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Rice Football 2021: Owls hitting their stride in practice prep for Southern Miss

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Rice football got some pieces back this week as it preps for its conference opener against Southern Miss. The latest from practice, here.

Things are starting to settle in for Rice football. Fresh off their first win of the season with several players expected to return to the field after missing time with injuries, spirits were high on South Main this week. This update will hit on those key returning pieces and discuss how Rice will approach the wide receiver and quarterback positions this week against Southern Miss.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Practice reports are reserved for our subscribers. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to deploy its quarterbacks, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. You can get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe to our All-American Tier on Patreon today.

Cedric Patterson takes the lead

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Rice Football 2021 Game Preview: Southern Miss

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Rice Football opens conference play on Saturday against Southern Miss. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Week 4 could not have gone more different for Rice football and Southern Miss. The Owls notched their first win of the season, leading from wire to wire over Texas Southern. Meanwhile, Southern Miss was shellacked by Alabama in a game that was never as close as the score seemed to indicate. Both squads sit at 1-3 with the chance to turn their seasons around with a 1-0 start in Conference USA action.

Kickoff time | 5:30 PM CT
Venue | Rice Stadium – Houston, TX
TV | ESPN3
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs Southern Miss this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. You can also catch the recap of last week’s game on The Roost Podcast, which should be released shortly. Find us on the podcast page or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. (And consider leaving us a 5-star review while you’re at it.)

Sizing up the contenders

Southern Miss head coach Will Hall came in with lofty goals before being punched in the mouth in his first month on the job. Sitting at 1-3., all is not lost, but the trajectory of the 2021 season could hang on what happens in the next few games. A win against Rice on Saturday and another against UTEP the following weekend would right the ship and absorb some early frustrations.

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren finds himself in a similar spot. Also 1-3, he’s won every game he was “supposed to win”. At home against a team without an FBS win, this game could prove equally important for the Owls on their quest for the first bowl game since 2014.

Series History

All Time | Southern Miss leads Rice 6-5
Last Five | Southern Miss leads 4-1
Last Meeting | Away, Rice won 30-6

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Rice Stat Notables

Passing | Constantine – 30/38 (79.0 percent), 351 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Rushing | Myers – 43 carries, 224 yards (5.2 yards per carry)
Receiving | Myers – 15 receptions, 119 yards (7.9 yards per reception), 1 TD / Bailey – 16 receptions, 149 yards (9.3 yds/rec) / Patterson – 7 receptions, 180 yards (24.3 yds/rec)
Tackles | Montero – 33 / Smith – 25/ Garcia – 21
Pass Breakups | Smith – 3, Nyakwol/McCord/Dunbar – 2 
Interceptions | Nyakwol/Fresch/Taylor – 1

Southern Miss Stat Notables

Passing | Keyes – 31/62 (50.0 percent), 338 yards passing, 3 TD, 3 INT
Rushing | Gore Jr. – 64 carries, 281 yards (4.4 yards per carry), 1 TD
Receiving | Jones – 8 receptions, 88 yards (11.0 yards per reception), 1 TD / Gunter – 5 receptions, 85 yards (17.0 yds/rec), 0 TD
Tackles | Shorts – 27 / Stanley – 21 / Habas – 15
Interceptions | Shorts/Daniel -1
Pass Breakups | Shorts – 6 / four others tied with one

Southern Miss X-Factor | Control the line of scrimmage

Through four games, Southern Miss has the No. 20 ranked run defense in the nation. The Golden Eagles held South Alabama to 31 yards on 34 carries, Grambling to 58 yards on 26 carries and Troy to 49 yards on 32 carries. Alabama had their way with this unit, racking up 211 yards on the ground, but Rice won’t present that level of athletic challenge.

Take out the Alabama game and Southern Miss is allowing a staggering 1.5 yards per carry.

If Southern Miss can replicate that on Saturday and force the Rice offense to be one-dimensional, they’ll put the pressure on a quarterback who’s only started one career game at the FBS level. He had a strong debut, but having a running back go for 160 yards and four touchdowns by his side undoubtedly helped.

