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Rice Football 2023: Bowl Prep Practice Report 1

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Rice football is prepping for the SERVPRO First Responders Bowl. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

Extra practices are one of the most significant benefits of postseason play and Rice football is taking full advantage of the opportunity. The Owls are getting time on the practice field last week and this week, working around finals as they install their game plan and get reps in for their upcoming matchup with Texas State.

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This week’s roundup focuses on what the bowl roster will look like for Rice football as well as some notes on how prep has gone and who has shown out in the early goings.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

Who’s here and who isn’t

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Rice Football tops FAU, clinches bowl eligibility

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Rice Football is going bowling for the second year in a row following a Senior Day victory over FAU, led by former Owl Tom Herman.

FAU struck first, but Rice football weathered the storm and gutted out its sixth win of the season, securing a second-consecutive bowl trip for head coach Mike Bloomgren and the Owls. On the arm of backup quarterback AJ Padgett, a resilient defense and an unrelenting desire to finish, Rice made the plays when they mattered most and found a way to win. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

This team is tough

Everything about this week of preparation suggested that Rice football would be ready for this game, so it was quite a surprise when FAU’s first play from scrimmage was a 75-yard touchdown run, possibly aided by a hold on Rice corner Tre’shon Devones. To follow that up with a long drive on offense that resulted in zero points and a turnover on downs inside the 10 was crushing.

Both the offense and the defense had come up short on their opening sequence whilst FAU had made the big play, twice. Rice had a choice to make. Was it going to be “Here we go again?” or would it be a call to arms with a renewed focus? Fortunately, it was the latter.

The offense got things back in gear, marched down the field and scored. The defense, after allowing 75 yards on the first play of the game, allowed FAU just 47 yards in the rest of the half.

A redzone interception by quarterback AJ Padgett didn’t do the Owls any favors, but the young signal caller recovered by leading a scoring drive on the next possession to put Rice in front at halftime. After so much going wrong for Rice in the first half, to enter the locker room with a lead spoke volumes. This team wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

It was fitting, then, that after a clock-killing drive that came up short on a failed fourth down conversion attempt the Rice defense was thrust back onto the field to make one last stop. With the game (and the postseason) literally on the line, the Owls got the job done.

Growing up before our eyes

Padgett took almost every snap during practice over the past two weeks but played relatively poorly in his two starts entering Saturday. His struggles, combined with the four-game redshirt rule which left backup freshman quarterback Chase Jenkins with one more game to play this season, led the staff to split reps between the quarterbacks during practice this week.

Bloomgren was adamant Jenkins would play. Offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasopop0 said he’d been in the game early. Yet when the halftime whistle sounded, Jenkins hadn’t moved from his perch on the Rice sideline. Why? Padgett, although not perfect, was moving the offense up and down the field.

In the first half alone, Padgett completed 12-of-19 passes for 172 yards, one touchdown and one pick. The interception was an impressive leaping grab by an FAU defensive back that wasn’t nearly as inexcusable as turnovers Padgett had committed in previous games. Despite only one score to show from it early on, the Owls’ redshirt freshman quarterback was playing well.

Bloomgren believed he could have been even better, though. “Still not the best of AJ Padgett,” he said after the game. “He is such a much better quarterback than what we’ve been able to put on display in games.”

Given a resilient running game and some penalties committed by FAU — at long last, a break on the officiating front for Rice — Padgett wasn’t asked to do too much in the second half. He calmly guided the team down to what would be the game-winning touchdown drive, finding Boden Groen in the back of the endzone for the score.

He finished the game 24-of-37 for 255 yards and three touchdowns with 32 yards rushing, before sacks. He was great on Saturday. And Rice needed every bit of it to win this game.

We’re going to miss Luke McCaffrey

“We talk about Luke McCaffrey so much, and we don’t talk about him enough. I think that couldn’t be more true,” Bloomgren said. “The impact that he has on our team and the player that he is. I feel so blessed to be able to work with him.”

Expectations were sky-high when McCaffrey committed to Rice prior to the 2021 season. A dual-threat quarterback, he was electric with the ball in his hands so hopes remained high when quarterbacking didn’t pan out and he made the decision to switch positions to wide receiver. Still, few could have expected just how impactful his time as a Rice pass catcher would be.

Despite only playing the position for two years, McCaffrey will leave Rice football among the top 10 in several all-time receiving record lists, climbing those charts on Saturday against FAU.

In what is expected to be his final regular season collegiate game, McCaffrey hauled in 12 passes for 141 yards and one touchdown reception, also adding 31 yards on the ground. “Whether he was running the ball today or catching it, I thought he was exceptional,” Bloomgren lauded.

