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Rice Football Recruiting: 2022 OL Miguel Cedeno commits to Owls

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The 2022 Rice Football recruiting class added a massive pickup in the offensive trenches, securing a commitment from offensive lineman Miguel Cedeno.

Just as the Owls were working through the bye week the 2022 Rice football recruiting class was working towards prolonging that success. Rice began its fall campaign with seven commitments in their upcoming class. They’ve now picked up numbers eight and nine, adding their second pledge of the week, this from American Heritage (FL) offensive lineman Miguel Cedeno.

Cedeno is the first offensive lineman in the Owls’ 2022 class. The 6-foot-7, 295-pound big man was initially offered by Rice on September 25 and made a visit to campus shortly after to see Rice take down Southern Miss. That proved to be all he needed to see, opting to shut his recruitment down a little more than a week later with these six finalists: Rice, West Virginia, Utah, Florida Atlantic, Tulane and Southern Miss.

The commitment from Cedeno gives Rice another head-to-head recruiting win over multiple Power 5 programs. It also keeps the pipeline to Florida open. Rice has signed at least one Floridian in every class since Mike Bloomgren took the helm of the program, now spanning five classes. Rice had no signees from Florida over the prior five years.

The fifth commitment on the offensive side of the ball, Cedeno will someday provide protection for quarterback commit AJ Padgett as well as wideouts Braylen Walker and Rawson MacNeill and running back Dean Connors.

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When you turn the tape on, it’s easy to see what the Owls saw when they made the decision to extend an offer to Cedeno. Not only does he win his one-on-one battles, he overpowers defenders in the trenches. Already a big human being, he has the chance to become even more threatening with a few years of work with strength and conditioning coach Hans Straub. He’s fairly fast on his feet for someone of that size, too. Altogether, this is a great pickup for Rice football.

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Conference USA Football 2021: Week 7 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 7.

Team Week 7 Result Week 8
Charlotte — OFF —  — vs FAU (Thrs)
FAU — OFF —  — at Charlotte (Thrs)
FIU — OFF —  — vs WKU
LA Tech at UTEP L, 19-3 vs UTSA
Marshall at North Texas W, 49-21 — OFF —
MTSU — OFF —  — at UConn (Fri)
North Texas vs Marshall L, 49-21 vs Liberty
Old Dominion vs WKU L, 43-20 — OFF —
Rice at UTSA L, 45-0 at UAB
Southern Miss vs UAB L, 34-0 — OFF —
UAB at Southern Miss W, 34-0 vs Rice
UTEP vs Louisiana Tech W, 19-3 — OFF —
UTSA vs Rice W, 45-0 at Louisiana Tech
WKU at Old Dominion W, 43-20 at FIU

Notable Week 7 results – Standings

The cream of the crop

If we’ve learned anything from the first half of the season, we now know for certain that UTSA and UAB are the best of the West, and likely the top two teams in Conference USA. Not only did both teams find the win column this week; they blasted inferior opponents in an emphatic fashion. If you haven’t circled Nov. 20 yet, get it on your calendar. These two teams are going to put on quite a show.

Watch out for Western

Although they weren’t able to top UTSA the week prior, Western Kentucky looked quite capable on Saturday against Old Dominion. Bailey Zappe continues to be as good as advertised and Conference USA defenses don’t have any answers for the Hilltoppers’ signal-caller. This team is going to drop 40+ every game. The only way to top them is to outscore them, something that probably won’t be happening too often.

Miner Mania

UTEP was expected to be better this season, but even some of the Miners’ own supporters were skeptical of a bowl berth coming by the end of the year. Turns out, it only took seven weeks for UTEP to accomplish that feat. Not only will UTEP be bowling this offseason, they’ll enter their bye week deadlock atop Conference USA West with UTSA and UAB, all of which own 3-0 conference records.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Intrigue in the East

If it’s not going to be Western Kentucky who emerges in the East, it might be one of Charlotte or FAU, who meet on the field next week following bye weeks for both programs. Each squad enters next week in the top half of C-USA in scoring defense and scoring offense. If they have hopes of winning their division, a win in this game would be a great place to start.

Mean Green Free Fall?

After winning their season opener against Northwestern State, North Texas has lost five consecutive games and only one of them was particularly close. The task won’t get any easier this week as they close out non-conference play against Liberty — who were upset by 32.5-point underdogs Louisiana Monroe on Saturday — but they need to show some sign of life after a rough month of play.

Tech in trouble?

Under head coach Skip Holtz, Louisiana Tech has been a perennial contender in Conference USA, and despite falling short of that elusive conference title, they’ve played in bowl games in each of the last seven seasons, winning six in a row prior to last year. Now sitting at 2-4 with UTSA on deck, the Bulldogs are in danger of getting uncomfortably close to missing that regular postseason trip they’ve become so accustomed to each winter.

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Rice Football: Mike Bloomgren reacts to UTSA loss

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Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren met with the media following his teams’ discouraging loss to UTSA. Here are his words as he discusses the game.

