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Rice Football 2022: Houston Game Week Practice Report

September 22, 2022 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football takes on Houston in the Bayou Bucket this week. Here’s what we learned from practice as the Owls prep for the Cougars.

Rice football is 2-1 for the first time since 2015 and looking to go to 3-1 for the first time since 2001. They can reach that mark with a win over crosstown rival Houston in the Bayou Bucket. It’s going to be a tall order, but the bunch inside the hedges are optimistic, and why shouldn’t they be after a big win last Saturday and another strong week of practice?

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Hours of film watching have been logged and snap after snap taken on the practice field this week. Along the way, there have been some interesting tweaks to the gameplan, position groups hit by the injury bug and a few learnings to pass along prior to Week 4.

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.

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Filed Under: Featured, Football, Premium Tagged With: Ari Broussard, Blake Boenisch, Bradley Rozner, Braedon Nutter, Cam Montgomery, Clay Servin, De'Braylon Carroll, Dean Connors, Ethan Onianwa, Faee Pepe, Ikenna Enechukwu, Isaac Klarkowski, Isaiah Esdale, Izeya Floyd, John Hughes, John Long, Joshua Pearcy, Juma Otoviano, Kenneth Orji, Luke McCaffrey, practice notes, quent titre, Rice Football, Shea Baker, Trey Phillippi, Uriah West

Rice Football 2022 Spring Practice Notebook 3: Scrimmage 1

March 27, 2022 By Matthew Bartlett

The first scrimmage of 2022 Rice Football spring practice is complete. Here are a few individual standouts and some big picture takeaways.

Defense won the day on the first scrimmage of the spring. The back-and-forth battle of the two sides of the ball was weighted heavily toward that side of the ball for the entirety of the season as Rice football donned pads to engage in one of their most highly anticipated sessions of the spring. This update breaks down some individual standouts on both sides of the ball and their ramifications on the team thus far.

Get Caught Up

  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 1 – Introductions
  • Rice Football Spring Notebook 2 – Depth Chart
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Defense, Defense, Defense

It was no surprise that coach Bloomgren’s initial remarks following the first scrimmage of the spring focused on his defense which had allowed just one touchdown to the offense over the course of two hours and roughly nine complete drives.

“I thought the defense had a great day,” Bloomgren said, going out of his way to heap praise on Ikenna Enechukwu and the Owls’ defensive line, which seemed to live in the backfield from the opening whistle.

The defense tallied six sacks during those nine drives and added three additional sacks on a set of nine third-down drills. The offense didn’t have an explosive run of 10 yards until Dean Connors burst through the line on a 10-yard carry on Drive 7.

There were no turnovers forced, but the defense was dominant nonetheless. In total, the offense managed three scoring drives: two field goal attempts and one touchdown, which came on a tight end screen to Gavin Reinwald on the final drive.

Quarterbacks

There wasn’t a lot to write home about at the quarterback position during Saturday’s scrimmage. Neither Wiley Green nor TJ McMahon made many egregious mistakes, but they didn’t do much else noteworthy either.

Green hit Andrew Mason on a ~50-yard bomb to set up the offense’s lone touchdown of the day, but there really weren’t any other truly explosive plays in the passing game. McMahon had the Luke McCaffrey sprinting well past the last defender on what should have been a bomb touchdown, but he overthrew his man and missed the opportunity.

Green finished 7-of-10 for 90 yards and one touchdown.
McMahon was 9-of-15 for 87 yards and no touchdowns.

Bloomgren noted that he was “happy with all of them,” but stressed they’d had better offensive performances this spring and that this team needed “to figure out how to do it against our defense when they’re amped up on a scrimmage day.”

Receivers and running backs

The wide receiver room quickly became one of the most intriguing positions to follow this spring with the departure of Jake Bailey to the Transfer Portal and the news Bradley Rozner would not be participating in practices quite yet. Those items, coupled with the previous departure of August Pitre in December, left Rice football with a wide-open depth chart, at least for the time being.

Luke McCaffery makes sense in the slot long term, but he worked outside, leaving room for Kobie Campbell on the interior in most of the first team packages. Campbell had flashed with his quickness but had a key drop that stalled the offense’s first drive of the game and forced them to settle for a field goal.

