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Rice Football: Bradley Rozner granted additional eligibility

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Rice football received some good news. Wide receiver Bradley Rozner has two more years of eligibility following a waiver from the NCAA.

The upcoming 2020 Rice football season will not be the final year of eligibility for wide receiver Bradley Rozner. The NCAA has granted him a waiver for an additional year of eligibility beyond 2020. That effectively makes Rozner a redshirt sophomore entering the season ahead. He’ll now have two more years of eligibility rather than just one.

Rozner missed his freshman season with injuries before his breakout “sophomore” campaign in 2018. He led all junior college players in touchdown receptions that year, paving the way for his jump to the next level.

More: Brad Rozner – The Roost’s Rice Football newcomer of the Year 

The lanky wideout was a raw talent when he arrived at Rice. The coaching staff new he had ability, but how it would translate to the D1 level was somewhat of an unknown. Rozner took some time to assimilate, but the growth that began in fall camp continued to progress as the season went on.

He flashed some big play ability in his early games, including 100-yard outings against Wake Forest and Baylor. He caught his first D1 touchdown against UAB and followed it with a score in the Owls’ following game against UTSA.

Then his big day finally came. With Rice still in search of their first victory of the 2019 season, Rozner went off. Against Middle Tennessee No. 2 caught three touchdown passes in the first half, spotting the Owls a sizable lead on the road. Rice would go on to win 31-28, thanks in large part to the eight receptions, three scores and 130 yards racked up by Rozner.

He finished the year with, 55 catches, 770 yards and five touchdowns. He and Austin Trammell should once again be one of the better receiving duos in Conference USA this season. Keeping Rozner for another year in addition to several up-and-coming young receivers is fantastic news for the Rice offense for seasons to come.

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Rice Football: 2020 Spring practice closing thoughts

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Rice Football snuck in six spring practices before they were canceled by Conference USA. Here are a few things we learned and questions still unanswered.

My notebook is an organized mess every time Rice football practice is underway. I have notes from each session I attend. Those range from individual moments that impressed me to far-reaching questions that I’ve yet to reach a conclusion. Sometimes coaches or players can shed light on my queries, other times they’re left to ruminate until next session, next week, or longer.

More: Erica Ogwumike talks end of season, Rice career on The Roost Podcast

Rice is fortunate they got to practice at all. Several Conference USA teams called off all sessions before they ever stepped foot on the field. There are a lot of question marks scribbled in the pages from the Owls’ six spring practice sessions. In this case, some clarity is better than none.

Depth Charts

I hesitate to put out defined depth charts, especially from spring ball. Players are cycling in and out, some are learning new positions. The alignment of the team on any one play varies tremendously. Starters are easier to determine. Backups are … well, an exercise best guessing. With that caveat, take these words as being scribed in pencil.

Rice Football First Team Offense

QB | Collins OR Johnson
RB | Otoviano
WR | Trammell, Rozner, Pitre
TE | Myers
OL | Servin (LT), Garcia OR Sheriff (LG), Klarkowski (C), Baker (RG), Woolford (RT)

Rice Football Second Team Offense

QB | McMahon
RB | Montgomery OR King
WR | Knipe, Bailey, Palmer
TE | Bull OR Bradley
OL | Ferraro (LT), Riddle (LG), Baker (C), Floyd (RG), Peterson (RT)

Offensive depth chart notes

I hate OR designations, but I really do believe there are several open spots on the offense right now. Quarterback is the most obvious. If Rice football had to play tomorrow, I’d bet Mike Collins is the guy, but it’s close. That’s not to say he stole the show this spring — he and JoVoni Johnson were both solid — but I like Collins’ combination of size and elusiveness. I’m still looking to see who can make more consistent plays downfield between those two. The more accurate passer could win the job in fall camp.

Cam Montgomery looks really good. Really good. Rice had a deep backfield last year and Montgomery fumbled away some of his opportunities, leaving him buried on the bench. He’s probably the fastest player on the team right now (or at least in the top five). He’ll be the third down and pass catching back. There’s plenty of room for Jawan King to carve out a role as well.

