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Rice Football 2023 Spring Notebook 10: Defensive Takeaways

April 19, 2023 By Matthew Bartlett

The Rice Football defense once again had a productive spring. Here’s what we learned about that side of the ball.

Despite coming out of the wrong side according to the final score in the 2023 Rice Football Blue and Gray Game, the defense had a largely positive spring. They asserted their will in the prior two scrimmages and made plenty of noise along the way, but they have questions still to be answered as spring winds down. Here are 10 closing thoughts on the defense from the totality of the spring.

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  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 1 – Coaching Shuffle
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 2 – Roster Notes
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 3 – Depth Chart
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 4 – Scrimmage 1
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 5 – Empyting the Notebook
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 6 – Scrimmage 2
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 7 – Big picture questions
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 8 – Spring Game
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 9 – Offensive Takeaways
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1. Coaching matters

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Filed Under: Archive, Football, Premium, Reserve Tagged With: Blake Boenisch, Chibby Nwajuaku, Christian Edgar, Coleman Coco, Daveon Hook, De'Braylon Carroll, DeMone Green, DJ Arkansas, Gabe Taylor, Izeya Floyd, Jeremy Modkins, John Kay, Jojo Jean, Jordan Dunbar, Josh Pearcy, Josh Williams, Lamont Narcisse, Marcus Williams, Peyton Stevenson, practice notes, Rice Football, Sean Fresch, spring practice, Tre'shon Devones, Van Heitmann

Rice Football 2023 Spring Practice Notebook 7: Big picture questions

April 14, 2023 By Matthew Bartlett

The last practice before the 2023 Rice Football spring game has wrapped up and there are several questions that still need answering as spring ball ends.

All eyes were focused on the arrival of transfer quarterback JT Daniels, who took the field for the first time this spring. Would he live up to expectations? Early returns have been superb. But with quarterback (thankfully) solved, there are other outstanding questions that Rice football hasn’t found the answers to just yet and spring is rapidly drawing to a close.

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  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 1 – Coaching Shuffle
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 2 – Roster Notes
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 3 – Depth Chart
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 4 – Scrimmage 1
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 5 – Empyting the Notebook
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 6 – Scrimmage 2
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The roster is strong, but is the depth there?

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Filed Under: Archive, Football, Premium Tagged With: Blake Boenisch, Boden Groen, Brad Baur, Braedon Nutter, Brant Banks, Chibby Nwajuaku, Coleman Coco, De'Braylon Carroll, DeMone Green, Ethan Onianwa, Ethan Powell, Gabe Taylor, Izeya Floyd, Jack Bradley, John Long, Josh Pearcy, Lavel Dumont, Matt Hall, Miguel Cedeno, Plae Wyatt, practice notes, Rice Football, spring practice, Trey Phillippi, Weston Kropp

Rice Football 2023 Spring Practice Notebook 5: Emptying the Notebook

March 31, 2023 By Matthew Bartlett

We’re midway through the 2023 Rice Football spring practices and notes are piling up. Here’s a grab bag of several from the past few weeks.

From the defensive line to the wideouts. From the stars to the up-and-comers, there’s been a lot to pay attention to as Rice football progresses through spring camp. This update features a collection of nuggets that haven’t made it into an update quite yet and a few updates following the first scrimmage last week.

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  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 1 – Coaching Shuffle
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 2 – Roster Notes
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 3 – Depth Chart
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 4 – Scrimmage 1
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Don’t believe the depth chart

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Filed Under: Archive, Football, Premium Tagged With: Bradley Rozner, Braedon Nutter, Brant Banks, Coleman Coco, Gabe Taylor, John Long, Josh Pearcy, JT Daniels, Kobie Campbell, Landon Ransom, Lavel Dumont, practice notes, Rawson MacNeill, Rice Football, spring practice, TJ McMahon, Tyson Thompson, Weston Kropp, Wiley Green

Rice Football 2023 Spring Practice Notebook 4: Scrimmage 1

March 25, 2023 By Matthew Bartlett

The first scrimmage of 2023 Rice Football spring practice is in the books. Here are a few individual standouts and some big-picture takeaways.

