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Rice Football 2025 Spring Practice Notebook 5: Slot School

April 6, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

There’s been a lot to learn with this new-look Rice Football offense during spring practices, including the introduction of a new position: slot.

Keeping track of where players are lining up and where they go after the snap has been an adventure in the new offense Rice football is installing this spring. Head coach Scott Abell, renowned for his offensive system, has engineered a scheme that is fascinating to watch, but sometimes hard to follow. That confusion often stems from the slot position and how many different ways it’s utilized in this offense.

More: Spring Practice Notebook 4 — QB Battle and Scrimmage Thoughts

This update dives into what that slot position does, how the Owls use it in the offense and which players are going to be lining up at that position in the fall.

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So…. what’s a slot?

No position has been more fascinating to follow this spring than the one most recently added to the Rice football depth chart: Slot. Coached by Austin Eisenhofer, nominally the Insider Wide Receivers coach according to the Rice football online roster, the slot position promises to bring plenty of flash and excitement to South Main.

“The slot position kind of does everything,” Eisenhofer explained. “A lot of blocking, a lot of pass catching, a lot of rushing the ball.”

That all-encompassing definition might even undersell the level of versatility the Owls require from this position. It’s not uncommon to see a slot player go out on a route on one play, take a sweep around one side on the next play, and then operate as the trailing man in an option run on the play after that. Their interchangeability with the running back position has been fascinating to watch.

In so many ways, this position is an amalgamation of so many skillsets into a true all-purpose offensive tool.

More: Latest Rice football recruiting offers

“We’re insider receivers and we do more skills of a receiver than anything else,” Eisenhofer said, “But at the end of the day it’s a lot of guys that in high school they were labeled as A-T-H. They can affect the game in so many ways. I think that’s fun for anyone.”

For some in the recruiting world, ATH or “Athlete” is a designation given to players with athletic ability, but no true position. It’s the “other” option for players talented enough to play at this level, but without a specified skillset at any singular spot. For this offense to take those “other” pieces and turn them into key cogs in this offensive system is amusing.

A few players like Cincinnati transfer Aaron Turner — brother of offensive assistant Eli Turner, who played for Abell at Davidson — knew what they were getting into when this position was assigned to them over the winter. The rest are truly starting from scratch, adjusting to so many different ways to get the football beyond the traditional throw and catch down field.

“They’ve taken to it probably quicker than I could have even expected,” Eisenhofer praised. “All they’re worried about is they want to be good. They want to learn it. They understand it’s a process.”

Climbing the depth chart

We’re still a ways from settling on any firm offensive depth chart, but there are a few faces that have risen through the ranks at this position during camp. The aforementioned Turner is the first name to mention. He was the first pass catcher Abell cited when discussing standout individuals following last Saturday’s scrimmage as Abell noted that Turner “seemed to be making plays every day.”

Given his familiarity with the coaching staff and how the Owls’ prioritized him in the portal, his ascension probably shouldn’t come as a surprise. He’s not the only player to stand out at this spot during the spring, though. Redshirt freshman Owen Carter has receiver as many, if not more reps with the starting group.

Roost Podcast: Breaking down the Rice baseball in-season hiring of David Pierce

A high school standout at Cy Fair, Carter’s presence was minimal on Saturday’s last fall, redshirting while appearing in two games. To say he’s taken a step forward since then and embraced this new-look offense would be an understatement. He’s been fun to watch and someone worth keeping an eye on moving forward.

It’ll be hard to determine how many “starting” wide receiver spots they’ll be, especially given how much this offense will vary from formation to formation, but Carter, Turner and Braylen Walker (playing the true wide receiver spot in this offense, not slot) have been by far the most common triumvirate on the field so far.

Odds and Ends

  • Not only does there appear a ways to go for settling on a starting five on the offensive line, positions remain fluid. There was a sequence of plays last week where I watched one lineman play go from guard, to the tackle spot on the opposite side to the other guard spot in the span of three plays. The intra-drive fluidity is likely a quirk of practice, but that doesn’t make it any less hard to terse out.
  • Quinton Jackson broke off a 65-yard touchdown run in Wednesday’s practice. The speed possessed by him and Taji Atkins, along with the depth at the running back position should make for an exciting year for the ground game.
  • There are no fullbacks in this offense in the traditional sense, but that doesn’t mean the Owls’ fullbacks have completely disappeared. Micah Barnett and Rhys Phillips have transitioned to tight end. Phillips missed a good chunk of last season, so it’s been fun to see him get in the mix at full speed.
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Rice Football 2025 Spring Practice Notebook 4: QB Battle and Scrimmage Thoughts

March 29, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

The three-man quarterback race is heating up as Rice football pushes past the midpoint of spring practices, making progress with the new offensive scheme.

