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2025 Rice Football Season Preview: Safety

August 4, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

Next up in our 2025 Rice Football Season Preview: safety. Here’s our breakdown of the Owls’ plans for the group this season.

A revamped Rice football defense will have plenty of new faces, but the safety room will be more familiar to Owls’ fans than most. A mix of longtime contributors and returning starters, supplemented with key transfers, makes for a fascinating dynamic on the back end of the defense that will be tasked with keeping everything in front of them this season.

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

This piece is part of our 2025 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. 

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** Photo credit: Maria Lysaker **

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Filed Under: Featured, Football, Premium Tagged With: 2025 Rice Football Season Preview, Ahran Ogbor, Bailey Fletcher, Cade McMillan, Chris Bruce, Daveon Hook, Jabari Ellison, Jack Kane, Jo Chavez, Marcus Williams, Michael Amey, Peyton Stevenson, Plae Wyatt, Rice Football, Shepherd Bowling

Rice Football 2025 Spring Practice Notebook 6: In the Trenches

April 10, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

The Rice football offensive line has impressed this spring as the group evolves into the Owls’ new offensive scheme one practice at a time.

Watching the offensive line transition from a West Coast scheme to a spread option offense has been one of the more intriguing journeys of Rice football spring practice. Every group has been learning a new language and a new way of doing things, but the way the offensive line has had to adapt and how effectively they’ve turned the page has been notable.

More: Spring Practice Notebook 5 — Slot School

This update dives into the progress the offensive line has made, what’s going to look different when it comes to how they’ll play on Saturdays and an early look at what players are lining up where this spring.

Impressing up front

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Recent Posts
  • Rice Football 2025 Season Preview: Roster Grid
  • Rice Football Recruiting: DL Tyler Lavallier commits to Owls
  • Rice Baseball 2025: MLB Owls Update – August 12
  • 2025 Rice Football Opponent Season Preview: Charlotte

Filed Under: Archive, Football, Premium Tagged With: Blake Boenisch, Brad Baur, Cole Morgan, Daveon Hook, David Stickle, John Long, Luke Miller, Luke Needham, Marcus Williams, Patrick Valent, Peyton Farmer, practice notes, Rice Football, spring practice, Ty Morris, Tyson Thompson, Weston Kropp

Rice Football 2025 Spring Practice Notebook 3: Defense takes shape

March 26, 2025 By Matthew Bartlett

The first signs of a hierarchy within the Rice football defense are beginning to form as the Owls work through the first few weeks of spring ball.

So much focus has, understandably, been given to the Rice football offense as it installs a new scheme under head coach Scott Abell. And while that has been fun to watch and filled with unexpected twists and developments, the relatively smooth deployment of the defensive scheme under first-year DC Jon Kay has begun to crystallize.

More: Spring Practice Notebook 2 — Unpacking the offense and QBs

This update digs into what potential starting roles on defense are nearly secured, which pieces are fighting for meaningful depth spots and a host of other spots still up for grabs as spring progresses.

Early contenders for First Teamers

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Recent Posts
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Filed Under: Archive, Football, Premium Tagged With: AJ Stephens, Andrew Awe, Aquantis Clemmons, Beau Barton, Blaise Tita, Blake Boenisch, Chibby Nwajuaku, Christian Edgar, Cooper King, Daveon Hook, Jo Chavez, Joseph Mutombo, Kenny Seymour, Marcus Williams, Max Ahoia, Michael Amey, Michael Daley, Omari Porter, Peyton Stevenson, practice notes, Rice Football, spring practice, Ty Morris

Rice Football 2024: Bye Week 2 Practice Report

November 20, 2024 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football has two games left in the regular season and UAB is next on the docket. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

After a lighter week of work on the practice field last week, Rice football returned to work in earnest this week following the bye. A relatively healthy group, all things considered, should be close to full strength for this final two-game set of the regular season. Here’s where the team stands prior to the UAB game this weekend.

More: Rice Football Head Coaching Search — Names to Know ($)
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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.

Offensive line opportunity

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Recent Posts
  • Rice Football 2025 Season Preview: Roster Grid
  • Rice Football Recruiting: DL Tyler Lavallier commits to Owls
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Filed Under: Featured, Football, Premium Tagged With: Andrew Awe, Brant Banks, Colin Giffen, Daveon Hook, Ethan Onianwa, Graham Walker, practice notes, Rice Football, Thai Chiaokhiao-Bowman, trace norfleet, Weston Kropp

Rice Football 2024: Navy Game Week Practice Report

October 30, 2024 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football has an interim head coach, quarterback uncertainty and an injured captain. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

Mike Bloomgren is out. Pete Alamar is in. And Rice football marches on. Navy is next up on the docket, no small task for any permutation of the Owls’ program. This update will touch on a few logistical adaptions to the weekly practice schedule now that Alamar is calling the hots as well as the latest on the injury front, which continues to have lasting ramifications for the program as the season progresses. Here’s where the team stands prior to the Navy game this weekend.

Subscriber content. Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

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.

On the (interim) head coach

Make sure you check out this feature released earlier in the week on Alamar and what the program is going to look like for the next few weeks under his direction. That’s going to impact the day-to-day operations around South Main to some extent, but there’s no sense in reiterating the same information twice. Things have gone more or less according to plan, in those respects.

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

Recent Posts

  • Rice Football 2025 Season Preview: Roster Grid
  • Rice Football Recruiting: DL Tyler Lavallier commits to Owls
  • Rice Baseball 2025: MLB Owls Update – August 12
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Filed Under: Archive, Football, Premium Tagged With: Brant Banks, Chad Lindberg, Daveon Hook, David Stickle, Drew Devillier, EJ Warner, Ethan Onianwa, Gabe Taylor, Geron Hargon, Jojo Jean, Max Ahoia, Myron Morrison, Pete Alamar, practice notes, Rice Football, trace norfleet, Tyson Flowers

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