Not much changed on the pass catching front outside of some good plays from sophomore tight end Jack Bradley. He was on a very short list of true freshman that played every game. They’d like to see him more involved this year. August Pitre had a great showing, too. He was much more aggressive in the air, fighting for the football and winning one-one-one matchups.

On the offensive line, it’s encouraging to see Izeya Floyd running with the twos. So far, the transition seems to be going well. Klarkowski as the starting center surprised me a bit, but I attribute that more to the need for answers at guard. If someone emerges there, Baker more than likely moves back to center. JoVaun Woolford is an impressive human being. If he adds another 15 to 20 pounds this offseason he’s going to be a huge asset at the tackle spot.

Rice Football First Team Defense

DL | Schuman, Hubbard, Carrol, Orji
LB | Alldredge, Montero
CB | Devones, Thornton
Saf | Smith, Nyakwol, Chamberlain

Rice Football Second Team Defense

DL | Doddridge, Enechukwu, Garcia, Page
LB | Morrison, Grammer
CB | Bird, White
Saf | Calderon, Lockhart, Richardson

Defensive depth chart notes

The defense looks pretty cookie cutter from how Rice football ended last season. De’Braylon Carroll will slide up into a starting spot replacing the departing Myles Adams. Kenneth Orji will become the full-time man at rush end with Anthony Ekpe gone. The rest of the first team is essentially unchanged.

Myron Morrison has entrenched himself as a rotation player at linebacker. The coaches love his work ethic and he made several big plays this spring. He and Garrett Grammer will back up Antonio Montero and Blaze Alldredge.

There’s a pretty clear delineation from the first and second teams in the secondary, but the top 10 guys are solid. Rice is bringing in some talented playmakers in the secondary, but this shouldn’t be a situation where anyone is forced to play early from necessity. They’ll have to earn it, which they very well might do.

The defensive line is a spot to monitor. I loved what I saw from Kebreyun Page, and Ikenna Enechukwu has been steadily improving from last season until now. I’m not sure about the defensive end spot. Joshua Pearcy and Jacob Doddridge both took some time there during the spring.

Special Teams

There are a few certainties on special teams.

  1. Austin Trammell will be the punt returner
  2. Stanford transfer Collin Riccitelli will be the place kicker
  3. Charlie Mendes will be the punter
  4. Cam Riddle will be the long snapper

There really won’t be any competition whatsoever at those four spots. That leaves kickoffs and the holder as the only real question marks. Those auditions will continue into the fall.

Unanswered questions

1. Who is going to be the starting quarterback?

Collins and Johnson separated themselves this spring, but neither “seized the job” as coach Bloomgren has often wished of his quarterbacks. They’re both great on the ground with Collins getting a slight edge because of his size. Johnson may not be injury prone, but he’s slimmer and did get forced out of his start against Marshall last year with an injury. I still think we could have one guy before the season opener, but don’t expect the competition closed before a week or two of fall camp.

2. Which offense will Rice run?

The way Rice lined up against Army was night and day different from how they played against Middle Tennessee. Bloomgren will stick to his guns and run the football, but he’s not going to discount the success they found through the air. The offensive line might be the key determinant in how Rice attacks on offense. But we still don’t know how that unit will be pieced together quite yet.

3. Where are the gaps that incoming players need to fill?

In previous springs, it’s been fairly evident where the team needs an impact player. Given the little sample size this time, it’s hard to know which of the incoming signing class is going to have the clearest path to playing time.

I have a hunch someone is going to emerge from the running backs. Kobie Campbell and Khalan Griffin are special talents that could impact the game on special teams or as offensive weapons. On defense, I want to see what happens in the secondary. Can someone like Lamont Narcisse work his way onto the field? That might depend on a few factors. On both sides of the ball, we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the fall.

