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16 Days: 3 Keys to offensive improvement in 2018

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Rice football owned the 125th best scoring offense in the nation a season ago. How can the Owls flip the script and crank up the production in 2018?

Points came at a premium for Rice football in 2017. The Owls averaged a sliver above 16 points per game (16.3 to be exact), outscoring just five other FBS offenses: San Jose State, Illinois, Charlotte, Kent State and UTEP.

If the Owls are going to get this side of the ball back on schedule in 2018 they’ll need to succeed in three key areas:

1. Consistency at the quarterback position

Last year’s uneasy quarterback depth chart made it difficult for the offense to get on the same page. Three different guys saw meaningful time and none earned enough consecutive starts to get into a rhythm.

The Owls once again have options at the quarterback position. Whether its Jackson Tyner, Sam Glaesman, Shawn Stankavage or someone else, a clear plan on how coach Mike Bloomgren intends to use his passers will amplify the Owls’ chances of success. Consistency doesn’t necessitate a clear QB1, but Bloomgren has made it clear he’d prefer to have someone grab the starting job and not let go. Getting that sorted out soon would be huge for this offense.

2. Let your playmaker make plays

Aaron Cephus has the potential to a game-breaker this season. His size and physicality on the outside pose an instant matchup nightmare for smaller corners, many of which the Owls will see in conference play. Lining him up alongside a smaller defender and letting him do his magic will result in chunk plays, something the Owls didn’t have a lot of last season.

Outside of Cephus, guys like Austin Walters should create advantages for the Owls. Bloomgren praised his versatility at Media Day, alluding to the Owls’ intentions to move him around the offensive formation and in and out of the backfield.

3. Play to your strengths

The depth chart on offense is fullest at the running back position, and there really isn’t a close second. Last year’s leading rusher Nashon Ellerbe is stuck in the middle of the early depth chart, behind two scary running threats in Austin Walter and Emmanuel Esukpa. And that’s not even mentioning freshman Juma Otoviano who continues to impress coaches in fall camp.

This is going to be a run-dominant offense. They’ve got plenty of weapons in the backfield to make the new scheme work. Sticking to the plan, staying on schedule and trusting the tailbacks to carry the load will pay early dividends in 2018.

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17 Days: Owls must start stronger in 2018

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Rice football didn’t get off to many fast starts last season, forcing the team to play catch up all year. Can they become a better first quarter team?

Ultimately it’s not how you get the points that matter, it’s having more of those points than the other team when the clock reads 00:00. Rice only outscored their opponent though for quarters once in 2017. A tendency to start slow did them in several times, forcing them to play catch up and put up a dearth of garbage time stats.

Rice scored 17 points in the first quarter last season. That’s 12 first quarters and 17 points, which averages out to about 1.4 points per quarter. Not great. The Owls also seemed to move a bit slower after halftime, posting their second-lowest scoring quarter then:

Score by quarters  1st  2nd  3rd  4th  Total 
Rice  17 56 43 79 195
Opponents  142 136 79 72 429

The skewed distribution of the Owls’ 2017 scoring comes into focus further on a percentage basis. Rice scored only nine percent of their total points in the first 15 minutes of regulation. That makes for a sizable deficit when compared to their opponents who scored nearly a third of their total points in the first quarter alone:

Score by quarters  1st  2nd  3rd  4th  Total 
Rice  9% 29% 22% 41% 100%
Opponents  33% 32% 18% 17% 100%

No matter which way you look at it, Rice needs to find a way to be more productive at the beginning of games. Setting the tone by getting on the board early is going to be extremely important in Mike Bloomgren’s first year as the head coach.

Intellectual Brutality, in terms of the physical pounding the Owls hope to deliver, will take its toll on teams later in the game. Tired teams make mistakes, hopefully opening the door for opportunities later in the Rice offense. That, combined with a strong start, should move the needle on the win column in 2018.

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18 Days: Owls boast rich history of All-Americans

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Through the highs and lows, Rice football has produced plenty of talented players. The Owls boast 18 All-American selections in school history including six consensus selections.

Some eras of Rice football have been objectively much better than others. The Owls have had their down years, but there have always been a few transcendent players sprinkled in to inject bursts of excitement. Over the century-plus of Rice football, the Owls have had 18 players named All-Americans.

Two Owls received the honor twice, Trevor Cobb in 1991 and 1992 and Jarrett Dillard in 2006 and 2008. Six Owls put together impressive enough seasons to be honored as consensus All-Americans: Cobb in 1992 as well as Weldon Humble (1946), Froggy Williams (1949), Dicky Maegle (1954), Buddy Dial (1958) and Tommy Kramer (1976).

The eras of college football have moved the measuring stick of what constitutes an All-American. Here’s the full list of the Owls’ honorees, including some notable stats from their All-American seasons.

