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Rice Football 2024 Spring Practice Notebook 2: From the Trenches

March 20, 2024 By Matthew Bartlett

Spring is meant to be a time for improvement and learning. That’s been the theme from Rice football on the practice field this week.

Rice football returned from spring break and got back on the practice field this week. There were standouts at all levels, but the trenches stuck out the most. The offensive line has wowed early, even as they rotate through several faces. Meanwhile, on defense, the up-and-coming youngsters are working to make a name for themselves alongside some veteran pieces.

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Growth, competition and good news up front

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Rice Football 2024 Spring Practice Notebook 1: Spring Intros

March 8, 2024 By Matthew Bartlett

The 2024 Rice Football spring practices are officially underway. Here’s the latest on the roster and their plans this spring.

Rice football was back on the grass for the first week of spring practices this week. The Owls will have a short hiatus for spring break, then return to finish the final four weeks of camp and conclude with their spring game on April 13. That’s a short window to accomplish a lot. Stay tuned here for updates throughout the weeks ahead, starting right now with more on their starting point, some news faces, a notable position change and more.

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Quarterback-to-wideout conversion continues

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Rice Football 2023: Bowl Prep Practice Report 1

December 11, 2023 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football is prepping for the SERVPRO First Responders Bowl. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

Extra practices are one of the most significant benefits of postseason play and Rice football is taking full advantage of the opportunity. The Owls are getting time on the practice field last week and this week, working around finals as they install their game plan and get reps in for their upcoming matchup with Texas State.

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This week’s roundup focuses on what the bowl roster will look like for Rice football as well as some notes on how prep has gone and who has shown out in the early goings.

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Who’s here and who isn’t

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Rice Football 2023: South Florida Game Week Practice Report

September 21, 2023 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football hits the road for their first-ever AAC game against South Florida. Here’s what we learned from practice this week.

Hoping to be 3-1 for the first time since 2001, Rice football heads to Florida to take on USF and first-year head coach Alex Golesh this weekend. The Owls had plenty of film to review following the Texas Southern win and had a few changes to make as a result.

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This week’s roundup focuses on how Rice football plans to address the tempo USF plays with as well as some potential personnel decisions at linebacker and running back that could be intriguing as the team prepares for Week 4.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

Tempo, tempo, tempo

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Texas overwhelms Rice Football as the Owls fall in lopsided opener

September 2, 2023 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice Football delivered the first blow, but it was Texas that had the last laugh as the Longhorns overwhelmed the Owls in the trenches to hand them a season-opening loss.

The final score might not have been completely indicative of the intensity of Saturday’s season-opening matchup between Rice football and Texas. The Owls kept things close through the first half until the defense ran out of gas, worked to the max under the sweltering Austin heat as the Owls’ offense struggled to get into gear. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Throw the first punch

You couldn’t have drawn it up much better than this. Texas received the opening kickoff, picked up a couple of yards and found itself facing a fourth-and-two from its own 33-yard line. Rather than play it safe, the Longhorns rolled the dice. The Owls overwhelmed quarterback Quinn Ewers in the backfield and forced a short throw, turning Texas over on downs on their first possession.

“That’s something that doesn’t really surprise us,” linebacker Myron Morrison said postgame. “We consider ourselves one of the best short-yardage defenses in the country.”

Rice would get three points for their efforts, picking up one first down before turning to Tim Horn who booted through a 42-yard field goal to give the underdogs the lead. Head coach Mike Bloomgren had mentioned this week that he didn’t believe the game would be too big for his team this time around and that certainly seemed to be the case from the opening whistle.

Rice entered the second quarter trailing 7-3 and went into halftime down 16-3. In both instances, Rice was very much so in the game and had given Texas reason to be concerned, at least on one side of the ball. This was a matchup that hadn’t been interesting in the second half in the last several meetings. Rice kept the game in reach at the halftime whistle.

