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Top Twitter follows for Rice football and Conference USA Football for 2021 season

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The 2021 Rice Football season is around the corner. If you’re tracking with the Owls or Conference USA on Twitter, here are a handful of accounts you’ll want to follow.

The Roost

The Roost
The Roost Podcast
The Roost Podcast co-host Carter Spires

University-sponsored and coaching staff

Rice Athletics
Buy Now | 2021 Rice Preview
Rice Football
Rice Football Recruiting
Rice Owls Equipment

Football Staff

Mike Bloomgren – Head coach
Marques Tuiasosopo – OC, Quarterbacks
Mike Kershaw – Wide receivers
Jim Jackson – Tight ends
Sanders Davis – Offensive line
Robbie Picazo – Running backs
Cedric Calhoun – Defensive line
Collin Spencer – Safeties
Buy Now | 2021 C-USA Preview
Gerard Wilcher – Cornerbacks
Brian Smith – DC, Linebackers
Chris Monfiletto – Special teams
Alex Brown – Director of Recruiting

Conference USA

CUSA | @CUSAbbs, @TheG5Beat, @FCUSARefs, @cusaReport, @CUSA_Curtain

Southern Miss | @ToTheTopTalk, @USMVoice, @Bumperjbailey, @jamie_arrington, @Robinson_Glynn, @GldnEaglePride

Western Kentucky | @MoonShineTD, @MSTD_Podcast, @Moffstradamus, @TheTowelRackWKU, @100MilesOfHate

FAU | @FAU_Owls_Nest, @Owls247, @MarinelliShane, @JackWhidden3, @TheKevinFielder, @Florida_Owl, @ShulaBowlPod, @FAUkickerpunter

FIU | @EricCHenry_, @chiapanther, @ShulaBowlPod

Louisiana Tech | @BleedTechBlue, @LaTechReport, @gotechplsdntdie, @tannerspearman, @latechsportsctl

UAB | @DudleyDoWriteAL, @UABDailyDragon, @BlazerTalk, @DragonsDenEFEL, @Charmillionaire, @UABSlant, @johncduncan 

Old Dominion |  @ReeseBecker, @DougRipleyODU, @Harry_MiniumODU, @austinmpriest

North Texas | @meangreennation, @BrettVito, @gomeangreen, @MeanGreen247

UTSA | @JaredUTSA, @RivalsJavi, @AlamoAudible, @MeepMeepNation, @RowdyTalk, @UTSAInsiders, @StephenWhit89, @GregLuca

Marshall | @MoonShineTD, @MSTD_Podcast, @HerdNation, @Trace_Johnson94, @RWithTheHerd

MTSU | @GoMiddle, @GoMiddle_Matt, @100MilesOfHate

UTEP | @adrian_broaddus, @LouTEPminer, @BretBloomquist, @FQUTEP

Charlotte | @hunter_bailey45, @_agent49, @TheFirst49, @DavidScott14

Have any other recommendations? There’s plenty of more people doing good work on social media, whether that be on Twitter or somewhere else. Leave other accounts folks should follow in the comments.

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Ranking the Conference USA Football Quarterbacks: July 2021 Patreon Q&A

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The quarterback landscape is going to be interesting for Conference USA football teams this season. Where does Luke McCaffrey fit in among the league’s signal callers?

If you haven’t checked out any of our Conference USA team previews on The Roost Podcast yet, go ahead and subscribe to the show and put those episodes in your listening queue over the next few weeks. I bring that up because a recurring theme as we work through the Owls’ upcoming opponents is the lack of certainty at the quarterback position across the conference.

Among returning quarterbacks, at least from a purely statistical evaluation, it’s essentially Marshall’s Grant Wells and that’s about it. The list gets murky quickly with players like UTEP’s Gavin Hardison and UTSA’s Frank Harris showing up frequently in the Top 5 of major statistical categories like completion percentage, yards per attempt and touchdowns. That means, in all likelihood, the best quarterback that will play in Conference USA in 2021 wasn’t in the conference last season.

Which brings us to the question at hand? Who is the best quarterback in Conference USA and where does prospective Rice signal caller Luke McCaffrey fit into the mix?

Here’s my best projection of the conference quarterbacks, ranked from the best to worst:

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Conference USA Football: Evaluating CBS’ 2021 coaching hot seat rankings

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In accordance with annual tradition, CBS Sports has updated its annual coaching hot seat rankings. Where do the Conference USA Football coaches fit in?

