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Conference USA Football 2021: Week 10 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 10.

Team Week 10 Result Week 11
Charlotte vs Rice W, 31-24 (OT) at LA Tech
FAU vs Marshall L, 28-13 at Old Dominion
FIU vs Old Dominion L, 47-24 at MTSU
LA Tech at UAB L, 52-38 vs Charlotte
Marshall at FAU W, 28-13 vs UAB
MTSU at WKU L, 48-21 vs FIU
North Texas at Southern Miss W, 38-14 vs UTEP
Old Dominion at FIU W, 47-24 vs FAU
Rice at Charlotte L, 31-24 (OT) vs WKU
Southern Miss vs North Texas L, 38-14 at UTSA
UAB vs LA Tech W, 52-38 at Marshall
UTEP vs UTSA L, 44-23 at North Texas
UTSA at UTEP W, 44-23 vs Southern Miss
WKU vs MTSU W, 48-21 at Rice

Notable Week 10 results – Standings

30/31 – 24

Rice football now played three consecutive games with eerily similar scoring margins. They beat UAB 30-24, with a missed extra point keeping the winning team off the 31 point total. Then they dropped a 30-24 contest to North Texas with the final extra point not kicked because of overtime rules. On Saturday, they lost 31-24, with the extra point counting this time around because Rice wasn’t first to possess the ball. No matter how it happened, the last two close calls have stung.

And then there were two?

It’s not officially a two-horse race in the East, but there are two games remaining on the schedule that will, in all likelihood, decide the outcome of the division and both involved Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers took care of business against Middle Tennessee in Week 10 and Marshall beat FAU. That means the WKU/Marshall and WKU/FAU games are the most important games left in the race for the East.

Duel in the desert

Whether it was the release of any frustrations generated by their absence in the initial College Football Playoff rankings or simply UTEP falling back to earth, UTSA stormed into El Paso and left little doubt as to who the frontrunner in the West would be. The Roadrunners jumped out to a 30-9 lead at halftime and coasted to the win, improving to 9-0 on the season.

Looking ahead – Key storylines

Bowl watch

Western Kentucky, FAU and Charlotte can each clinch bowl eligibility with a win next week. No teams in the East can reach the six-win plateau, but Rice, North Texas and Old Dominion will be playing to keep their postseason hopes alives. One more loss by any of those three would bump them out of bowl eligibility.

Intradivisional showdown

UAB and Marshall are each in the running in their respective divisions and face off next week in Huntington. Both teams have proven mortal this season, but they’ve still managed to stand a head above everyone in the conference not-named UTSA. Neither team has much wiggle room if they want to stay in their respective races.

Looking for No. 1

FIU and Southern Miss enter Week 11 as the only teams in Conference USA without at least one conference win. The Golden Eagles will have to upend UTSA to get their first one while FIU draws a Middle Tennessee game, that while feisty, has proven fillable on several occasions this season. This might be the Panthers’ best chance to get in the win column in conference play.

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Rice Football runs out of gas in overtime loss to Charlotte

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Rice Football had a two-score lead in the second half, but couldn’t hang on, dropping another overtime heartbreaker against a conference foe.

The road has been kind to Rice football in recent years. Some of the Owls’ biggest wins — their upset of Marshall last season and their victory over UAB earlier this year — have come away from Rice Stadium. That road rally did not hold true on Saturday. After falling behind in the first half, the Owls took control in the second stanza before watching Charlotte punch back to force overtime and eventually win.

Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Owls overcome a shaky start

The opening sequence went almost as well as could have been expected for Rice football against Charlotte. The Owls’ defense forced a punt, giving the offense possession just beyond the midfield stripe. A couple of crisp passes from Jake Constantine and powerful runs from Ari Broussard and Jordan Myers pushed them inside the Charlotte 20 yard line.

Rice had already converted on fourth-and-one in the drive, extending their fourth-down conversion streak to 10 in a row. But on fourth-and-one from the 17-yard line, Rice trotted out the field goal unit and missed, again. The miss was the third consecutive kick that did not go through the uprights for the Rice special teams unit, with blame attributable to everyone from the snapper, to the holder to the kicker himself.

