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Rice Football: Owls hope to ride momentum into 2020

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Rice football ended 2019 on a high note with a win over UTEP, setting the stage for what many expect to be a breakthrough 2020 season.

If you had walked into the Rice football locker room on Saturday evening, you’d have seen the full range of emotions. As players celebrated their third consecutive victory there were seniors who shed tears, arms draped around underclassmen while they processed the end of their own college careers.

Mike Bloomgren stood in the middle of it all. Elated by what this team had accomplished, all the while knowing when the wheels touched down in Houston early Sunday morning it would be time to get right back to work. They broke down the tape and had a full staff meeting, all before hosting a recruiting visit later that night. As the calendar turns to December, it’s still all hands on deck as they try to finalize the majority of the 2020 Rice Football recruiting class.

But before he could get to that tomorrow, Bloomgren stopped to process the here and now.

“That’s really what [this win] is all about,” Bloomgren said. “It’s about a group of men that made a decision. They made a decision to win their last three games and to do everything they could for each other to ensure that that happened. Today is the culmination of that. It’s the culmination of our 2019 season. It’s the start of something really cool too.”

The magnitude of what this team accomplished was sizable. No Rice team had won three-straight to close out a season since the 2013 squad that won the Conference USA championship.

More: Takeaways from Rice Football vs UTEP

And for the most part, they’re coming back. The defense will lose starting tackle Myles Adams. The offense will have to replace three grad transfer offensive lineman and quarterback Tom Stewart. The answer at quarterback might have been solved in the second half when JoVoni Johnson took over and scored his first two career touchdowns. If Rice can recruit and develop depth on the offensive line, they could bring back a fully stocked cupboard on both sides of the football next season.

Building from a strong base, the 2020 Rice football team is full of players who refuse to succumb to the status quo. “[We] just want to keep going. keep growing, continue to be better and continue to help our team be better,” team captain Austin Trammell said after the game. Junior linebacker Blaze Alldredge echoed those words, hoping the team could “carry this momentum into the offseason and develop into even better players for next year.”

Momentum, talent and a desire to be better from top to bottom. The makings of something special are being assembled on South Main. Year three of the Mike Bloomgren era is already off to a great start.

But first, it’s time to celebrate. “I’m proud to be their coach, I know that much,” Bloomgren said, content to enjoy the present before the future arrives. After all, the process demands it.

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Rice Football Film Room 2019: North Texas Review

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Rice Football is on a winning streak and the offense is starting to click. Take a look at some of the highlights in this week’s edition of the Film Room.

Hey y’all, welcome back to the Rice Football Film Room. Great to be celebrating another win, ain’t it? Rice’s defense put on a master class in this one, holding Mason Fine and the North Texas Mean Green offense to under 250 total yards and a mere 14 points. In celebration of that effort, we’ll highlight the early pick from Rice’s starting Swiss Army Knife . . . er, Viper Treshawn Chamberlain

You Had Me At A Glance

Setup

It’s UNT’s second offensive drive following a punt and a Rice field goal. So it’s 3-0 Owls, and Fine & Co. have the ball 1st and 10 at their own 25, less than five minutes into the game. They’re in a pretty standard 11 personnel shotgun look, with the TE lined up off the line and outside the LT at H-back.

Rice responds with a 3-3-5 look, with 3 linemen, Antonio Montero and Blaze Alldredge in the box, and Kenneth Orji playing the edge at off-ball strongside linebacker. Rice has two safeties: Chamberlain is lined up in the middle of the field about seven yards off the ball, and the other (I can’t see the number but I’m pretty sure it’s George Nyakwol) is deeper and just inside the numbers to the boundary.

The Play

Hey, we know this one, don’t we? It’s the Glance RPO, a play Rice has run to much success this season, usually to Brad Rozner. The single receiver runs a skinny post (or “glance”) route, and if the safety to that side stays deep (either to bracket him or bail into a deep zone), the quarterback throws. If he comes downhill to play the run, the quarterback hands it off. Nyakwol flows to the line at the run action, so Fine thinks he has an easy read, pulls the ball, and throws the glance.

