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Rice Football 2022: USC Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football is days away from opening its season against USC. Here’s what we learned from the practices leading up to the game.

Following Wednesday’s practice as Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren surveyed his team as they began to pack up their things and leave the field, he offered this comment: “This is what I wanted it to look like.”

He was speaking of the Owls’ roster, of the program as a whole. He and I had talked about what this team would look like in Year 4 in Year 5 back when he first arrived at the program for the 2018 season. The depth he’d dreamed of has arrived. The speed, athleticism and raw talent is evident in so many players. And now this team is days away from being put through its first test.

With most of this week’s practice wrapped up, here’s a deep dive on all three phases, some standouts from this week and a few notes on how Rice football is preparing to take on USC.

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Rice Football 2022 Fall Camp Notebook 3: Assessing the Defense

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Defensive Coordinator Brian Smith answered some questions and shared his philosophy for the Rice football defense as the Owls start fall camp.

For the better part of the past two seasons, it’s been tough sledding on the injury front for the Rice football defense. Key players like Treshawn Chamberlain, George Nyakwol and De’Braylon Carroll have missed significant time. Now, they’re back and most of the players who held down the front in their place are still on campus. That’s good news for the Owls’ defense in 2022.

More: Rice Football Preseason Preview Series

Defensive coordinator Brian Smith, who has had to make do with square pegs and round holes, looks to finally have his full arsenal at his disposal, and perhaps of equal importance — he has depth. How will Rice utilize that depth this season and how will they deploy their many assets on this side of the ball. Smith sat down with The Roost this week to share his plans and discuss some big-picture themes for his unit this fall.

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Rice Football 2022 Season Preview: Safety

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As part of our 2022 Rice Football Preseason Preview series, next we’ll examine the safety position and discuss the Owls’ plans for that group.

It’s been tough sledding on the back end of the Rice football secondary for some time now, although the rotating door at safety hasn’t been for lack of effort. Injuries have hammered this room hard in each of the past two years. This time around the Owls are looking as healthy as ever and they might even have some depth to go around, too. Here’s our 2022 Safety Preview.

Rice Football Preseason Preview: Check out the rest of the series here.

This piece is part of our 2022 Rice Football Season Preview. Get access to it, as well as all other preview posts such as positional breakdowns, depth chart and schedule analysis and more when you subscribe on Patreon today. New subscribers get our Conference USA Football Season Preview for FREE! 

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Rice Football 2022: Early Position by position confidence levels

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Spring ball is long gone and Rice Football is preparing to turn the page toward the 2022 season. How confident should we be in each position group?

Every Rice football position group entered the spring facing a different set of questions. For some, spring was about identifying starters. For others, it was assessing the depth and determining if reinforcements were needed. Not all those questions were answered, but we did learn enough to project how confident we might be in each position group heading into the 2022 season.

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Rice Football 2022: What we learned from the defense this spring

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It was a productive spring for the Rice Football defense. Here are five things we learned from the unit over the course of the six weeks of practice.

The defense started strong and carried its moment through more than a month during Rice football spring practices. A mix of up-and-coming stars-to-be joined up with several well-known veterans and combined to give the offense fits. Who stood out the most and what did we learn from this unit as a whole during the spring?

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