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A familiar foe and a longtime friend of the podcast, Jared Kalmus of Alamo Audible joins us this week to preview UTSA football in 2024. From the absence of star quarterback Frank Harris to the gradual assimilation of even greater depth on this roster, what should we expect from the Roadrunners this fall?
You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 175.
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.
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. So is the brand new Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!
Get exclusive insight 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 practice updates, analysis and more. Your support matters and makes The Roost better.
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.
The Rice football season will be here before we know it. Now we begin the long road back to the fall, previewing all of the Owls’ 2024 opponents on the gridiron, including a once familiar foe that wasn’t on the Rice schedule last season: UAB. Longtime friend of the show Evan Dudley joins us to talk about what’s been going on with the Blazers since, the Trent Dilfer experience and more.
You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 174.
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.
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. So is the brand new Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!
Get exclusive insight 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 practice updates, analysis and more. Your support matters and makes The Roost better.
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.
In his final formal media availability of the season following, Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren interjected a ray of hope after a frustrating result, a bowl game loss to Texas State. “This is a really good football team coming back,” he said, projecting hope for 2024, and hopefully beyond.
Several months later, the numbers are in. According to ESPN’s returning production estimates, Rice football returns the highest percentage of their production out of any team in the AAC in 2024.
Bill Connelly, who compiles the metric for ESPN, estimates the Owls return 81 percent of their production from the 2023 team that won six games and made a second consecutive bowl game appearance.
That number dips a bit to 73 percent on offense but skyrockets to 89 percent on defense. In fact, no team in the nation projects to return more on defense than Rice. The Owls have lost De’Braylon Carroll and Tre’shon Devones from last year’s unit, but the rest of the defensive cupboard is fully stocked.
With a stacked defense and plenty of returning pieces on offense, Rice is positioned as well as it has been in quite some time to take another step. Rice and USF are the only AAC team in the top 20, nationally in returning production. The Owls’ biggest challenge will be replacing impact players on offense — JT Daniels, Luke McCaffrey and Clay Servin. If Rice can do that, 2024 has the makings of a special season on South Main.
One other interesting tidbit… Connelly notes this on Twitter:
Last year's top 4 were Kansas, Missouri, Florida St and Michigan. Went from a combined 35-18 to 48-7.
Last year's bottom 4 were Kent State, UAB, ECU and Stanford. Went from 23-27 to 10-38.
The middle's mostly negligible, but the extremes tend to matter.https://t.co/VTFbtHdgwy
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) May 13, 2024
Here are the full numbers:
UPDATED 2024 RETURNING PRODUCTION RANKINGS. Still some portal commits trickling in, but where do things stand in mid-May?
(NEXT WEEK: an SP+ update and … THE START OF THE 2024 PREVIEW SERIES!!) pic.twitter.com/7GhPRYwCjG
— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) May 13, 2024
Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren committed to a national recruiting strategy when he took over the program prior to the 2018 season. Since then he’s stayed true to his word, searching the nation to build the best possible roster he can. The 2024 roster is expected to feature players from 21 different states (and the District of Colombia), up from 18 states a year ago.
The 2024 roster includes new arrivals from Phoenix, Arizona (EJ Warner), Alpine, Utah (Michael Daley) and Hinesburg, Vermont (Graham Walker), among others.
Here’s a visual breakdown of the 2024 roster upon the conclusion of spring practices, with the announced 2024 signing class and transfers included.
Not pictured: Hawaii (4)
Of the projected 122 players, 69 (57 percent) hail from Texas. The next highest totals come to Rice from California (10) and Florida (six), noted college football recruiting hotbeds. After that, the pool diversifies quickly. New Jersey is the home to five Owls, four from Hawaii and five other states have three Rice players apiece. Rice has developed a sizable footprint in the northeast in addition to the traditional southern recruiting grounds.
Of the incoming commits and signees, 67 percent are from Texas. That’s an uptick of 10 percentage points from the full scope of the roster. A sizable portion of those new players are walk-ons, typically arriving on campus from nearby.