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Rice Football: 10 Takeaways from 2019 season

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The 2019 Rice Football season has come and gone. Spring ball will be here soon, but first a look back at what we learned about this team last season.

The 2019 college football season ended with purple and gold confetti falling from the rafters of the New Orleans Super Dome. Rice Football will host the defending champion LSU Tigers at NRG Stadium in 2020. Before we get there, a few observations about what we learned about the Owls this season and what might need to change moving forward.

The good

1. The Rice defense is the real deal

The Owls held eventual top-10 Baylor scoreless in the second half and jumped out to a 20-0 lead 0n North Texas, eventually beating the Mean Green on the back of some spectacular defensive plays. They shored up their most glaring deficiency, the long ball, and found a way to limit some of the most prolific passers in Conference USA. A year removed from finishing 11th in total defense against C-USA foes, Rice improved to sixth in 2019.

2. This team has star power

Not only has Mike Bloomgren retooled the roster with D1-caliber players, but he’s also added names that people outside of South Main will know. Players like Austin Trammell, Bradley Rozner, Blaze Alldredge and Treshawn Chamberlain are stars in Conference USA. All earned postseason honors of some sort, with Alldredge being named first-team All C-USA by the conference and Pro Football Focus. Better still, all are slated to return next season.

3. The Owls have hit on the vast majority of their transfer targets

With the exception of offensive lineman Andrew Mike, a transfer from Florida in Bloomgren’s first season, Rice has hit home run after home run in the Transfer Portal. They’ve gone three-for-three with JUCO additions (Alldredge, Rozner and Naeem Smith) and gotten game-winning production from graduate transfers across the offense. There should be more additions on this front in the coming weeks.

4. The 2020 schedule gets a lot easier

Rice football gets Army at home next season while swapping out a slate of three Power 5 opponents for LSU, an FCS school (Lamar) and Houston. It’s plausible the 2019 team could have won at least a couple of additional games against the 2020 schedule, and Rice returns the vast majority of their overall production.

5. Rice proved they can win with offense and with defense

Rice beat North Texas with suffocating defense, keeping one of Conference USA’s best quarterbacks out of the endzone. A week later they beat UTEP with offense, rallying from a halftime deficit to win on the road. As good as the defense was, this team wasn’t one-dimensional in their wins.

Areas of concern

6. Inconsistent quarterback play remains a problem
  1. Shawn Stankavage
  2. Jackson Tyner
  3. Evan Marshman
  4. Wiley Green
  5. Parker Towns
  6. Tom Stewart
  7. JoVoni Johnson

Throw in wildcat quarterback Juma Otoviano and you’ve got way too long of a list. Rice hasn’t managed to keep the same hands under center for an entire season yet since Mike Bloomgren arrived at South Main. Awful injury luck has been a component of the quarterback quandary, but poor play has been equally culpable. If Rice football is going to take the next step, finding ONE passer for 2020 is a must. They’ll have a few to choose from: Green, grad transfer Mike Collins and JUCO transfer TJ McMahon.

7. The rest of the receiving corps never broke out

Rice is never going to post numbers akin to the spread offenses that have become ubiquitous with today’s spread offenses. That said, the ratio of pass catching options skewed to an extreme this season. Only two Rice receivers (Bradley Rozner and Austin Trammell) caught at least 20 passes. August Pitre third with 17, less than 1.5 per game. Jake Bailey was limited to a part-time role. Zane Knipe wasn’t healthy. None of the pass catching tight ends we’d hope to see materialized into consistent options. Whoever plays quarterback will need more than two options in the passing game.

8. The offensive identity seems uncertain

The Rice offense that started the season 0-9 looked fairly foreign from the version that ended the season 0-3. A lot of the core concepts were there, but the influence of offensive coordinator Jerry Mack was undeniable. Mack said after the season they’d retain as much of that simplicity as possible, but Bloomgren was careful to note they weren’t going to throw out the playbook either. What that means for 2020 is anybody’s guess.

