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Rice Football 2022: USC Game Depth Chart Notes

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Rice football has released its depth chart for its season opener against USC. Here are the latest and a few notes on relevant players.

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Who’s missing?

Rice football has had two players medically retire since fall camp began just a few weeks ago. Gavin Reinwald, who had been the Owls’ backup tight end behind Jack Bradley, saw his season end with a torn ACL midway through camp. Wide receiver Sam Crawford, who had been in the mix for a starting spot until recently, announced his medical retirement on Thursday evening.

There’s also no Cedric Patterson on this iteration. As mentioned to our subscribers earlier in the week, he is not traveling with the team to Los Angeles.

Starting Specialists

Christian VanSickle and Conor Hunt have earned starting nods at kicker and punter respectively, this week. VanSickle beat out Washington transfer Tim Horn while Hunt beat out incumbent punter Charlie Mendes.

New names

Trey Phillippi, who until recently played offensive line, is listed as the backup to Jack Bradley at tight end (with an OR designation between himself and Boden Groen. Getting him into the game on such short notice seems like a stretch, but he’s already a capable blocker, so seeing him listed this high on the depth chart could mean he may actually see some action on Saturday.

Safety Marcus Williams has been in and out of the lineup with injuries since he arrived on campus, but he’s recently cracked the two-deep.

Getting ready for the game

The Roost has plenty of content already up and running to get you ready for Rice football vs USC this weekend.

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Rice Football 2022 Season Preview: Preseason Superlatives

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The 2022 Rice football season is right around the corner. Here’s the final forecast for player superlatives this fall.

There are high expectations for a host of individual Rice football players this season. The roster is deep and there appear to be playmakers at a variety of positions. Handing out superlatives is always a challenging exercise, but this year felt particularly difficult compared to years past. Here’s where I landed. Who did I miss? Which other players have breakout campaigns in 2022?

Rice Football Preseason Preview: Check out the rest of the series here.

This piece is part of our 2022 Rice Football Season Preview. Get access to it, as well as all other preview posts such as positional breakdowns, depth chart and schedule analysis and more when you subscribe on Patreon today. New subscribers get our Conference USA Football Season Preview for FREE! 

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Rice Football: Bowl hopes dashed as WKU overwhelms Owls

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An important game got away from Rice Football quickly as Western Kentucky poured on the points to officially eliminate Rice from bowl eligibility.

Just about any Rice football fan would have happily accepted a one-score game against Western Kentucky after the first quarter. That’s exactly where the Owls found themselves in this one, even possessing the ball at midfield as the clock started to run on the second period. Then the bottom seemingly fell out.

Mistakes, turnovers and errant passes saw a close game turn into a blowout with remarkable speed. By the time the clock hit zeroes and both teams headed back to their locker rooms for halftime, the deficit had reached 28 points, with the Hilltoppers blanking the home team. The second half seemed like a formality at that point, with Western Kentucky coasting to the win. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Making (and losing) their own luck

At the risk of oversimplifying what has been a very sporadic season, the first 12 minutes of the Owls’ game against Western Kentucky felt like a decent synopsis. Western Kentucky moved down the field almost effortlessly, gliding into the redzone for what looked might be the opening score.

Then a bad snap and questionable decision by Bailey Zappe opened the door for Naeem Smith to step in front of a low pass and for a turnover. Given an opportunity to take the lead, the Rice offense marched down the field into the redzone on a long drive that burned more than six minutes off the clock.

The August Pitre fumbled what would have been a first down reception inside the five-yard line and WKU took over. The Hilltoppers drove 97-yards for their first touchdown on the subsequent possession.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week – Rice football vs WKU 

Rice made a big play. They had a golden opportunity to tilt the game into their favor and executed extremely well for a meaningful duration. Then, when it looked like Rice football might have set themselves up for success, disaster struck.

From “oh no!” to “yes!” to “oh no!” all in the span of three relatively short drives. A potential 7-0 Rice lead flipped to a 7-0 Rice deficit in a matter of minutes. And Rice made good plays on both sides of the ball to get them close. To start the second quarter the Rice defense forced a three-and-out. Not long after Rice punter Charlie Mendes misfired for a net of 14 yards. One step forward, another step back.