The key here is some trickery by Rice DC Brian Smith and Chamberlain. Presnap, Fine and the UNT offense don’t see Chamberlain as likely to impact this play. He’s lined up to the strong side and fairly shallow, so they may expect him to move into the box to give Rice numbers against the run. He could also be bailing into a deep zone: perhaps to the middle of the field if Rice is in Cover 3, or maybe even all the way to a deep quarter in the wide side, if Rice is playing Cover 6 (Cover 2 to the short side and quarters/Cover 4 to the wide side).

More: Previewing Rice Football vs UTEP in Week 14

But Chamberlain does neither of those things. Instead it looks like he’s playing a sort of Robber coverage, meaning that he sticks in the shallow middle of the field, reading the QB’s eyes and “robbing” any shorter crossing routes. This, I assume, was a look by Smith intended specifically to counter RPOs, which are often run out of these 11 personnel spread looks. Nyakwol moves to the box to play the run option, and Chamberlain is in place to cover the shallow crossing routes these plays involve (often slants), while also being able to fill late against a run to his side.

Fine actually does a really good job selling the run action, and you can see Chamberlain briefly biting on it before realizing that the QB still has the ball. But at that point, he knows exactly where the ball is going and makes a brilliant break on the ball to grab the pick.

I’ve mentioned on The Roost Podcast before how difficult it is for QBs to process in real time when a defense changes its look post-snap, particularly on quick-read plays like these. This time, it’s Rice that uses that to its advantage. The ensuing interception sets up a crucial early touchdown for the Owls.

Plenty of big plays

Here’s where I note that I wanted this to be an all-Chamberlain column and break down his game-sealing pass breakup, but I couldn’t find video of it anywhere. Disappointing!

I’d give you the big Rozner catch on Rice’s final drive, but it was more of the same of what we’ve seen lately: Stewart put a catchable ball in the area of a single-covered Rozner, who boxed out like a power forward and came down with the ball. Great play but nothing I haven’t shown you before, and the camera is zoomed so tight at the beginning you can’t even see the formation.

So! We’ll give Rice’s other Harvard grad transfer his props. Here’s Charlie Booker’s first Rice touchdown.

Let’s Hit the Book . . . er

Setup

It’s the very first play of the second quarter. Rice has the ball 1st and goal from the 8, up 10-0. They’re under center in 22 personnel, with Booker at RB, Brendan Suckley at FB, Jaeger Bull at inline TE to the right, Jordan Myers being the other TE to the left (I’d say at H-back but he’s so far outside the tackle he’s really more of a slotback), and Rozner as the lone receiver. UNT responds with a five-man front and a whopping ten total players in or very close to the box.

The Play

This is an ISO run, which I believe I’ve mentioned briefly before. The difference between ISO and most plays using a blocking back (“lead” plays) is that lead plays are designed for the blocker to hit the hole and block whomever he sees first (most of these are gap runs, like power or counter), whereas in ISO the blocker has a specific player he’s aiming to block right from the beginning (usually, and in this case, the middle linebacker). ISO is designed to go up the middle, through an A-gap (to either side of the center, i.e.).

This is excellently blocked to the playside, with true freshman walk-on center Isaac Klarkowski and RG Brian Chaffin double-teaming the nose while LG Nick Leverett does a brilliant job getting inside of his man and sealing him off to open the gap.

More: Isaac Klarkowski, the latest Rice Football walk-on success 

Suckley blasts the MIKE back four yards and to the opposite side of the field. The weakside ‘backer for UNT has actually done a nice job sifting through the wash and is in position to make the play, though; it kinda looks like Chaffin was going to come off the double on him, but he diagnoses the play too quickly for that to happen. But Booker does a nifty jump cut and slaps him aside as he bursts through the hole. From there it’s all green grass.