Before digging in much deeper, here are the hot seat rankings from CBS Sports for every Conference USA football head coach.

School Coach Years Record 21 Rating 20 Rating
UTEP Dana Dimel 3 5-27 4 5
MTSU Rick Stockstill 15 94-92 3 2
FIU Butch Davis 4 23-21 3 1
FAU Willie Taggart 1 5-4 2 2
LA Tech Skip Holtz 8 61-41 2 1
North Texas Seth Littrell 5 31-31 2 1
WKU Tyson Helton 2 14-11 2 1
Rice Mike Bloomgren 3 7-23 1 2
UTSA Jeff Traylor 1 7-5 1 2
Marshall Charles Huff — 0-0 1 1
Old Dominion Ricky Rahne 1 0-0 1 1
Southern Miss Will Hall — 0-0 1 1
Charlotte Will Healy 2 9-10 1 0
UAB Bill Clark 5 40-22 0 0

Hot Seats

Out of the 130 coaches on the total list, only nine coaches had rankings of four or higher. The lone C-USA coach to make that inauspicious list was Dana Dimel, who actually improved from “win or be fired” status last year to “start improving now” status in 2020. Four of the Miners’ first five games come against teams that didn’t play football last fall, giving him a decent shot (or a lack of an excuse) concerning improvement this coming season.

The only other coaches within the vicinity of the hot seat, according to CBS Sports, are MTSU’s Rick Stockstill and FIU’s Butch Davis and that seems about right. Both programs have arguably flatlined (at best) and things are starting to go stale. Finding a reason that 2022 will be different rather than more of the same is paramount, making the “pressure is mounting” tag for Level 3 fitting.

On the lookout

The bottom half of this list seems more or less untouchable. Bill Clark isn’t getting let go, regardless of how 2021 turns out. The remaining coaches on that half of the list have one (or fewer) years of head coaching experience. It’s the middle tier of Willie Taggart (FAU), Skip Holtz (Louisiana Tech), Seth Littrell (North Texas), Tyson Helton (WKU) and Mike Bloomgren (Rice) that has the potential to be interesting.

A bowl berth, or somewhere in that vicinity, probably keeps all of those coaches safely employed in 2021, but an unexpected down season would put them right up near the 4s or the 5s in 2021.

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Conference USA Football: Digging into the data on Havoc Rate

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Conference USA Football has fielded some impressive defensive performances in the past three seasons. Does havoc rate concur?

The best defenses create chaos and force the opposing offense off schedule. There are a myriad of stats that convey how well a defense is doing on that particular front, but havoc rate is a nice aggregate synopsis of those various pieces that go into a great defense. How have Conference USA football teams fared in that stat in recent years and does the data make sense? Let’s investigate.

SeasonTeamPlaysTFLINTPDFFHavocLast3RnkInSeasonRnkAvgLast3Games
2020UAB59760837718.76%5119
2020WKU82774662617.90%92612
2020UTSA8188511331417.48%1134.712
2020FIU36736218215.80%20485
2020Marshall635505321315.75%2156.310
2020FAU60158622815.64%24689
2020UTEP49947223615.63%25711.38
2020Rice30022613114.00%33810.35
2020MTSU66345825913.12%3699.39
2020So. Miss.69751626813.06%3710610
2020LA Tech69952925412.88%3811610
2020UNT75252724611.84%39129.310
2020Charlotte38420516411.72%401386
2019UAB8971067561820.85%21114
2019WKU835691150516.17%198613
2019UTSA790966341318.86%424.712
2019FIU898691250815.48%2610813
2019Marshall891651042814.03%32126.313
2019FAU9798822381416.55%156814
2019UTEP76539533510.72%411411.312
2019Rice7647063951571%22910.312
2019MTSU88863843813.74%34139.312
2019So. Miss.803871032416.56%145613
2019LA Tech9417917511216.90%123613
2019UNT8607443891453%29119.312
2019Charlotte82486936816.87%134813
2019ODU787769331216.52%167912
2018UAB87511194914.20.91%11114
2018WKU862651256816.36%188612
2018UTSA81578932915.71%2394.712
2018FIU887681743815.33%2710813
2018Marshall9139212591219.17%326.313
2018FAU863701138514.37%3012812
2018UTEP79760541814.30%311311.312
2018Rice84257840913.54%351410.313
2018MTSU9658916571017.82%1069.314
2018So. Miss.672721429918.45%63611
2018LA Tech88010113381018.41%74613
2018UNT915971849418.36%859.313
2018Charlotte700639311216.43%177812
2018ODU90665954614.79%2811912