We’re going to do this a little bit differently this week. Oftentimes, this is the space for a postgame featurette recapping the most recent game and delving into an aspect or two that proved important or consequential in some form. This week, this column will be reserved for the words of Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren himself in his postgame comments with the media following the Owls’ 45-0 loss to UTSA. No need to dress it up. Here’s the head man himself:

Opening Statement

“Obviously not how we wanted this game to go, not how we planned for this game to go. We got taken to the woodshed. They beat us pretty good tonight. And we got outcoached and got outplayed — out-executed — it’s hard to say outplayed because I think our guys always play hard, but we had too much error in our game and made a lot of mistakes. And we paid dearly for them against a very, very good football team. We’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to continue to talk about ascending as a program. I think our fans deserve better. And we’re going to work our butts off to give it to them.”

On the loss coming directly following a bye week

“I think [the bye week] allowed us to feel really good about the gameplan; that allowed us to feel like we were in a really good place. And coming off two wins, you felt like we were taking positive steps, and tonight certainly was not a positive step. I think the only thing that I would point to tonight is that I thought our guys were really into the game for each other, they were playing for each other, and they were encouraging each other throughout the whole game. I think that’s where magic starts but nothing’s fun when you get beat like that, right?

There’s encouragement. There’s fight to the end. But we have to play better. We are in this to win. Coming out of the bye, thought we’d play a lot better than we did tonight, and we didn’t really execute on defense star standard and obviously offense was really bad.”

On what needs to change regarding the slow starts

“It’s probably confidence as much as anything. We are still fragile. We are still learning how to consistently win. And we’ve got to get to the point where when something bad happens, we set our jaw and when we say like, let’s go to the next play, let’s worry about what we can actually control, which is the next play, not the ones that have already happened. I think that’s something that we got to continue to work on. We are talking about it a good bit. And until we can get our confidence, I think that’s what we got to do. We got to find a way to make our own confidence, to earn our own confidence, and that’s why you practice, that’s why you do things in practice, that’s why you try to make those things really hard. But right now, we’re not able to shift the tide.

Momentum is such a big deal in this world. And I feel like when we get momentum rolling our way, we’re pretty fun. We have a lot of fun on the field and we’re scoring points and stopping people. We got to find a way to make that momentum go our way early in games.”

On what adjustments needs to be made moving forward

“I think that we’re gonna have to let this thing hurt, and we’re gonna have to learn from these corrections that these coaches will make on Monday and we better put a great game plan together for UAB. Because it’s not like they’re not the defendant conference champs…

We’ve got to make sure we have a complete understanding of what we’re doing, give our kids the best chance, and then we have to go execute. So we got to find out what we can execute at a high enough level to beat a team in Conference USA. And that’s what we need to do on offense and defense right now, whatever we’re good enough at. If we need to simplify, we need to simplify. If we need to do more, then we need to do more, we need to get more scheme. But again, it’s really heartbreaking to me for our players because I do think they’re playing really hard, they’re just not always playing well.”

On what needs to improve on offense

“I mean, look at those numbers. Gosh, we threw for 36 yards. We’ve got to make sure that we’re catching the ball when we throw it. We’ve got to throw it to the right place. We’ve got to throw it to the open guy. There’s not going to be a lot of magic here, but we also got to protect better. That’s where it’s always going to start for us. If we can protect the passer, we believe in our guys to take a drop and find the guy that’s open. But as I said we had a couple big drops that are disappointing, but we’ve got a long way to go in the throw game that we’ve got to improve on.”

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Rice Football outclassed by UTSA in blowout loss

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Despite having two weeks to prepare, Rice football was bludgeoned off their bye week by a scoring hot UTSA squad that never let up.

UTSA threw the first punch against Rice football at the Alamodome on Saturday night. Then they threw the second. And the third. In a highly anticipated Lonestar showdown, Rice football was outclassed in every aspect of the game, dropping their first conference road game of the season in a ghastly fashion.

Rice had two weeks to get ready for their return to San Antonio, the site of what was one of their most heartbreaking losses of the 2019 season. Both teams had changed dramatically since then. But UTSA looked like their new-and-improved selves this time around. Rice did not. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

It’s how you start

There’s no golden rule that insists your first fifteen minutes of a football game has to be your best fifteen minutes, but that’s certainly been a prerequisite for Rice football so far this season. The opening quarter of the UTSA game made that abundantly clear.

The Rice defense kept UTSA in front of them on their first possession, but two third down conversions and a fumble forced that landed in the hands of a UTSA receiver saw the Owls fall behind 7-0. The offense went three-and-0ut, then the defense sagged before holding UTSA to a field goal.

Rice needed a spark on their second drive and got into a favorable position — third and short — before Jake Constantine was sacked. Another three-and-out. Following a booming punt by Charlie Mendes, the Rice defense then allowed an 81-yard run to stud Roadrunner tailback Sincere McCormick and a touchdown two plays later.

