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Rice Football 2025 Spring Practice Notebook 6: In the Trenches

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The Rice football offensive line has impressed this spring as the group evolves into the Owls’ new offensive scheme one practice at a time.

Watching the offensive line transition from a West Coast scheme to a spread option offense has been one of the more intriguing journeys of Rice football spring practice. Every group has been learning a new language and a new way of doing things, but the way the offensive line has had to adapt and how effectively they’ve turned the page has been notable.

More: Spring Practice Notebook 5 — Slot School

This update dives into the progress the offensive line has made, what’s going to look different when it comes to how they’ll play on Saturdays and an early look at what players are lining up where this spring.

Impressing up front

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Rice Football 2025 Spring Practice Notebook 3: Defense takes shape

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The first signs of a hierarchy within the Rice football defense are beginning to form as the Owls work through the first few weeks of spring ball.

So much focus has, understandably, been given to the Rice football offense as it installs a new scheme under head coach Scott Abell. And while that has been fun to watch and filled with unexpected twists and developments, the relatively smooth deployment of the defensive scheme under first-year DC Jon Kay has begun to crystallize.

More: Spring Practice Notebook 2 — Unpacking the offense and QBs

This update digs into what potential starting roles on defense are nearly secured, which pieces are fighting for meaningful depth spots and a host of other spots still up for grabs as spring progresses.

Early contenders for First Teamers

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Rice Football 2024 Rising Star: Ty Morris

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A breakout sophomore season solidified linebacker Ty Morris as the 2024 Rice Football Rising Star.

There might not be an official statistic for it, but Ty Morris led the Rice football in “Woah” plays on defense. The kind of plays that force onlookers to straighten up in their seats and take a closer look at the game. The kind of plays that spark questions like, “Who did it?” and “Was that Number Three?”

Yes, it probably was Number Three, Ty Morris. The Owls sophomore linebacker plays the game with what, at times, feels like a supernatural awareness of where the football is and the best path to move himself through bodies to meet it. If there was a big play to be made, it’s a good bet that Morris was the one to make it.

“You could see it coming last year. You knew that there was going to be some good things down the road for him,” Rice football interim head coach Pete Alamar said of Morris toward the tail end of this season. “I think active would be a great word to describe Ty, as far as seeing how he plays. He’s all over the place. He runs hard. He plays hard all the time. Those are good hallmarks for young linebackers.”

The sophomore linebacker developed a knack for making plays in the opposing backfield, leading the team in sacks and finishing second to defensive end Charlie Looes in tackles for loss. And when he wasn’t taking the ballcarrier down himself, he always found a way to get into the mix, leading the team in assisted tackles.

More: 2024 Rice Football Season Superlatives

Morris credits his leap in production with a good spring, having extra time to familiarize himself with the scheme and the playbook, enabling him to think less and do more.

“It gets me to play confident,” Morris said of that added level of understanding. “It gets me to play fast and physical. I feel like that’s the way I feel this year.”

That internal confidence is translating to external production. That’s part of what has made Morris’ rise through the defensive ranks so exciting. As a freshman he had made a few plays here and there, but he wasn’t quite read to be the sort of player that stayed on the field for 50 or 60 snaps and took care of the dirty work from down to down. Now he is. And that growth hasn’t come by happenstance.

“He works hard. He practices hard,” defensive coordinator Brian Smith said of Morris. “He’s really taken off and made a jump this year.”

Morris had at least one tackle in every game and was involved in at least one play that went for a loss of yardage in nine of the Owls’ 12 games this year. That next step from flashy moments to sustained success arrived and with it came an up-and-coming player who was prepared to seize the moment.

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If Morris has anything to say about it, that trajectory won’t stop now. As veterans on the defense graduate and others opt to move on with the wave of changes surrounding the program as it swaps head coaches and offensive schemes, Morris has an opportunity to position himself at the forefront of what this team will look like in 2025 and beyond.

“He’s somebody who should lead this defense for years to come. That should be his next step, being that guy that’s able to take over and be a leader on the field,” Alamar projected. “As he grows and gets older, his voice will become louder.”

Perhaps this rising star has only just began his ascent.

** Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker **
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Rice Football 2024: UAB presser quotes and depth chart

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Next up for Rice football: UAB. Here’s what interim head coach Pete Alamar had to say about the matchup and a few depth chart notes.

Interim head coach Pete Alamar and a set of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the bye week and then looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with UAB.