McCaffrey has now caught at least one touchdown in seven consecutive games and scored in 10 of the Owls’ 12 games this season. In one of the games he didn’t score, he went off for a career-best 206 all-purpose yards

“Like earn it, for real”

There wasn’t a soul in the Brian Patterson center that was going to pass over a trip to the Lending Tree Bowl to play Southern Miss last season. Getting to the postseason, even with only five wins, was a meaningful step for the Rice football program a year ago. But at the same time, everyone knew they hadn’t quite delivered on those preseason expectations.

Offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo said it best this week when asked about how much a win on Senior Day to reach six regular season wins would mean to this team. Defeating FAU and clinching a bowl berth, in his words would be to “like earn it, for real.”

Saturday’s bowl-clinching win over FAU comes with no asterisks or what-ifs. It was a hard-fought, progress-proving victory, one that transpired without the Owls’ star quarterback JT Daniels.

“It makes me really proud of these kids, of these coaches,” Bloomgren said. “Because nobody has ever blinked. Everyone who’s still in this building has just kept fighting for what they believe in, for these kids… this team has always been worth fighting for for me, so it’s really cool.”

Rice concludes its 2023 regular season with six wins, the most for the program since 2014. The Owls were the only AAC team with a Power 5 victory, knocking out rival Houston to win the Bayou Bucket for the first time since 2010. Against a much more challenging schedule, Rice was better than they’ve been in a decade, “for real.

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Sneaky solid defense

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Rice Football 2023: FAU Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football is one win away from clinching bowl eligibility as a six-win team. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

There was a palpable energy at Rice football practice this week. Everyone was as locked in as they’ve been all season and seemingly doing all they could to help this team achieve its first six-win season since 2014. This team has found a rhythm, and that was fun to watch as they prepare for FAU.

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This week’s roundup focuses on the latest on JT Daniels, AJ Padgett and the Rice quarterback situation, some notes on the play of the Owls’ corners of late as well as a few (largely positive) injury updates.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

The latest on JT Daniels

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Rice Football 2023: UTSA Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football visits UTSA this weekend seeking to snap a losing streak. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

It’s mid-November and we’ve got a situation in the Rice football quarterback room. An unwanted, annual tradition has returned to South Main as the Owls prepare for the possibility of a game without quarterback JT Daniels at the helm.

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This week’s roundup focuses on what the Owls plan to do if Daniels is ruled out, what additional adjustments they’re having to make because of injuries and some closing thoughts on the importance of this matchup.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

The Plan at Quarterback

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Rice Football valiant comeback effort falls short against SMU

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Rice Football pushed another AAC heavyweight to the brink on Saturday, but came up short with a backup quarterback, falling to SMU at home.

Down to a true freshman backup quarterback for the entirety of the second half, Rice football hung around and had their chance to knock off SMU, one of the AAC’s three remaining teams to be unbeaten in league play. Chase Jenkins led multiple scoring drives but was picked off in the final minutes as the Owls fell on Homecoming night.

“It’s a win business. And the fun is in the winning and we all know that,” Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren said in his comments after the game. “They’ve been trained in that way they understand that, but I told them it doesn’t change the fact that I’m incredibly proud of them and how they fought in the second half of this ballgame through a lot of adversity and gave them a chance to win against an incredibly talented football team. That’s something we never could have done in years past.”

Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Special teams show out

It’s been a bumpy road for the Rice football special teams this season. Following a particularly disastrous day against UConn, which featured a missed field goal and a muffed punt, head coach Mike Bloomgren delivered a rather confident defense of special teams coordinator Pete Alamar, promising better days.

“What I do know, is we have the best special teams coordinator I’ve ever been around in Pete Alamar and I trust him to fix it,” Bloomgren said that night. “I’ll certainly do everything I can to help him.”

The Owls haven’t kicked many field goals since then and the punting hasn’t been noticeably improved, but Saturday’s start was just about the best showing that phase of the football has had all season. In the span of a few minutes, the Rice special teams accomplished the following: snuffed out a fake punt, kicked a 50-yard punt and finally blocked an SMU punt and returned it for a touchdown.

Rice was never going to have a chance in this game if they didn’t find a way to compete on special teams. That unit gave the Owls a chance. Quinton Jackson added a 44-yard kickoff return. Tim Horn made a fourth quarter field goal. In just about every special teams phase, Rice had success.

