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Rice Football 2021: QB uncertainty and UAB practice notes

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Rice football has wrapped up their final practices before heading to UAB. Here’s where the Owls stand headed into another important C-USA tilt.

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.

Here we go again

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Official: Rice Athletics accepted into American Athletic Conference

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Rice Athletics has been officially accepted into the American Athletic Conference, marking the end of their time in Conference USA.

Word broke on Monday afternoon that Rice Athletics might have a new home. Roughly 72 hours later, it’s official. Rice has been accepted as a new member by the American Athletic Conference.

Six schools (Rice, UAB, UTSA, North Texas, FAU, and Charlotte) submitted their applications to the AAC on Tuesday evening, paperwork was exchanged on Wednesday. Then AAC Board of Directors met and formally extended the invitations on Thursday. Upon the official sign off this morning, Rice Athletic Director Joe Karlgaard released this statement:

“We have been working diligently to position Rice as an attractive candidate when the next round of conference realignment began. Today’s invitation to join the American Athletic Conference confirms our approach and aligns with our aspirations to offer an unparalleled experience for our students. The commitment to athletics by our university administration has been crucial for our efforts to move forward, and we’re grateful for their close partnership. We have strong alignment as we embark on the next chapter in the history of Rice Athletics.”

Ultimately, the timing of the move will at least partially be dependent on the dominoes that came before. Texas and Oklahoma will have to reach some sort of agreement with the Big 12 to move to the SEC sooner than 2025. Then the four new additions to the Big 12 would “free up” space in the AAC allowing these new six schools to slot in. The 2023 season has been thrown around as a possibility. It’s a bit messy, but the important part for the Owls is this: they’re in.

As previously reported, the Owls’ newfound conference will include these 14 teams, with two divisions most likely position as follows:

West: Rice, SMU, Tulsa, Tulane, Navy, North Texas, UTSA
East: USF, FAU, Temple, Memphis, UAB, Charlotte, ECU

Other than Navy, currently part of the AAC West because of a longstanding desire to have connections to Texas, the Owls’ furthest road trip would be to Tulsa, an eight-hour drive or an hour and a half flight. For reference, it’s an 11-hour drive from Houston to El Paso and a three-hour flight from Houston to Norfolk, Virginia, sites of current Conference USA opponents.

Podcast: Rice Athletics to the AAC, instant reaction

Regionally, this move is a no-brainer. Financially, Rice stands to more than double its television revenues, with the potential to drastically outpace its current numbers pending further renegotiations down the line. Altogether, this is a banner day for Rice Athletics.

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Rice Football 2021: UAB presser quotes, injury updates and depth chart

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Rice football goes back on the road this week to take on UAB. 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 UAB. 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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Any hopes of a fully healthy Rice football team headed into the second half seem to have faded quickly. The Owls have several key players in doubt for the UAB game with injuries, causing changes across the depth chart. We’ll hit on those adjustments and discuss what Owls are most likely to go on Saturday. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I don’t think anybody associated with our program is happy about our performance versus UTSA. Unfortunately, that game didn’t go the way that we planned. We started slow in the first few drives, dug ourselves into a deep hole and we struggled to do much after that time. I’ve told our team that we have to do our jobs better and that starts with me, with everybody doing their one-eleventh. We have to stick together and we have to keep moving forward.

Our coaches are going to coach them on anything that is correctable on the film. I’ve asked the players to remember the lessons, but not relive the game. I don’t want them ever to feel that way again. I want to do everything in my power, everything in our program to make sure we never feel that way again. We certainly don’t want to relive it.” – Mike Bloomgre on the UTSA loss

“I think in college football, it has to be that mindset. It has to be next man up. But, in some cases, we’ve got the next, next man up and that is harder. I’ve tried to look at it in totality, especially on the defensive side of the ball. We returned 10 starters and we were excited about those guys. We knew they were going to be awesome…

One thing that’s really different is you look at UTSA, they’re an older team. They have great players and they had everybody starting that they planned on starting Day One of the football season. That’s nice. Some people get that reality. We have not been fortunate enough to get that reality here. Of the 10 starters that we thought were returning, five of them didn’t play against UTSA. That’s tough. It’s not excuses, it’s just reality. ” – Mike Bloomgren on team depth and injuries 

“We know the process works. The process is prove, tried and true. But, there’s a couple of things we tweaked. It’s to the point of doing the same thing and expecting different results, but it is frustrating for everybody in this program because we practiced really well last week. But, we didn’t play like we wanted to.

