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Rice Football: 10 Takeaways from 2023 Season

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The 2023 Rice football season was unpredictable and one-of-a-kind. What can we take away from the Owls’ six-win campaign?

A SERVPRO First Responder’s Bowl appearance marks the end of an eventful 2023 Rice Football season, filled with extremely high highs and some questionable lows. Ultimately, this year will be remembered most for that second-straight bowl appearance, but we learned a lot about this team and this program throughout the season.

Make sure you check out The Roosties, our take on an annual Rice football awards show from The Roost Podcast. There will also be Team Superlatives released throughout the next few weeks featuring more traditional awards like Team MVP, Offense and Defensive Player of the Year and more.

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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.

Here are a few final thoughts on the 2023 Rice football season, ordered with five initial positives from the year that was and five pressing questions for the future based on what we saw on the field this year.

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Rice Football tops FAU, clinches bowl eligibility

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Rice Football is going bowling for the second year in a row following a Senior Day victory over FAU, led by former Owl Tom Herman.

FAU struck first, but Rice football weathered the storm and gutted out its sixth win of the season, securing a second-consecutive bowl trip for head coach Mike Bloomgren and the Owls. On the arm of backup quarterback AJ Padgett, a resilient defense and an unrelenting desire to finish, Rice made the plays when they mattered most and found a way to win. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

This team is tough

Everything about this week of preparation suggested that Rice football would be ready for this game, so it was quite a surprise when FAU’s first play from scrimmage was a 75-yard touchdown run, possibly aided by a hold on Rice corner Tre’shon Devones. To follow that up with a long drive on offense that resulted in zero points and a turnover on downs inside the 10 was crushing.

Both the offense and the defense had come up short on their opening sequence whilst FAU had made the big play, twice. Rice had a choice to make. Was it going to be “Here we go again?” or would it be a call to arms with a renewed focus? Fortunately, it was the latter.

The offense got things back in gear, marched down the field and scored. The defense, after allowing 75 yards on the first play of the game, allowed FAU just 47 yards in the rest of the half.

A redzone interception by quarterback AJ Padgett didn’t do the Owls any favors, but the young signal caller recovered by leading a scoring drive on the next possession to put Rice in front at halftime. After so much going wrong for Rice in the first half, to enter the locker room with a lead spoke volumes. This team wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

It was fitting, then, that after a clock-killing drive that came up short on a failed fourth down conversion attempt the Rice defense was thrust back onto the field to make one last stop. With the game (and the postseason) literally on the line, the Owls got the job done.

Growing up before our eyes

Padgett took almost every snap during practice over the past two weeks but played relatively poorly in his two starts entering Saturday. His struggles, combined with the four-game redshirt rule which left backup freshman quarterback Chase Jenkins with one more game to play this season, led the staff to split reps between the quarterbacks during practice this week.

Bloomgren was adamant Jenkins would play. Offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasopop0 said he’d been in the game early. Yet when the halftime whistle sounded, Jenkins hadn’t moved from his perch on the Rice sideline. Why? Padgett, although not perfect, was moving the offense up and down the field.

In the first half alone, Padgett completed 12-of-19 passes for 172 yards, one touchdown and one pick. The interception was an impressive leaping grab by an FAU defensive back that wasn’t nearly as inexcusable as turnovers Padgett had committed in previous games. Despite only one score to show from it early on, the Owls’ redshirt freshman quarterback was playing well.

Bloomgren believed he could have been even better, though. “Still not the best of AJ Padgett,” he said after the game. “He is such a much better quarterback than what we’ve been able to put on display in games.”

Given a resilient running game and some penalties committed by FAU — at long last, a break on the officiating front for Rice — Padgett wasn’t asked to do too much in the second half. He calmly guided the team down to what would be the game-winning touchdown drive, finding Boden Groen in the back of the endzone for the score.

He finished the game 24-of-37 for 255 yards and three touchdowns with 32 yards rushing, before sacks. He was great on Saturday. And Rice needed every bit of it to win this game.

We’re going to miss Luke McCaffrey

“We talk about Luke McCaffrey so much, and we don’t talk about him enough. I think that couldn’t be more true,” Bloomgren said. “The impact that he has on our team and the player that he is. I feel so blessed to be able to work with him.”

Expectations were sky-high when McCaffrey committed to Rice prior to the 2021 season. A dual-threat quarterback, he was electric with the ball in his hands so hopes remained high when quarterbacking didn’t pan out and he made the decision to switch positions to wide receiver. Still, few could have expected just how impactful his time as a Rice pass catcher would be.