Unforced errors are stacking up

The special teams woes have been just as surprising as the defensive regression. Every week there’s an unflattering moment (or two, or three) to write home about for a unit that was among the most efficient in the country in the early years of Bloomgren’s tenure. The Rice special teams unit ranked 124th out of 130 teams in terms of efficiency entering the WKU contest.

Against the Hilltoppers, the Owls kicked the aforementioned 14-yard punt. They delivered a low snap on another punt attempt that resulted in a hurried, 32-yard punt. The first punt of the third quarter netted just 25 yards.

Rice also had a punt returned muffed, but were fortunate to recover that one with the return man quickly falling on the loose ball.

Add in four fumbles (one lost), four interceptions and eight penalties for 80 yards and you get a recipe for losing football games. Even when your defense is able to force four turnovers to help lighten the load.

Imperfect offensive evolution

Although it might have been missed in the series of close games Rice has played in recent weeks and the blowout at the hands of Western Kentucky, the Rice offense has taken a meaningful step forward. Against Charlotte, Rice recorded the highest yardage total (468 yards) they’d managed against an FBS opponent under Bloomgren. The play was sloppy against WKU, but the Owls did move the ball.

During this recent stretch, Rice had mixed running and passing and has proven effective on both fronts. Ari Broussard has been a revelation on the ground, but for every long, bruising run he delivers, the offense has also spread out in a five-wide formation and trusted quarterback Jake Constantine to find the open man.

It’s entirely possible Rice has run more plays with empty backfields in the past three weeks than they ran in the previous three seasons combined.

With no Bradley Rozner or Jordan Myers (a late scratch) on the field, Rice got down the field. Costly turnovers and errant throws from Constantine were the limiting factors for Rice against WKU, but the scheme itself was productive.

Broussard ran for 60 yards on 15 carries. Constantine passed for 380 yards and one touchdown. This offense has an identity — they finished with 504 total yards against Western Kentucky — but they’re not playing clean. And they’re running out of time.

Officially missed the mark

Reaching the postseason was the unquestioned expectation for Rice football this year. They will not get there. The Owls’ seventh loss of the season on Saturday ensured they will be staying home for the holidays once more. On that front, this season is a disappointment.

Bloomgren will undoubtedly have to answer for the shortcomings, and he has largely owned the missteps to this point. His team did not reach the expectations they set out to achieve and he, the coaching staff, and these players were noticeably frustrated by the overtime losses and missed opportunities along the way, as they should be.

Now what? Rice football has two games remaining on its 2021 slate: at UTEP and home vs Louisiana Tech. Should the Owls win both games, they’d finish with a 5-7 record and a .417 winning percentage, still the highest any Rice team has reached since 2014. Even winning one of the final pair would represent the most victories in a single season since the 2015 squad went 5-7. To that end, there is something to play for.

Digging deeper

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Secondary sinking

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Rice Football outclassed by UTSA in blowout loss

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Despite having two weeks to prepare, Rice football was bludgeoned off their bye week by a scoring hot UTSA squad that never let up.

UTSA threw the first punch against Rice football at the Alamodome on Saturday night. Then they threw the second. And the third. In a highly anticipated Lonestar showdown, Rice football was outclassed in every aspect of the game, dropping their first conference road game of the season in a ghastly fashion.

Rice had two weeks to get ready for their return to San Antonio, the site of what was one of their most heartbreaking losses of the 2019 season. Both teams had changed dramatically since then. But UTSA looked like their new-and-improved selves this time around. Rice did not. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

It’s how you start

There’s no golden rule that insists your first fifteen minutes of a football game has to be your best fifteen minutes, but that’s certainly been a prerequisite for Rice football so far this season. The opening quarter of the UTSA game made that abundantly clear.

The Rice defense kept UTSA in front of them on their first possession, but two third down conversions and a fumble forced that landed in the hands of a UTSA receiver saw the Owls fall behind 7-0. The offense went three-and-0ut, then the defense sagged before holding UTSA to a field goal.

Rice needed a spark on their second drive and got into a favorable position — third and short — before Jake Constantine was sacked. Another three-and-out. Following a booming punt by Charlie Mendes, the Rice defense then allowed an 81-yard run to stud Roadrunner tailback Sincere McCormick and a touchdown two plays later.