Notes

  • Last3Rnk is the rank of that defense compared to all 41 defensive seasons from 2018 to 2020
  • InSeasonRnk is the rank of that defense in the conference that season
  • AvgLast3 is the rank of that team’s rank from the 2018 to 2020 season

UAB has been head and shoulders above the rest

First, it probably comes as no surprise that UAB has posted three of the top five defenses based on havoc rate in the last three seasons. The Blazers have had one of the best defenses in the conference over that time and the numbers back that up, ranking them first in the statistic in each of the past three seasons. No other team has multiple appearances in the Top 10, let alone the Top 5.

2020 was a relatively subdued defensive season

Less organization typically works in the offense’s favor. We saw that reflected in the numbers as well. The 2020 season marked the lowest conference-wide havoc rate over the last three seasons (14.89 percent, on average) compared to 15.96 percent in 2020, a drop of roughly seven percent. That said, UAB, WKU and UAB still racked up TFLs and finished highly in the statistic.

Fluky turnover luck helps

Turnovers are somewhat random, and those seem to influence the year to year rankings significantly. Conference USA defenses have averaged 9.2 interceptions and 8.3 forced fumbles over the past three years. However, only 15 of the 41 defensive seasons exceeded that 9.2 interception mark with only 17 of the 41 exceeding the 8.3 forced fumbles. In short, an outlier season on that front can push you up the ranks.

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Conference USA Baseball: 2021 Regional Roundup

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Conference USA Baseball sent four teams to NCAA Regionals. Several made deep runs, but none were able to advance to the next round of postseason play.

Columbia Regional

Old Dominion hung in until the final out, literally. The Monarchs opened their postseason with wins over Jacksonville and South Carolina, earning themselves a spot in the winner’s bracket as the remaining teams fought for redemption. Virginia made it out of the fray and ambushed Old Dominion early in their first meeting, winning 8-3. That set up a winner-take-all contest which was delayed to Tuesday because of weather in the region.

The teams traded leads in the late innings in the finale. All six runs scored in regulation were scored from the sixth inning on. Try as they might, Old Dominion couldn’t push in the final run before the game was ended in the 10th with a walk off home run from the Hoos’ Devin Ortiz.

Ruston Regional

The only Conference USA school to host in its own ballpark, Louisiana Tech (1-2) did not get the result it wanted. The Bulldogs opened with an 18-2 rout against Rider, a game that they led 9-2 entering the eighth inning before doubling their run total that frame. NC State would get the best of them in the next game, though, silencing the Tech offense in an 8-3 win.

Forced to contend through the loser’s bracket, Louisiana Tech edged Alabama 10-8 but dropped a one-sided affair to NC State, this time falling 14-7.

Oxford Regional

Southern Miss (3-2) came extremely close to making it through the loser’s bracket in a loaded quarter in Oxford. The Golde Eagles were sent to the long road with an opening loss to Florida State and quickly rebounded with a 21-0 thrashing of Southeast Missouri State.

A Will McGillis home run lifted them past Florida State in a rematch, pitting them against regional host Ole Miss as the last two teams standing. Southern Miss won the first game 10-7 to force a winner-take-all finale. Ole Miss struck first in that one, taking a commanding 9-0 lead after two innings and holding on to eliminate Southern Miss.

Greenville Regional

Charlotte (1-2) got off to a hot start in their opening game against Maryland. After falling behind 1-0 in the second, the 49ers scored in each of the next six innings including a five-run fourth and a three-run sixth to outgun the Terps 13-10. A loss to eventual regional champion East Carolina in their second game sent them to the losers bracket, where they dropped a nail-biting 2-1 decision to Maryland and were eliminated.

Head coach Robert Woodward was somber, but thankful after the loss. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been more proud to be affiliated with a baseball team than this one,” he said. “I’m so thankful for this group of players, coaching staff, support staff and administration for everything that everyone has put in to get us to this point. We certainly hate the outcome. Our players got our program to a place it hadn’t been in 10 years. Our guys absolutely laid it on the line from the first pitch against Morehead State to the last pitch here today against Maryland. I’m just so proud of these guys.”

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