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Scott Abell announces additions to Rice Football staff

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Rice football head coach Scott Abell has announced eight new position coaches and a few additional staffers who will join him in his first season on South Main.

“I am so excited about the staff we are surrounding our program with,” Abell stated in a release from the Rice football program on Friday. “Quality people that have a strong history of winning, developing leaders, recruiting Texas, and recruiting top scholar-athletes.”

The eight coaches he announced are as follows:

Munch, Eisenhofer, Porter, Decker, and Jackson were all on Scott Abell’s staff at Davidson. Kay and Modkins were on the Rice staff last year and will be retained, as will Cooks who served as a defensive analyst for the team last fall but will not be promoted to full time work as a position coach.

Kay takes over the defensive coordinator role from Brian Smith, who departed for Temple this offseason.

Abell has two more coaching spots to fill, presumably along the defensive line and an outside wide receivers post. He’s also opted to combine the special teams coordinator role with a positional coaching spot, hiring Mark Hogan for that job. Hogan spent time on Abell’s early Davidson staffs before spending the last three seasons at Charlotte.

Lew Caralla will take over the Strength and Conditioning program while Nick Decker and Steven Jackson will also play key operations roles.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 195 – The Roosties

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Our annual podcast award show, The Roosties, marks the final installment of the 2024 Rice Football season review. And the winner is…?

While the website will track the more traditional postseason superlatives, our final episode of The Roost Podcast every year means its time to issue The Roosties, our spin on postseason awards, from the best to the most regrettable, we touch on it all.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 195.

Episode Notes

DCTF

The Roost Podcast is now part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You’ll still get the same content with the same hosts, but now under the DCTF banner.

Homefield

We’re thrilled to partner with Homefield Apparel, the premier proprietor of college football clothing. First-time buyers can use the code ROOST for 15% off their order. The Owls hoodie is a personal favorite as is the Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Make sure you check out the brand-new sailor hat (pictured below) as you shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!

Homefield

Patreon

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The Roosties — Rice Football Season Awards

  • Favorite Play
  • Player You Were Most Wrong About (Biggest surprise)
  • Most Improved Unit
  • Play/Game You Most Want to Redo
  • Player You’ll Miss the Most
  • Out of Nowhere Star
  • Most Valuable Transfer
  • Most Head Scratching Moment
  • Most Dominant Game
  • Player You’re Most Looking Forward to in 2025

Where can you find us?

The Roost Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You can find this podcast and all of our partner podcasts on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Rice Basketball upset by UNT-Dallas

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Rice basketball missed the tying free throw in the final seconds of regulation, falling to North Texas-Dallas at home.

In hindsight, a sluggish start from Rice basketball probably should have served as a sign of trouble ahead. The Owls traded baskets with their opponents in the early goings on Thursday, trailing a large portion of the first half before a 10-0 run in the middle of the period put Rice in front by more than a basket for the first time.

A few well-timed three pointers from Jacob Dar and Denver Anglin helped thwart some runs from the Owls’ foes, but the margin hung around 10-points or through the end of the half. That inability to lengthen the lead proved consequential for Rice who watched UNT-Dallas start chipping away in the second half.

More: Rice Basketball 2024-2025 Season Preview

A 15-point Rice advantage was whittled down to seven by an 8-0 UNT-Dallas run before any advantage evaporated entirely and the game was tied at 61 apiece with 3:43 on the clock.

Free throws would prove to be the decider. UNT-Dallas’ Vernon Johnson knocked down all three of his attempts under 10 seconds to give his team a one-point lead. For Rice, Kellen Amos had two free throws near the two-second mark. He missed both and Rice lost.

As is often the case, a loss like this is due to more than poor free-throw shooting. Eight steals by UNT-Dallas highlighted Rice’s lackluster showing in their first home loss of the season.

Final Box | UNTD 69, Rice 68

Key takeaway | The Honeymoon is over

UNT-Dallas doesn’t have a logo on ESPN. The NAIA school launched it’s basketball program in 2014. For perspective, the kids in the stands watching on Thursday were around the same age as the Owls’ opponents program.

There were always going to be growing pains in the first year under a new head coach, but even in their previously ugly game against Alcorn State, they found a way to win. Even still, growing pains were going to come, it was just hard to imagine them striking in such a severe fashion as this.

