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Rice Football: First Third of the Season Grades

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Here’s our Rice football report card for every position group through four games, doing our best to provide an honest assessment of the Owls so far.

A Thursday night tilt against Charlotte gives Rice football a chance to catch it’s collective breath on Saturday and rest up before a suddenly pivotal game against Navy this coming weekend. It’s also marks the completion of the first third of the season’s game, providing a natural check-in point on the program as head coach Scott Abell works to rebuild it in his image.

From the starting quarterback to the secondary, here’s our evaluation of where things stand through four games and one standout at each position who deserves some extra recognition.

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Rice Football Races Past Charlotte in Prime Time

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Rice Football improved to 3-1 for the first time since 2001, dispatching the Charlotte 49ers in a prime time win on national television.

With the nation watching, Rice football put their gun-choice option offense on display on Thursday night, grinding out a road win over Charlotte in head coach Scott Abell’s American Conference debut. The Owls improved to 3-1 on the season.

“It’s exciting. It shows the world, it shows everyone that it’s different this year for Rice,” said senior linebacker Andrew Awe. “A lot of times [in the past] when we were down, we were down and out. But this year it’s different. We’re a contender for conference this year. We play hard every snap.”

Awe’s 11 tackles led the team and paced a defense that racked up six sacks and nine tackles for a loss. Turning in another solid performance in which many were, understandably, fixated on the new offense. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Hello, America

Rice football was the standalone game on Thursday night on ESPN, giving anyone slightly curious about the Owls’ new offensive scheme the chance to flip on the game — on their TV, not via a streaming service — and take in the option attack. Rice did not waste the opportunity to showcase it.

After allowing a field goal on defense, the Rice offense took the field and calmly marched 75 yards down the field in nine plays, churning through 4:26 on the clock and ending in the endzone. Rice attempted just two passes, the second of which was a pop pass over the top of the run-hunting defense for a score.

Charlotte entered the game allowing more than 4.5 yards per carry against FBS opponents, so there was expectation that Rice would be able to find success on the ground. On the opening drive, it was Quinton Jackson who ripped through the defense and drove the offense down the field. Quarterback Chase Jenkins would enter the fray a few drives later, cutting back for a massive 34-yard scamper just before halftime.

For those onlookers who wanted to see what this Rice football offense could be, those two drives showcased it at its best. However…

With the Good, Comes the Bad

A run-first offense looks brilliant when it works, but what happened between the Owls’ first half touchdown drives showcased the dangers that come with building an offense that often eschews the passing game. Those two scoring drives accounted for 15 plays and 150 yards, but they were bookends to three consecutive three-and-outs — nine plays, 14 yards.

The difference between 10 yards per play and roughly 1.5 yards per play was palpable.

Abell didn’t seem overtly concerned. He mentioned they’d tried more triple option concepts on those drives that didn’t work before pivoting to different components of the offense. “It’s kind of just football, right?” Abell remarked. “At time they’re going to stop us. They’re going to force us to punt. And that’s okay. We’ve been good on special teams all year. We’ve been good on defense.”

And while it wouldn’t ever be used as an excuse, it’s hard not to connect Charlotte’s consecutive scoring drives to open the second quarter with a Rice defense given very little breathing room by it’s counterpart on the other side of the field. Charlotte ran 40 plays before halftime. Rice ran 24. That’s too many plays to ask a defense to defend without missing a step.

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The negative play is a very real threat to this offense. Rice had a second-half drive torpedoed with a holding penalty that put them in second and long. They settled for a 55-yard field goal, which Enoch Gota pushed just right. That’s not a special teams problem; that’s a flaw inherent to this offense.

Offense Clicks and Finds Redemption

Fortunately those woes would prove to not be fatal on Thursday. Rice opened the second half with a 75-yard touchdown drive to go up by two scores and was much more successful moving the sticks in the second half.

After closing the second quarter with a touchdown drive, they marched down the field to open the third quarter with another 75-yard scoring progression. They outscored Charlotte 14-3 in the middle eight, seizing control of the game.

“We did a good job responding before the first half ended and we came out in the third quarter rolling,” running back Daelen Alexander said. “I think we showed in the third quarter what we can do with the offense, fully.”

Once again, after a slower start, the final stat sheet looks rather impressive for the Rice offense. The Owls had three different players with at least 70 yards rushing and probably could have stretched those totals further if they hadn’t ratcheted things down in the final frame. Quinton Jackson rushed for 80 yards. Alexander and 73 yards and two touchdowns. Jenkins ran for 71 yards and a score. All three averaged north of 6.7 yards per carry.

