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Rice Football: 5 Observations on Owls’ Spring Roster

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The 2021 Rice Football spring roster has been released. From thoughts on newcomers to departing names, here are five initial observations.

There has been a lot of movement on the coaching staff, but that hasn’t been the only interesting development for the Owls in the past few days. The 2021 Rice Football spring roster was posted over the weekend. You can find the full list here, but we’ve gone a step further and broken down some things that stood out from the initial list.

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We’ll start with the most important note, with more observations to follow. We’ll also have all the latest updates on spring practice when it gets underway in March. From position battles to early depth chart projections, you won’t want to miss it. If you’re not a subscriber, now is a great time to jump on board.

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1. No Mike Collins

This shouldn’t come as a shock to those who have been following along this winter, but quarterback Mike Collins was not listed on the initial spring roster. We’ve still not had any clarification from head coach Mike Bloomgren as to what transpired last fall — hopefully, we get some answers when practices begin — but for now, it looks like Rice will be starting over at the quarterback position once again.

Collins was only expected to be a one-year solution when he was signed. He would have been out of eligibility entering 2021 had it not been for COVID-19 and revised eligibility standards.

As was the case last fall, the Owls will enter spring practice with their future quarterback on the roster. JoVoni Johnson and incoming grad transfer Jake Constantine will be the presumptive favorites to win the job for the upcoming season. It should be an interesting battle to watch this spring.

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Rice Football: First glimpse at probable 2021 returners

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Rice Football players have returned to campus for offseason activities, giving us our first clear indication of who intends to return for 2021.

Rice Football welcomed its players back to campus on Friday following the winter break. In a typical year, this wouldn’t be much in the way of an event, rather a mere formality. It is anything but in 2021, which still bears the marks of an unpredictable 2020 season.

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What makes this year so unique is the additional year of eligibility afforded to all players who otherwise would have finished their careers in December. Those who have moved on needn’t worry about the offseason conditioning programs or spring practice. That means, for the first time, we have a fuzzy list of who will most likely be on the roster in 2021.

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Rice Football: linebacker Blaze Alldredge enters Transfer Portal

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Rice Football linebacker Blaze Alldredge has entered the Transfer Portal. He will be missed at South Main.

The first few weeks of the offseason passed quietly for Rice football. The Owls picked up a few additional recruits, but for the most part, things were quiet on South Main. That silence was broken this week with two big news items regarding two of the most influential players on the 2020 team.

Wide receiver Austin Trammell will play in the College Gridiron Showcase, marking the end of his collegiate career as he aspires to a pro career. It appears that Trammell’s teammate and fellow team captain Blaze Alldredge will not return to South Main in 2021 either, instead, he has chosen to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, confirmed by The Roost.

A senior this past fall, Alldredge came to Rice from junior college. He’ll take advantage of the blanket waiver extended to all athletes that participated in FBS football in the fall, giving him one more year of collegiate eligibility.

The list of accolades Alldredge amassed in three years at South Main is staggering. He finished second in the nation in tackles for a loss during his junior season, receiving all-conference honors in each of the past two seasons. He’s been among the best at his position in Conference USA since he arrived. Now, presumably, he’ll use his post-graduate season at a Power 5 program.

Alldredge is the most notable player to enter the portal following the season. So far, Chris Boudreaux, Jonathan Sanchez and jawan King are the only other Owls to enter. Like Alldredge, both Boudreaux and Sanchez would be graduate transfers.

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Rice Football 2020 Defensive Player of the Year: Blaze Alldredge

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Linebacker Blaze Alldredge set a new standard at South Main. The Owls’ captain is our pick for Rice Football Defensive Player of the Year.

The story of how Blaze Alldredge came to be a Rice Owl is a good one, but the impact he’s had on the Rice football program is a legacy still being written.

As he describes it, head coach Mike Bloomgren and Rice football took “a chance on a junior college guy with zero offers out of high school.” A late addition to the 2019 signing class turned into one of the most impressive resumes of any linebacker to walk between the hedges on South Main—and there have been some great ones.

Alldredge first received the call to start on the road against Southern Miss in 2018. He led the team in tackles and had the Owls’ first interception of the year in that game, the fourth contest of the season. But the defense still surrendered 40 points and the Owls lost the game. A fill-in role for an injured man above him on the depth chart turned soon led to his name being inked in permanent marker among the defensive starters.

