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The Roost Podcast | Ep 171 – Rice Football Season Review and Signing Day

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It’s time to put a bow on the 2023 Rice Football Season as we recap the bowl game loss, break down signing day and more.

There are bad quarterback days, and then there’s the sort of disastrous day Rice football experienced in the First Responders Bowl against Texas State. The end result stung and there’s a lot to unpack. Where does Rice go from here? And how do we make sense of that game? Also, some closing thoughts on the season as a whole and a look at the Owls recent signing class.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 171.

Episode Notes

DCTF

The Roost Podcast is now part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You’ll still get the same content with the same hosts, but now under the DCTF banner.

Homefield

We’re thrilled to partner with Homefield Apparel, the premier proprietor of college football clothing. First-time buyers can use the code ROOST for 15% off their order. The Owls hoodie is a personal favorite. So is the brand new Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!

Homefield

Patreon

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Rice Football End of Season Review

  • What went wrong for the Owls in the bowl game?
  • Can we write off the anomalously bad quarterback play and what needs to be fixed?
  • Did the defense quietly post its most impressive outing of the season?
  • The most encouraging moments from the season
  • Reasons to be concerned moving forward
  • Highlights from the 2024 Rice Football recruiting class and more

Where can you find us?

The Roost Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You can find this podcast and all of our partner podcasts on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.ri

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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AAC Football 2023: Bowl Notes, Championship Game

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SMU has won the 2023 AAC football championship. Now six teams venture on to bowl season, with the first game fast approaching.

Matchups have been announced for the bowl season following plenty of drama and chaos along the way. Here are the reported pairings as of early Sunday evening:

Team Opponent Bowl Time Date
UTSA Marshall Frisco 9:00 pm ET Dec. 19
USF Syracuse Boca Raton 8:00 pm ET Dec. 21
Rice Texas State SERVPRO First Responder’s Bowl 5:30 pm ET Dec. 26
Tulane Virginia Tech Military 2:00 pm ET Dec. 27
SMU* Boston College Fenway 11:00 am ET Dec. 28
Memphis Iowa State Liberty 3:30 pm ET Dec. 29
*Won Conference USA Football Championship Game

AAC Football Championship results – Standings

SMU handled Tulane rather comfortably on Friday night, securing the AAC Conference Championship in their final season in the league before departing for the ACC next year. What was even more impressive than the final score was how comfortable they looked with their backup quarterback leading the offense with Preston Stone sidelined.

New Year’s Six Drama

SMU was snubbed for the G5 spot in the New Year’s Six in favor of an undefeated Liberty team, a fate few would have anticipated for the American Champion, regardless of who took home the title. Commission Mike Aresco did not mince words in his rebuttal, calling the decision “disappointing”.

Here are his full comments:

Coaching Changes

So far, there has only been one coaching change in the AAC this offseason. Tulane’s Willie Fritz will reportedly be the next head coach at the University of Houston. Other than that, the remainder of the league’s coaches are set to return for another season. The league did have a large portion of first-year coaches this season, but even still, to only have one coaching change in a conference this big seems uncommon.

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Rice Football to play Texas State in SERVPRO First Responder’s Bowl

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Rice football is going bowling. The Owls have been tabbed to face Texas State in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl.

Rice Football returns to the postseason for the second time in as many years under head coach Mike Bloomgren. This time though, the Owls didn’t sneak in as a five-win team. Rice secured bowl eligibility with a sixth win in their regular season finale over Florida Atlantic, setting the stage for their next game which will come in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl against Texas State.

The SERVPRO First Responder Bowl is played on Saturday, December 26 at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Unversity Park, Texas. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren issued this statement following the announcement:

“Our players cannot wait to get to Dallas and experience all the First Responder Bowl has to offer. After the Lending Tree Bowl last December, they came to work every day over the last year with the mindset to not only return to a bowl, but to come home as champions. That determination drove them to close the season with wins in our last two games to earn this opportunity and I know will continue as we prepare for Texas State.”

Rice and Texas State have met four times, but it’s been a while since the two Texas-based programs have played. Rice won the most recent game 38-28 in Houston in 1987.

Memphis defeated Utah State in last year’s SERVPRO First Responder Bowl. Air Force, Louisiana and Western Kentucky are the most recent winners since SERVPRO took over the sponsorship rights. The bowl had previously been played under the following names: Heart of Dallas Bowl and TicketCity Bowl.

Rice Football Bowl History

Rice has played in 13 bowl games in program history and holds a postseason record of 7-6. Rice went 3-1 in four bowl games under previous head coach David Bailiff and is 0-1 under Mike Bloomgren.