This start proved eerily similar to the Houston game. Two three-and-outs on offense and a defense unable to get off the field on third down, leading to a three-score deficit in the first quarter. Altogether, this was about as disastrous of a starting sequence as Rice has seen in recent memory.

Overwhelmed in the trenches

Part of what led to the awful beginning for the offense was severe protection issues up front. On the Owls second third down, Constantine dropped back to pass and was almost immediately met in the backfield by not one, but two UTSA rushers.

As if that wasn’t problematic enough, it happened again on the very next possession. Facing a fourth down near midfield, Constantine again dropped back to pass and again saw two defenders in his face immediately. He did his best to throw over the free rushers, but the ball was tipped, caught and returned for a pick-six.

Whether it was the running back, the quarterback or the line, someone didn’t make the right lead. Bad protection leads to bad plays, plain and simple. This play looked doomed from the start, and it might have put any hopes of making this game competitive to bed immediately.

Oftentimes, sacks are as much a quarterback stat as a protection stat. It takes both positions operating together to avoid those negative plays. Constantine wasn’t perfect either, but he was set up to fail from the start and the ramifications were disastrous.

Insult and injury

Rice did themselves no favors in any of the three phases on Saturday. But once again, injuries at a key position proceeded to stack the deck further against the Owls. Following an incomplete pass on third down on the second drive of the second quarter, starting quarterback hobbled to the sideline. Luke McCaffrey, who was “1B” on the quarterback depth chart, was suddenly the last man standing at the position for Rice football.

For Rice, the injury luck at this essential position has been unfathomably awful. Rice has started three quarterbacks in six games this year. Three different passers appeared in games in 2020, and Rice churned through signal callers in each of the 2018 and 2019 seasons as well.

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

Saturday’s performance was incriminating enough on its own aside from Constantine’s injury. But the sheer fact that we have to have this conversation — discussing yet another Rice quarterback knocked out of a game with an injury — is downright maddening.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Rice has been the unluckiest program in the country when it comes to quarterback health. And it’s not even close.

From winning streak to gut punch, yet again

A back-and-forth season pivoted back away from the Owls on Saturday night at the Alamodome. Rice has won six of their last 10 conference games, beaten previously undefeated No. 15 Marshall yet never seemed to be in the same zip code of a UTSA team that looked as good as advertised and remains the lone remaining unbeaten team in Conference USA.

A perfect conference record was improbable at best. That’s out the window. Reaching bowl eligibility and perhaps even getting a shot to contend for a conference title? Both of those objectives are in mathematically in play. But this time Rice won’t have the luxury of two weeks to prepare. And they’ll be playing an opponent (UAB) that is at least as good, if not better, than the UTSA squad that blew them out on Saturday.

It would be nice to see this team get another signature win to prove their trajectory remains as high as it felt entering the year. They’ve proven they can. It gets lost in the shuffle, but the Marshall upset came on the heels of a disastrous showing against North Texas (on the road) where the Owls’ starting quarterback was injured and unable to go against the Herd. That’s not to say the situations are synonymous, but there’s something about this team that doesn’t follow a linear pattern whatsoever.

If the two-game winning streak lessened the pressure, it’s back on, with interest. Rice needs to put a completely different team on the field next week. Another no-show performance would cannot take place.

Digging deeper

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Headed in the wrong direction

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Rice Football: Owls outlast Southern Miss for first conference win

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Rice football got four interceptions from its defense, weathering a late Southern Miss rally to clinch the Owls’ first conference victory of the season.

For the second time in as many weeks, Rice football threw the first punch. Jake Constantine hit Jake Bailey on a third down slant and he did the rest, torching the Southern Miss defense for the 39-yard score. The Golden Eagles would level the game at seven, but were never able to take the lead as Rice opened conference play 1-0. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Not so special teams

Rice allowed a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and watched Southern Miss recover an onside kick in the same game. Charlie Mendes put one out of bounds in the fourth quarter, netting just 29 yards on a potential field-flipping opportunity. They did convert on a field goal, Christian VanSickle’s first as a Rice Owl, but were largely a liability on the day.