More: Rice Football Head Coaching Search — Names to Know ($)

We touch on those items, then dig into the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like heading into the weekend. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

A team who’s record does not reflect the type of football team they are. First of all, it’s always tough to win on the road but now you’re going there on their senior day… I know they’re a well-coached team. Coach Dilfer and his staff are going to have great gameplans up. You can see it on film, just looking at all three phases. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on UAB

I’ve had the chance to get to know Coach Dilfer a long time ago back on the West Coast. He’s a former Fresno State Bulldog that went into the league and then started really what became the Elite 11 stuff and all that. Trent is obviously a very good quarterback coach. He’s coached a lot of good young quarterbacks. He’s a guy that [was] an NFL player, was a pro-bowler of his own so you’ve got the opportunity to learn from that knowledge. I think any quarterback would appreciate that opportunity and I think you see that. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on the UAB coach Trent Dilfer

You just watch how he’s grown just through reps and time on defense. You could see it coming last year. You knew there was going to be some good things down the road for him. You’ve got a young man that works hard, that prepares, takes the time. Coach [Jon] Kay has done a great job with him as his linebacker coach, just teaching him of playing the fine points of playing linebacker in our system. He shows up in the blitz game for us. I think active would be a great word to describe Ty, as far as seeing how he plays. He’s all over the place. He runs hard. He plays hard all the time. Those are good hallmarks for young linebackers. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on the growth of linebacker Ty Morris

He has a great arm. He has the ability to do extend plays. We just have to play top down on the back end, make him throw the ball. They have a pretty good group of skilled, explosive guys. If we’ll be able to stop the run, that’ll be a good thing for us. – Linebacker Ty Morris on the UAB offense

They’re a super athletic group. They love to fly around. They’re going to present a unique challenge as very new defense does and we’re going to have to rise to a level to beat that. – Tight End Graham Walker on the UAB defense

Depth Chart

Depth Chart Notes

Alamar was asked directly during his Tuesday media availability to comment on injuries and sidestepped the question, almost entirely. “We keep our injury stuff kind of to ourselves, for the most part,” he said. Offering this general, optimistic summary: “We’re in a fairly healthy mode.”

That attitude is reflected in the depth charts we’ve seen since Alamar took over. There have been no changes over the past three weeks. The only difference between this week’s depth chart and the Memphis depth chart is the removal of fullback Geron Hargon who is out for the year.

If you haven’t yet, this is a good reminder to subscribe on Patreon to get access to our practice notes later in the week, coaching search nuggets and an actual report of any players who might be in danger of missing the game this week based on participation this week.

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Five turnovers doom Rice Football in road loss to Tulane

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Rice Football traded blows with a heavily favored Tulane squad at home before a series of back-breaking turnovers ruined the Owls’ upset bid.

Tied in the fourth quarter, Rice football still managed to lose by multiple scores to an unyielding Tulane team which took advantage of seemingly every mistake the Owls made. Those miscues were, unfortunately, far too many to overcome as Rice fell to 2-5 on the season and 1-3 in AAC play. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game, starting with those stated objectives:

Defense leads the way

In a perfect world, you’d build a super team. The offense would score 100 points a game. The defense wouldn’t allow any. Special teams would ensure a smooth transition back and forth. Voila.

But as any Rice football fan is well aware at this point, we don’t live in that perfect world. And since we don’t the Owls must wrestle with the reality of three phases of football all playing at different levels of competency and consistency. One thing has become abundantly clear is the defense is going to set the tone for the Owls moving forward.

Following a first-drive punt by the offense — which hasn’t scored on its first possession against an FBS opponent this season — the defense quickly engineered a three-and-out, nearly putting points on the board themselves on this crushing sack from Ty Morris on the goal line.

The defense allowed a field goal on a short field following a Rice turnover, but held star Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah to zero passing yards in the first quarter. Mensah wasn’t going to be blanked for a full four quarters, but the redshirt freshman quarterback looked much more like a youngster than the poised distributor who had diced up AAC defenses thus far.

“That’s winning football, what our defense did,” head coach Mike Bloomgren summarized. “The only thing we can ask of our defense to better is create some turnovers. That’s something that we’re emphasizing, it’s something that we’re just not getting done right now and we have to, very simply, to be the team that we want to be. But if we can play with that kind of effort, defensively, we can win a bunch of football games.”

Tulane wideout Mario Williams dropped two surefire touchdown receptions in this game, but sometimes the ball does bounce your way. Two fourth-down stops prove this showing wasn’t a fluke. This defense is very good. If they can take that next step and become truly elite, the shortcomings in other phases can be overcome.

The Green Wave scored 10 points off turnovers. When forced to drive the length of the field, Tulane only mustered 14 points. That should always be good enough to win a college football game. It has to be.

