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Rice Football 2024: Tulane Game Week Practice Report

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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 2024: UTSA Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football is back in action this week against UTSA in search of a much-needed win. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

There was some good news on the injury front for Rice football over the bye week and lots of shifts and contortions with the depth chart as the Owls attempt to replace players still not able to participate and account for changing numbers in various position groups. Here’s where the team stands prior to the UTSA game this weekend.

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Running back ranks reset

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Rice Football squanders fourth-quarter lead in loss Charlotte

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Rice Football had their chances to put the game away against Charlotte, but couldn’t close when it mattered most. The Owls are 1-4.

A 10-0 halftime lead was not enough as Rice football fell by a single point to Charlotte at home on Saturday night. In the final two minutes, Rice had chances to win the game on offense, but couldn’t convert a third and short. They had a chance to win on defense, but allowed a go-ahead touchdown in the final minute. They had the chance to win with special teams, but a last-second kick sailed wide.

“I think I’ve given this speech a few too many times this year,” Bloomgren said at the podium following the Owls’ fourth loss in five games. “We performed better than we have been, but when the crunch time was here in that fourth quarter we failed in all three phases and Charlotte made more plays.”

Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Trust your playmakers and let them produce

In the highest leverage moments, it’s the stars that have to shine. For Rice football right now, that means the most critical offensive moments should involve Dean Connors and EJ Warner and/or Matt Sykes. They’re not the only talented playmakers on this offense but that trio has largely been at the forefront when that offense is moving the ball well.

Warner overshot a makeable touchdown pass to Sykes on the Owls’ first possession but redeemed himself soon afterward with a nice dish to Jackson for the opening score. Connors had more rushing yards on his first touch of the game than Charlotte did in the entire first quarter.

Now, this reality comes with a very real, and very important caveat: your playmakers have to produce.

Warner hasn’t overcome his tendency to elevate throws downfield. He overshot Sykes on multiple third downs in the first half. Sykes was better this week than he was against Army a week ago, but his lack of consistency has been part of what’s gummed this offense up at times. Both have played better as the season progresses, but each would (correctly) admit they have room to grow.

Dean Connors has been and continues to be the most valuable man on this side of the ball. He only touched the ball seven times in the first half; that’s not enough. He finished with 16 touches for the game and 135 yards of total offense. Your best offensive weapon — and Connors is most certainly that — needs more of the ball.

“We got other good backs. We don’t want to just wear Dean out. If you tell me Dean is going to get 20 to 30 touches every game, that’s probably the right number,” Bloomgren said after the game. “16 total touches? Would you wanna program a few more for him? Absolutely. He’s a really good player, but the flow of the game was going the way it was.”

Rice does have other good backs, but 16 is not 30. It’s not 20 either.

Rice racked up 463 yards of total offense, their highest total against an FBS opponent yet this season. It’s not a particularly impressive number on the whole, but it’s a step in the right direction. Those playmakers have to get things going if this offense is ever going to come close to the ceiling it’s shown in previous years.

Bring out the depth

So much of the discourse this offseason around the Rice football roster centered on the depth the Owls’ had accumulated in Bloomgren’s seventh season. Unfortunately, the only way to truly evaluate that depth is to have it forced into action. The results have been mixed when former twos and threes have been thrown into the first with the first units this season, but Saturday’s win against Charlotte probably doesn’t happen without some important contributions from former backups being asked to step up.

The offense line, featuring just two players in the same position they played on opening day, consistently opened up holes for the running game. Both Dean Connors and Taji Atkins got to the second level on plays that were blocked well. Although he took a few shots, Warner wasn’t sacked.

Likewise, the defense churned out some big plays from lesser-known faces. Peyton Stevenson and made consecutive plays to help stonewall a Charlotte drive in the second quarter. Daveon Hook led the team in tackles. Mutombo had the interception and followed it with a sack. None of those three were on the two-deep against Sam Houston in Week 1.

The go-ahead fourth quarter touchdown was scored by Elijah Mojarro, who wouldn’t have been on the field had Boden Groen been healthy.

Obviously, the Owls would love to have as many of their starters back on the field as possible. A bye week with extra rest will help those efforts, but even if reinforcements do arrive, this depth matters. Especially if Rice wants to make good on some of their preseason aspirations and get things turned around.