Rice X-Factor | Get to the quarterback

The Rice defense has seen its greatest level of success this season when it’s gotten pressure on the opposing quarterback. We saw what happens when they can’t get home soon enough last week when a true freshman, making his first start, torched what was presumed to be a stout secondary.

Rice faces another first-year player this week, and one that is still learning on the job. Ty Keyes was head coach Will Hall’s hand-picked man when he got the job. But for as much excitement as he’s generated in Hattiesburg, he’s thrown for 338 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions in three contests. While he might live up to those lofty expectations someday, he’s not there yet. And that presents an opportunity.

The front four has had its moments. They’ll need to find that extra gear this coming Saturday. Pressure and young quarterbacks don’t mix well.

Pick ‘Em Contest (Subscribers only)

Make sure you submit your entry for The Roost’s weekly pick’em challenge. There will be swag and prizes for the top finishers at the end of the season. Choose an answer to each of the six questions below and comment on this post on the Patreon page to enter. It’s that easy.

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Need More?

The Roost’s 2021 Rice Football Season Preview has FIVE pages dedicated to every opponent the Owls face. There are depth charts, important new arrivals and positional breakdowns for every team in Conference USA sourced from local beat writers and sources on the ground who cover these teams every day. It’s the most thorough C-USA publication on the market.

One Final Thing

Rice football answered its biggest outstanding question last Saturday in their win over Texas Southern. Through their first three games, the offense hadn’t shown up. 48 points later, it’s evident that side of the ball does have the ability to perform. Whether they can do it at a similar level against a more talented opponent remains to be seen, but now we know the offense can score.

Had the offense not turned up, Rice could be looking at a defense that’s giving up 34+ points per game AND an offense that had shown no life through four games. No thanks.

Now the onus falls on Rice to combine that offense with the defense of old and a reformed special teams unit for sixty minutes. A complete game. If Rice can do that, against a conference opponent, the outlook for the rest of the season could change overnight. If they can’t, the goals they set months ago might still be in reach, but the week-to-week grind will be very real. Either way, we should learn a lot about this team this weekend.

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Rice Football: Owls outpace Texas Southern for first win

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Rice football notched their first win of the season, leading from start to finish in their first-ever meeting with intra-city foe, Texas Southern.

Rice football might very well look back at the first place of their Week 4 game against Texas Southern as the moment things clicked for a team in desperate need of a spark. The Owls had turned to their third starting quarterback in four weeks, but rolled the dice, trusting him to take a shot right out of the gate.

Not only did Weber State transfer Jake Constantine connect on that gutsy opening call, he hit wide receiver Cedric Patterson in stride and watched him gallop the rest of the way into the endzone.

That proved to be the catalyst this team needed, jump-starting a rout of Texas Southern in the first-ever meeting between the two programs. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Rice offense wakes up

When Patterson crossed the white line of the Rice endzone on that long touchdown pass, he secured the longest scoring play for Rice football since Juma Otoviano’s 80-yard touchdown run against Old Dominion on Nov. 18, 2018. It was also the first time Rice had scored on the first play of a contest since Driphus Jackson found Jordan Taylor for an 88-yard score on Nov. 25, 2014 against North Texas.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week 

The couple of firsts pales in significance when compared to the noticeable boost it gave to the 2021 Owls’ morale. After being shut out against Texas and limited to one scoring play against Houston the week prior, Rice put 48 points on the board against Texas Southern. For this team on this day, it didn’t matter who was lined up on the other sideline this offense needed proof that they could do it. And they did.

Now, it wasn’t perfect. Constantine was intercepted on a deep shot on first down following a Texas Southern penalty. A muffed center/quarterback exchange set Texas Southern up for points at the end of the first half. It was a mixed bag, but it was proof the upside exists, nonetheless.

Build the whole plane out of Jordan Myers

Head coach Mike Bloomgren didn’t make it far into his opening remarks in his postgame press conference following the Texas loss before he hinted at what was to come for the Rice offense, specifically who he was going to trust to carry the load moving forward.

