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The Roost Podcast | Ep 53 – Breaking News: Rice Football is back

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An offseason of uncertainty came to an end this week. As first reported by The Roost, Rice Football has returned to practice for the first time this fall.

There were so many twists and turns to this offseason, but the light seems to have appeared at the end of the tunnel. Rice football returned to practice this week and is on schedule to play their first game on Oct. 24 against Middle Tennessee.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 53.


Episode 53 Notes

  • Housekeeping — If you haven’t yet, grab a copy of the 2020 Rice Football season preview and subscribe on Patreon. You’ll get practice reports, recruiting news and the latest analysis and updates on all things relating to Rice Athletics.
    Become a Patron!

    Want to take a test drive first? We’ve unlocked a few posts for a limited time so you can get a feel for what to expect as a subscriber.

  • Rice Football is back — We discuss the breaking news and highlight a few key topics:
    • The Owls kicked off fall camp this week, officially beginning the preseason and putting an end to our Extended Offseason
    • A quick overview of the twists and turns over the last several months and what it took for Rice to get to this point
    • The likelihood of Rice playing out this season as scheduled and what potential impacts could be on the horizon, including a possible rescheduling of the postponed game against UAB

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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BREAKING: Rice Football returns to practice, on track to play this fall

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The string of postponements is over. Rice football has returned to practice with the intention of playing games this fall.

Rice football fans can smile today. After months of uncertainty, a plan has been put in place for Rice to play football this fall. The Owls have been given the green light to return to practice. If everything goes according to plan, Rice will kickoff their 2020 season on October 24 at Rice Stadium against Middle Tennessee.

The Owls’ first practice took place on Thursday. They’ll scrimmage on Saturday and continue through the next several weeks leading up to the first game.

Listen Now: The Roost Podcast: Carter and Matthew breakdown the Owls’ return to practice

This news comes in the wake of an uncertain path forward for the program. While others sought to replace postponed or canceled games on their schedule, Rice opted to delay the start of its season on multiple occasions.

Prior to this news, Rice had lost or postponed games against Houston, Army, LSU, Lamar, Marshall and UAB. The likelihood of the more than one of those games being rescheduled this year is minimal, with the only plausible options being their conference games against either UAB or Marshall. Assuming currently scheduled games are played as planned, penciling a game against UAB the weekend of Dec. 5 seems likely.

There were times when the outlook looked bleak, but it would appear Rice has successfully threaded the needle. They’ve minimized any potential risk to their campus and their athletes while still finding a way for the football team to compete for a conference title.

The future will undoubtedly hold its twists and turns, but for now, football is on the horizon. If you haven’t yet, grab a copy of the 2020 Rice Football season preview. Then subscribe on Patreon. You’ll get practice reports, recruiting news and the latest analysis and updates on all things relating to Rice Athletics.

Become a Patron!

Want to take a test drive first? We’ve unlocked a few posts for a limited time so you can get a feel for what to expect as a subscriber. Visit our Patreon page and find the first post.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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College Football: Odds suggest a bumpy 2020 season

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The past few weeks have served as a stark reminder that no matter how many precautions are taken, no college football game can be guaranteed.

When this post goes live on Saturday morning, 16 college football games will have been postponed since the season began three weeks ago. At the conclusion of today, 49 games will have been completed as scheduled. Simple math says that’s a rate of roughly one in four scheduled contests never making it to the field.

Rice football’s crosstown rival Houston was the latest to experience that staggering statistic firsthand. The Cougars were meant to play Baylor today in one of the quickest scheduling maneuvers in recent college football memory. The game was organized and planned in a little less than a week’s time. Less than 24 hours before kickoff, that game had been squelched too.

Houston’s equipment truck was already at the stadium.

Houston head coach Dana Holgorsen couldn’t spell it out on social media, but his non-so-subtle collection of characters conveyed a frustration mounting among coaches, players and fans alike. For whatever reason, this game just wasn’t meant to be.

Back to the math.

If rapid testing helps limit the impacts of transmission and contact tracing, that 25% number will be too high. But if the impacts of positive cases begin to tick upward as the number of games increase, it could be too low. The best we can do for the time being is use the data we have now as a proxy for what is to come.