In almost a perfect juxtaposition of past and present, Alldredge also had an interception in his last road start, coming this fall in Huntington, WV against previously unbeaten No. 15 Marshall. Once more, Alldredge led the team in tackles, but this time the end result was much different. Not only did the defense not allow a single point, they scored a touchdown of their own, courtesy of Alldredge’s roommate Naeem Smith on a pick six.

Alldredge will tell you himself that he’s come a long way from that first start against Southern Miss. The accolades that follow him reinforce that growth. A first-team All-Conference USA selection this year, Alldredge was also on every preseason watch list he qualified for. It didn’t matter who you asked, Alldredge was and is the best of the best.

The only naysayer, to any degree, would probably have been himself. “I just wish I coulda given them more,” he said following his senior season.

What he did give, was impressive. Alldredge finished the 2020 season third in Conference USA in tackles per game. He had at least a share of a tackle for a loss in his last 16 games played, dating back to last year when he finished second in the nation with 21.5 tackles for a loss. He was the heart of the Rice defense, and at the same time, he was the arms, legs, feet and just about everything else. There wasn’t anywhere on the field Alldredge couldn’t be and there wasn’t any job he wouldn’t do.

A team captain, Alldredge’s impact well beyond the field. In the preseason, linebackers coach Scott Vestal said having Alldredge in meetings was “almost like having another coach in the room.” Vestal praised the Alldredge’s inquisitiveness and forward-thinking nature. A student and a teacher, Alldredge would routinely quiz and council young players and help them understand the scheme. He found all the little ways to make the team better.

Boiled down to its core, Alldredge was a culture builder for a program in desperate need of a reformed identity. The defense allowed 36.0 points per game in Alldredge’s first season. This year the Owls surrendered 18.8 points per game. From one extreme to the other. It doesn’t really matter which statistic you pick, Alldredge made the defense better.

“Plays that would have rattled us before,” Alldredge noted, “That doesn’t happen anymore. We have a lot more confidence.” Call it confidence; call it consistency. Call it whatever you’d like to. The net result is a defense that looks entirely different than the unit Alldredge stepped into.

Rice made tremendous strides on defense thanks to Alldredge’s leadership. But in his mind, the bar has been elevated. “In terms of what I’ve accomplished at Rice. I think that that’s going to be best reflected by what happens in the years to come,” he said, following the end of the 2020 season. “I think that we have a really talented linebacker room, we have guys that hopefully, in a couple of years, make you forget about Blaze Alldredge.”

Forget about Blaze Alldredge? Not a chance.

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Rice Football 2020: UAB Presser quotes, practice notes and injury news

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Rice football seeks to finish strong against UAB on Senior Day. Here are the latest notes and press conference quotes from the week.

It was a great week for Rice football. Although fans are still riding high from the Owls’ historic road win against Marshall, the team has turned the page and has their attention focused squarely on UAB. For the first time this season, there will be fans allowed into Rice Stadium to see the contest in person.

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Head coach Mike Bloomgren spoke about the week that was and the task at hand. A few players chimed in as well. Then there’s the depth chart to get to, including some unfortunate injuries at key positions and some notes on what we might see on the field on Saturday.

Press Conference Quotes

“Because it’s such a big win, I probably let myself go an extra day with it. I probably went 48 hours instead of 24 hours enjoying it, because it is an absolutely huge win. But we know that that game, as good as we played, it won’t give us any points on the scoreboard. It won’t have a single stop on defense or a single interception. We have to go earn that this week.” – Mike Bloomgren on switching focus from Marshall to UAB

“UAB has a great offensive line. We’re gonna take the same things that we did last week, change up the scheme, and do the same thing this week. It’s no different. Whoever you put in front of us, that’s who we gotta go hit. So we gotta make it happen.”- Offensive lineman Jovaun Woolford on the UAB defensive front

“Awards come with wins. I think the biggest thing that I see when I see that I won that award is that we had a dominant team because I’ve had better individual performances but it doesn’t mean anything when you don’t get that W. The biggest thing that I’m excited about is that we got such a big team win.” – Linebacker Blaze Alldredge on being named C-USA Defensive Player of the Week

Depth Chart Notes

Here’s an updated depth chart from Rice football heading into the UAB game and some comments on a few notable additions and omissions as well as some injury notes:

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