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

Second-guessing decisions that didn’t work out is the purest form of armchair quarterback that exists. And while it’s easy to say Rice should have done something else, it’s the decision-making process that’s puzzling.

If Rice had already shown themselves to be extremely adept at converting on fourth-and-short on that drive and they knew their special teams unit was struggling, was the 10-yard difference between the spot of that kick and the spot of their previous fourth-down conversion? Charlotte took over, drove the length of the field and took the lead.

If the short-yardage offense works and the kicking game doesn’t, perhaps that should impact how the Owls attack their opponents going forward. It noticeably did from that point onward.

What is the plan on special teams?

After that miss, Rice seemed more cognizant of their fourth-down decisions moving forward. The Owls would trust their offense rather than their kicking game on the next three similar decisions.

On fourth-and-six from the Charlotte 32, Jake Constantine found Jake Bailey for a 10-yard gain and a first down rather than lining up to try a 49-yard field goal.

The next drive, on fourth-and-three from the Charlotte 26, Constantine couldn’t hit Cedric Patterson on a fourth-down pass and Rice turned it over on doubts. The alternative would have been a 43-yard field goal.

Then, with 22-seconds before the halftime whistle, Constantine dropped a ball into the waiting arms of August Pitre who couldn’t hang on in the endzone as he hit the turf. Rice turned it over on downs rather than settle for a 47-yard field goal from the Charlotte 30.

It wouldn’t be fair to question the lack of fourth down aggression at the beginning of the game and then bemoan unsuccessful attempts from that point onward. Constantine’s pass to Pitre should have been held on to for what would have been the game-tying score. The process was fine. But that does beg one more question. How close does Rice need to be to trust their kicker?

Can Rice convert a 40-yard field goal if they have to? Right now, it’s hard to know for sure.

Rice has its running back

Ari Broussard has gotten more and more involved as the season has progressed, and for good reason. Broussard entered the game leading all Rice running backs with a healthy 4.3 yards per carry. He set a career-high on the ground two weeks ago when he rumbled for 65 yards on 16 carries. He almost outdid that mark on one drive against Charlotte, gaining 57 yards on one second-quarter drive.

Good blocking helps. Exhibit A: Broussard’s first career touchdown run.

But even though the line did seem to have a better day than they did last week against North Texas, Broussard kept finding a way to get the extra yard and fall forward. After carrying the Owls the bulk of the way, Rice turned to him with the game on the line in the fourth quarter. He delivered a 17-yard run. When he left the field, Rice was quickly forced to punt.

Broussard had 97 yards before halftime. He finished with 186 yards on 20 carries and two touchdown runs. Handing him the ball 30 times a game probably isn’t a viable long term solution, but it’s hard to imagine anyone else out-carrying him down the stretch. He’s been that good.

Running out of time

The transitive property does not apply to college football. Yet after seeing Charlotte get dusted in each of their two previous games, there was nothing leading into their game with Rice that made this challenge seem insurmountable. And coming on the heels of an overtime loss to North Texas, Rice needed this.

Sitting at 3-5 with four games to play, a bowl game berth was in reach. And although this wasn’t mathematically a make-or-break contest to get Rice to six wins, it sure felt like one.

Consistency has been the elephant in the room for Rice football this season. Resiliency has been their calling card. With their backs against the wall in need of a bounce-back once again, this team responded, but they couldn’t hang on. Now they have to win their final three games (vs WKU, at UTEP, vs Louisiana Tech) to reach the postseason. That’s a tall task, and now they’ve lost their margin of error.

Special teams needs a lot of work. The defense bent and eventually broke. The offense has to improve in the redzone, but has the horses (Constantine, Bailey, Broussard) to get the ball down the field with regularity. There’s a lot to do and Rice football is running out of time.

Digging deeper

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

Is the front seven heating up?

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Rice Football: Jake Bailey’s breakout only just beginning

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Jake Bailey had a breakout performance for Rice football in their overtime loss to North Texas, but for him, those heroics could be just the beginning.