He Just Wins

Scott Abell was hired because he’d won at places where it was historically hard to win. There was tremendous optimism (and expectation) that he’d be able to bring winning to South Main, but even the most ardent believers probably didn’t see this coming. With the win over Charlotte on Thursday, Rice improved to 3-1 the season. It’s the first 3-1 start for Rice football since 2001.

But that’s not all. Abell became the first coach to open their Rice tenure 3-1 since Bo Hagan did so in 1967. The win was the first win Rice football has ever had in their American Conference opener, falling in their first two tries since moving to the league. In fact, Rice hadn’t won a conference opener on the road since 2017.

The statistics like that are plentiful. They all painted slightly different variations of a reality that’s becoming more believable with each passing weekend. Rice football might just be in a different place than they’ve been in quite some time and Abell is the unquestioned catalyst.

“I’m not surprised, but I am very proud of this team and this group,” Abell said. “I’m proud of where we are. I’m not surprised, and for those who are seeing this for the first time, we’re just at the beginning of this. Stay tuned. There’s more to come. And I look forward to what’s next for us.”

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Rice Football soars past Prairie View A&M

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Rice Football improved to 2-1 on the season with a comfortable win over Prairie View A&M, reaching season highs in scoring and total offense.

Through their first two games, Rice football amassed 479 total yards. On Saturday night against Prairie View A&M, the Owls finished with 461 yards of total offense and 347 yards on the ground. It wasn’t a perfect night, but there was a lot of good to take from the Owls’ second win of the season before conference play arrives next week. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Welcome to the Stat Sheet, Chase Jenkins

Prairie View got on the board first with Panthers’ quarterback Tevin Carter connecting on a couple of big pass plays, including a 12-yard score, that put Rice football in an early hole. The Owls looked to be headed for a second consecutive three-and-out when head coach Scott Abell rolled the dice and opted to chance a fourth-down run on his own side of the field.

Daelen Alexander moved the chains and gave the offense some life. Then Chase Jenkins seized the reins of the Rice offense. Jenkins called his own number on the next play, keeping the ball for 14 yards. He ran for nine on the next play, his next of five total carries on the drive for 36 yards, including a three-yard touchdown to level the score.

“I was really just trying to make plays to move the chains,” Jenkins said. “I wasn’t really worried about the stats.”

The 36 yards rushing already represented a season high on the ground for Jenkins, who became more involved as the game progressed, topping the century mark before halftime. Jenkins would finish the game with 124 yards, marking the first time a Rice quarterback has rushed for 100 yards in a game since Taylor McHargue had 153 against Marshall in 2012.

“To see Chase grow up tonight, the way he operated the offense, that’s kind of how it’s built, to take what they give you. As always, you want to be cleaner, you want to take advantage of everything, but I thought our guys did a really nice job,” Abell said. “I’m not disappointed at all. I think it’s a great game for us to build momentum on going forward.”

On a night when so much of the offense felt difficult, Jenkins’ ability to create with the ball in his hands was the most consistent source of explosiveness and routinely allowed Rice to move the ball.

Sluggish Start

While Jenkins’ emergence in the running game was certainly helpful, the Owls’ performance was largely sluggish for too long. They were forced to attempt two fourth-down conversions in the first half to keep drives alive. They converted both, the second with an explosive 52-yard touchdown run from slot receiver Aaron Turner, but the level of effort required was concerning, especially considering the opponent.

Jenkins had the ball pop out of his hands at the goal line on his touchdown run. The officials ruled it a score before the ball came out. The same happened to punt returner Tyson Thompson shortly afterward, with a loose ball ruled down before disaster. Thompson would fumble for real in the second quarter. Rice, fortunately, fell on the ball to retain possession.

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Prairie View A&M gouged the defense with a handful of long pass plays through the air, one of which came back via penalty. A holding call was crucial in the Owls’ first three-and-out on defense for the game at the beginning of the second quarter. Rice forced back-to-back three-and-outs to begin the game against Houston the week prior.

“Really they weren’t doing anything that we hadn’t seen all week,” safety Peyton Stevenson said. “We just came out a little sloppy, didn’t have our eyes in the right place. We knew they were going to test our rules. We knew they were going to test our eyes.”