Unfortunately, the reliance on depth has it’s downsides too. Kicker Enoch Gota missed his first do-or-die attempt of his young career, turning what could have been a celebratory night into another painful defeat.

The defense gets some of its swagger back

The Rice offense got a big play from Dean Connors but didn’t put any points on the board in the first quarter, turning the ball over inside the redzone and punting on their ensuing possession. That put the onus on the defense to make sure they kept their team in the game.

Aided by favorable field position on a few occasions, the defense delivered one of their better starts to a game this season. Blake Boenisch didn’t suit up on Saturday, but the Owls still held Charlotte to 1.2 yards per carry in the first quarter. The safety room was as depleted as it’s ever been under head coach Mike Bloomgren, but they limited Charlotte quarterback Trexler Ivey to 5-of-10 passing for 35 yards on the 49ers’ first three offensive series.

The Charlotte never got in gear under Trexler Ivey. When they did finally get the ball across the 50-yard line midway through the second quarter they were swiftly turned away by this interception from defensive lineman Joseph Mutombo, who has seen an elevated role in the defense partly because of the slew of injuries in front of him.

Charlotte finally found life under backup quarterback Deshawn Purdie, who connected on three deep passes, all of which resulted in scoring drives. That was essentially it for the Charlotte attack. Three plays. But it was enough.

As the offense works through its challenges in real time, more and more pressure is going to be put on this defense to win games. On Saturday against a woeful Charlotte offense, they came close enough but got little help from the other phases. If they can translate that to more talented opponents, Rice is going to have a fighting chance to win some games, but they’re the last bastion of hope for a team that’s hurting.

Losing on the Margin

A fourth down pass interference call against Sean Fresch changed the outcome of this game. A block in the back penalty on the ensuing possession might very well have swung the outcome, too. Both plays exemplified the dangerous tightrope Rice Football attempted to walk in this game. Rice let a bad Charlotte team stick around to the point where one blown coverage could shift the result of the game.

The best teams in the sport create margin. You can afford a bust on any particular play or phase of the game when there’s a buffer to cover those shortcomings. When you’re stuck in a one-score game, every mistake matters. Teams with more faults make more mistakes. There’s some truth to the old adage that good teams stay good and bad teams stay bad.

This is a bad football team right now.

One that, in Bloomgren’s own words “failed in all three phases” to one of the few teams left in the country that had yet to beat an FBS opponent. It’s hard to imagine a lower point than this in a season that was supposed to be a breakthrough campaign. Picked to finish in the thick of a competitive AAC, Rice football sits dead last in the standings and they have yet to play UTSA, Tulane, Memphis or South Florida.

This is a team out of excuses and out of answers. There’s a lot of soul-searching to be done during this bye week from everyone in the program. This isn’t how this season was supposed to go.

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Fourth and the Woe Zone

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Rice Football 2024: Houston Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football takes on Houston with eyes on keeping the Bayou Bucket on South Main. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

Rivalry week is the best week. For Rice football, that means it’s time to battle for the Bayou Bucket against the University of Houston across town. How much does this game mean to the Owls? Veteran corner Sean Fresch, who will make his fourth start in this rivalry series on Saturday, tried to put it into words.

“I’m excited. It’s always fun to play against these guys. We don’t like them. They don’t like us. But I’m pretty sure we don’t like them a little more,” he said. I love getting to this week because all the guys are fired up, not like we don’t every week, but this week is just different, rivalry week.”

Here’s more on the game, some injury news on the Rice front and news from the practice field.

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Depth chart check

Scheduling was tight this week with Bayou Bucket activities, so there was no formal press conference. I was able to get the depth chart, though, and there are a few changes this week from the initial depth chart which Rice football has kept consistent through each of the first two games.

Rice Football, depth chart

On offense, Chad Lindberg is listed as the starting left guard, a position he held last week but has now been formalized. On defense, Plae Wyatt has been taken off the two-deep. Marcus Williams and Peyton Stevenson move up the depth chart behind him. The only other change on defense is Andrew Awe moving in front of DJ Arkansas as the Owls’ starting Mike linebacker.

