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Doom and Gloom: Rice Football falls to UTSA rain-soaked Senior Day

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Rice Football never got hot on a cold and gloomy Senior Day, falling at home to UTSA in their final home game of the season.

On a cold and rainy Saturday morning, Rice football froze up. Injuries and missed opportunities stifled a Rice team that has yet to complete a complete four-quarter performance this season, despite notching five victories along the way. They did not get their sixth win on Saturday, falling to UTSA in a one-sided result on Senior Day. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

From bad to worse

On paper, the weather seemed to be something that should work in favor of the Owls, who entered their final home game of the season with a slew of injuries at several key positions. Starting quarterback TJ McMahon was unable to go, as were the Owls’ top four corners: Jordan Dunbar, Sean Fresch, Lamont Narcisse and Jojo Jean.

From a personnel standpoint, an ugly game with lot of running and field position battles was much preferred to an aerial back-and-forth against the Roadrunners and star quarterback Frank Harris.

Rice did get an ugly game, but the weather wasn’t at fault.

Quarterback Wiley Green was injured on the Owls’ second possession, getting blasted from behind and fumbling in the process. UTSA recovered and scored their second-consecutive touchdown on as many plays.

The Owls’ defense opened the game three-and-out and Green hit Bradley Rozner on a slant to get Rice out of the shadow of their own endzone. Then the drive stalled on fourth and one, Rice punted, and the tumultuous sequence of injuries and turnovers commenced.

Turnovers fall, but it’s not enough

At some point, the turnovers that have plagued Rice football this season were going to stop, or at the very least, they would slow down. Despite the Owls’ issues with protecting the football, tipped passes and fumbles from a myriad of different players seemed unlikely to persist forever. Despite the injuries and bad weather, Rice did a good job protecting the football against UTSA.

In their first 10 games, Rice won the turnover battle twice. They were +5 against McNeese and +1 against UAB. They won both games. Against FBS opponents, Rice hadn’t forced more than two turnovers in a game this season whereas they’d produced at least three giveaways four times.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week – Rice Football vs UTSA

Against UTSA, Rice forced two turnovers. George Nykawol knocked the ball out himself and Myron Morrison made a play in coverage to intercept Frank Harris.

The Owls’ first turnover on offense came on a play in which Green was injured, with pressure coming unblocked off the edge. It’s not excusable by any means, but it wasn’t a lapse by a ballcarrier or decision-maker, the Achilles’ heel of the offense to this point. That came the very next drive when Kobie Campbell put the ball on the deck.

The third turnover came on an errant pass from Itraish, who was subsequently benched for true freshman AJ Padgett. That gave Rice a minus differential in the turnover margin once again.

It all comes down to quarterback, again

Watching Green leave with an injury with TJ McMahon standing on the sideline, already ruled out, was a gut punch for a Rice offense that has taken such large strides this season. Trailing at home with a backup, backup quarterback, there were two plays that highlighted what could have been.

With Shawqi Itraish at quarterback early in the second quarter and Rice trailing 21-0, Isaiah Esdale burst through double coverage on the far side of the field. He had seven yards on both defenders and plenty of green grass in front of him. It was a walk in touchdown. Itraish underthrew all three players, incomplete. Rice got no points on the drive.

Following a turnover by the Roadrunners shortly after, Rice dialed up a double reverse pass. The ball was tossed back to Itraish who had Bradley Rozner wide open down the field. He couldn’t release the ball quick enough, throwing it into the ground. Once more, no points.

It’s not all Itraish’s fault, but these two moments do highlight the challenges of calling an offense in the rain with your third string redshirt freshman quarterback at the controls. It’s hard. And you can’t miss your opportunities. On Saturday, Rice did and the result was, unfortunately, predictable.

The silver lining, if there was one, was an intriguing debut by true freshman AJ Padgett. He connected on a 43-yard touchdown pass to Bradley Rozner on fourth down in the fourth quarter. Could he see action in the season finale against UTSA? At this point, anything seems feasible.

One more?