Turnover gremlins can’t be silenced

Turnovers kill. Entering Saturday Rice football had turned the ball over eight times in six games, a rate that put them smack dab in the middle of the AAC, but it sure didn’t feel that way. That’s partly because the Owls’ four turnovers gained are second from last in league play and tied for 120th in the nation. Only one program in America has fewer turnovers against FBS opponents than Rice does: UAB.

Warner’s interception and a fumble by Dean Connors following a long run spoiled an otherwise effective first half. Those mistakes aren’t any more or less excusable by what is (or isn’t) happening on the other side of the ball, but they are felt more deeply when the margins are close like they were on Saturday.

Despite being down two giveaways on the stat sheet, Rice football was absolutely in this game at halftime, trailing 10-7. If the Owls had been neutral in the turnover department it’s hard not to project a tied game at the break, if not swinging things all the way over toward a Rice lead.

Warner’s second INT in the redzone was the most egregious offensive mistake of the afternoon. A veteran quarterback has to understand the situation better and not leave that opportunity without points. Likewise, the Owls’ star position player can’t put the ball on the ground twice. Connors’ second fumble was returned for a touchdown, officially ending any hopes on an upset bid.

Connors fumbled once in his first 220 career carries as a Rice Owl before fumbling twice today. Some of the turnover problems are systemic. Some are variance. The sum total today was overwhelming.

If this team could just get back to neutral in the turnover department, whether by way of fewer offensive mistakes or more defensive help, they’d have a puncher’s chance in most of their games moving forward. Being allergic to such game-changing plays doesn’t make sense, but it’s been a reality at the program for years.

“It’s hard to think you’re gonna win a game with a 5-0 turnover margin,” Bloomgren admitted. “It just doesn’t happen in this game.”

Warner imperfect, but improved

It’s hard to comprehend the degree to which the level of quarterback play Rice football has gotten from EJ Warner has improved over the last two months. His debut against Sam Houston and subsequent rough outings against Houston and Army had most onlookers wondering if this really was the same guy who had led the AAC in passing in each of the last two seasons. He just didn’t look comfortable whatsoever and the offensive production reflected that unease.

The Charlotte game was the first sign of growth. Then it got better against UTSA and was good again on the road against Tulane on Saturday afternoon. Warner had already thrown for more than 100 yards and a touchdown. He started this game 8-for-10 with his only real mistake an interception thrown into traffic.

The pick, along with some less-than-stellar accuracy on throws deep down the field — where most college quarterbacks struggle — provide evidence that there’s more growth needed for Warner and the Rice offense to reach their ceiling. But to have reached a point in the season where the flaws in this offense and in Warner’s game can be nitpicked is, to some degree, stunning.

Warner finished the game 26-for-46 for 271 yards one touchdown and three interceptions. He’s thrown for more than 250 yards in three consecutive games after failing to reach that mark once in his first four with the Owls, including against FCS Texas Southern. Some well-designed offensive playcalling from Marques Tuiasosopo like this jumbo-formation touchdown to Elijah Mojarrow deserve some credit, too:

“He’s seeing things well, He’s delivering the ball well and giving us a real chance,” Bloomgren said, declining to absolve his quarterback of all blame for the turnover-plagued day but noting, probably correctly that Warner “played a whale of a football game” outside of those mistakes, at least one of which Bloomgren attributed to protection issues at first glance.

Warner has grown a lot over the span of seven weeks. If he’s got even a bit more progress in him, he’ll take one more step and clean up those crushing interceptions, one of which came on a garbage time heave. This offense could be punchy in the second half of the season. Needless to say, that development would be massive and might hinge on Warner’s health following an injury suffered on the Owls’ final offensive play.

Where to go from here

Losing to Tulane on the road in a highly competitive game would typically make for a respectable, albeit disappointing, result. One needs to look no further than the complete dismantling UAB underwent against that same Green Wave squad a game prior.

But given the year Rice football has had and just how winnable this contest was makes it hard to argue for that silver lining.

There are no moral victories; this game marked the fifth loss of the season, and the calendar still has yet to reach Halloween. We’re now forced to play the schedule game with a Rice team attempting to tightrope to their third consecutive bowl appearance.

At 2-5, Rice has to beat either Navy or Memphis, who own a combined one loss between them at the time of this writing. If Rice can do that — and that’s a high bar to clear in itself — the Owls can get to the postseason through a perfect run through their other three games: at UConn, at UAB and home against South Florida for the regular season finale.

This team has shown flashes of high-level play over the past three weeks. They have the talent to win a few more games. Whether or not they can win enough is the question at hand. If they are going to make the run they absolutely must take care of business against UConn.

Being at this point in the season which began with such high expectations is crushing, but there’s no rewriting the past now. There’s still a chance. Please, please, please beat UConn.

Digging deeper

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Where’d the running game go?

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