As is typically the case, the Rice football offense was doing push ups at the end of spring scrimmage one, losing the day to the defense. Head coach Mike Bloomgren admitted it would have been a rarity to see the offense come out faster than the defense to start any camp session, but was quick to level some specific critiques as well. This update breaks down some individual standouts on both sides of the ball and their ramifications on the team thus far.

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  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 1 – Coaching Shuffle
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 2 – Roster Notes
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 3 – Depth Chart
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Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?

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Recent Posts
  • Rice Football Recruiting: OL Netane Fehoko commits to Owls
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Filed Under: Archive, Football, Premium Tagged With: AJ Padgett, Cedric Patterson, Coleman Coco, Dean Connors, Gabe Taylor, Josh Pearcy, JT Daniels, Juma Otoviano, Luke McCaffrey, Marcus Williams, Peyton Stevenson, Plae Wyatt, practice notes, Rice Football, Shawqi Itraish, spring practice, Tyson Thompson

Rice Football 2022 Defensive Player of the Year: Josh Pearcy

January 23, 2023 By Matthew Bartlett

A first-year team captain, Joshua Pearcy did not disappoint, leading the team in sacks on his way to becoming our 2022 Rice Football Defensive Player of the Year.

Having too many good players is a coach’s dream. That’s one of the reasons head coach Mike Bloomgren wasn’t too worried about how the preseason rotation on the edge would play out. Regardless of who “won”, Rice would be better. Joshua Pearcy emerged from the competition and parlayed that into an outstanding season worthy of being named our 2022 Rice Football Defensive Player of the Year.

Through camp, the conversation at Pearcy’s position centered around how the defensive staff would get both Pearcy and fellow edge rusher Kenneth Orji on the field. Pearcy was coming off a tremendous 58 tackle, four sack performance when the competition began to heat up in earnest this spring.

It was during those spring sessions that defensive coordinator Brian Smith began to drop some breadcrumbs. “He’s playing better than he ever has,” Smith said of Pearcy, going on to detail what sort of packages they could use to get both him and Orji on the field. In the end though, not only did Pearcy win the job, his rapid ascent just continued to reach new heights.

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Pearcy was named a captain prior to the season, in part because of his impressive work on special teams. Special teams coordinator Chris Monfilleto singled him out as one of the key voices of the unit. Pearcy had tied for the team lead in special team tackles the season before.

In addition to his special team’s work, Pearcy became a leader of the defense too. He finished fourth on the team in tackles in 2022, the most among any defensive lineman on the roster. His 10 tackles for a loss and 6.5 sacks put him in the top seven in both categories among all Conference USA defenders. He had become a force.

“We got to stop the run [and] make the plays that we’re supposed to make,” Pearcy said of the defense heading into the regular season finale. “But when it comes down to those plays where talent takes over, beyond just doing your job, you got to make those plays too.”

Those plays, the ones that prove differential, game-changing. Those are the plays that Pearcy gravitated to the most.

More: Offensive Player of the Year — Luke McCaffrey

It’s no coincidence that Pearcy started in what was arguably the most emphatic defensive play of the season, cementing an upset win over UAB for the second consecutive year. The Blazers had the ball on the Rice 35-yard line with time ticking under one minute to play. After a sack by Trey Schuman on first down, Pearcy was credited with a forced fumble on the next play, forcing third and long.

UAB nearly converted a game-winning hail mary to upend the Owls last season, but Rice was saved via penalty. This time, it was Pearcy, who sacked quarterback Dylan Hopkins on the final play of regulation to secure the win and enable Rice to move to 3-2 on the season.

Pearcy would go on to make more plays, including tying a season-high seven tackles with one sack and 1.5 tackles for a loss in the Owls’ Lending Tree Bowl matchup with Southern Miss. All three of those measures tied or lead the team outright. In another big moment, Pearcy showed up. Because that’s what great players do. The answer to the preseason musings had been solved. No matter what Rice football chooses to do, they’d better make sure Josh Pearcy is on the field.


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Filed Under: Featured, Football Tagged With: Josh Pearcy, postseason awards, Rice Football

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