vs North Texas L, 30-24 at Charlotte
Southern Miss at MTSU L, 35-10 vs North Texas
UAB — OFF —  — vs LA Tech
UTEP at FAU L, 28-25 vs UTSA
UTSA — OFF —  — at UTEP
WKU at Charlotte W, 45-13 vs MTSU

Notable Week 9 results – Standings

Sayonara FIU and Southern Miss

Southern Miss fans hoping for a quick turnaround under a new head coach have been in for a rough awakening. On a different, but equally taxing note, FIU fans have joined the Golden Eagle faithful awaiting as the only fanbases still awaiting their first conference win of the season. How bad is it? FIU head coach declined to speak with the media following his team’s shutout loss to Marshall.

Not so old Dominion Monarchs

For the first time since 2018, Old Dominion has beaten an FBS opponent. Louisiana Tech earned the honors on Saturday, dropping their fourth consecutive game after a 2-2 start to the season. The Bulldogs have six losses on the season and four of them have come by one score or less.

A wild week off

While working to fend off all comers for the services of head coach Jeff Traylor, UTSA fans also had the luxury of scouting box scores. Earning a Top 25 ranking last week, they were able to watch No. 19 SMU and No. 21 San Diego State suffer losses, opening the door for UTSA to climb higher as one of the top G5 teams in the nation.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Sun Bowl Showdown

ESPN2 picked up what has the makings to be an exciting contest in the desert next weekend when a ranked UTSA squad visits a UTEP team coming off a tough road loss at FAU. The Miners were extremely competitive and still sit within one game in the loss column of UTSA in the standings. Whoever wins Saturday will control their own destiny in the West.

Up or down?

Every team has four conference games in the books so far. Of the 14 teams (currently) in Conference USA, only three hold .500 records (Rice, MTSU and Charlotte). The Owls and 49ers face each other next weekend, with the chance to separate themselves from the middle of the pack. The winner of this won gets one step closer to bowl contention while the loser faces a much steeper battle.

Battle for the East

Western Kentucky, Marshall and FAU sit in a three-way tie for first place atop the East Division. At least one of that trio won’t be there when the dust settles next week. Marshall travels to FAU in a pivotal game for the division title while WKU draws MTSU at home. There are several weeks left in the season, but this weekend will be huge.

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Rice football: Ball falls to Jake Constantine as running game stutters

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Jake Constantine fell just short of leading Rice football to a comeback win. With Wiley Green injured, the task of getting the team back on track falls to him.

For everything that went right when Rice football upset UAB the weekend prior, there was something that seemed to go wrong in the Owls’ overtime loss to North Texas.

The contest immediately following Wiley Green’s career game saw him leave the field on a cart. The defense, which stopped the Blazers on downs twice and forced two turnovers gave up touchdowns following all but one Rice scoring drive, excluding the final kneel down before overtime.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren ran through all of what went wrong for his team on Saturday, but summed it up with a crushing reality of what sunk Rice against North Texas: “Our inability to effectively run the ball and to stop the run — two things that we think are trademarks of our program – When we can’t do those two things it’s going to be hard for the Rice Owls to win.”

Rice football averaged 2.1 yards per carry against North Texas, the seventh time since the beginning of the 2020 season in which the Owls have averaged fewer than 3.0 yards per carry, a span on 13 games. Conversely, Rice has averaged more than 4.0 yards per carry on three occasions over the time, one of which was a blowout loss to Texas earlier this season.

Rice has won games with poor showings on the ground in the very recent past. Their 2.94 yards per carry clip against UAB was underwhelming, but they got just enough when they needed it. Nevertheless, in general, it’s been tough sledding on the ground for a team that wants to run the ball.

On the other side of the ball, Rice has held its opponents below 3.0 yards per carry three times in the last 13 games and allowed 5.0 yards per carry on five separate occasions. Injuries up front have hampered the Owls’ on the defensive line this season, but even without De’Braylon Carroll off the field, they’re still trotting out good defensive linemen, a few of which have drawn attention from NFL scouts.

More: Rice Football falls in overtime to North Texas 

Despite those shortcomings, and particularly the Owls’ struggles on this particular Saturday, Rice fought back and tied the game in the final seconds. “I thought the defense finding a way to get a stop at the end and the offense finding a way to take the ball down and send the game in overtime, that’s winning football,” Bloomgren said. “Now what we did in overtime is not.”

Unfortunately for Constantine and the Owls, the proverbial clock struck midnight before the comeback could be truly completed. But it was his arm and his legs that gave Rice the only real chance they had to win this game. On the eve of Halloween, the veteran gunslinger put on his best Houdini impression, escaping would-be tackles to create off schedule. On two separate fourth down conversions, he broke free, kept the play alive, and delivered a strike at the moment his team needed it the most.

“I’ve been messing around, making those plays since I was a little kid,” Constantine said afterward, shrugging off his own heroics.

His coach was more effusive in his praise. “The plays he made to Jake Bailey and plays he made with his feet, he gave us a chance,” Bloomgren said. “That’s who that kid’s been since he’s been here. You know, he’s been a wild horse rider and finding a way to make plays.”

If the running game isn’t working, perhaps it’s time to hand the ball over to the one man who was able to find production in an otherwise disappointing fall afternoon. Protection was up and down, but Constantine repeatedly picked himself up off the mat and made play after play after play. Had he put a touch less on a third-down pass in overtime, the result could have been different. But by and large, if Constantine wasn’t clicking, not much else was.

From week to week, the running game has been hot and cold. The defense has been good and bad. The special teams have shared in those highs and lows. Constantine, while not perfect has thrown five touchdowns to just two interceptions and been at the controls of the offense in two of their three wins.