As soon as the clock hit zero at Rice Stadium a few weeks ago, securing an upset for the visiting Charlotte 49ers, it seemed more likely than not that the Owls would find themselves here.

Defeating Western Kentucky or UTSA didn’t seem completely far-fetched, but the wiggle-room in the Owls’ search for six wins had evaporated. They needed to win one of their final three to reach that mark, but that stretch included games against the top three teams in the standings.

Now, it all comes down to this. Rice sits at 5-6, losers of back-to-back games for the first time this season. They travel to North Texas next weekend, in need of that final elusive win to clinch bowl eligibility for the first time since 2014.

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Death, Taxes, Wiley Green and injuries

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“If they forgot about him, shame on them”: Rice football wideout Bradley Rozner is back with a bang

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Bradley Rozner took a winding route to get to where he is right now, once again delivering game-winning moments for Rice football.

There was 3:20 left in regulation and Rice football was facing third and long from their own 14-yard line with a six-point lead. The North Texas Mean Green led by quarterback Mason Fine had gotten hot on offense, marching through the Rice defense with relative ease over the last two quarters. That left head coach Mike Bloomgren had a decision to make.

Bloomgren could easily have opted to play it safe and run the ball. That would have taken more time off the clock and forced North Texas to go the length of the field, again. Or, he could roll the dice. On that particular Saturday afternoon, with the game hanging in the balance, Bloomgren put his trust in the arms of Bradley Rozner.

A former JUCO wide receiver, Rozner was coming off an eight-catch, 130-yard, three-touchdown game against Middle Tennessee the week prior that propelled the Owls to their first win of the 2019 season. He had just 35 yards on four catches against North Texas on Saturday, a quiet outing by his standards. But Bloomgren believed in No. 2.

Quarterback Tom Stewart dropped back to pass and surprised everyone with a deep bomb to Rozner, who exploded past the defense and hauled in the 35-yard shot. The Owls would run out the clock on the ground shortly after, winning the game.

If there had ever been any doubt, Rozner had arrived. Then things took a turn. Rozner would play the season finale next week against UTSA, then, over the span of the next 1,000 days, Rozner would play in just one quarter. After missing the 2020 season with injuries, Rozner would play the first quarter of the Owls’ 2021 season opener against Arkansas before being shut down again,

By no fault of his own, the focal point of the Rice football offense had disappeared.

“The middle chapters of this thing weren’t real cool,” Bloomgren said when looking back at Rozner’s career at South Main thus far. “They were real rocky with a kid that had to go through a lot of challenges to get back to this point.”

What point is that? Another game-winning moment from Rozner that brought back memories of that game-sealing grab against North Texas almost three years ago.

This time Rice had the ball in a tie game against UTEP at the 23-yard line, 30 seconds remaining and no timeouts. The Owls had plenty of time to hand the ball off again, spike it and attempt at 40 or so yard field goal to win the game. But Bloomgren hadn’t forgotten the playmaker he had lined up on the far side of the field.

Instead of taking the conservative route, Bloomgren dialed up another deep shot. Quarterback TJ McMahon took the snap, dropped back and delivered a dart to the pylon, finding Rozner with his hands fully extended for the game-sealing score. Number two had done it again, this time with a career-best 140 receiving yards in the process.

When asked about the gutsy call after the game, Bloomgren beamed. It’s kind of like [we] dare people to cover him one on one. That’s a heck of a weapon to have your X-receiver.”

Rozner’s explanation made the herculean grab sound remarkably commonplace. “I saw the safety kind of creeping over my way but he wasn’t far enough over,” he recounted. “I just gave the corner and inside move and TJ [McMahon] put the ball up there and I just made the play.”

More: Rice Football rallies past UTEP, game recap

Just making plays has become the norm for Rozner once again. Since returning to the field this season, Rozner has topped 100 receiving yards five times in nine games, the most of any player in Conference USA. His nine career 100-yard games are the most since Jarrett Dillard (12) and James Casey (10), who played their final season at Rice in 2018.