Given the talent differential, none of these miscues were backbreakers. American Conference play, which begins next week against Charlotte, will pose a much stiffer test that sheer talent won’t be enough to overcome on its own.

Defense Takes Over Late

That Prairie View A&M had a lead at any point in this game was somewhat concerning, but the way the Rice football defense responded to a slow start was rather encouraging. The Panthers had 87 yards of offense on their first two drives, including a six-play, 63-yard touchdown drive that put them in front.

Rice held the Prairie View A&M to 58 yards combined in the second and third quarters. They kept Prairie View A&M in check before a late touchdown drive against the reserves. All caveats aside, Prairie View A&M only totaled 251 offensive yards for the night.

Down-to-down consistency waxed and waned, but even with the occasional hiccup here and there, the Owls made it extremely hard for the Panthers to get the ball downfield. Had the early touchdown never happened, this might have been discussed as one of the more thorough defensive performances Rice football has put on display in some time, particularly when held up alongside the best offensive showing of the Abell era to this point.

This defense is being graded on a higher standard because of its past success and the growing pains the offense is still working through. That’s the only reason why a 10-point performance (before garbage time) won’t be viewed as a tremendous success. This unit is capable of so much more if they can clean a few things up.

Late Game Cameos

The hope going into this contest was that Rice could get some of its younger players into this game to expose them to live action in this system. That wasn’t looking like a certainty in the early portions of this game, but with a three-touchdown lead and the defense heating up, Abell handed the keys to the offense to Drew Devillier and a host of others players who’d yet to see the field for Rice to this point.

Tyvonn Byars reeled off some big runs. Semaj Pierre took a ball around the edge for 14 yards. Tyson Thompson hauled in a laser from Devillier to extend the Rice lead. Abell mentioned the plan going into the week was to get several players into the game late. Even freshman quarterback Patrick Crayton handled a series, something that might not matter much now, but could play huge dividends down the road.

Altogether, it was a win, and a win in which the staff felt they achieved so many of the goals they felt they needed to coming into Saturday.

“I’m really pleased. We’re 2-1, but the part I’m pleased most about is the ceiling is so much higher. I don’t think we’ve played our best football. I think we’ve shown flashes of playing really good football in every game,” Abell said. “I’m happy where we are. I know the best is ahead for us.”

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Rice Football 2025: PVAMU Game Week Practice Notes

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Rice football looks to bounce back this week against Prairie View A&M. Here’s the latest from the practice field.

Refining execution and continuing to build muscle memory in the existing scheme remained the focal point of Rice football practices this week. Head coach Scott Abell is trying to balance a level of simplicity that allows the offense to go fast with the right tweaks to counter the things defenses are apt to throw their way in the coming weeks.

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This update digs into how the program preps for defensive game plans against them, what Rice needs to work on with the offense and some individual standouts and injury notes.

Anticipating the Opponent

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Rice Football Falls to Houston in Home Opener

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Rice Football fell to Houston in their last chance to lay claim to the Bayou Bucket Trophy for sometime. The Owls are 1-1 on the season.

After soaring to a 1-0 start in the debut of head coach Scott Abell against Louisiana, Rice football came back to ground level on Saturday in a rivalry game defeat at the hands of the Houston Cougars. With no current games on the schedule between the two crosstown teams, Houston will hold on to the Bayou Bucket, for now. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Pre-Injury Secondary Shows Out

In the season opener against Louisiana, it was the Rice football defensive line that stole the show. Cajuns’ quarterback Walker Howard barely completed 10 passes and was sacked three times. On Saturday against Houston, it was the secondary that made their bid for the most dominant unit on a stacked defensive side.

Corners Khary Crump and Omari Porter each had pivotal breakups that snuffed out Houston drives. Safety Jack Kane had a hit that separated his would-be receiver from the football and Porter closed out the next drive with a diving stop which was nearly picked off. And all of that happened in the first quarter.

More: Key Rice Football Recruiting Targets on Campus for Houston Game

Rice did register three sacks, so the front did find success in this game too, but the secondary was on another level, providing Houston quarterback Conner Weigman with no clean looks and plenty of tight windows. Even on his most accurate balls, Rice defensive backs made plays on the ball and kept the Houston offense in neutral with six breakups spread across four defenders.

Weigman didn’t do serious damage through the air until a 74-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. That score came against a backup corner following an injury to starter Khary Crump, who left the field on a prior series. That Rice was playing aggressively on the back end at the time given the two-score deficit didn’t help the situation. Crump’s injury will be one to monitor, but the secondary as a whole still played very well.