If this rate of cancelations continues, the chances of having a season that looked anything like the “best case scenario” is slim. Many conferences have built in some buffer room and flexibility, but that would fix multiple cancelations per school. Eventually, the calendar runs out.

Listen Now: The Roost Podcast

Given any 10-game schedule with a 25% cancelation rate, a team would have roughly a 5% chance of playing all 10 games. On average, every 10-game schedule would end up with two to three cancelations. That’s sobering.

Those that do play could find themselves in situations like Austin Peay: who played their first game of the year without any healthy long snappers and relied on quarterback pooch punts. Or Texas State, which swapped quarterbacks because from game one to game two because of precautions. It’s going to be weird.

Some teams will be more fortunate than others. The odds suggest somewhere around a half dozen of the teams playing this fall will complete their entire schedules as-is. Some others will be on the other end, losing large chunks of their seasons. It’s going to be strange, but that’s the reality of playing college football under these conditions.

Be grateful for the college football you do get to watch this year. From Campell vs Coastal Carolina on national TV to a marquee SEC matchup in October and everything in between. If your team is playing, cherish it. There’s no guarantee they’ll be playing next Saturday, no matter what the schedule says.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Rice Football: What happened to playing in the spring?

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The 2020 Rice Football season is cloaked in uncertainty, but playing in the spring is unlikely to be the answer for the Owls.

Over the past several months I’ve had conversations with several folks about the feasibility of spring football. Should Rice football not play a fall season, could they play later in the academic year? The answer: it’s theoretically possible, but unlikely.

I’ll start with something that most everyone I’ve spoken to at Rice seems to agree with. If a fall season can be played, that’s the best option.

Plan A, if you were to call it such, would enable Rice to play for a conference championship. That would be the closest semblance to a “normal” schedule the Owls could achieve. Rice has already chopped that “normal” down to a slightly less recognizable “familiar”, but the general theme remains.

Moving to the spring would bring with it a new set of challenges that go beyond whatever the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic were at that point.

It’s hard to count on relief from other conferences. The Big Ten announced today they’re going to attempt a fall season after all. The Pac-12, which (as of now) is not playing this fall, could reconsider too.

Unless the Mountain West or the MAC choose to have multiple schools make Rice their non-conference game in a hypothetical spring slate, the pickings for opponents will be slim to none.

Without any conference affiliated opponents, a spring slate might not be plausible. Rice’s best-case scenario might be two home-and-homes with New Mexico State and Old Dominion. That might be better than no season at all, but the optics certainly don’t look great. For those reasons, the focus remains squarely on playing this fall.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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BREAKING: Rice Football games against Marshall, UAB officially postponed

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Rice football games against Marshall and UAB have been officially postponed pushing the season opener back to Oct. 24 vs Middle Tennessee.

Rice Football will not play their games against Marshall (Oct. 3) and UAB (Oct. 10) as previously scheduled. Per an announcement made Monday afternoon, the Owls tentative season start date has been pushed back to October 24. Rice will host Middle Tennessee that afternoon.

We told subscribers this development was coming when Rice announced a further delay in fall practices. The differences between the decision-making factors wouldn’t have changed much between Oct. 3 and Oct. 10. You can read more about that decision and what the Owls hoped to achieve with the delay in our recent update.

The delay marks the fourth time Rice football has modified its 2020 schedule. The LSU game was canceled on July 30 and Rice postponed games against Houston and Army on Aug. 10. The Lamar game was struck from the schedule on August 21.

If things go according to the revised plan, Rice would open their season 49 days after their first opponent (Middle Tennessee) opened their season against Army on Sept. 5. Assuming they were able to complete their games as currently scheduled, Middle Tennesee would have already played five contests, including three conference games (home against WKU and North Texas and away at FIU).

More: This week in Conference USA on The Roost Podcast

As the schedule currently stands, Rice has six opponents. The Owls are home against Middle Tennessee (Oct. 24), UTSA (Nov. 7) and UTEP (Nov. 28). Rice will play at Southern Miss (Oct. 31), Louisiana Tech (Nov. 14) and North Texas (Nov. 21).

Further modifications to the schedule are likely should the Owls proceed with the season. Should Conference USA be willing to move the championship game back, Rice would consider efforts to schedule UAB on Dec. 5 to give them seven conference games. That would bring the Owls back into alignment with the majority of their conference peers.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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