Rice basketball is 8-4 on the season and 4-1 at Tudor Fieldhouse. The season is far from over, but this particularly game is going to sting for a while, as it should. It must serve as a reminder of where this program is coming from, a near-total reboot. For it to have gone off without a hitch was wishful thinking. Thursday’s events made that fact abundantly clear.

Up Next: vs Prairie View A&M (Sun, Dec. 22)

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Rice Women’s Basketball overpowered by Georgia Tech

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Rice Women’s Basketball simply could not keep pace with a ranked Georgia Tech squad, dropping their nonconference finale on the road.

Rice women’s basketball visited Georgia Tech in the only matchup featuring a ranked team on that particular Wednesday afternoon slate. The No. 17 Yellow Jackets backed up their accolades on their home court, opening up an early lead on the Owls which they continued to lengthen as the game progressed.

Things were close in the opening frame with Rice trailing by five points following the first quarter. Georgia Tech would open the second period with three straight three-pointers, turning a close game into a 14-point deficit for Rice. The Yellow Jackets’ defense was just as fearsome as their shooting stroke, holding the Owls to 21.2 percent shooting from the floor in the first half.

More: Rice Women’s Basketball 2024-2025 Season Preview

Rice trailed 37-18 at the break, accounting for their fewest points scored in a first half this season. That margin proved to be a sign of things to come as Georgia Tech nearly doubled-up Rice in the third quarter, outscoring them by 12 to take a commanding 31 point lead into the fourth quarter, all but deciding the game before the final 10 minutes were played.

Final Box | Georgia Tech 88, Rice 57

Key takeaway | Measuring Stick Moments

Rice Women’s Basketball scheduled up in nonconference play. Their 7-5 record is a reflection of the quality of those opponents as much as it tells a story of where the Owls stack up against their own lofty preseason expectations.

Those opponents were meant to give Rice resume-boosting wins and Rice did grab a few, beating North Carolina A&T and Vermont. But with Wednesday’s loss to Georgia Tech — the final nonconference game of the season — Rice is running out of time to pad their resume.

Their upcoming game against South Florida is one of their last truly major games remaining on their schedule. It might also end up being their best win, if they can manage it.

Thus far, the attempt to accrue style points in nonconference play hasn’t gone according to plan. Barring an outstanding run through league play, leaping up the seeding list in the NCAA Tournament probably isn’t in the cards right now. That’s for the future Rice women’s basketball team to worry about. The current iteration has to find a way to take advantage of these last chances before they reach the thick of the AAC schedule.

Up Next: vs South Florida (Wed, 12/29)

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Rice Football Recruiting: CB Jerrick Harper commits to Owls

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The first transfer portal addition in the 2025 Rice Football recruiting class is in the fold. JUCO CB Jerrick Harper has committed to the Owls.

JUCO corner Jerrick Harper is the first transfer addition of the 2025 Rice Football Recruiting class and the first non-high school signee of the Scott Abell era. Abell made it clear his focus when he arrived was keeping the high school class intact. Once he achieved that, signing a dozen players during the early signing period, he moved to the portal where he landed this pledge from Harper.

In Harper, Rice is getting a prototypical outside corner (6-foot, 185-pounds) who should be able to step in and fill a hole on the roster left by departing Sean Fresch, who completed his final season of eligibility this past fall. Harper didn’t seen daunted by the high standard left by those before him.

“I loved the defense because I can play a lot of man coverage,” he told The Roost. “Guys on the back end can play fast and fly around.”

Harper had reported offers from Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Alcorn State, Eastern Michigan and Louisiana Tech, among others. He has multiple seasons of eligibility remaining after spending the past two years at Trinity Valley where he averaged just under one pass break up per game.

Quality cover corners with the necessary skillset and athleticism to play on an island on the outside aren’t in abundance in the Transfer Portal. That Harper is the type of player who can do that speaks highly of him and the Owls recruiting efforts to land him even before finalizing their coaching staff. Harper cited corners coach Jeremy Modkins as a reason for his decision.

Premium: Rice Football Recruiting Offer and Commitment Tracker

Harper’s film is a fun watch. He does a good job staying aware of where the ball is an positioning himself to have the right leverage in coverage. Some of the JUCO quarterbacks leave a lot to be desired when it comes to accuracy, but you can still see Harper’s good hands and quick feet setting him up for success.

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