Manufacturing an offense

In baseball, there’s a concept of manufacturing runs. When the bats aren’t swatting the ball all over the yard, managers resort to stealing bases, bunts, sac flies and everything else they can scheme up to find a way to get a run. The terminology carries with it the idea of stealing points when you’re not having a banner day on the offensive side.

Onlookers at Rice Stadium witnessed the football equivalent on Saturday night. The Rice offense totaled minus one yard in the first quarter. Quarterback JT Daniels was sacked three times before he registered his third completion of the night and the running game wasn’t working. The SMU defense was overwhelming the Rice line and the offense was stuck.

Yet somehow, Rice went into halftime with 21 points, trailing by just a field goal.

In what has to be one of the most impressive offensive performances we’ve seen at South Main this year, offensive coordinator Marques Tuisosopo was — as the kids say — in his bag. There were tight ends in motion, jet sweeps, reverses, lots of orbit motions and more importantly, extended drives that kept the SMU offense off the field.

If Rice kept everything vanilla, it felt as if the SMU front would have blown them off the field. They dialed up the creativity and pulled out almost every stop. Credit to all parties involved — coaches and players — for finding a way to make this game extremely competitive, starting quarterback or not.

Nights like tonight expose the quality of your scheme. When everything goes wrong, can you still move the ball? Rice was able to do that in very challenging circumstances against the best defense in the conference with a backup quarterback. There are no moral victories, but the coaching staff absolutely carried their weight on Saturday night.

Where’s JT?

So many Rice football seasons under Bloomgren have featured a familiar, painful narrative: quarterback injuries. Even after JT Daniels left the USF game with an ankle injury the Owls felt like they’d escaped the curse when their rugged signal caller returned the following week to play against UConn. The undeniable willpower of No. 18 made this season feel different.

And while the Owls’ season is not anywhere close to finished, watching Daniels view yet another game from the sidelines was a punch to the gut Rice fans had thought they’d put well behind them in the rearview mirror.

Chase Jenkins took the first snap of the third quarter while Daniels was nowhere to be found on the Owls’ sideline. He would later emerge from the Brian Patterson Center and walk down to the field with a ball camp on his head and no helmet in sight. That sight — Daniels alone on the sideline as the offense took the field — was absolutely crushing.

Bloomgren revealed he wasn’t aware Daniels was in any danger of missing time when he entered the locker room at halftime. Daniels was then taken away by team doctors and examined where it was then revealed he did not remember his final drive or the score of the game.

The game could have been over at that point, but Jenkins wasn’t going to roll over. Jenkins finished 10-for-16 with 85 yards passing. He ran the ball four times for 21 yards, including a long of 14 yards. He led multiple scoring drives against an elite SMU defense. You couldn’t have asked for much more from a true freshman backup quarterback who started the season working with the scout team.

Playing on fumes

The secondary entered the game without Marcus Williams or Jojo Jean available. Sean Fresch and Gabe Taylor each spent time on the turf during the game, with Taylor unable to finish the game and Fresch willing the defense to hold together. When logic dictated the defense should be out of gas, they delivered their best moments of the entire game.

Following a touchdown drive by the Mustangs to start the second half, the Rice defense limited SMU to just six points for the remainder of the contest, much of which came when SMU starting quarterback Preston Stone was still in the game.

Bloomgren acknowledged the effort. “The way those guys fought, that’s what it comes down to,” he said. Those guys just fought together and for each other. That’s a beautiful thing. That’s really cool.”

Margin

Earlier in the season, Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren talked about margin. He talked about this team being talented enough to win games, even when they weren’t having their best day. After Saturday’s result, Rice has itself wrestling with a new kind of margin, the kind that ties directly to bowl eligibility.

Sitting at 4-5, below .500 for the first time this season, Rice now must win two of its final three games to secure six wins and clinch bowl eligibility. They had back-to-back “quality losses” but that doesn’t matter on the final ledger. If they didn’t already, the Owls officially have their backs up against the wall.

When asked whether the team was feeling that pressure, Bloomgren remained resolute. “We talked about UTSA. You know how we’re going to take this,” he said. It’s going to be one [game] at a time. It’s not going to be about margin. It’s not going to be about anything.”

“They all can see big picture. They’re smart kids; they go to Rice, but for us, we’re going to talk about the things that matter and preparing the right way. And what a big win it would be next week in the Alamodome if we can have a great week of practice and find a way to get that thing done.”

Rice has three games left: at UTSA, at Charlotte, vs FAU. They’ve played some really good football in recent weeks, but they’re running out of time to cash in on positive performances that come without a win on the final scoreboard.

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Hold the laundry

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