Offense Struggles with Cougars’ Front

While the defense delivered yet another masterclass, the offense took some time to get in gear. More than anything else, Houston’s athleticism proved much more arduous to overcome than anything the Owls had seen to this point. The Cougars routinely beat the Owls to the edges and kept contain, pushing the Rice offensive line inward and meeting ball carriers in the backfield.

Head coach Scott Abell seemed less phased by the talent differential than the Cougars’ approach.

“In the first half they came out in a defense we didn’t really prep for which is not abnormal for us, but in a year where we’re transitioning to a new system, we didn’t adjust very well,” Abell said. “They controlled the line of scrimmage because of that, that pretty much that whole first half.”

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Any advantages the Owls hoped to gain from their unique offensive attack were lessened by the Cougars’ ability to overcome a slower first step with speed and power. The Rice offense went three-and-out on its first three drives before it was able to adjust, pivoting to a more steady diet of screen passes to stretch the defense for it’s power running game on the inside.

“Last week we saw a defense that lined up how we prepped and it was clean,” Abell said. “Our guys executed really pretty well all game last week. This was almost a polar opposite. I didn’t think we excuted very well from the get-go. Even when we found momentum, we couldn’t keep it. We gotta figure that out and that starts with me.”

Rice would get on the board for the first time thanks to those deft modifications, cobbling together a 14-play, 47-yard drive, consummated by an Enoch Gota field goal. The Owls were making progress on the ensuing drive before being stopped short on fourth and one as running back D’Andre Hardeman was met in the backfield before he ever had a chance to make positive yardage.

Fortunately for Rice football, they won’t face many teams with this level of talent again this season. However, the Houston is a far cry from the upper-tier of talent in this sport. That Rice was able to move the ball on long scoring drives in the second and fourth quarters proves there’s more potential in this offense still untapped, but the level of consistency was far from adequate.

Limited Offense Leaves Little Room for Error

The sum total of the defensive dominance and offensive trudging nearly netted Rice football a halftime lead in their most coveted home contest of the season. Instead, fate would ensure it was Dean Connors — who spent the last three seasons donning Blue rather than Red in this rivalry game — who took a handoff 54 yards to paydirt in the final seconds of the first half.

What made twinge touchdown of Connors’ touchdown all the worse was the proceeding clock stoppage which may have subtly encouraged its coming. Following a facemask which set Houston back inside its own 20-yard line and an eight yard run. Rice head coach Scott Abell called a timeout with Houston facing second and 15. Rather than run the clock out and go into halftime down three, Houston pushed the ball, getting a first down at the 42-yard line. Connors scored three plays later.

Decisions like whether or not to call a timeout to get the ball back often get lost in the churn of variance that comes with every college football game. That the teams were separated by so small a difference than one breakaway play could be the difference.

If nothing else, it made Weigman’s nine-yard touchdown run in the third quarter made it clear a near-perfect game from other phases wasn’t going to be enough without some sort of pulse on offense. A pick-six off a deflected pass in the fourth made that emphatically clear. The final score made the game appear much more one-sided than it was for the majority of three-plus quarters, but the result speaks for itself.

1-1

Starting the 2025 season with games against a Sun Belt favorite and a Big XII team was a rude awakening for an offense still in its infancy, but it’s hard to deny a 1-1 start against the caliber of opponent the Owls have played to this point is anything other above par. Two touchdown underdogs in each game, that Rice was able to move through this stretch at .500 with a home-game looming against an FCS opponent is unequivocally a good start.

“If you would have asked me back in mid-August… I probably would have said okay,” Abell acknowledged. “But we weren’t [1-1], we were 1-0 and I’m really disappointed we’re not 2-0 because that’s the expectation. Are kids are disappointed and that score is not indicative of what that game was like.”

That Rice hired Abell for his offensive wizardry which has only produced 23 total points isn’t something he’s shying away from. Finding more consistency and more success becomes that more important as the season progresses.

“There’s your 10 Million Dollar question,” Abell said, addressing the quandary of replicating the offensive boost his team found briefly in the middle of the third quarter.

“We kinda went back to the basics. We kinda went back to the simple things that I though our guys could execute against a defense that we really hadn’t replicated in practice and encouraged them to play fast. And we did. We lined up in our base two formations. We played really fast there and kind of kept it simple and that’s what it looked like. Which is exciting, but we gotta be able to handle some complexity and that we did not handle tonight.”

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