Defense makes its mark

How about that defense? This unit lost Ikenna Enechukwu, Trey Schuman, Quint Titre, George Nyakwol and others from last year’s squad and somehow looked even more dangerous. The front seven engineered two fourth-down stops in plus territory in the first half and gave Ewers all he could handle, racking up two sacks and several more near misses that still managed to impact the game. Coleman Coco and De’Braylon Carroll noticeably impacted the game.

Texas was a five-touchdown favorite on Saturday largely because oddsmakers believed the Longhorns would be able to move the ball. Texas did that to some extent — the Longhorns finished with 458 yards gained — but the Rice defense never lost its composure and seemingly always bounced back following a big Texas gain.

Through the air, Sean Fresch and Tre’shon Devones kept the ball in front of them and prevented Ewers and Texas from connecting on home run balls down the field. Instead, Texas was forced to do much of its damage after the catch.

Although the box score won’t be kind to the defense after surrendering 37 points, when field position and the lack of help from the Owls’ offense is taken into account, it’s hard to walk away from this one not feeling largely positive above this side of the ball. There were missed tackles, missed assignments and missteps, but the defense was not the problem on Saturday, far from it.

Oof, Offense, Oof

While the defense rose to the occasion, the offense was largely stuck in quicksand throughout the game. Handed so many opportunities by their counterparts on the other side of the ball, quarterback JT Daniels and company did little to return the favor. His Rice debut was largely underwhelming, he completed 14 of 26 passes for 149 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

In the aftermath, Bloomgren pumped the brakes on putting the all blame on his quarterback, and for good reason. The Texas defensive line had its way with the Rice offensive line from start to finish, flustering Daniels and making him through with hands in his face and arms on his jersey. “You can’t evaluate quarterbacks like that,” Bloomgren said.

The unit had the opportunity to go back to the drawing board at halftime but came out of the gates with a false start on the first snap of the half which proceeded a quick three-and-out. The ensuing drive did move the chains once, but a fourth-and-one stop by the Texas defense turned the ball over on downs.

In many ways, that short yardage stop, an area the Owls have found tremendous success in during recent years, typified the Owls’ largest offensive problem on Saturday: the trenches. Plain and simple, Rice was simply outmanned up front. They had no answer for the sheer power of the Longhorns inside and it completely crippled their offensive attack. “The best quarterback in the world needs something,” Bloomgren said of the protection. “There were a lot of times I didn’t feel he had those opportunities today.”

Rice football won’t face many teams with the combination of size and strength Texas possesses up front this season. Before writing this unit off entirely, let’s see how they fair against a more evenly matched front.

Onto the next

It would have been a remarkable, unforgettable beginning to the season had Rice football done the unthinkable and upset a ranked Texas team on the road to begin the 2023 season. Those dreams have passed, and Rice is on to what the Owls hope to be the more representative portion of their schedule.

Oddsmakers aren’t infallible, but Saturday’s matchup with the Longhorns should be the only time this season Rice will be an underdog but four or five touchdowns — a margin the Owls managed to cover. No, from this point onward, every game is not only winnable, but victory should be achievable without herculean means.

Rice gave Texas a scare, stayed relatively healthy and got a good look at what will likely be the most talented opposition they’ll face this season. Now it’s time to move on. All eyes are now on Houston as Rice readies for a rematch of a game that went down to the wire last season and is anticipated to be extremely competitive once again.

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Recent Posts
  • Rice Baseball blows past PVAMU at home
  • Rice Football Recruiting: WR David Kasemervisz commits to Owls
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  • Rice Football Recruiting: WR Artis Cole commits to Owls

Filed Under: Archive, Football, Premium Tagged With: Blake Boenisch, Braylen Walker, Chibby Nwajuaku, Coleman Coco, De'Braylon Carroll, DeMone Green, game recap, Jovoni Johnson, JT Daniels, Kobie Campbell, Rawson MacNeill, Rice Football, Sean Fresch, Tre'shon Devones

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