Everyone looks great in the offseason. Guys always seem to be in “the best shape of their career” and coaches rave about the “mental reps” their players took during the offseason. Those narratives are swiftly put to the test when the season arrives and sooner or later, reality happens.

Rice football wide receiver Jake Bailey was “that guy” this offseason. It was hard to leave practice without someone — either a Rice football staff member or one of his teammates — making sure to mention just how good Bailey looked on the field. During media days, team captain Jordan Myers called Bailey an “even better replacement for Austin Trammell.”, former Rice captain and current NFL player with the Atlanta Falcons. High praise, indeed.

Then Bailey took the field and quietly began to prove his coaches and teammates right. After a modest start, Bailey had seven catches for 65 yards in the team’s first win, a victory over Texas Southern. He had five grabs for 83 yards and his first touchdown of the season a week later against Southern Miss.

On Saturday against North Texas, Bailey exploded for a career-best 10 receptions and 143 receiving yards. Austin Trammell’s career-best receiving day? 143 yards.

The Roost Podcast: Debriefing Rice football vs North Texas and C-USA news

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren didn’t link Bailey directly to Trammell, but he did make sure to call out the impact No. 11 has had this season. “He’s showing me the ability to make plays, no matter when he’s covered or not,” Bloomgren said of Bailey. “Heck of a player, still developing but really filling a lot of those roles we had hoped in the slot and beyond.”

Bailey admitted he wasn’t even keeping track of all those receptions as it was happening. “I wasn’t aware of the touches and the yards,” he said. “I’m thinking about winning the game. How can I help my team?”

Against North Texas, Bailey helped by being the go-to option for quarterback Jake Constantine in crunch time. Bailey caught a touchdown to tie the game on the Owls’ first possession of the fourth quarter. Then, trailing by seven with under two minutes to go, Bailey made a diving, fingertip grab on fourth and long that gained 36 yards and helped spark another game-tying score.

When Rice football needed a play, Bailey was there to help. “Every single day we talk about strain, giving that extra inch, extra fight,” Bailey said. “We always have a little more to give and that that’s all that was, just in that moment trying to do everything, anything I could to help my team win.”

Rice didn’t win this time but had it not been for Bailey’s heroics, they don’t even make it to overtime in the first place. Now that Bailey’s flashed his potential, he’ll continue to be asked to come through in the clutch time and time again. That’s a big responsibility, but so is being the go-to guy on fourth down with the game on the line.

“It’s pressure,” Bailey admitted, “but it’s definitely invited. When there’s pressure in the situation that means you’re doing something important. That means you’re doing something where people have to look at you, expect from you. It’s always a great place to be. I think pressure is a privilege.”

In this case, with that privilege come accolades. Bailey was named to the Pro Football Focus National Team of the Week for his efforts, slotting in alongside Heisman Trophy hopefuls like Oklahoma’s Caleb Williams and Michigan State’s Kenneth Walker.

If Bailey has put his name on a list with talents of that caliber — all the while his coach hints that we might have only scratched the surface of what Bailey can become — what’s next?

Never one to seek the attention for himself, Bailey defected the spotlight, focusing instead on the entire Rice football receiving corps. “I just can’t wait to see what we can do,” He remarked. “Hopefully, we answer when our number’s called.”

Operator, Jake Bailey, please. We’d like an encore.

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Rice Basketball: Owls get past St. Edwards in opening exhibition

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Rice basketball started fast and led wire-to-wire in their victory over St. Edwards in the Owls’ lone exhibition contest before the 2021-2022 season.

Unlike the beginning of the prior season in which Rice basketball experienced a turnover of nearly its entire starting lineup and several other key members of the roster, the Owls enter the 2021-2022 season with largely the same faces on the hardwood of Tudor Fieldhouse. On Thursday night in front of their first home crowd since 2019, the team showcased their renewed depth and two new additions who are expected to become mainstays in the core rotation: Terrance McBride and Carl Pierre.

The Roost Podcast: Debriefing Rice football vs North Texas and C-USA news

Pierre drew the start and scored 10 points with five rebounds in 26 minutes of action. McBride came off the bench and added four points of his own in 17 minutes. Both were part of a constant stream of faces of the Owls’ bench.