Despite only playing the position for two years, McCaffrey will leave Rice football among the top 10 in several all-time receiving record lists, climbing those charts on Saturday against FAU.

In what is expected to be his final regular season collegiate game, McCaffrey hauled in 12 passes for 141 yards and one touchdown reception, also adding 31 yards on the ground. “Whether he was running the ball today or catching it, I thought he was exceptional,” Bloomgren lauded.

McCaffrey has now caught at least one touchdown in seven consecutive games and scored in 10 of the Owls’ 12 games this season. In one of the games he didn’t score, he went off for a career-best 206 all-purpose yards

“Like earn it, for real”

There wasn’t a soul in the Brian Patterson center that was going to pass over a trip to the Lending Tree Bowl to play Southern Miss last season. Getting to the postseason, even with only five wins, was a meaningful step for the Rice football program a year ago. But at the same time, everyone knew they hadn’t quite delivered on those preseason expectations.

Offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo said it best this week when asked about how much a win on Senior Day to reach six regular season wins would mean to this team. Defeating FAU and clinching a bowl berth, in his words would be to “like earn it, for real.”

Saturday’s bowl-clinching win over FAU comes with no asterisks or what-ifs. It was a hard-fought, progress-proving victory, one that transpired without the Owls’ star quarterback JT Daniels.

“It makes me really proud of these kids, of these coaches,” Bloomgren said. “Because nobody has ever blinked. Everyone who’s still in this building has just kept fighting for what they believe in, for these kids… this team has always been worth fighting for for me, so it’s really cool.”

Rice concludes its 2023 regular season with six wins, the most for the program since 2014. The Owls were the only AAC team with a Power 5 victory, knocking out rival Houston to win the Bayou Bucket for the first time since 2010. Against a much more challenging schedule, Rice was better than they’ve been in a decade, “for real.

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Rice Football 2023: FAU Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football is one win away from clinching bowl eligibility as a six-win team. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

There was a palpable energy at Rice football practice this week. Everyone was as locked in as they’ve been all season and seemingly doing all they could to help this team achieve its first six-win season since 2014. This team has found a rhythm, and that was fun to watch as they prepare for FAU.

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This week’s roundup focuses on the latest on JT Daniels, AJ Padgett and the Rice quarterback situation, some notes on the play of the Owls’ corners of late as well as a few (largely positive) injury updates.

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The latest on JT Daniels

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Rice Football runs all over Charlotte in must-win game

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Rice Football went on the road in a must-win situation and came away with the victory, running all over Charlotte spurred by terrific defensive play.

Playing with a backup quarterback for the second week in a row, Rice football took care of business and won on the road. The victory over Charlotte served as payback from last season’s loss and sets Rice up in a familiar situation. If they can win in the final game of the regular season they’ll clinch bowl eligibility. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Have a day, Defense

Charlotte scored 33 points and 38 points in their last two games, respectively. The Rice defense compiled a first-half shutout and they did so despite the Rice offense turning the ball over twice and losing one of their premier pass rushers, Coleman Coco, to a targeting penalty.

One quick aside on targeting — let’s get rid of the rule. The penalty has been called three times in the Owls’ last three games and the hit Coco gave on Charlotte quarterback Jalon Jones was probably the least egregious of the three. Yet Coco was ejected, the other players weren’t. This randomness in officiating needs to stop.

And even still, the Rice defense persevered. They held Charlotte to seven points for the game and 2.8 yards per play. There wasn’t ever a moment when it felt like the 49ers found any sort of rhythm on that side of the ball, despite Rice playing without Coco, without linebacker Chris Conti and with a limited Tre’shon Devones.

“I thought the defense was the story of the day. No matter what situation they got put in, they found a way to get off the field except for one time,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said. “Our guys just competed and fought their butts off.”

Rice was minus two as a team in turnover margin against Charlotte (and minus three until the last possession in mop-up time). The 49ers offense still only mustered one score, and it took an interception return inside the redzone and a pass interference penalty that gave them the ball inside the five to get that much.

Playing against an offense that didn’t feature a top four quarterback in the AAC, the Rice defense looked stout. What that means for their year-long stature isn’t that relevant anymore, but it does bode well for the unit as they prepare for an undermanned FAU team at home next weekend. This defense is good, maybe not elite, but definitely stout enough to get the job done if the offense can carry its own weight.