Season Bowl Opponent Result
1937 Cotton Bowl Classic Colorado W, 28–14
1946 Orange Bowl Tennessee W, 8–0
1949 Cotton Bowl Classic North Carolina W, 27–13
1953 Cotton Bowl Classic Alabama W, 28–6
1957 Cotton Bowl Classic Navy L, 7–20
1960 Sugar Bowl Ole Miss L, 6–14
1961 Bluebonnet Bowl Kansas L, 7–33
2006 New Orleans Bowl Troy L, 17–41
2008 Texas Bowl Western Michigan W, 38–14
2012 Armed Forces Bowl Air Force W, 33–14
2013 Liberty Bowl Mississippi State L, 7–44
2014 Hawaii Bowl Fresno State W, 30–6
2022 Lending Tree Bowl Southern Miss L, 38–24

Rice Football vs Texas State history

Season Location Result
1920 Houston, TX W, 48-0
1923 Houston, TX L, 19-16
1986 Houston, TX L, 31-6
1987 Houston, TX W, 38-28

Make sure you’re subscribed to The Roost on Patreon for breakdowns of the matchup, practice reports and more as the 2023 Rice Football season marches onward for a few more weeks.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 137 – Rice Football vs SoMiss Recap

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Bowl season ended on a downer with Rice football falling to Southern Miss in the Lending Tree Bowl. We recap it all on The Roost Podcast.

Rice football rallied to take a second half lead but wasn’t able to seal the deal, falling to Southern Miss in the Lending Tree Bowl. Getting to the postseason was a positive, but the Owls showing left a lot to be desired. What can we take from this game for the future and how much did what transpired on Saturday matter in the grand scheme of things? We unpack it all on this week’s show.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 137.

Episode Notes

Housekeeping

  • Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice. Every little bit helps.
  • Please support us on Patreon. Be the first to get the inside scoop on what’s going on with Rice football and stick around for even further analysis. That includes practice updates, analysis and more. Your support matters and makes The Roost better.
    Become a Patron!

Rice Football vs Southern Miss game recap

  • Was this an entire season summarized in one game?
  • AJ Padgett has earned a seat at the table in next year’s quarterback battle
  • The offensive line not working just doesn’t make any sense
  • Does this game really impact how one feels about this program moving forward?
  • What’s next for Rice football on the to-do list for this off-season?

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Rice Football: Disappointed Owls ready to turn the page

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Rice football found itself on the wrong side of history in the Lending Tree Bowl against Southern Miss. Now they’re ready to turn the page.

Nobody in the Rice football locker room had envisioned participating in what Mike Bloomgren aptly dubbed “the Frank Gore show” on a chilly December night in Mobile, AL. The last team to make it into the postseason was rewarded with a spot in college football history, albeit one they’d rather not be linked to. In some ways, though, it’s a fitting in-between that’s representative of who this team was this season.

“There are a lotta guys in that locker room that are in shambles,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said after the game. “They’re incredibly invested in what we’re doing and they wanted to find a way to win this game, but we didn’t get it done.”

The failure drops the Owls to 5-8. It’s their most wins since 2014, yet somehow symbolizes the floor of expectations moving forward. Senior defensive end Ikenna Enechukwu, who likely played in his last game as an Owl, forcing a fumble and being credited with a sack, said as much in his comments following the game.

More: Takeaways from Rice football loss to Southern Miss

“I want this to the bare minimum for them,” he said. “The bare minimum should be those six wins and they should be aiming for that conference championship, even if it’s in the AAC. I feel like they can do it.”

In a sense, Enechukwu knew that being in Mobile as a five-win team required a stroke of luck. Rice didn’t get much luck on Saturday evening, whether from their own efforts, a set of dubious officials or anyone else. The results were what they were. Now the next step is figuring out how to be on the right side of history next year and beyond.

There is hope on that front. Freshman quarterback AJ Padgett completed 19-of-37 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns against Southern Miss, just his second career start. Luke McCaffrey, who led the Owls in receptions, was a go-to target for Padgett after missing essentially the last three games. Joshua Pearcy had a sack.

Joining Enechukwu, Gabe Taylor and Izeya Floyd each forced fumbles. The offense finished with two turnovers of their own, the final one occurring on the arm of backup quarterback Shawqi Itraish in the final minutes. Still, it was only the third time this season Rice had finished with a positive turnover differential. And most of those playmakers are set to return.

And then there’s Padgett, who transformed himself from a fourth-stringer to starter in the span of a few weeks. Whether he’s given the shot to start next season or not, he wasn’t afraid to echo the sentiments of Enechukwu and Bloomgren when they turned their eyes to the future,

“[Going bowling] should 100 percent be the standard. If that’s not the standard, then what is? We should approach a season with the attitude that we want to win a bowl game. We want to win conference. We want to beat everybody we play,” he declared. “I don’t really think there’s any other mindset to approach a season with or you’re just going out there to lose and that’s not what I’m about. I’m a ballplayer. I go out there to win.”

Rice didn’t win on Saturday. Everyone is crushed by that. Now they’re tasked with getting their house in order for 2023 to ensure that a loss like that — bowl game or otherwise — isn’t a part of their future again.

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