Boy it sure was nice to break down plays from two successive wins. Here’s hoping Rice Football can close the season with a third in El Paso this weekend.

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For the Rice Football defense, this is only the beginning

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The Rice football defense delivered when at the moment the Owls needed them the most, an occurrence becoming more common with every passing game.

“Thwack.”

For a split-second, there was nothing but the sound of shoulder pads colliding at breakneck speed in the Rice football endzone. The entire stadium held their collective breath, waiting with trepidation for the result of the collision which would decide the game.

The collision was between North Texas wide receiver Michael Lawrence and Rice defensive back Treshawn Chamberlain. Lawerence had just been fed a beautiful ball from quarterback Mason Fine. The preseason C-USA Offensive Player of the Year had been kept at bay all evening by the Rice defense, but he’d gotten the ball to his man in the endzone when it mattered most — on fourth down with the game on the line.

If the pass was caught, North Texas could take the lead for the first time on the ensuing extra point. If it wasn’t Rice would have a good chance to kill the clock and win the program’s second game in its last two tries.

“Thwack.”

“[Chamberlain’s hit] reverberated through everybody’s body,” Bloomgren said. When the mass of bodies cleared, the coach exhaled, blinked, and saw the football lying harmlessly near the “I” in the Rice insignia scrawled across the endzone. Chamberlain’s vicious thump had separated Lawrence from the ball. Incomplete. Rice football.

While what happened next was not a formality, it almost felt predetermined. The Rice defense had won their stand. The offense ran off the remainder of the clock. Rice won.

At risk of stating the obvious, Chamberlain was all smiles after the game. “That hit was one of my biggest hits I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’m going to keep that one for show.” That confidence, a swagger almost, has been building for this defense all season. Had it not been Chamberlain who made the play, it could have been someone else.

More: Takeaways from Rice Football vs North Texas

Blaze Alldredge, who broke Larry Izzo’s school record with his 18th tackle for a loss from the linebacker position this season, was all over the field on Saturday night. Antonio Montero had the first sack of his career. True freshman Tre’shon Devones, Kirk Lockhart and Josh Landrum all had tackles out of the secondary.

Someone was going to step up. That’s how this defense has been built.

“I’m ready when my number’s called,” Alldredge said after the game. “I think everybody on the defense kind of embraces that same mentality that we’re not going to shy away from the limelight. We’re not going to make excuses that we’re too tired. We want to be on the field because we want to show how dominant we are.”

Dominant. That word hasn’t been used in conjunction with the Rice defense for some time. Rice hasn’t finished in the top half of Conference USA in total defense since 2014. After Saturday’s performance, the Owls will be in the top six in total defense in conference games.

On the rise

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Rice will return 10 defensive starters next season. Myles Adams was the lone senior starter for the Rice defense against North Texas. His backup, De’Braylon Carroll, has played extremely well this season, matching Adams’ sack total while making some splash plays of his own.

The 2019 season has been an appetizer for what this collection of talent playmakers is capable of becoming. The growing pains exhibited over the course of the year are being refined before our eyes. This defense is young, really young. And they’re getting better.

Bloomgren cited their passion and energy following the win. Alldredge took it a step further. “Fatigue isn’t something that we even process in this program,” he said. He’s right. When things got tough, the defense didn’t get tired. They got mad. Then they made the hit that changed the game.

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Rice Football 2019: Week 9 Southern Miss Press Conference quotes

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Rice Football head coach Mike Bloomgren made closing comments on the UTSA game and set the stage for the Owls Week 9 game against Southern Miss.

More: Rice Football game preview for Week 9 vs Southern Miss

Wide receiver Austin Trammell and linebacker Blaze Alldredge joined Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren at the podium on Tuesday. The trio made closing comments on the UTSA game and looked ahead to their Week 9 game against Southern Miss.

From Mike Bloomgren

On the team’s performance against UTSA…

“I thought we had a great two weeks of prep going into it. Very simply, we didn’t come out the other side like we wanted to. We took another team to deep water in this conference. Our kids are fighting and doing some great things. From a 10,000-foot level, you can’t turn the ball over in conference play in college football and win games.”