Enoch Gota, who handled all placekicking duties against Texas Southern, has been moved to the top of the depth chart above Tim Horn. While there is still an OR designation, Gota is expected to be the starter against Houston. There are no other official changes, but player availability might impact how the Owls take the field on Saturday.

Stepping In

Safety Plae Wyatt announced on social media this week he would miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, an injury he suffered in the loss against Sam Houston in Week 1. The leading tackler for the Owls last season, Wyatt’s loss is a big one for this defense. If there’s any consolation, it’s that the next man up, Marcus Williams, is far from an unknown commodity.

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Rice Football blasts Texas Southern in bounce-back win

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Rice Football took command early and never let up, eviscerating Texas Southern in one of the most dominant wins of the Mike Bloomgren era.

Rice football took the field on Saturday with a newfound sense of urgency following last week’s debacle against Sam Houston. In that game, the Owls were ineffective in all three phases and were summarily thumped on their own (brand new) turf. Head coach Mike Bloomgren was adamant that his players and staff would take the wake-up call for what it was. “We will respond,” he vowed. His team did just that. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Physically dominant

Perhaps the most irksome aspect of the Owls’ Week 1 loss was the degree to which they looked outclassed on both lines of scrimmage. Although the defense tallied seven sacks, Sam Houston ran the ball effectively. On the other side, the Owls’ offensive line offered little support for EJ Warner, continually leaving their quarterback under fire and failing to keep defenders out of the backfield.

A completely different team showed up Saturday night against Texas Southern.

“More than anything, we just need to play another game. I would have played Jones Junior High or I would have played Alabama. We need to play somebody today,” Bloomgren said. “We just needed to get a chance to get our room back and play football and love this thing and we did that. That’s what I’m happy about. We got a chance to play this game.”

The offensive line bullied the Texas Southern front for four quarters, making running lanes for Dean Connors and providing Warner plenty of time to work through progressions and find the open man. Consider the first touchdown of the game (below) which features a well-executed fullback block, a nice block from long pulling from the right side allowing Connors to get a couple of yards past the line of scrimmage before contact. Then he finishes the play in the endzone.

It was the same story on defense. The difference in intensity was night and day, highlighted by a celebratory three-player sack on the final drive of the first quarter. Officially the sack was shared by Blaise Tita and Myron Morrison — NCAA rules limit sacks shared to two individuals — but the play capped off a first quarter in which the Rice defense held Texas Southern to six total yards on three successive three-and-out series.

The first series that didn’t end with three plays and a punt for Texas Southern came early in the second quarter. That drive stopped on the second play, a pick-six by Tyson Flowers. Rice needed 60 minutes to score twice against Sam Houston. They had 28 points on the board against Texas Southern in less than 20 minutes. Rice was the more physical team in this one and that was readily apparent on almost every snap.

The second half was more of the same. Prior to their final possession, Texas Southern had not crossed midfield and had three total first downs. They never threatened to score until the final drive when the Owls had emptied their bench, and even then, it was close. Meanwhile, the Rice offense continued to march up and down the field in the final minutes of regulation.

Those final minutes included a 12-minute fourth quarter, a stipulation permitted should both head coaches agree to it. Rice dominated to such a degree that the game was shortened in the college football equivalent of the mercy rule.

The Taji Atkins Show

At least one player refused to check out when the game entered its later stages. True freshman running back Taji Atkins made waves during the offseason and made his debut last week against Sam Houston. On Saturday against Texas Southern, he made his presence felt in a very real way. Atkins scored his first career touchdown on a five-yard plunge in the third quarter.

Atkins wasn’t going to settle for just one cameo, though. Minutes later he exploded through the line, found the corner and accelerated for a 33-yard score.

Atkins carried the ball 11 times for 91 yards, narrowly missing the century mark in just his second career game. Had the field been a few yards longer on that second score, he probably would have gotten there. It seems likely we’ll see a lot more of that from Atkins moving forward.

Clean it up

The impressive showing was only marred, in part, but self-inflicted wounds. Those first two big plays by the special teams, Fresch’s return and the blocked punt, were both erased on penalties. Rice would be flagged eight times for 72 yards. Texas Southern’s only scoring drive was aided by a facemask penalty that put the Tigers in the redzone.