“We’ve got to lean on him more,” Bloomgren said of versatile do-it-all utility man Jordan Myers. “We’ve got to give him more opportunities because we trust that he’ll get it done for us.”

On Saturday against Texas Southern, Myers got it done.

He carried the ball 26 times for 160 yards and four rushing touchdowns, the most touchdown runs from a Rice Owl since Nahshon Ellerbe had four against Southern Miss in 2017. He also added four receptions for 48 yards. That included this run, that put away any chance of a late Texas Southern comeback:

Cam Montgomery saw an increased workload, but his carries seemed to eat more from Khalan Griffin’s usual workload than from Myers’ snaps. If anything, it was just enough to ensure Myers was fresh and ready to go from start to finish. He certainly made his presence felt.

Quarterback questions linger, for now

As expected, Rice football played two quarterbacks against Texas Southern. Jake Constantine saw the vast majority of the work, completing 18-of-23 passes for 271 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He looked extremely comfortable in the pocket and delivered on-time, catchable passes to his receivers all night.

McCaffrey entered the game for specific packages, primarily in the red zone. He did not attempt a pass but carried the ball five times for 36 yards and a touchdown. The starter for the Texas game, McCaffrey was relegated to ad-hoc duty in his return to play. Whether or not that remains the plan going forward remains to be seen.

On one hand, Constantine looked very much the part against Texas Southern. Outside of the interception, a first down throw that probably should have been held instead of slung downfield, he led the offense well.

Will McCaffrey be Wally Pipp’d? More importantly, should Rice ride with the hot hand who produced almost as many points in the first half as Rice had scored to that point in three games prior? Very possible, will we see both quarterbacks in action against Southern Miss? Those are the questions that will be asked this week. For now, the Owls will enjoy their first win of the season.

Going 1-0 this week

Bloomgren has an oft-heard mantra that’s heard almost nonstop reverberating off the walls of the Brian Patterson Center. Whether in meetings with the team or media sessions, Bloomgren consistently implores his team to “go 1-0 this week”. For the first time this season, Rice football has risen to that request.

The chances for a thrilling non-conference upset are long gone, all that’s left is for this team to follow Bloomgren’s drumbeat.

A 1-3 start isn’t what anyone at South Main was hoping for, but it was probably the most likely outcome any outside the hedges would have projected prior to the start of the year. So, despite the harrowing highs and lows, Rice has the chance to step back into line with preseason expectations.

If Rice football hopes to beat those expectations and reach their aspirations of bowl games and more, it’s going to take a return to that “1-0” mentality. This week, they checked the box. Now it’s on to Southern Miss.

Digging deeper

Every week we’ll have a stat, storyline or key learning from the game reserved for our subscribers.

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Rice Football 2021: Pre-Texas offensive tweaks and practice notes

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Rice football needs to rebound on offense in the worst way this week. Here’s what’s changing headed into the Texas game and some other practice notes.

Neither side of the ball was happy with how they performed against Houston last Saturday. Noticeably eager to put rinse the bad taste away, Rice football hit the practice field hard this week getting in work despite a minor disruption from Hurrican Nicholas.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Practice reports are reserved for our subscribers. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to deploy its quarterbacks, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. You can get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe to our All-American Tier on Patreon today.

Scheme adjustments prior to the Texas game

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Rice Football 2021: Pre-Houston QB questions and practice notes

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Rice football had some decisions to make at the quarterback spot as they prepared for Houston this week. Here’s the latest, plus some injury notes.

The conclusion of the Arkansas game left Rice football with questions to answer at the quarterback position. With another full week of practice in the books, we have a bit more clarity on how Rice might deploy that position against Houston. This update will touch on the signal callers and update some key injuries and how those will impact how the Owls line up on Saturday.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Practice reports are reserved for our subscribers. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to deploy its quarterbacks, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. You can get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe to our All-American Tier on Patreon today.

So, who is playing quarterback?

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