This comes not too far removed from a fumble on a kick return of their own and a series of misses in the kicking game. It’s just been a tough season for this unit, one that Rice has gotten used to being an asset.

Rice was extremely fortunate to have its defense step up in key moments and neutralize several of those mistakes.

Third downs crucial for Owls’ offensive success

Third down has been a boogeyman for Rice football in recent weeks. Coming into the game, Rice had converted just 32.7 percent of their third down tries, the 12th best mark in Conference USA. The defense was equally ineffective, allowing opponents to convert on 42.9 percent of their tries, ninth-best in the conference.

Things started off on the right foot for the Rice offense. They converted on both of their third down attempts on their first possession of the game, setting up a 39-yard touchdown grab by Jake Bailey (on third down).

Then things took a turn. Not only did Rice fail to convert their next three third down opportunities, they went three-and-out on their next three drives. It might have been four, had Cedric Patterson not made a soaring grab on third and long on the following possession.

Constantine guided the offense on a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive on the first drive of the second half. At that point, Rice had converted 4-of-4 third downs on their two touchdown drives and 1-of-5 third downs on all other drives to that point. Sometimes it’s that simple. When Rice converts on third down, this offense works, and works well.

Rice football finds its quarterback

The third down efficiency was sporadic, but for the second consecutive game, Jake Constantine looked composed and accurate in the pocket. He bookended the three listless first half drives with a pair of lengthy scoring drives, giving his team the lead going into halftime. The running game did him no favors early, but he was able to do enough through the air to get the offense moving down the field.

Constantine completed 18-of-23 (78.3 percent) of his passes against Texas Southern. He completed 16-of-22 (72.7 percent) against Southern Miss. In the two games he did not play this season, Rice quarterbacks posted a combined completion percentage 48.1 percent. It’s hard to view what amounts to a 30 percentage point increase in efficiency as anything other than a massive improvement.

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

It’s going to be interesting to see what the split looks like between him and Luke McCaffrey following the Owls’ bye week. McCaffrey saw limited action against Southern Miss, possibly because of the limited redzone opportunities Rice saw. When he was in the game, he proved a spark, rushing for 16 yards on two carries and completing his lone pass attempt. He picked up two first downs.

If the plan is to bring McCaffrey along at his own pace, there was no reason to rush that process after this week’s positive outing from both players.

Rice Stadium took a collective deep breath midway through the third quarter after Constantine was leveled on a scary blow. Targeting was called and Constatine was taking directly to the medical tent. He reentered the game shortly after.

Busted coverage

The Rice defense made colossal strides from downright abysmal in 2018 to the unit that shut out an undefeated Marshall squad on the road last fall. The talent profile increased, and that undoubtedly played a major role in the improvement, but their sound fundamental play was perhaps equally as important.

Last fall, balls didn’t fly over the heads of Rice defenders. The Owls made stops on third down. They tackled well. The defense’s performances weren’t always perfect, but they looked like a unit that knew where they were supposed to be and did what they were asked to do the vast majority of the time.

Then this happens:

The corner bites, but allows the receiver to pass right by, assuming he has help with the safety behind him. He doesn’t. That allows the receiver to waltz into the endzone for a 31-yard score. The quarterback, Jake Lange, was third on the depth chart for Southern Miss when the season began, forced into action by multiple injuries. Making third-string quarterbacks look good is a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately, the Rice defense bounced back down the stretch. Each of their four interceptions and five sacks was crucial when it came to pulling out the win.

Back on track

If the 0-3 start was the worst-case scenario for Rice football, the 2-0 rebound has to be weighted equally as the best-case follow-up. Through five games, Rice is exactly where most would have projected them to be — and perhaps slightly better — given the uncertainty surrounding the matchup with Southern Miss entering the season.

With their backs up against the wall, Rice responded well. It wasn’t perfect, but a winning streak is a winning streak. And its ramifications on this team’s own outlook on themselves and this schedule cannot be overstated.

Rice hasn’t found the answers to all of their most pressing questions just yet, but they’ll have some time to ponder entering the bye week. Sitting at two wins with the bulk of their conference schedule still ahead, the Owls are positioned reasonably well to make a run at their goals.

Digging deeper

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

Will this team be able to pound the rock?

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