The Texas Southern offense only tallied 87 yards for the game and had 14 total yards before their final drive. Rice came ever so close to spotting their opponent more yards than their defense allowed.

Bloomgren, who is usually quick to pounce on penalties as a straightforward place for his team to get better, was largely dismissive of the calls in this game. “I’ll look forward to seeing those flags that were thrown, watching those players later tonight on the iPad because I’m not sure I completely understand what was called,” he said. If his assumptions are correct, perhaps that bodes well for the future.

It wasn’t just penalties, though. A fumbled snap almost erased a fourth down conversion in the first quarter. Fortunately this time Warner was able to scoop the ball up and slam it in the gut of Connors who plowed straight forward for the first down. Warner was less fortunate a few series later when he hung a ball out to Matt Sykes in a hook route that was intercepted, his third pick of the young season.

When you’re playing an FCS team that entered the game as more than a four-touchdown underdog, you can make mistakes like those.

To be fair, if those were the only mistakes the Owls made in any given game, they’d still be set up for a favorable result, but the best result here is to use those shortcomings as additional growth opportunities. If this is what Rice football can be when they’re good, not great, what does a perfect performance look like? What caliber of opponent can the Owls take down when everything is clicking like it’s supposed to? Next weekend against Houston will afford them an opportunity to test that out.

One for the record books

The kind of thumping Rice football put on Texas Southern was as impressive as it felt. The Owls registered a long list of “firsts since” on Saturday night. Although they won’t be able to add their first shutout since 2020 to the ledger, they did rack up a long list of superlatives. For example,

Rice football’s 69 points were the most scored by the Owls since scoring 77 against North Texas in 2008 and the third most scored in program history.

Rice football held Texas Southern to 49 passing yards, the lowest total for an opponent since holding Army to nine in 2017.

Rice football held Texas Southern to 38 rushing yards, the lowest total for an opponent since holding UTEP to 17 in 2017.

It was the first 300+ yard rushing game for Rice football since 2021.

As for individual accolades, Tyson Flowers and Marcus Williams each registered their first career interceptions. Taji Atkins had his first career touchdown then added another. Enoch Gota made his first two field goals. Backup quarterback Drew Devillier made his Rice debut as did a few others. The starters were out of the game by the midpoint of the third quarter. That’s how this kind of game is supposed to go.

The gaudy numbers aren’t going to the Owls’ heads just yet. Safety Tyson Flowers, who helped contribute to the beatdown, offered a levelheaded assessment of where this team stands right now.

“You want to shut out, right? But at the end of the day we won the game and regardless of them scoring at the end, regardless of us not having the shut out, there’s still plays that we need to improve on all throughout the game,” he said. “That was by no means a flawless game whether we got the shut out or not. There’s stuff that we’re gonna find when we watch the film that we need to correct if we want to continue to have the season that we want to have.”

Exhale and reload

For the casual football fan, this was a snoozer that wasn’t worth turning into beyond a few highlight plays that found their way onto social media. For a Rice football team that entered the season with the expectations they did to win in the way they did, this was expected. To see it transpire a week removed from the Sam Houston State fiasco was essential. More than anything, it sets up a crucial opportunity one week from now against Houston.

The Bayou Bucket currently resides inside the walls of the Brian Patterson Center at South Main. Players, staff and media walk past it daily. It’s become a fixture in the team meeting room. And nobody wants it to leave. Houston — 0-2 after losing to Oklahoma on Saturday night — looks more vulnerable than ever in its humble beginnings under new head coach Willie Fritz.

We’ll get to next week next week, but it’s impossible not to envision how the optics of this season could change with a 2-1 start. The oddsmakers projected Rice to be 2-1 at this point in the year, but nobody would have tabbed that potential sequence of results. This team has always been a bit unpredictable under Bloomgren’s leadership. Why not lean into that chaos and keep the Bucket for at least one more year?

“I’d like to celebrate this one before we talk about Houston anymore, if you don’t mind,” Bloomgren chided after the game. “All jokes aside, I know this team is going to be excited for next week. I think this is going to make us hungrier than ever.”

Taking care of business against Texas Southern might just give this team the boost they need to do just that.

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