With more than half of Rice football spring practice in the books, the Owls’ offense is beginning to materialize. Several weeks of installs have led to the beginnings of a pecking order with a few skill players making their names known alongside a heated battle in the quarterback room.

More: Spring Practice Notebook 3 — The Rice Football defense takes shape

The second scrimmage of the spring wrapped up on Saturday with plenty to be gleaned from that side of the ball. This update dives into what scrimmages (and the upcoming Spring Game) will look like under head coach Scott Abell, how the quarterback race is shaping up and more as we cross the midpoint and get into the final weeks of spring practice.

Rethinking the word scrimmage

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Rice Football 2024: Memphis Game Week Practice Report

November 6, 2024 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football returned to the field with one focus: beating Memphis. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

Once again, it was hard to find space around the Rice football facility this week that didn’t have a “Beat Memphis” sign on full display. The Owls implemented a similar tactic against Navy last week and found success. Work has been put in the field, too. Here’s where the team stands prior to the Memphis game this weekend.

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Running out of backs

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Rice Football 2024: Tulane Game Week Practice Report

October 17, 2024 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football is getting clarity on some injuries and getting to work preparing for Tulane.  Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

There were many players in and out of the lineup this week as the rigors of the physicality of the sport have made themselves present within the Rice football roster. This week, that meant a lot of good news including a couple of potential starters the Owls are trending toward having back on the field against Tulane.

However, head coach Mike Bloomgren did disclose an update regarding the trio of receivers the Owls expected to be their top three options entering fall camp: Landon Ransom, Rawson MacNeill and Thai Bowman.

“I don’t know that Landon [Ransom] or Rawson [MacNeill] will play this year,” Bloomgren told The Roost “I do expect Thai to [play].” How does that change the complexion of the receiving corps if two of the Owls’ frontline options are indeed expected to miss the entirety of the 2024 season? And about the other moving parts as the Owls ready for the Green Wave? Here’s where the team stands prior to the Tulane game this weekend.

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And then there were few

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Rice Football sputters against Sam Houston in disappointing home opener

August 31, 2024 By Matthew Bartlett

After a summer of hope, Rice Football spent all its goodwill in an opening night loss to Sam Houston that never seemed as close as the score suggests.

Any illusions of a storybook season on South Main were shattered quickly on Saturday night. Rice football dropped its season opener to a Sam Houston State team the Owls had historically dominated, winning 16 of the 17 previous contests. That history couldn’t save the Owls this time around who fell to 0-1 in their seventh season under head coach Mike Bloomgren.

Bloomgren didn’t hide from the obviously disappointing result. “I apologize to our fans. I thought our game day atmosphere was really good from the first Owl Walk ever to all the things that people outside of this team control,” he said. “They were about as good as they can be and we didn’t do our part tonight.”

Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Sputtering from the start

Even with a few key transfers missing, Rice football couldn’t have gotten off to a much worse start to the season. The offensive line was overwhelmed early by the Sam Houston front, putting quarterback EJ Warner under pressure and providing little in the way of running room for the Owls’ backs. The first four Rice drives yielded 10 total yards and a pick-six.

The degree to which a Conference USA defensive line was able to push Rice around was concerning. There wasn’t much time to test the Bearkats downfield, allowing their entire defense to creep in and contributing, at least in part, to that crushing pick-six on the Owls’ third possession.

The defense faired slightly better, but not much. A busted coverage allowed Sam Houston a walk-in 67-yard touchdown. Then, already trailing by two scores, they let Sam Houston nickel and dime them down the field to make the deficit 17-0. A veteran team that was about a 10-point favorite looked shell-shocked before the first-quarter buzzer had ever sounded.

The first play of the second quarter? A missed field goal. Offense, defense and special teams all came out flat. That’s not how this game was supposed to go.walk

Three more quarters would ensue, but the gist of head coach Mike Bloomgren’s postgame synopsis was already begun to take form. “This is a team butt-whipping,” he said, after first crediting Sam Houston’s performance. “They took us out to the woodshed and beat the heck out of us and we’ve got to respond. We can’t put that kind of product on the field ever again.”