Dillard and Casey are among the all-time greats to catch passes at South Main. Rozner is starting to force his way into that conversation.

For Rozner, though, he’s just trying to win football games and his coach continues to put him in positions to do just that. “It’s huge,” Rozner said of the trust Bloomren continues to display in him. “When you’re able to go to your coach and you know you can tell him, ‘Hey, I got this.’ And they give it to you and it all works out.”

Things just keep working out for Rozner, who once again is back at the center of the Owls’ offensive success. Almost as if he never left.

“If they forgot about him, shame on them,” Bloomgren said. “He’s reminding them right now.”

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Last minute rally lifts Rice Football past UTEP for big win

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Rice Football delivers the wining score in the final moments, dashing past UTEP to secure a much-needed win at home.

Thursday’s nationally televised game against all the makings of a bowl-elimination bout between Rice football and the UTEP Miners. The Owls had had the upper hand in the series, particularly at home, winning nine of 12 in Houston. On Thursday night, Rice added one more important victory to the tally. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Withstand the first punch

On the first play from scrimmage, UTEP quarterback Gavin Hardison tried to thread a ball through a mass of blue and gray-clad defenders. Gabriel Taylor was nearly there to meet it, but was unable to make the one-handed stab to force a quick turnover. Instead, UTEP recovered and marched quickly down the field, going 78-yards in 3:13, deflating a defense in need of that instant jolt of confidence.

Down 7-0, Rice was forced to settle for a field goal on their first offensive possession as quarterback TJ McMahon was sacked on third and short inside the redzone. When Rice kicked the ball back to UTEP down by four, it felt like the rubber was about to meet the road. Was UTEP’s early touchdown — just their second touchdown in the first quarter this year — a fluke? Or would the defense figure it out?

The defense responded with a quick three-and-out and their second sack of the day. Then they found their groove. They got pressure. They forced three-and-outs (four on the day). Trey Schuman snuffed out a reverse for a loss of yards. The defense responded to a fumbled punt return with a stop and a 51-yard field goal try after the offense fizzled inside their own five-yard line. For the first time in weeks, they looked good. Not great. But good.

To say the Rice defense was “back” would be overly generous, but the unit that took the field on Thursday night looked a heck of a lot more like the one the Owls have gotten used to seeing in recent years. If they can find a way to get off the field on third down, they might just be dangerous.

Return of the big play

On the other side of the ball, the offense responded in kind. Rice had four pass plays of 15+ yards in four quarters against Charlotte last weekend. They reached that total just three minutes into the second quarter against UTEP and continued to gain yards in chunks. Bradley Rozner reached the century mark for the fifth time this season.

The Owls ended the game with 502 total yards and a slew of big plays. There were eight pass plays of 15+ yards and five run plays of 10+ yards. The offense was legitimately explosive.

What made the performance particularly compelling was the sheer quantity of contributors. Rozner, Luke McCaffrey, Isaiah Esdale, Kobie Campbell and Jack Bradley each had critical catches that extended drives or scored points. Cam Montgomery, Juma Otviano, TJ McMahon and McCaffrey each made big plays on the ground. Uriah West had his first touchdown as an Owl. Eveything just seemed to come together.

And then… the dagger!

The steady emergence of TJ McMahon

When McMahon took the field against UTEP for his eighth consecutive start, he reached a place no quarterback had gone before under Bloomgren at Rice. The previous record for consecutive starts (seven) was held by Shawn Stankavage, who led the way in the first seven games of Bloomgren’s tenure at South Main in 2018 before being injured.

McMahon already led all Rice quarterbacks under Bloomgren in passing touchdowns entering this game. He added two more to up his Rice total to 20. He also leads all of Bloomgren’s passers in interceptions, including an inexplicable additional tipped-pass pick against UTEP, a recurring nightmare that Rice fans can’t seem to escape.

After the Charlotte loss, McMahon said his job this week was “to make sure this game doesn’t beat us twice.” He did that tonight, leading his team down the field with regularity with a bit more of a boost from the running game than he’d had in recent weeks.

