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Rice Football 2024 Spring Notebook 8: Defensive Takeaways

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A veteran Rice football defense showcased plenty of up-and-coming talent. Here’s what we learned from that side of the ball during spring practices.

The offense won the first scrimmage, but it was the Rice football defense that stood tall in the spring game, stonewalling the Owls’ best offensive weapons when pitting best against best. What did we learn about the defensive side of the ball and which players positioned themselves the best for the upcoming fall season?

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Personnel evolution

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Rice Football Recruiting: RB D’Andre Hardeman commits to Owls

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The 2025 Rice Football recruiting class has doubled in size, adding its second commitment in the form of North Shore running back D’Andre Hardeman.

A highly attended spring game has paid its first dividend. Days removed from dozens of high school players descending on South Main, the 2025 Rice Football recruiting class has added another piece. North Shore running back D’Andre Hardeman has committed to the Owls.

When he arrives at Rice, Hardeman will join up with teammate and current Rice signee Lavonte Johnson, who signed with the Owls on National Signing Day. Both players were offered on the same day in late January. Now both will suit up for the Blue and Gray. There’s also the notable link between Rice linebackers coach Jon Kay, who came to Rice last season after a successful coaching career at North Shore.

Hardeman, the son of former Texas A&M running back Tiki Hardeman, was by no means flying under the radar since then. The Owls were one of almost a dozen offers he received. He eventually picked Rice over offers from UTSA, UTEP, Arkansas State, UTEP and others.

The 2025 Rice Football recruiting class now consists of Hardeman and Madison Prep (LA) athlete Semaj Pierre, who was the first to pledge to the Owls in this cycle, doing so back in the summer of 2023.

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The 5-foot-8, 180-pound runner put up video game numbers on one of the best teams in the state of Texas, tallying 1,709 yards and 22 touchdowns last season alone and the film matches the boxscore. He’s an explosive runner with great vision, showcasing the patience to make the right cut and quickly climbing to the second level. He’ll be set to flourish in the Owls’ offensive scheme.

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Rice Baseball edges UAB for first-ever AAC series win

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Rice Baseball narrowly missed a series sweep, settling for two wins over the weekend against UAB, their first-ever AAC series victory.

FRIDAY | Rice 4 – UAB 2

The Rice bats wasted no time on Friday night, staking staff ace Parker Smith to an early lead. RBI singles from Treyton Rank and Pierce Gallo put the Owls in front 2-0 in the first. Rank drove in another run when he was hit by a pitch in the second inning.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball tops TAMU-CC in midweek action

Leading 3-0, Smith cruised through six innings. He briefly ran into trouble in the fourth, allowing the Blazers to score twice, but was otherwise unscathed. Jacob Devenney added an insurance run on an RBI double in the sixth. Tom Vincent took over in the seventh and bridged 1.1 innings to closer Davion Hickson, who earned the save.

SATURDAY | Rice 4 – UAB 3 (15 inn.)

JD McCracken delivered a quality start in Game 2, his lone blemish coming via an unearned run when a defensive error allowed the Blazers to get on the board in the third inning. McCracken avoided having a loss tacked on his ledger when Devenny delivered a sac fly in the eighth inning to tie the game. That would be the last run for quite a while as the game entered extra innings and stayed deadlocked at 1-1 until the twelfth.

UAB went in front with two runs in the top of the inning and it might have been more had the potential third run not been tagged out at the plate. That proved to be significant soon after as Rice tied the game in the bottom of the inning with a single and a sac fly. Level at 3-3, Eric Correa provided the final dramatics, delivering a walk-off double to right field to clinch the series.

SUNDAY | UAB 4 – Rice 3

The two sides traded runs in the early innings, completing the third inning tied at one and the fourth inning tied at three before UAB went out in front in the fifth, 4-2. Rice starter Tucker Alch was lifted for the tandem of Garrett Stratton and Mauricio Rodriguez, who combined to throw five scoreless innings, giving the offense a chance to claw back.

Rice got one run in the eight on a two-out, RBI single from Ben Dukes. They then had a golden opportunity to tie the game in the ninth, but squandered a leadoff triple from Jack Riedel, failing to get him home. With the running run 90-feet away, the Owls fell by one run.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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1. It’s Time for a Devenny/Dukes Dialogue

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ON DECK | at USF (Fri-Sun)

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Defense shines, Offense responds in 2024 Rice Football Spring Game

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Rice Football concluded its spring practices with the annual Blue and Gray Spring Game. Here’s what we learned from the exhibition on Saturday.

A productive spring for Rice football wrapped up on Saturday afternoon at Historic Rice Stadium. By score, the offense defeated the defense 48-23, but the real story was a dominant defensive showing by the Owls’ starters with some encouraging moments from some playmakers on both sides and a strong finish by potential starting quarterback EJ Warner. Here’s what we learned on Saturday:

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Defense shines

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Innovation the Focus for New American Athletic Conference Commissioner Tim Pernetti

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Newly appointed American Athletic Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti has big dreams and aggressive goals for the conference’s future.

On Thursday, for only the second time in the history of the American Athletic Conference, a new commissioner was introduced. Tim Pernetti, a veteran in the college sports and media industry, offered his opening remarks to the assembled media, consummating a pivotal moment of change for a conference that has been a hallmark of consistency and endurance in its 11-year history to date.

Previously under the leadership of Mike Aresco, who was notably unafraid to challenge mainstream narratives, it became clear rather quickly the American Athletic Conference would maintain its unabashed boldness under its second-ever commissioner.

“The status quo I just don’t think is acceptable any longer,” Pernetti said, remarking about how much college athletics has changed since his days as an athlete and an athletic director. In his eyes, if conferences didn’t do all they could to get with the times, they were going to be left behind.

And to that end, not only was Pernetti emphatic about not falling behind, but he views the American Athletic Conference as an engine for change and leadership, a body that is both able to meet opportunities head-on and willing to swim in those uncertain waters.

From private equity, to sponsorship and naming rights, to further expansion of the College Football Playoff, Pernetti repeated multiple times a resounding refrain: “Nothing is off the table.”

“I do think there’s a window ahead of us to do some things differently,” he said. “And quite frankly, [to] resource this conference in a way where the members don’t need to leave.”

Pernetti touched on all sorts of hot-button issues facing the industry today. Rather than obfuscate, he asked questions. What do we want college athletics to look like in the future? Where does this conference fit into that bigger picture?

Through it all, Pernetti maintained one crystal-clear message. “We want this conference to be known as the most innovative conference in collegiate athletics,” he said. “Innovate is an overused word sometimes, but elevating the enterprise to do things differently, to take big swings and naturally, that’s going to require the same factors, grit, resiliency, taking some chances on some things.

“I’m convinced that the group that hired me into this job is ready to do that and I’m excited about that.”

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