On the resilience of the Rice football team…

“The good news is these kids are working. They’ve come back. They’re resilient. They’re bright kids. They realize how close we are. They’ve come back to it and they’ve attacked this thing the right way. I told them yesterday that we’re doing the right things. There’s no question in my mind that we’re doing the things to win with the right people in the building. I think we’ve got an unbelievable coaching staff and we’ve just got to find a way to push through. That’s kind of been our charge all week.”

On how the coaching staff has responded this week…

“I think these coaches have been rock solid. They’ve been the same people every day. They come in here, they’ve taught, they’ve demanded and they’ve really stayed in lockstep with me on the process. They’ve been trying to control the things that we can control. Everybody who’s a part of this program was down after that game on Saturday. But, there’s no panic, if that makes sense. You can change so many things, you can change your approach. You can come in here, yell and scream. There’s just none of that. It’s process-driven and we’re not going to let that game beat us this week. We’re going to move on. We’re going to do the things that we know win games.”

On the plan at quarterback…

“Wiley [Green] prepares so well. For whatever reason, obviously, we lost two snaps and the first play of the third quarter was just a very critical error. Quarterbacks, like head coaches, get too much credit and too much blame. Very simply, that’s what’s going on right now. It’s not because we’re not winning games. and we’re saying it’s Wiley’s fault or anything like that. It’s just the fact that the ball went to the other team three times when we had it the other night. Very simply, that’s why we’re making the change. Tom (Stewart) will be our starting quarterback going forward.

“I don’t have a plan for either [Evan Marshman or JoVoni Johnson] to be the quarterback of the football team. We could see a scenario where JoVoni comes into games again. Obviously, he had a great start to his college football career, breaking off that run. During the bye week, he threw it exceptionally well. He threw the deep ball exceptionally well. We have a lot of trust in JoVoni. We’ll just see how he plays. We’ll likely have a role for JoVoni as we go forward while keeping an eye on that redshirt as well.”

On the play of the offensive line against Southern Miss…

“I love the way our offensive line is progressing. I think they are doing a great job. So, I think we’re going to match up fine. But, how will we handle movement as a front unit? What will we do to solve their movement patterns with our pads, with violence? That’s going to be what opens up holes. From a protection standpoint, they’re relentless. We’ve got to do a great job protecting to let our receivers go make plays down the field any time we chose to throw the ball.”

From WR Austin Trammell

On the focus of the team going forward …

“It’s hard, losing a game like that. It takes a lot of mental toughness to come back from that and to keep pushing and keep fighting. But at the end of the day, we’re doing this for every guy on our team and doing it for all the seniors that have five games left. And I think our guys understand that.

We want to finish the season, doing everything the right way, giving everything we have to win games, because that’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re playing college football. That’s why we came to Rice University because we want to win games. And so that’s our full focus this week and that’s what’s kind of motivating guys and keeping us going. We have five opportunities to get five wins, and to let these seniors leave with some success under their belt.

From LB Blaze Alldredge

On the team’s goals for the rest of the season…

“In terms of goals, you have to recalibrate a little bit. You come out with the goal of obviously winning conference and to make a bowl game. And when things like that start to come out of reach, it’s important to recalibrate your goals instead of just kind of becoming goal-less.

And when you don’t start to set new goals for yourself, that’s when you find the people that will rest and just think about next season, and just keep those same goals, and say, ‘Oh well, we still have the same goals, just for next season.” So when you get to this point in the season, it really becomes about pride and loving your brother. I think that we have a tight team that’s very close to one another. That is more than capable of going out and winning games.”

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Rice Football: Owls hit open week in need of a reset

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Rice Football hits an open week in need of an introspective look. The Owls must make their extra week of preparation as productive as possible.