Rice Football All-Americans

Consensus (bold)

Bill Wallace, 1934 – 1978 College Football Hall of Fame inductee
H.J. Nichols, 1944 – first lineman honored as an All-American
Weldon Humble, 1946 – 1961 College Football Hall of Fame inductee
Froggy Williams, 1949 – Rice’s all-time leading scorer with 156 career points
Joe Watson, 1949 – three-time All-SWC selection
Bill Howton, 1951 – future four-time Pro Bowler and Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame inductee
John Hudson, 1953 – versatile player than converted from defensive tackle to offensive guard
Kosse Johnson, 1953 – also an AP and FWAA first-team selection
Dicky Maegle, 1954 – led the Owls to Cotton Bowl victory over Alabama
King Hill, 1957 – 798 yards passing, four passing touchdowns
Buddy Dial, 1958 – 264 yards receiving, four receiving touchdowns
Malcolm Walker, 1964 – two-way player, center on offense and linebacker on defense
Tommy Kramer, 1976 – 3,317 yards passing, 21 touchdowns
Steve Kidd, 1985 – 45.9 punting average
Trevor Cobb, 1991, 1992 – 3,078 rushing yards, 25 touchdowns over two seasons
Charles Torello, 1997 – offensive guard and former walk on
Jarett Dillard, 2006, 2008 – 34 receiving touchdowns, 2,367 yards over two seasons
Kyle Martens, 2010 – 46.0 punting average

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19 Days: Mike Bloomgren the 19th coach in school history

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Mike Bloomgen is the 19th coach in Rice football history, joining a rich tradition which dates all the way back to 1912.

It all began with a 3-2 season in 1912 led by Phil Arbuckle, the first Rice football coach in school history. His 11-years in charge, albeit with a gap in 1918 when John Anderson led the team, set a precedent for long-tenured coaches at South Main.

Although there have been stretches with more turnover than others, Rice has had relatively few men in charge of the football program over the last three decades. Since Fred Goldsmith took over in 1989, Rice has had five head coaches: Goldsmith (five seasons), Ken Hatfield (12 seasons), Todd Graham (one season), David Baliff (eight seasons) and now Mike Bloomgren.

Limited turnover hasn’t necessitated sustained success. The Owls have two conference championships to their name over the last 60 years, a number which contrasts sharply with the six championships they won in the SWC from 1934 to 1957, a span of just 22 seasons. The majority of those championships came under the leadership of all-time great Jess Neely.

Neely’s career record of 144-124-10 isn’t awe-inspiring, but his 12-year stretch from 1946 to 1957 was arguably the most successful era of Rice football. During that period the Owls finished inside the top 10 nationally four times, climbing as high as No. 5 in the nation at the conclusion of the 1949 season.

Since Neely finished with a career 53.7 percent winning percentage no other Owls’ coach that lasted more than a single season has finished with an above .500 record. There have only been three coaches in school history to accomplish the feat, Neely, Arbuckle and Jimmy Kitts. If Bloomgren can get the Owls back to level he’ll already be among some of the most successful coaches Rice football has ever had.

19 is a lot of coaches, but if things break the right way, the Owls won’t have to start looking for No. 20 for quite some time.

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20 Days: Owls will use punting to their advantage

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Irrespective of struggles on offense and defense last season, the Rice football punting game via the leg of Jack Fox consistently produced impactful plays.

Rice football didn’t have many statistical boons to celebrate last season. Though the Owls issues on both sides of the ball the leg of their all-CUSA punter, Jack Fox, was not one of them. As a junior in 2017 Fox booted 56 punts. His 44.3 average was a top-20 mark in the nation and one of the brightest spots for the Owls last year.

Calling Fox an offensive weapon might be a stretch, but it’s true that he did more to flip the field than the starting 11 did most of the time. Just once in 2017 did he tallied fewer than 100 total punting yards, a loss to Southern Miss. Other than that Fox topped 200 yards with his leg six times and went over 300 yards on three separate occasions.

Fox blasted the eighth-most punts in the nation as a sophomore in 2016. His overall totals fell last season, but he’s got more than enough leg to kick it long whenever Rice calls upon him.

From his sophomore to his junior season Fox saw his effectiveness improve. He averaged 40.7 yards per punt as a sophomore before upping that average by more than 3.5 yards last season. Another bump up in distance would put him within range of last years’ leading punter, Michael Dickson of Texas. Dickson holds the distinction of being the first punter selected in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Fox was named to the Ray Guy watch list. He called it “an honor” to be listed alongside some of the best punters in the nation. Rather than be content there, Fox wants to get better. He hopes to boost his average to 45 yards per punt in 2018, a mark which would put him in the conversation to take home the award this fall.

If Rice truly intends to pick up a few more wins in 2018 out-punting their opponents won’t suffice. But that doesn’t mean an effective punter won’t play a meaningful role in the Owls future successes. Rice doesn’t have a roster overflowing with talent. Fox is one of the most talented players they have. While he’s here, the Owls had best make use of him.

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