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Conference USA Football 2020: Week 5 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 5.

Team Week 5 Result Week 6
Charlotte at FAU L, 21-17 at North Texas
FAU vs Charlotte W, 21-17 at USM
FIU — OFF —  — vs MTSU
LA Tech at BYU L, 45-14 vs UTEP
Marshall — OFF —  — at WKU
MTSU vs WKU L, 20-17 at FIU
North Texas vs USM L, 41-31 vs Charlotte
Rice — OFF —  — — OFF —
Southern Miss at North Texas W, 41-31 vs FAU
UAB vs UTSA W, 21-13 — OFF —
UTEP — OFF —  — at LA Tech
UTSA at UAB L, 21-13 at BYU
WKU at MTSU W, 20-17 vs Marshall

Notable Week 5 results – Standings

Roadrunners red-hot start runs out

UTSA turned heads with a 3-0 start. Victories over Texas State, SFA and a winless Middle Tenneesse shouldn’t be discounted, 3-0 is 3-0, but Saturday’s result proves Jeff Traylor’s work isn’t quite finished in San Antonio. Losing another quarterback, this time Josh Adkins, and still finding a way to stick around against one of C-USA’s should add some positive spin to the loss.

Third quarter explosion powers FAU past Charlotte

It was a rocky start for Willie Taggart in his FAU debut. The Owls were shut out in the first half, trailing Charlotte 10-0 at half time at home. Then Nick Tronti kicked things into gear, springing a 49-yard touchdown run of his own with subsequent touchdown passes to Logan Peterson and T.J. Chase to put FAU ahead for good. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a win.

North Texas has a defense problem

Standout wide receiver Tim Jones was available for Southern Miss against North Texas in Week 5 and quarterback Jack Abraham was limited to 16-of-30 passing, but the Golden Eagles still hung 41 points against a porous North Texas defense that’s allowed at least 31 points in all three games. It won’t matter how good quarterback Austin Aune is if he’s always playing catch up.

Week 6 storylines

On the lookout for win number one

12 Conference USA teams have played and three (FIU, Charlotte and Middle Tennessee) are still looking for their first win. FIU and Middle Tennessee play each other next weekend, meaning one of that pair is guaranteed to exit the ranks of the winless soon.

BYU continues their C-USA tour

BYU posted a rather convincing win over Louisiana Tech in Week 4 in the first of three games against Conference USA opponents. They’ll get UTSA in Week 5 and take on Western Kentucky on Halloween. If the first pairing was any indication, the UTSA defense had best buckle up before the weekend.

Delayed, but not defeated

Rice football would have opened their conference slate next weekend, but the delayed start of fall camp forced the postponement of those games. Rice has returned to practice, holding their first scrimmage this past week. With FAU getting underway this past week, the conference’s other Owls are the only team awaiting their first game.

Rice Football Opponent Scouting Report

A weekly update on who the Owls will be playing this season including updates on key storylines, injuries and more.

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Rice Football: Khalan Griffin shines, offense sparks in first fall scrimmage

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The first full scrimmage of the 2020 Rice Football fall camp is in the books. Khalan Griffin stole the show, but he wasn’t the only meaningful takeaway on Saturday.

It was a busy week at South Main. A few housekeeping items, first. The Rice football online roster is updated to match the newest version from fall camp. I try to be diligent with tagging players in stories and updates, so if you’re ever looking to see what I’ve written about Blaze Alldredge, Mike Collins or anyone else, head on over their and click on their name for a list of everything I’ve tagged them in. The Rice football schedule has been updated as well. If you haven’t yet, you can pick up the Season Preview here.

Practice updates reserved for subscribers. Sign in to see this content or visit our Patreon page.

If you’re on the fence about subscribing, I put some meat into these write ups. This one is a little more than 1,100 words and includes some notes on the Rice football injury situation and improvements on the offensive side of the football. Though the first week and a half of camp, those two trends have been front and center.

COVID Update

Rice has one player test positive who was unable to practice today. Contact tracing protocols left the Owls without four additional players. Of the 106 players on the roster, that’s a .09% positivity rate.