There’s hardly even been an off week that didn’t come at the right time. If the team is winning, the rest offers time for injured players to return and the team to rest up for another string of games. If the team isn’t, it’s a respite from the toil and time to reassess. Rice football finds itself in the latter rather position than the former.

Owners of an 0-6 record, what the team does with this week will reverberate for months to come.

More: Takeaways from Owls’ waterlogged loss to UAB

“I think this bye is going to be a defining moment for us,” linebacker Blaze Alldredge said following the UAB loss. “Hopefully we can use it as a turning point in our season. I know the coaches are going to do their best to help us do that and it’s going to be on us players to keep the right mindset and treat this bye week like professionals and come the week after ready to play.”

Coming back ready to play starts with an honest assessment of where the team has left off.

Where the Owls stand

Among their Conference USA peers, Rice has the tenth-most efficient offense, ninth-most efficient defense and the fifth most efficient special teams. SP+, an opponent-adjusted metric meant to evaluate the entire team as a whole, pegs the Owls as the 12th best team in C-USA.

Those numbers highlight what most have been able to digest from watching the team play this year. There are facets of all three phases that have been undeniably great — but hitting those highpoints consistently has been a challenge.

As they search for their first win, the team knows they’re capable of so much more. Bloomgren knows it too.

“I’m so glad we’re going into an open week so we can get better at some real fundamental things that we’ve just got to continue to work through,” he said, “I still think there’s a lot in the future of this football team. I certainly don’t think this any kind of death sentence or anything like that. What I do think is if we work, we’re going to win some games. And I don’t know how many. But if we position ourselves and work our butts off for the next two weeks, it should start then.”

It gets easier from here

That first win might not be far off. The difficulty of the nonconference schedule has been well documented, but the quality of the opponents that remain on the Rice football schedule has taken a noticeable dip too. Here are the first six opponents:

Army | 3-2
No. 11 Texas | 4-1
No. 19 Wake Forest | 5-0
No. 22 Baylor | 5-0
LA Tech | 4-1
UAB | 4-1

Three of them are ranked in the most recent AP Poll. Two of them are undefeated. Altogether, the Owls’ first six opponents are 25-5 with losses to LSU, Texas, Michigan, current C-USA leader WKU and current AAC leader Tulane. That’s a sterling resume.

Contrast that to the road ahead:

UTSA | 2-3
Southern Miss | 3-2
Marshall | 2-3
MTSU | 2-3
North Texas | 2-3
UTEP | 1-4

The next six opponents on the schedule have six combined victories over FBS teams with wins over UTEP (twice), Troy, Ohio, Marshall and UTSA. One of those teams has a record of .500 or better (Southern Miss) and that includes wins over Alcorn State and UTEP. That’s a stark difference from what the Owls have faced so far in which no opponent has yet to lose multiple times in regulation.

The next two weeks will be a gut check for the Owls on both sides of the football. Senior Aston Walter says “It starts with looking in the mirror,” adding that he’ll “never put a defined ceiling on what this team can be.” If the team can take to heart that message, the next coming weeks of Rice football should offer more promising results than the first portion of the season.

Tweaks, not overhauls

Rice isn’t going to fully reboot on either side of the ball, rather they’ll work to perfect what has already paid early rewards.

On the offensive side of the ball, identifying ways to ensure open running lanes in the second half of games will be paramount. Aston Walter has broken off two long touchdown runs in the past two games, but both came early in the game. What does Rice need to change, if anything, schematically to ensure those runs can pop later in the game too?

The passing game has been better, but protecting the quarterback should be a priority. Keeping Wiley Green upright will enable the offense to be more efficient as a whole.

A more decisive pass rush would go a long way for the defense. The Owls have gotten pressure, but haven’t gotten home consistently. That’s led to added strain on the secondary.

Defensively, Rice has probably had two of their better performances under Bloomgren in the last three weeks (LA Tech, Baylor). The offense has been their best in the first halves of the games against LA Tech and UAB. If the team can find a way to sustain those good things and iron out the inefficiencies, this team could get a lot better, quickly.

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