Given the expected severity of Green’s injury, it will more than likely fall to Constantine to lead Rice the rest of the way. “We’re definitely not out of the fight into making a bowl game,” he said. “I think we’re a great team and we can easily win three more games.” It won’t be easy, but it’s possible. And much of it will fall on his shoulders to carry Rice football to where they want to go.

Photo credit Maria Lysaker
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Rice Football rally comes up short against North Texas

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Rice Football dropped a heartbreaker in overtime to North Texas, falling at home in what was a very winnable game for the Owls.

Nothing has come easy for Rice football this season so it shouldn’t really be all that surprising when the Owls found themselves locked in a four-quarter struggle against a North Texas team that hadn’t composed all that many impressive performances to this point in the season. Credit the Rice with this: when faced with the tall task of traveling 89 yard to force overtime, they rose to the challenge. Unfortunately, they couldn’t finish the game off the same way, falling at home to North Texas. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Bring out the cart… again

On the Owls’ first drive of the game, Wiley Green took the shotgun snap and dropped back to pass. He was quickly greeted by a swarm of green, which sacked the newly-appointed Rice starter who was injured on the play. That marks the second time Green has left a game with an injury this year and the third game in which Rice has lost a starter during the course of the contest.

Injuries happen in college football. No team is immune. But when it comes to the quarterback position at Rice, the injury luck (or lack thereof) has gotten out of hand. Green was also knocked out of the game against Texas earlier this year. Luke McCaffrey also left that game with an injury. Then Jake Constantine, who took over for both following the Texas game, was hurt midway through the Owls’ game against UTSA.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week 

That’s FOUR quarterbacks injured to the point they had to leave the game over the course of eight games. The vast majority of teams across the country won’t lose one starting quarterback to an injury this season. Some will get unlucky and lose two. Rice has doubled that. And it’s not the first season this team has had to improvise at the most important position on the field.

Getting any sort of offensive rhythm established when you’re forced to swap out the key cog so repetitively can’t be easy. If nothing else, Rice football has had plenty of practice.

The ugliest 12-minute drive of all time?

If Rice were to submit some game film as proof of their upward ascent, it’s hard to imagine more than a snap or two from this game against North Texas would make the highlight reel. Somehow, Rice managed to run 12 consecutive plays inside the redzone and walk away with just three points. The Owls spent seven minutes within striking distance of the endzone after being handed multiple fresh starts via personal fouls called on the North Texas defense.

The offensive line was not having their best day and was flagged for holding twice in that redzone sequence. It seemed to become problematic enough that Rice nearly grounded the ball entirely, looking to take the points and tie the game rather than risk being knocked out of field goal range by sack or penalty.

North Texas responding to the 19-play, 12:07 Rice drive with a nine-play, 1:52 touchdown drive of their own further added to the frustrations of failing to capitalize on so many tries within a stone’s throw of the endzone. That entire sequence underscored a sloppy day for both sides of the ball.

Build the whole plane out of fourth down

There’s probably a more impactful name than the “it” factor, but that elusive clutch skill is something Rice has been looking to nurture for several years now. They caught lightning in a bottle by converting on five consecutive fourth down tries against UAB. Then they kept it going, converting on fourth down twice against North Texas. They’ve now converted six seven eight NINE consecutive fourth down attempts. And two of those came via long pass plays rather than the Owls’ typical jumbo package.

Putting the ball in the endzone without as many heart-stopping moments is the optimal solution, but if you aren’t perfect on that front, being able to get one yard when you need it most is a skill worth having in your toolbelt.

Waiting for the Rice offense to show up in any form or fashion has been a frustration for some time. If it takes fourth down to get things in gear, so beat it. Yes, Rice needs to get to the point where it does take a miraculous streak of do-or-die moments, but it’s better to find messy offensive success than no success at all.

Pinball season bounces on

It’s starting to get exhausting. The sheer erratic nature of the 2021 Rice football team doesn’t make any sense. A week removed from the most significant victory over a C-USA West opponent under head coach Mike Bloomgren’s watch, the Owls lost to a listless North Texas squad that hadn’t beaten an FBS opponent since a two-point win over UTEP to close out the 2020 regular season. The win previous to that? It was over Rice.

If Rice could congeal its good days and bad days, the middle-of-the-road option might very well have a similar record to the 3-5 line the Owls currently hold in the standings. Granted, that more mellow iteration probably doesn’t beat UAB, but probably ought to have beaten North Texas.

On the positive side, if you’re going to have the lows, complimenting them with massive road upsets over conference foes is quite possibly the “best-case scenario” given the circumstances. On the other hand, a team with enough talent to win those big games has enough talent to win the other ones too. They just haven’t been able to string together any sort of consistency.

A bowl game is well within reach. Knowing what this team is capable of makes it seem decidedly foolish to count them out at this juncture. But they need to find a way to smooth out this rocky road or weight the die they keep rolling. The upside they forgo with disappointing games like Saturday is far too great.

Digging deeper

Every week we’ll have a stat, storyline or key learning from the game reserved for our subscribers.

Penalties compound poor play

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Rice Football 2021: Offense preps for encore as UNT game looms

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It was a positive week of practice for Rice football as they prepare for North Texas. Halfway through the season, the Owls are finding their rhythm.

Who wasn’t on the field was almost as big of a story for Rice football this week as who would be available. The depth chart will have differences based on availability, but those who will go have been active on the practice field this week.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Practice reports are reserved for our subscribers. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to deploy its quarterbacks, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. You can get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe to our All-American Tier on Patreon today.

Finding the right ryhthm in the backfield

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