9. It’s hard to consistently hit on transfers

Last year Rice brought in seven transfers who were expected to compete for starting jobs. Each of them — Tom Stewart, Naeem Smith, Bradley Rozner, Brian Chaffin, Justin Gooseberry, Nick Leverett and Charlie Booker — either started or were important contributors. The hit rate was as close to 100 percent as could have been reasonably expected. Doing that well in the transfer market for two years in a row is really hard to do.

10. Expectations are rising

Two wins in Bloomgren’s first season was okay. Three wins, and the fashion in which they came, were proof the Owls were headed in the right direction. 2020 is when everything is supposed to come together. The staff expects to be in a bowl game next winter, and that’s probably the baseline for the trajectory this team has set through two seasons.

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The Roost’s 2019 Rice Football Season Superlatives

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The Roost’s 2019 Rice Football Season Superlatives exist to honor exceptional Owls who made a difference on the field this season. Here’s the complete list.

There were many individual performances worth recognizing in the 2019 Rice Football season. In addition to the more traditional awards below, make sure to check out The Roosties, the first annual award show from The Roost Podcast, which features a different angle of honors. From our favorite plays to the players we were most wrong about in the preseason, we cover some of the more creative superlatives on the show.

Defensive Newcomer of the Year — DB Naeem Smith

Full Story: Defensive Newcomer of the Year Award

Excerpt: “Smith and the secondary capped off their season with a near-perfect outing against preseason Conference USA Player of the Year Mason Fine on Senior Day. The North Texas quarterback was held without a touchdown pass, in a game in which he attempted at least 15 passes, for the first time since Sep. 16, 2017 at Iowa. Nobody keeps Fine out of the endzone, but Rice football did. And Smith was a crucial piece to that puzzle.”

Offensive Newcomer of the Year — WR Bradley Rozner

Full Story: Offensive Newcomer of the Year Award

Excerpt: “The season was a collection of moments like that for Rozner. He led all of junior college in touchdowns last season. In his first year at Rice, he led the Owls’ pass catchers in scoring, too. Not only did South Main become his home, he proved he belonged on this stage time and time again.”

Rising Star — DT De’Braylon Carroll

Full Story: Rising Star Award

Excerpt: “Carroll’s impact went beyond the boxscore. Those relying on the stat sheet to project how impactful the Rice front seven will be next season are in for a surprise. Carroll will be ready and waiting for his turn. Adams has exhausted his eligibility and moved on. Rice has yet to sign any interior defensive lineman in their most recent recruiting class. The starting job is going to be Carroll’s. If he continues to play at this level he won’t fly under the radar for much longer.”

Special Team’s Player of the Year — LB Garrett Grammer

Full Story: Special Team’s Player of the Year Award

Excerpt: “Humble excellence. That’s pretty much Garrett Grammer in a nutshell. And that’s why this season, despite the string of defeats, has been so rewarding for many on this team. His efforts are the backbone of a team in the progress of pulling itself up by the bootstraps, of a collection of players working their butts off to earn a win, somehow, someway.”

Defensive Player of the Year — DB Treshawn Chamberlain

Full Story: Defensive Player of the Year

Excerpt: “Even with those impressive numbers, it’s hard to quantify the impact a player like Chamerblain had on this defense. The energy he brought to the defense this season went far beyond the x’s and o’s. Some players stay emotionally level from start to finish. Chamberlain is a guy that embraces the intensity of the game, playing with a passion, a swagger that gives him an edge.”

Offensive Player of the Year — RB Aston Walter

Full Story: Offensive Player of the Year

Excerpt: “That career ended in El Paso, Texas on the very field he lost his junior season. This time, instead of accruing another redshirt, Walter went out with a bang. He paced Rice with 149 rushing yards and one touchdown which came from 30 yards out. Things had finally come full circle. A fitting way for a player who’s career had transformed from a part-time role to a core offensive weapon.”