A tale of two lines

The defensive lines from both teams earned their keep on Saturday night. Although it was far from a defensive clinic on the Rice side, the pass rush did its job. Rice racked up seven sacks from seven different players. Charlie Looes stepped in for Coleman Coco and looked very much the part, impacting the game from his first series in blue and grey, tying for the team lead with 1.5 tackles for loss.

Sam Houston’s long touchdown passes weren’t slowly developing plays. Both featured quick shots deep downfield in which the Rice defensive back just got beat, either because of a miscommunication in coverage or a lost foot race. It’s hard to put either of those shots on the defensive line, which for the most part, made life extremely hard for quarterback Hunter Watson when he tried to throw the ball.

When the teams switched sides, the same reality was evident. The Sam Houston defensive line dominated a Rice front that was supposed to be revamped, featuring veteran tackles and hand-picked transfers on the interior. The Owls had zero running game and quarterback EJ Warner did almost all of his work under duress.

“Our offensive line, that is not the product we expect to put out there,” Bloomgren assessed.

Sam Houston ranked 124th in the nation in sacks last season. They added a few transfers to beef up the defensive line, but it’s not as if they brought in a bevy of blue chippers headed for the NFL. They sacked Warner two times, registering four official hurries and putting him off his spot too many times to count. A blistering shot in the final minutes of the game had Warner hobbling to the sideline as the Owl faithful held their collective breath.

The degree to which Rice struggled against an opponent that was not as talented on the line as others they fared before suggests this might have more to do with scheme than talent. If so, that’s a silver lining. Scheme can be analyzed and fix from game one to game two. Talent is what it is. Hopefully for the Owls, the first was the culprit on Saturday night.

The EJ Warner of it all

In desperate need of a pulse, EJ Warner took control. The first sparks of life came from two throws down the field, the first to Braylen Walker and the next to Matt Sykes. That drive would stall, but Warner would make a nifty play on the next sequence, throwing across his body as he rolled out to move the chains. He found Kobie Campbell in the endzone three players later to finally get Rice football on the board.

Given the pressure he was working under, Warner faired fairly well in his Rice debut. He completed 27 of 44 passes for 227 yards. He threw one touchdown and two interceptions, although the second was an afterthought with the game result well in hand.

Bloomgen seemed to concur, suggesting not all the fault fell on Warner’s shoulders. “I’m not sure he had time to play like he’s capable of playing,” Bloomgren said.”

Had he not been on the field, things likely would have gone much worse for the home team. We’ve seen what happens to a good team without a quarterback in recent years around South Main. At the very least, Warner showcased himself to be AAC-caliber, not something that can be said for every position on this team right now.

The defense had their gaffes. The running game was non-existent (2.6 yards per carry against a team that allowed 4.3 yards per carry a year ago). Warner and the pass rush were the positives from a night filled with horrors for the hometown crowd.

What it means

This team was talking about contending for a conference championship throughout the offseason and into fall camp. Those aspirations can officially be put on pause until they figure out some glaring issues from their season opener. Was this the seemingly annual hiccup where Rice got beat by an inferior opponent and they’ll be ready to go next week? It’s possible. But there’s not a lot from what we saw on the field Saturday to suggest this team is AAC-ready.

It doesn’t really matter if Sam Houston is improved, and to what degree they’ve progressed in their second season at the FBS level. This game was meant to be the game where the Owls established they’d taken the next step on a long-enduring build. Getting to six wins, or more, starts with winning home games you’re favored in by more than a touchdown. It doesn’t mean the Owls can’t rebound, but they’ve opened the door for questions that wouldn’t have been there if they’d just found a way to mozy to a boring 21-17 win.

The Texas Southern game can’t come soon enough. And fortunately for Rice, Houston looked just as embarrassing in their opening game against UNLV. This season is far from over and there are some manageable games ahead. But if there wasn’t a fire under this team and this coaching staff coming into the year, there’d better be now. Winning every game was never in the cards, but losing like that can’t happen again.

“We’re gonna watch the film. It’s going to suck watching it,” captain Josh Pearcy said after the game. “But, you know, we’ll treat it with that next play mentality and move on the next week.”

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