It’s been clearly established for several weeks now that Rice had its guy. As McMahon continues to progress, the hope for the future builds.

Breathing room

Two weeks ago, Rice football was 4-3. Being a game above .500 and two wins away from securing bowl eligibility was a breath of fresh air for the Owls, who have fought through their fair share of hardships to get to that point.

That was two weeks ago, and it feels like the program has been through a much more circuitous journey than one could have imagined in just a fortnight’s worth of time. Splitting a two-game homestand against Charlotte and UTEP was disappointing, considering the success Rice football has had to this point. But even still, the Owls have earned three chances to clinch a bowl berth.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week – Rice Football vs UTEP

It’s not time to start booking tickets to spend Christmas in Hawaii or the holiday season in the Bahamas quite yet. But the situation is objectively more positive than it could have been had Rice not found a way to win this football game, and win it in the manner they did. The Owls have been far from perfect this year, but they have been resilient.

Following a loss, Rice football is 4-0 this season. And now instead of being forced to grapple with the real possibility of their one-time storybook season ending in a nightmare, Rice has hope again. Hope can be a dangerous this at times, but right now, it’s exactly what the Owls need. That, and one more win down the stretch. But they’ll focus on that final W tomorrow.

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When in doubt, be clutch

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Luke McCaffrey soars, lifting Rice Football past Louisiana Tech

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After a shaky start, a banner day for Luke McCaffrey helped push Rice Football to their first road win of the season, downing Louisiana Tech.

It wasn’t pretty. There were large swathes of the game that each phase — offense, defense and special teams — will want to forget. But when the dust settled, Rice football won on the road as a favorite for the first time under head coach Mike Bloomgren. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Maddening offense finally figures it out

Fixing the offense was priority one this week during practice. Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren was adamant that nothing was “broken” and that the team could get things turned around. They focused their running back snaps, reconfigured the offensive line and put their trust in quarterback TJ McMahon. When it came time to play the game, it felt like things had gotten worse, not better.

A gutsy fake punt on the Owls’ first drive of the game was the only run that went longer than four yards in the first quarter. Excluding that fake, converted by fullback Micah Barnett, Rice averaged 0.6 (yes, zero point six, not a typo) yards per carry on their first three possessions. Early on, the passing game wasn’t much better. Even when accounting for two early third down conversions, McMahon started the game 3-for-8 for 23 yards.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week – Rice Football vs LA Tech

Instead of improved, this offense looked broken for two-plus quarters. The running game wasn’t fixed, and one could argue it might even have gotten worse. No matter the combination, the offensive line hasn’t gelled to the degree it needs to for this offense to be effective. On top of that, McMahon is learning on the job and the highs and lows are being experienced in real-time.

It was encouraging to see the team start moving the ball in the second half. But we already knew they could score. We knew they had playmakers that could make plays and we’ve seen McMahon at his best. They’re just maddeningly inconsistent right now and it’s going to be hard to have much confidence in the unit until they string together a few consecutive quarters of quality play.

Fortunately for Rice football, McMahon’s high came at the right time.

The silver lining? The second half. Rice football scored 28 points in the second half and accounted for 322 yards, including 204 on the ground. The ability is there. The consistency needs to arrive soon.

When in doubt, Luke McCaffrey

Bradley Rozner caught a touchdown but was otherwise quiet. The running game was non-existent. Turnovers plagued the team all day long. Had it not been for the big play ability of Luke McCaffrey, Rice might have scored at all on Saturday. McCaffrey hasn’t been perfect in his transitional year from quarterback to wide receiver, but it’s abundantly clear that his raw speed and tremendous athleticism give this offense a spark.

McCaffrey scored the first touchdown of the day on a perfect throw from McMahon, one of his best on the day. Then McCaffrey made some magic of his own in the third quarter, breaking off a 66-yard reception after catching a pass in stride. His 77 yards after the catch was more than any other receiver on either team had receiving yards in regulation. He finished with 171 receiving yards, two receiving touchdowns and a receiving score.