Team MVP — LB Blaze Alldredge

Full Story: Team MVP Award

Excerpt: “Dominant. If one were to describe Blaze Alldredge’s 2019 season in one word, that would be it. This marked the year the JUCO kid from Florida proved he belonged on the big stage. And not just belonged, that he was the Alpha on the field, patrolling the hash marks and ready to take on any challenger who dared run his direction.”

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Rice Football 2019 Offensive Newcomer of the Year: Bradley Rozner

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Former junior college wide receiver Bradley Rozner went from a question mark to a game changer for Rice Football in 2019, becoming an easy selection for Offensive Newcomer of the Year.

There were plenty of new faces on the Rice football offense this season. The freshman class had high expectations, but the most notable newcomers on that side of the ball were transfers. Rice brought in three graduates on the offensive line. They added a quarterback and a running back from Harvard. There was also one receiver from the junior college ranks.

When it came to sorting through which new face had the biggest impact, the answer was fairly straight forward. Former JUCO wide receiver Bradley Rozner, whose journey began with little fanfare, is our 2019 Rice Football Offensive Newcomer of the Year.

Bradley Rozner didn’t make it a week into Rice football spring practices before his head started spinning. The rigors of Rice academics combined with a thick playbook and a brand new offense had his mind working overtime. He looked at ease in one-on-one drills, but wasn’t able to translate that inate ability into the Owls’ scheme. Not yet.

By the time the 2019 season arrived, Rozner was more or less prepared. He wouldn’t be eased in, rather, the 6-foot-5, 195-pound junior college product became the de facto replacement for big-bodied wideout Aaron Cephus who had been suspended indefinitely prior to the team’s first game.

“At the beginning of the year, the only guy who had ever caught a ball for us was Trammell. Rozner was a question mark,” recalled wide receivers coach Mike Kershaw. Although the staff had noticed a progression from their new offensive weapon, there was still uncertainty about his ability to win one-on-one balls and out-muscle defenders in the air.

Rozner had one catch for six yards in his D1 debut.

After that, something clicked. “Once he learned the offense, actually learned where to line up, that started slowing things down. Then he could just play.” Rozner averaged nearly five receptions for 70 yards a game across his final 11 contests of the season. For the year, he led Rice football in receiving yards (770) and touchdowns (5). His highwater mark came on the road against Middle Tennessee, a game in which he caught three touchdowns.

If there was ever any doubts as to his ability, the Middle Tennessee game erased them entirely. No. 2 by jersey, Rozner became the No. 1 downfield threat for the Owls’ offense, which snapped out of a scoring funk to average 27 points per game in their final three contests. Prior to the winning streak, Rice had managed 27 points just once: a road game against UTSA in which Rozner had a season-high nine receptions for 138 yards.

Rozner was the big play machine for an offense desperate to be woken up. “There’s no doubt I struggled earlier on during the season, but I’m starting to hit my stride,” he said following his big day against UTSA. “Hopefully I can just keep progressing and the offense can keep working.”

The offense didn’t transform overnight solely because of Rozner. The veteran arm of quarterback Tom Stewart and production in the rushing game from Aston Walter helped push the Owls back in the right direction. But the impact Rozner had when he was on the field was always notable.

Against North Texas, an offensive staff that had intentionally grounded the football the game prior, trusted Rozner to make a big play when the team needed it most. Lined up in single coverage on third and long on what Rice hoped would be the clock-killing drive, Bloomgren took to the air. Stewart threw a jump ball up to Rozner who caught it in stride. From there, the Owls picked up another first down and the win.

The season was a collection of moments like that for Rozner. He led all of junior college in touchdowns last season. In his first year at Rice, he led the Owls’ pass catchers in scoring, too. Not only did South Main become his home, he proved he belonged on this stage time and time again.

Many hoped Rozner could become a useful piece of the Rice football offense. Instead, he became an integral component, one the Owls needed to move the ball. And when they did throw it his way, he made play after play.

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