Offense looking up

Expectations for the Rice defense are much higher than the offense entering camp. Assuming health, the Owls should have one of the better defensive units in the conference. As it was last season, the defense started fall camp ahead of the offense, but I did see a few things during the scrimmage today that make me believe the offense has taken some meaningful steps.

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Rice Football: Optimism abounds as Owls embrace fall camp

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Fall camp has begun and Rice Football is attacking the new challenge with vigor. Head coach Mike Bloomgren implores his team to seize the moment.

Rice football is one week into a fall camp experience unlike any other. The most noticeable change is the weather. The Owls have traded the swelter summer heat for the first cold front of the fall with their delayed start date.

Though the journey was bumpy, Rice still prepared as if football was on the horizon. “We’ve done more walkthroughs than any team I’ve ever been a part of,” Bloomgren said. Our kids have a good understanding of our schemes.”

That much has been evident on both sides of the ball. In some years, it takes freshmen some time to get up to speed. This time around, the youngsters look much more comfortable with the ball in their hands. Rather than being buried on the depth chart, these newcomers are making waves. That’s especially encouraging given the Owls don’t have a game scheduled for another three weeks.

“We’re in a good place. We’re as conditioned as we’ve ever been coming into camp,” Bloomgren said. “[The team has] about 100 zoom hours so we just need 10,000 reps on the field and that’s what we’re going to try to do in the next month.”

Podcast: Panic Meter — Assessing the Owls fall camp injury report 

Beyond counting minutes on the grass, Rice has objectives set to quantity the leap in preparedness from camp in year two to year three. On offense, coordinator Jerry Mack wants to see an increase in explosive plays. That theme began in spring practices, but carrying it over with new faces in camp is one of his priorities.

Defensive coordinator Brian Smith put turnovers at the top of his to-do list. “Communication has been so much better than it’s been in the past,” he said, crediting the group’s in-sync behavior as a building block toward that effort.

If Rice can do both of those things, the bizarre circumstances it took to reach this point in Bloomgren’s coaching tenure will have been well spent. Looking back at the past few weeks, Bloomgren was emphatic the team was moving in the right direction, saying “we’ve done all the right things to get prepared for this moment.” How he and this team uses the next several moments leading up to October 24 will determine the trajectory for this season. So far, the Owls are on the right track.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 54 – Pro Owls updates and Rice Football injury alerts

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Rice Football is back at practice this week, but some key players haven’t suited up yet. Carter and Matthew give their panic levels for preseason injuries.

The prior edition of The Roost Podcast featured a big announcement: Rice Football was back! A few days later, there came some less than stellar news. A few key members of the roster have yet to make their preseason debuts with various bumps and bruises, subscribers can read the full update here. Should we be concerned? Carter and Matthew debate the ramifications of the injuries.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 54.

Episode 54 Notes

  • Housekeeping — If you haven’t yet, grab a copy of the 2020 Rice Football season preview and subscribe on Patreon. You’ll get practice reports, recruiting news and the latest analysis and updates on all things relating to Rice Athletics.
    Become a Patron!

    Want to take a test drive first? We’ve unlocked a few posts for a limited time so you can get a feel for what to expect as a subscriber.

  • Pro Owls Update
    • MLB: Anthony Rendon, Brock Holt and Tyler Duffey’s 2020 seasons have come to an end
    • NFL: Jack Fox is setting NFL records and crushing his debut. Austin Walter has signed with the 49ers practice squad. Plus, a few updates on the 11 Owls in the NFL.
  • Rice Football injury panic meter — Carter and Matthew provide updates on injuries to key Rice players including a few potential starters. Then they debate their level of concern should any of them miss a meaningful amount of time.

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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Who are your breakout picks for Rice Football in 2020? All-American Q&A

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All-American Level subscribers on Patreon get access to a monthly Q&A with me. The September edition focuses on Rice football breakout picks.

Q. Who are one or two of your sleeper picks for impact players for Rice this year?

A. First, I referenced a few names to watch in the Season Preview — WR, Zane Knipe, RB Khalan Griffin and DE Jalen Reeves. Those were the trio I tagged as “rising stars” who could make big waves on the team in 2020. I’m going beyond the names most likely to be listed in the two-deep. Here’s one from each side of the ball.

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