Outside of McCaffrey, it was McMahon and Otoviano that provided the sparks. It might not be possible to build the entire offense out of McCaffrey, and if McMahon can settle in and the running game can show any semblance of life, Rice football shouldn’t have to. But it’s nice to know that when in doubt, Rice has a guy that can make it happen.

Stop. The. Turnovers.

As if things weren’t hard enough for the offense, the unit continued to make its own job more challenging on Saturday. Rice football entered the game tied for eighth-worst in Conference USA with 13 giveaways. McMahon was second nationally with 10 interceptions.

The Owls had given the ball away too many times, but there was some hope that all the tipped passes that fell into defenders’ hands were bad luck, rather than symptoms of a growing problem. Luck or not, the issues persisted. Against Louisiana Tech, Rice fumbled four times, losing two of them. turned the ball over three times. They turned it over on downs once as well.

After a three-and-out in which the offense went backward nine yards, Broussard fumbled on a first down carry. That set the Louisiana Tech offense up on a short field from which it took a goal line pick from Sean Fresch to keep points off the board. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Broussard fumbled on the one-yard line a few drives later and was benched. Sean Fresch added a turnover on a punt return, too.

This offense is not consistent enough as it is. They can’t afford to lose possessions and spot opponents with better field positions. And it’s maddening to watch them turn things on in the second half and score points in bunches as soon as they ceased handing the ball to the other team.

The defense can’t hold on forever

Louisiana Tech entered the game averaging 34.0 points per game in conference play and 29.7 points overall. Rice held them 35 points in regulation, essentially on par with their standards. Had it not been for some opportunistic plays by this unit, Rice football might have been out of the game entirely before halftime.

The defense gave this team a chance on a day in which the offense struggled mightily, but the signs of exhaustion were there. Louisiana Tech broke off a 49-yard carry in the first quarter. The Bulldogs scored a 32-yard touchdown on a screen pass immediately following a sack that pushed them back to second-and-20.

It’s true, the defense is being asked to carry its weight and more, but lapses in concentration of that magnitude are quick to undo the positive gains accrued on the other 95 percent of their snaps. Louisiana Tech’s final fourth quarter drive was another heart-pounding reminder they’re not perfect, yet.

Rice entered Saturday tied for second-best in Conference USA with only 11 plays of 30+ yards allowed on defense, so it’s not time to hit the red-alert button just yet. But after looking dominant at times in recent weeks, there were some signs of tiredness that seeped through on Saturday, particularly on that final drive and subsequent conversion.

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Rice Football falters late, falling to FAU on the road

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Rice Football started fast, but couldn’t hold on, squandering a fourth-quarter lead as they fell to the FAU Owls on the road on Saturday.

Rice football scored the first 14 points and looked to be on their way to their first road win of the season but it would not come to pass. FAU answered with 17 unanswered points, clamping down late to thwart the Owls’ late.

“I wish I could tell you that they made some great adjustments,” Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren said in the aftermath. “They really kept doing what they were doing and our execution faltered and that’s the disappointing part.”

Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Explosive, but imperfect offense can’t do enough

Rice football is still searching for a seamless offensive game, but their current less-than-perfect somewhat boom-or-bust operation is getting the job done. The road Owls started the game going backward, losing 16 yards on their first drive of the game. On the very next sequence, McMahon hit Bradley Rozner for this career-long 78-yard touchdown reception.

McMahon and Rozner guided the team down the field for another score immediately afterward. Up 14-0, Rice had the ball again with the chance to deliver a third potentially soul-crushing score in the final minutes of the first quarter. Instead, McMahon threw two passes which probably each should have been intercepted by the FAU defense.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week – Rice football vs FAU

McMahon would miss open receivers on the subsequent drive too, which ended with a failed fourth-down conversion. FAU scored on their next possession, then the offense went three-and-out for the third time in six drives.

Tack on another deflected interception (how????) and McMahon’s third interception on the subsequent drive and it would end up dooming what seemed to be such a promising day in the first quarter. McMahon had rough day. So did the offensive line. The entire unit is going to have some rough conversations in the film room this week.