The number of players head coach Scott Pera opts to utilize going forward will likely be a much smaller circle, but for Thursday’s exhibition, getting a good feel for all of his guys in live-action was the goal. “I was more concerned with minutes than I was with anything else,” Pera said.

“It’s a long season, a lot of games” Pierre echoed, “There’s a lot of wear and tear that comes with it. To be able to go deep into our bench and have good depth is going to be huge.”

Rice opened things up with a quick basket from Max Fiedler, who grabbed a feed inside from Pierre and laid it up for an easy two points. In the first five minutes, Rice would stretch that two-point lead to a 12-4 advantage, extending their edge to 21 points in the first half behind a balanced distribution of touches and scoring.

St. Edwards would chip away in the second half, cutting the sizable difference down to as few as six points during the early stages. Rice responded by going to the glass, pushing their lead back to 14 with a pair of dunks, three layups and a Quincy Olivari free throw. Rice would later close on a 10-0 run to secure the exhibition win.

Stat Corner | 49.2 percent

Given the free-flowing style of offense Rice basketball likes to play, the Owls’ aren’t going to concern themselves too much with field goal percentage on any given night. Rice averaged a 44.0 percent clip from the field last season, finishing at 50 percent or better in six of their 28 games.

Rice converted on 49.2 percent of their shots against St. Edwards, a game in which they played far more players than they will in the regular season. Combing high-value shots with high-value efficiency will be crucial if this team wants to hit its ceiling. This was a very positive start.

“I think we really stalled (in the second half) we didn’t shoot it great tonight,” Pera remarked afterwards. “I think if you check back, the nights we shot under under 30 percent from three. I don’t think we ever shot close to 50 (percent) from the floor and that’s been the difference in this team the whole preseason. The days in practice we haven’t shot well from three we’ve still shot close to 50 percent from the floor, because we’ve been better around the basket finishing and that’s going to be really, really important.”

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball officially opens its season next week at Tudor Fieldhouse with a game against Pepperdine on Tuesday, Nov. 9. That will be their only remaining tuneup before a trip across town to take on Houston, which opens the season ranked No. 15 in the AP Poll. Rice and Houston did not meet last season.

Photo credit Maria Lysaker
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Rice Football 2021: Charlotte presser quotes, updates and depth chart

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Rice football plays Charlotte next in a battle of 2-2 C-USA foes. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about the matchup, injury updates and depth chart notes.

This is the first of a couple of updates coming this week as Rice football prepares to take on  Charlotte. We’ll include updates from head coach Mike Bloomgren’s midweek press conference, then dig further into the details on the depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

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Rice football will be forced to make a quarterback change once again. We’ll dive into the move from Wiley Green to Jake Constantine and how this impacts the Owls this week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I was really proud of how the guys attacked it (in practice). Thought they were locked into the game plan. And I was disappointed to see it not fully translate on Saturday. There were parts of it that were good. They were individual players that were really good, but certainly thought we had opportunities in every phase that we could have played better and probably would have been able to win the game had we played better.” – Mike Bloomgren on the North Texas loss

“Obviously, Wiley [Green’s] injury on our first offensive drive of the game was tough. It was tough for everybody. It was tough for me. It was tough to see Wiley hurting. He’s one of our rocks and I don’t think there was anybody on our team who wasn’t rocked by his injury. It took us a little bit of time to get past that. We eventually did. We worked through it as a team and we started playing football again.

“An update on Wiley; he will be out this week. I did talk to him. He is in great spirits. His message to the team was to go do what we said we were going to do, which is go earn an opportunity to play in a bowl game. That’s what we’re going to try to do for him.” – Mike Bloomgren on Wiley Green

“Moving forward with Jake Constantine as our starter, I thought that, again, once he got settled in, he played some good really good football. He had a great me-to-you factor with Jake Bailey and I thought Jake made some tremendous plays for us. Staying alive and then making plays when the ball was in the air to keep some drives alive and to help us end up in the box. So that was great.” – Mike Bloomgren on Jake Constantine

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart has one minor tweak this week, and one rather large one:

Rice Football

Quarterback changes, again

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