This start proved eerily similar to the Houston game. Two three-and-outs on offense and a defense unable to get off the field on third down, leading to a three-score deficit in the first quarter. Altogether, this was about as disastrous of a starting sequence as Rice has seen in recent memory.

Overwhelmed in the trenches

Part of what led to the awful beginning for the offense was severe protection issues up front. On the Owls second third down, Constantine dropped back to pass and was almost immediately met in the backfield by not one, but two UTSA rushers.

As if that wasn’t problematic enough, it happened again on the very next possession. Facing a fourth down near midfield, Constantine again dropped back to pass and again saw two defenders in his face immediately. He did his best to throw over the free rushers, but the ball was tipped, caught and returned for a pick-six.

Whether it was the running back, the quarterback or the line, someone didn’t make the right lead. Bad protection leads to bad plays, plain and simple. This play looked doomed from the start, and it might have put any hopes of making this game competitive to bed immediately.

Oftentimes, sacks are as much a quarterback stat as a protection stat. It takes both positions operating together to avoid those negative plays. Constantine wasn’t perfect either, but he was set up to fail from the start and the ramifications were disastrous.

Insult and injury

Rice did themselves no favors in any of the three phases on Saturday. But once again, injuries at a key position proceeded to stack the deck further against the Owls. Following an incomplete pass on third down on the second drive of the second quarter, starting quarterback hobbled to the sideline. Luke McCaffrey, who was “1B” on the quarterback depth chart, was suddenly the last man standing at the position for Rice football.

For Rice, the injury luck at this essential position has been unfathomably awful. Rice has started three quarterbacks in six games this year. Three different passers appeared in games in 2020, and Rice churned through signal callers in each of the 2018 and 2019 seasons as well.

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

Saturday’s performance was incriminating enough on its own aside from Constantine’s injury. But the sheer fact that we have to have this conversation — discussing yet another Rice quarterback knocked out of a game with an injury — is downright maddening.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Rice has been the unluckiest program in the country when it comes to quarterback health. And it’s not even close.

From winning streak to gut punch, yet again

A back-and-forth season pivoted back away from the Owls on Saturday night at the Alamodome. Rice has won six of their last 10 conference games, beaten previously undefeated No. 15 Marshall yet never seemed to be in the same zip code of a UTSA team that looked as good as advertised and remains the lone remaining unbeaten team in Conference USA.

A perfect conference record was improbable at best. That’s out the window. Reaching bowl eligibility and perhaps even getting a shot to contend for a conference title? Both of those objectives are in mathematically in play. But this time Rice won’t have the luxury of two weeks to prepare. And they’ll be playing an opponent (UAB) that is at least as good, if not better, than the UTSA squad that blew them out on Saturday.

It would be nice to see this team get another signature win to prove their trajectory remains as high as it felt entering the year. They’ve proven they can. It gets lost in the shuffle, but the Marshall upset came on the heels of a disastrous showing against North Texas (on the road) where the Owls’ starting quarterback was injured and unable to go against the Herd. That’s not to say the situations are synonymous, but there’s something about this team that doesn’t follow a linear pattern whatsoever.

If the two-game winning streak lessened the pressure, it’s back on, with interest. Rice needs to put a completely different team on the field next week. Another no-show performance would cannot take place.

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Rice Football Recruiting: 2022 JUCO RB Dean Connors commits to Owls

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While the team was on bye, the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class kept growing, picking up a commitment from JUCO running back Dean Connors.

The 2022 Rice football recruiting class is adding to the momentum the Owls have experienced on the football field entering their bye week. Fresh off two wins on the field, Rice scored another win off the field, securing a commitment from JUCO running back Dean Connors.

Rice was the first to offer the California product, making the ask official in mid-September. He visited campus for the first time during the Owls’ bye week and loved everything that he saw. “I really felt like I belonged,” he said, “[Recruiting Director] Alex Brown and the recruiting staff were beyond amazing and answered any questions that I had. The coaching staff made it clear they cared about me as a person and a player on the team, which really made it a driving factor in my decision to commit to Rice.”

Positionally, Connors’ commitment fills a gap in the backfield for Rice which did not sign any running backs in the 2021 class. With Jordan Myers in his last season of eligibility, Rice needed to get another productive option at the position. They’ve found that in Connors.

Connors is the fourth commitment on the offensive side of the ball, and the third skill position addition. Rice hasn’t received a pledge from an offensive lineman or a tight end in this class yet, instead, Connors will join quarterback commit AJ Padgett in the backfield and someday lineup alongside wide receivers Braylen Walker and Rawson MacNeill.

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It only takes a quick look through his highlights to see the explosiveness Connors brings to the field. His burst and ability to navigate traffic are impressive. When combined with his shiftiness and ability to change direction, there’s home run potential whenever he gets his hands on the football.

Connors mentioned above all else, “my team comes first and I’ll do anything it takes to win.” He can run, catch and break off the big play. He’ll be one more option in offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo’s growing arsenal of playmakers.

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