So, we’re going to continue to practice the right way, we’re going to continue to install the schemes the right way and prepare these guys the right way and we’re going to do everything in our power to tweak our ability to do it on game day the way that we practiced.” – Mike Bloomgren on potential adjustments to the team’s process 

“It’s wonderful. I’ve always tried to preach to my coaches and prove that I have the ability, not only to be that down hill, run-through-people’s-soul type of back, but also be able to catch the ball, be able to block and be a total and complete back.” – Ari Broussard on his expanded role in the offense

“Special teams is where I kind of began, it’s kind of where I made a name for myself. It’s kind of how I expanded my role in the offense through special teams and doing well there. And because of the success I had there, they thought that it’d be better to include me in our offense more. It’s fun, going down there and doing what I can, anything I can to help the team, whether that be special teams or offense.” – Ari Broussard on the importance of his role on special teams

“Every day we just look each other in the eyes and we tell each other, ‘what do we need to do to get better?’. That’s all we tell each other every day. We’re going to do this certain thing to get better and all we want to do is go forward. We can’t worry about the past. Everything that’s happened before now, it doesn’t matter. It’s about each week going 1-0 and trying to get to that conference championship.” – Desmyn Baker on how the team is responding this week

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart is cycling through names lately, with injuries causing upheaval at several key spots.

Rice Football

Quarterback

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 96 – Rice football to the AAC, UTSA recap, recruiting wins

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Rice football lost on the field this week, but reportedly picked up a major win off the gridiron with a potential move to the AAC. We break down the latest in realignment.

It wasn’t a good weekend for Rice football on the field. The Owls were run out of the Alamodome in decisive fashion despite two weeks to prepare for the game. What would have been a rather dour episode of The Roost Podcast turned elated when news broke that Rice was among a group of six schools expected to join the AAC in the near future. Carter and Matthew discuss the latest on the team, realignment and a couple of big wins on the recruiting front.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 96.

Episode Notes

  • Housekeeping
    • Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice. Every little bit helps.
    • Check out the Blue and Gray Preview Show every Wednesday at Noon, hosted by Matthew and Rice radio broadcaster JP Heath on the Rice Athletics Youtube Channel
    • Please support us on Patreon. Be the first to get the inside scoop on what’s going on with Rice football and stick around for even further analysis. That includes updates from fall camp, practices and more.
      Become a Patron!
  • The latest happenings in Rice football 
    • Putting the UTSA game in the rearview mirror as quickly as possible
    • What went wrong against the Roadrunners, and what needs to change?
    • Realignment: Rice reportedly moving up to the AAC
    • Realignment: What happens to the remainder of Conference USA?
    • Recruiting: Rice football picks up two big wins off the field in the ’22 class

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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Rice Football 2021: NFL Owls Week 6 Stats Update

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Rice Football is well represented on 2021 NFL rosters. Here’s the latest from the NFL Owls in action in Week 6.

There are former Rice football players scattered across the NFL. Stay tuned each week for their game results and notables from each player.

Team NFL Owl(s) Week 6 Result Week 7
Los Angeles Chargers Christian Covington (DL) at Baltimore L, 34-6 — BYE —
Denver Calvin Anderson (OL)
Bryce Callahan (CB)		 vs Las Vegas L, 34-24 at Cleveland (TNF)
Pittsburgh Chris Boswell (PK) vs Seattle (SNF) W, 23-20 (OT) — BYE —
Detroit Jack Fox (P) vs Cincinnati L, 34-11 at Los Angeles Rams
Tampa Bay Nick Leverett (OL) at Philadelphia (TNF) W, 28-22 vs Chicago
Indianapolis Andrew Sendejo (Saf) vs Houston W, 31-3 at San Francisco (SNF)

Offense

Calvin Anderson – OT, Broncos

Anderson saw his first action of the season with the offense during the team’s Week 6 loss against the Raiders. He played 10 snaps, taking over for an injured Garett Bolles. Prior to this point, Anderson had only played on special teams.

Nick Leverett – OT, Buccaneers

Leverett remained inactive for the Bucs’ Week 6 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. He still awaits his first regular season snaps.

Defense

Bryce Callahan – CB, Broncos

Callahan matched his 2021 season high with three tackles on Sunday, adding a tackle for a loss and a quarterback hit. He’s now played at least 65% of the defensive snaps in five of the Broncos’ six games this season.

Christian Covington – DL, Chargers

Covington had four tackles in the teams’ Week 6 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. He’s had multiple tackles in every game so far this season.

Andrew Sendejo – S, Colts

Sendejo was inactive for the Colts’ Week 6 win over the Texans. He had played in the Colts’ previous three games up to that point after signing with the team after the start of the season.

Special Teams

Jack Fox – P, Lions

Fox continues to be one of the strongest contributors on the Lions, punting six times with an average of 55.5 yards per kick. He boomed a long of 64 yards and had only one touchback in his six attempts.

Chris Boswell – K, Steelers

Boswell came through in the clutch for the Steelers, yet again. He connected on a pair of extra points and all three of his field goals, including this game-winning kick to beat the Seahawks in overtime.

More Owls in the NFL

From practice squads to current free agents, there are other Owls on the cusp of returning to active rosters. Find more detail on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.

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