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Rice Football 2021: Spring Practice Week 3 Notebook

March 21, 2021 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football has one scrimmage in the books and continues to work. Here are some growing pains and high points from Week 3 of spring ball.

Overall, Rice Football head coach Mike Bloomgren was optimistic following the first scrimmage of the spring. “I look at our team in totality and we are better in terms of our knowledge of the system,” he said. “There’s less missed assignments everywhere on the field. And we move faster to and from the ball.”

That progress has come with some highs and a few lows. This team is, as Bloomgren dubbed it, “an exciting work in progress.”

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For those that might have missed it, you can check out the initial depth chart reactions as well as the Week 1 and Week 2 practice notebooks. Not subscribed? The Roost will have you covered every step of the way this spring and beyond. Subscribers get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features. Subscribe on Patreon and get access to it all today.

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Filed Under: Football, Archive, Premium Tagged With: Bradley Rozner, Braedon Nutter, Brandt Peterson, Cedric Patterson, Charlie Stone, Clay Servin, Cole Garcia, Connor Hughes, Derek Ferraro, Isaac Klarkowski, Izeya Floyd, Jake Bailey, Jake Constantine, Joe Karlgaard, Jovaun Woolford, Jovoni Johnson, Khalan Griffin, Mike Leone, Nick Wagman, Plae Wyatt, practice notes, Regan Riddle, Rice Football, Sean Fresch, Shea Baker, spring practice

Rice Football 2021: Spring Practice Week 2 Notebook

March 15, 2021 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football had their first scrimmage of the spring this past week. A few players stood out, including one very notable position switch.

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren called spring practice “the lab” during his opening media sessions. The phrase stuck with me as I’ve watched the team go through drills over the last two weeks. Many things seem relatively mundane, but a few things did stand out as decidedly unique. Whether or not those tidbits remain in the fall might depend on how well the experiments go this month.

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For those that might have missed it, you can check out the initial depth chart reactions as well as the Week 1 notebook. Not subscribed? The Roost will have you covered every step of the way this spring and beyond. Subscribers get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features. Subscribe on Patreon and get access to it all today.

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

Recent Posts
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Filed Under: Football, Archive, Premium Tagged With: Ari Broussard, Bradley Rozner, Desmyn Baker, Jake Constantine, Jordan Myers, Jovoni Johnson, Juma Otoviano, Kebreyun Page, Khalan Griffin, Myron Morrison

Rice Football 2021: Spring Practice Week 1 Notebook

March 6, 2021 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football returned to the practice field this week. Here are a few initial reactions from the first week of spring ball.

For the first time in three months, Rice football put on the pads and hit the practice field. It was a refreshing sight that seemed almost normal after a winter that was anything but conventional.

There were a few new faces this time, including quarterback Jake Constantine. But there were things to be learned from players head coach Mike Bloomgren would dub “the old heads” as well. We dug into some initial thoughts on the depth charts earlier this week. This edition will focus on what transpired on the grass itself.

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The Roost will have you covered every step of the way. Subscribers get access to all spring practice notes, recruiting updates and special features. Subscribe on Patreon and get access to it all today.

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Recent Posts
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Filed Under: Football, Archive, Featured, Premium Tagged With: August Pitre, Bradley Rozner, Brendan Suckley, Brian Hibbard, Cedric Patterson, Desmyn Baker, Gabe Taylor, Jake Bailey, Jake Constantine, Jason White, Jerry Johnson, Jovoni Johnson, Juma Otoviano, Miles Mccord, Myron Morrison, practice notes, Rice Football, Sean Fresch, spring practice, TJ McMahon, Zane Knipe

Rice Football: First glimpse at probable 2021 returners

January 24, 2021 By Matthew Bartlett

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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Recent Posts
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Filed Under: Football, Featured, Premium Tagged With: Austin Trammell, Blaze Alldredge, Bradley Rozner, Elijah Garcia, Garrett Grammer, George Nyakwol, Jovaun Woolford, Mike Collins, Naeem Smith, Rice Football, Zane Knipe

Putting an imperfect 2020 Rice football season into perspective

December 13, 2020 By Matthew Bartlett

The 2020 Rice Football season has come to an end. Putting the up-and-down campaign into perspective will be an ongoing task.

With 49 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, Rice football trailed UAB 21-16. Third-string quarterback Wiley Green lined up alongside third-string running back Ari Broussard, dropped back and threw to Jake Bailey. First down. Three plays later Green found Bailey again. First down. Then, on fourth-and-18, Green uncorked a Hail Mary pass which was intercepted on the 2-yard line. Game over.

“I guess I need to be more prayerful,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said after the game. He was speaking more broadly about the unfortunate injury luck his team had suffered at key positions this season, but his whistful “what if” hung in the air. Just like that last-second pass from the arm of Green.

Green, the backup to the backup quarterback, targeting a tight end in the endzone from 50 yards out was, in many ways, a fitting final play of the Owls’ bizarre 2020 season. Rice almost had to throw it to a tight end because they had run out of wide receivers.

Bradley Rozner had been injured and opted out before the season. Transfer Christian McStravick never played a down for the Owls. Neither did Zane Knipe. August Pitre caught one pass in the season opener before suffering an injury. Austin Trammell, who set multiple school records when he exploded for five touchdowns and 219 yards in the Owls’ first two games, didn’t suit up in this game either.

Rice was down to Jake Bailey, who had missed practice time during the week with an injury, and freshman Andrew Mason. Converted running back Kobie Campbell, who hadn’t touched the ball this season, was targeted twice.

“We had multiple weeks where we had a practice with one scholarship wide receiver healthy,” Bloomgren admitted, “We just love this game, and we said ‘we’re going to play’.”

Takeaways: Rice Football falls to UAB

At quarterback, Mike Collins was missing his second straight game. Backup JoVoni Johnson had been injured a few drives earlier. And that doesn’t take into account the secondary which had made do all season with players coming in and out of the lineup or the continued absence of lead running back Juma Otaviano.

Bloomgren isn’t one to make excuses, and he acknowledged Rice wasn’t the only team who had to deal with adversity this year. Their opponent on Saturday had more than a dozen key players missing (but they did have their quarterback, something that proved fateful for the Owls). Still, the Owls’ headman did say this: “We’re all better with our ones.”

Instead, that last-second heave fell into the hands of a defensive back and a year of highs and lows came to an unpleasant end. Rice was in the running for a bowl bid with a win. The loss ended the Owls’ season sooner than anyone hoped it would finish.

“We know nothing’s perfect in 2020,” Bloomgren affirmed.

Before he stepped off the stand and began the first steps of the Owls’ sudden offseason, he posed one more “what if”.

“We lost today by one score… we had a double-overtime game. We got to find a way to win those things, and that’s the difference. Think about how different we feel about our season right now, and how jubilant everybody would be if we’d won one or two of those games.”

Rice didn’t win those games. Their final 2020 record will forever be inked at 2-3. But Bloomgren’s hypothetical isn’t too farfetched. It might even have more merit than initially meets the eye. Rice beat the C-USA East champ and was one third-string-quarterback Hail Mary from beating the top team in the West.

A few more favorable bounces wouldn’t have helped the teams Rice defeated. Those victories both came by three scores. But one more bounce, or a prayer, in those losses might very well have been enough. It wasn’t perfect, but in 2020, nothing was.

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Filed Under: Football, Archive Tagged With: Andrew Mason, Ari Broussard, August Pitre, Austin Trammell, Bradley Rozner, Christian McStravick, Jake Bailey, Jovoni Johnson, Mike Bloomgren, Mike Collins, Rice Football, Wiley Green, Zane Knipe

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