The Dean Connors Show

Connors touched the ball 19 times on Saturday and averaged 9.7 yards per touch. His 19 carries were the most by a Rice running back this year. His 184 yards broke his own career-best outing against Tulsa, where he rushed for 120 yards on nine carries.

“That was a motivated kid who always has a chip on his shoulder. You know how I feel about Dean Connors,” Bloomgren said. “But this one was special for all of us. To have their defensive coordinator Ryan Osborn call him out by name and say they’re going to account for Dean Connors and know where he is and stop him. I don’t know that they were able to stop him today and that’s because he ran possessed. He played the game the right way.”

The only underwhelming part of his performance was a fumble late in the second quarter. But again, thanks to the Rice defense, the Owls weren’t hurt by the miscue. The fumble came on Connors’ first touch since the Owls’ opening drive of the second quarter. Somehow Rice managed to call 11 plays without getting the ball in Connors’ hands.

Connors wasn’t bothered by the miscue. He built on his strong first half performance with a dominant second half showing. He was instrumental in the Owls’ 13-play, 75-yard drive that burned 7:17 off the clock and iced the game. Connors touched the ball six times on that drive, seven if you count a 25-yard run taken off the board via a holding penalty.

Quarterback-proofing the Rice offense remains a work in progress

Following years of quarterback tumult, there have been a few moments this season when the Rice offense performed at a high level without its starting quarterback on the field. There were some of those on Saturday, most of which involved the Owls getting the ball into the hands of their playmakers and letting them make plays rather than leaning on their passer.

Freshman Chase Jenkins operated the offense at a high level in the second half against SMU. This time it was AJ Padgett whose afternoon was a mixed bag of good and bad. Whether they should have or not is an open question, but the Rice coaching staff clearly trusted Padgett to run the full offense. At times he rewarded them — like the final fourth down touchdown heave — at others, he didn’t.

“That’s not the best of AJ. We’ve got to find a way to be able to get it on gameday, to get the best of him, because it’s really good,” Bloomgren acknowledged. “There’s week over week in game growth, for sure, but we’ve got to play a little cleaner than that.”

Padgett led five scoring drives and ran the ball in himself twice, but his two interceptions were unforced errors that could have been much more costly had the Rice defense not been playing at such an elite level.

Yes, having JT Daniels is always the preferred option, but this is now the second time in the past three games Rice has proven they can move the ball and score without an all-time program great like Daniels on the field. They’re better with Daniels, but they’re not dead in the water without him. A few weeks ago that was a much more palpable concern.

One more

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren reminded the assembled media during his press conference this week the Owls entered the year with three primary goals: win the conference, make a bowl game and win that bowl game.

“We’re not going to win the conference championship,” Bloomgren stated then. “And neither are 12 other teams in the American.” The remaining two goals are still on the table. And they became even more tangible after Saturday’s victory over Charlotte.

It’s been a bumpy ride, but Rice football is one game away from bowl eligibility. If Rice can beat FAU next weekend, head coach Mike Bloomgren will become just the third coach in the history of the program to take the Owls to back-to-back bowl games. As the Owls’ headman fights to prove the program is making progress, that piece of potential history looms large.

Bloomgren understands what’s at stake. Last year his team lost at North Texas, reaching bowl eligibility as a five-win team. That loss came on the heels of two prior losses and came with a team not playing it’s best football of the season at that point. The Owls looked much better on Saturday than they did down the stretch a year ago.

“We understand what’s at play this week and how big of a deal this game’s going to be. It’s huge,” Bloomgren said. “I would expect these guys to prepare like they never have for a football game — and we really don’t need that — I just need them to do the process the way they’ve been doing it all year because they’ve prepared the right way. Now I need them to go perform like they did today and we’ll all be really happy with those results.”

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Full Circle

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Rice Football 2023: UConn Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football hosts UConn this week in their final non-conference game of the season. Here’s what we learned from practice this week.

A week removed from their first ever AAC win, Rice football returns to non-conference play for one final time this season against UConn. The health of quarterback JT Daniels remains a question heading into the week, but there was some good news on that front, as well as some clarification on how the team will build their gameplan as they prep for the Huskies.

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This week’s roundup focuses on Daniels’ status for Saturday, what the Owls are doing alongside of him and a few defensive beliefs that are driving the Owls on that side of the ball.

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.

He’s back!

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