Cedric Patterson led all receivers with four catches for 61 yards. Mason had the aforementioned long connection. No other pass catcher tallied more than 27 yards during the scrimmage.

That bland showing extended to the backfield as well. Rice running backs averaged 3.7 yards per carry, with the bulk of that coming from an 11-rush, 34-yard stat line from Ari Broussard. Bloomgren noted that Broussard “ran hard”, but that was about it.

The Owls’ headman did single out Connors as one of the winners of the day. The JUCO transfer averaged 5.3 yards per carry, far and away the best of any ball carrier on the team, ending with a 4-carry, 21-yard line. From the naked eye, he appeared to have the most explosiveness and looks to be a real contender for an extended run this coming season.

And then there were three

Rice football was already thin at the corner position this spring and had a few additional players sit out on Saturday, leaving then with three healthy corners: Sean Fresch, Jordan Dunbar and Jojo Jean. None of the Owls’ other boundary men suited up, leaving that trio to cover nearly 100 defensive snaps. Not only did they make it through the day, they flourished.

Jean, a redshirt freshman from the 2021 signing class, did not see action at all last fall. Still, I noted at least three occasions during the scrimmage in which he made a significant play, including an endzone pass break up on an underthrown ball from TJ McMahon. It was a throw that could have been a touchdown if it had been better placed, but Jean adjusted and made McMahon pay for the misfire, batting it away.

It’s not clear how long Rice football will be this thin at the corner spot and whether or not they’ll get back anyone else in the near future. If not, this is a tremendous opportunity for Jean.

Odds and Ends

  • Rice football has to replace longtime long snapper, Campbell Riddle. It appears that the job will be filled by Tommy Tholen a JUCO transfer who committed to the Owls last spring.
  • Here’s how the offensive line lined up for the most part on Saturday, from left to right. First team: Clay Servin, Braedon Nutter, Isaac Klarkowski, Shea Baker, Ethan Onianwa. Second team: Trey Phillippi, Faee Pepe, Issac Klarkowski, John Long, Mike Leone.
  • Safety Josh Williams is a name that keeps popping up. He had a sack in the scrimmage and has made a few big plays throughout the spring. The staff really likes the up-and-coming redshirt freshman.

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Recent Posts
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Filed Under: Featured, Football, Premium, Reserve Tagged With: Andrew Mason, Ari Broussard, Braedon Nutter, Cedric Patterson, Clay Servin, Dean Connors, Ethan Onianwa, Faee Pepe, Gavin Reinwald, Ikenna Enechukwu, Isaac Klarkowski, Issac Klarkowski, John Long, Jonathan Jean, Jordan Dunbar, Joshua Williams, Kobie Campbell, Luke McCaffrey, Mike Leone, practice notes, Rice Football, Sean Fresch, Shea Baker, spring practice, TJ McMahon, Tommy Tholen, Trey Phillippi, Wiley Green

Rice Football: What I’m watching in Spring Practices — Patreon Q&A

February 28, 2022 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football kicks off spring practice soon. This month’s Patreon Q&A focuses on what I’ll be following closely during these sessions.

In season or not, Rice football frequently appears as a focal point in these Q&A posts. Our February Q&A follows suit, focusing on the upcoming weeks of spring practices and which items I’ll personally be keeping a close eye on as the weeks progress. Practices are currently slated to start sometime in early March.

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

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?

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

Recent Posts
  • Fast start not enough as Rice Baseball falls to Texas A&M for third time
  • Rice Women’s Basketball’s WNIT run blocked by stingy Oregon defense
  • Furious comeback falls short as Rice Basketball falls to SUU
  • Rice Baseball grinds out hard-fought sweep at UAB

Filed Under: Featured, Football, Premium Tagged With: Blake Boenisch, Bradley Rozner, Braedon Nutter, Brandt Peterson, Cedric Patterson, Cole Garcia, Conor Hunt, Derek Ferraro, Elroyal Morris, Enoch Gota, Ethan Onianwa, Faee Pepe, Isaac Klarkowski, Isaiah Esdale, Jake Bailey, John Long, Jovoni Johnson, Luke McCaffrey, Mike Bloomgren, Mike Leone, Naeem Smith, Regan Riddle, Rice Football, Sam Crawford, Tim Horn, TJ McMahon, Trey Phillippi, Wiley Green

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