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren was brutally honest in his postgame remarks. “We have to do better,” he said. “14 points in a football game doesn’t win. It doesn’t win in college football. Not scoring in the second half doesn’t win, we know those things. We’ve got to get better.

In prior years, explosive plays were few and far between, resulting in stagnant offensive performances. Rice is hitting big plays this year, but it hasn’t figured out the consistency just yet. If they can iron out the warts, this offense has the potential to really take off.

Big play defense

It’s been the Rice defense that’s allowed this offense to learn on the job. They’ve been absolutely superb this season and that strong showing continued on Saturday. For the most part, they made the routine plays, allowing a few explosive plays to FAU but largely playing fundamentally sound football. It was third and fourth down where they flexed their muscles.

FAU was 6-of-17 on third down and 0-of-4 when facing third and nine or longer. When this defense gets the green light and is allowed to pin their ears back and go, bad things tend to happen for the other team.

Then there were the big plays. Not to be outdone by the fireworks of Rozner and McMahon, several Rice defenders delivered equally impactful moments of their own. Josh Pearcy shut down an FAU drive with a third down sack. George Nyakwol forced a fumble that resulted in a third-and-33 attempt for the home team. Myron Morrison slipped in front of a receiver on fourth down and knocked the ball to the turf.

No play was bigger, though, than Kirk Lockhart’s goal line hit at the end of the third quarter. FAU was inches away from the go-ahead touchdown when Lockhart knocked the ball out, forcing a fumble that went out of the endzone for a touchback. Pressed to the brink yet again, the defense stood tall.

The offense is much improved and it has been really, really fun to watch at times. Nevertheless, the defense remains the backbone of this team and they did everything they could on Saturday.

Linebacker reload, complete

Rice football fans were spoiled by the incredible tandem of Blaze Alldredge and Antonio Montero in the middle of the defense for the last few years. When they departed, Alldredge to Missouri and Montero to Villanova, it seemed like nearly a forgone conclusion the Owls would be taking a step back at that position.

Well, midway through the 2022 season, Chris Conti and Myron Morrison are making a case for quite the opposite. Conti posted five tackles against FAU. Morrison led the team with 15 tackles of his own. Those two entered the game leading Rice in tackles and they leave the game still No. 1 and No. 2 atop the leaderboard.

“I think both Myron and Chris are both playing great football, ” Bloomgren said. “The guys up front are doing their job too, which is making it a little bit easier for them to run and hit. But when they’re able to make those plays and get people on the ground, obviously that’s what gets us into those third and longs and allows our defense to go eat a little bit.”

The entire defense is playing well, but the linebacker core has earned a nod. Every team loses good players. Replacing them without missing a beat is what great teams do. The Owls are heading in that direction right now, particularly on defense.

Slipped away

After just six games, Rice football sits at 3-3. The Owls are one win shy of matching their win total from the entirety of the 2021 season. Entering the season, that seemed to be about par for the opening half of the season, but it doesn’t feel like met expectations as the team flies home empty-handed from Boca Raton.

The Owls had the chance to be one of just three remaining unbeaten teams in conference play, with matchups looming against Louisiana Tech, Charlotte and UTEP, all of which own sub-.500 records overall. Rice is still likely to be favored in at least one of those games, if not two. Things still look bright, but the luster isn’t quite nearly the same as it could have been with a fourth-quarter lead.

Simply put, at the midpoint of October, it might have been time to start having legitimate Conference USA Championship discussions about Rice football. They’re not out of the mix just yet and they own a win over UAB, but they’ve taken a step back after some stellar showings in the early weeks of the season.

Now it’s time to start talking about finding their first road win of the season. Once that happens, more aspirational conversations can recommence. Their next chance comes next weekend against Louisiana Tech.

“I wish we could go practice right now, to be hoenst with you,” Bloomgren said. “We’ve got a lot of good things going on this team. We’ve got a few things we got to figure out. But I want that opportunity to play that road game next week. I can’t wait to play that road game next Saturday.”

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Going yard

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