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The Roost Podcast | Episode 6 – 2019 Rice Football Army Recap, Wake Preview

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Carter and Matthew break down the Army game and look ahead to Rice Football’s Week 2 tilt with Wake Forest in Episode 6 of The Roost Podcast.

Prognosticating is (somewhat) over and the time to break down real football games is here. The podcast hits its weekly rhythm now, settling into a series of shows in which we break down the previous game and look ahead at the next opponent. If you want to look back at any prior shows, you can find thoseĀ on our podcast page.

In Episode 6, Carter and Matthew break down the heartbreaking one-score loss to Army, then jump ahead to the first home game of the 2019 Rice Football season. The Owls host Wake Forest on Sept. 6 at 7:00 p.m. at Rice Stadium. Get ready for the game by checking out the show.

Give a listen to Episode 6 below.

Episode 6 Notes

  • News and notes — Read more about Wake in our 2019 Rice Football Season Preview. Update on Week 1 of our season-long pick’em challenge on the forum. It’s not too late to jump in and join the fun.
  • Breaking down the Army game — Where does this game fit in the realm of “moral victories”? More importantly, we talk through which aspects of the Owls performance were encouraging and sustainable. What questions still remain for Week 2 and what solutions are there to some of the Owls early struggles?
  • Previewing the Wake Forest game — Wake is going to run a lot more plays and try to attack the Owls down the field. Can the same physicality Rice employed against Army translate to an opponent that is going to play this fast? What does the Rice offense need to adjust to keep pace?

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.

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Rice Football 2019: Owls miss chance to upset Army on the road

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Rice Football tussled with the Army Black Knights on Friday night at Michie Stadium, narrowly falling in a one-score game decided in the final minutes.

Rice football entered Friday’s tilt with Army as underdogs. The Knights were coming off an 11-win season and came close to being ranked in the first edition of the AP Poll. Rice had won twice in their past 13 games and was playing far away from home. From the first snap, neither of those converging storylines seemed to matter.

Not once did Rice look out of place or overwhelmed. The Owls went toe to toe with the Black Knights, sparring with their service academy foes and looking every bit their equals. Army sustained one lengthy scoring drive, never finding a rhythm on offense thanks to the swarming white-clad Owls defense.

Here are a few takeaways from the Owls’ season opener.

1. The new-look defense is ready to play

Like Carter and I discussed on The Roost Podcast, Army likes to roll the dice and go for it on fourth down more often than most teams. Coach Jeff Monken put that to the test early, opting to go for it on fourth and one inside their own 10-yard line on the Knights’ first drive. Myles Adams blew up the play in the backfield and Treshawn Chamberlain finished the stop.

The theme of bigger, stronger and faster was talked about throughout the offseason. Still, it was hard to know how much of a difference that would make on the field until Rice hit someone wearing a different colored jersey. Rice opened the Army game with a statement and continued to out-muscle their foes for the duration of the contest.

2. He’s back!

Rice knew their time with the football was going to be disjointed because of the nature of the Army offense. The Knights had limited success with the ball early. The Rice offense missed a golden opportunity to set the tone and force their opponents into an uncomfortable position and were forced to play from behind, just not for long.

Nahshon Ellerbe, who led Rice in rushing in 2017 before injuries kept him on the bench for almost the entirety of the 2018 season, provided the equalizer.

Ellerbe is one of the most physically imposing players on the team. His potential was brought up in a conversation with Bloomgren during fall camp. Bloomgren mentioned he’d seen all the highlight videos of what he could do in the open field but had never watched him run on the field with his own eyes.

Well, Bloomgren has seen Ellerbe now. And so has a packed Michie stadium. Ellerbe’s touchdown run woke the offense up out of their slow start and gave the Rice sideline a much-appreciated confidence boost. He went on to finish the game with nine carries for 103 yards and the aforementioned touchdown run.

3. A mixed bag on special teams

Continuity was the buzzword for the Rice special teams throughout the offseason. The Owls were replacing Ray Guy semifinalist Jack Fox and veteran placekicker Haden Tobola. They hoped to keep things rolling by transitioning former running backs coach Drew Svoboda to special teams coordinator.

Under Svoboda’s direction, the special teams were a mixed bag. Punter Adam Nunez, who transferred to Rice after starting at TCU for three seasons, was phenomenal. His first punt went 61 yards and his second went 51. Both balls pinned Army inside their own 10-yard line, giving Rice a huge edge in field position.

Chris Barnes got a turn to start the third quarter before Nunez came back in, downing two more punts inside the 10-yard line. He was as perfect as you could ask a punter to be.

The placekicking was a different story. Will Harrison missed a 26-yard chip shot and a 44-yard attempt in the first half. Had he converted either of those, Rice could have walked into halftime with the lead. Freshman kicker Zack Hoban was expected to challenge Harrison for the starting job but had a brace on his non-kicking foot during practice this week. Once Hoban is healthy the competition should resume.

4. Offense remains a work in progress

On a night in which the defense dominated, the offense led by quarterback Wiley Green struggled to consistently move the ball. The Owls did not show a noticeable improvement from their third down struggles from a year ago, converting three times in 11 opportunities.

Green completed seven of 15 passes for 62 yards. He had some pretty balls downfield, connecting on a big play to Austin Trammell in the first half but for the most part seemed to leave a lot on the field.

His passes had plenty of zip but lacked accuracy. He was off on two screen passes which effectively halted separate drives. The run-focused game plan seemed to inhibit his ability to get into a groove.

The running game was more or less efficient, but there were definitely plays where the offensive line got a better push up front than others. When all the parts were working in concert, big holes appeared, setting up the backs for easy first downs. In addition to Ellerbe’s scamper, Aston Walter had a 24-yard run which was called back by a holding penalty.

5. This is a different team

Rice showed flashes of ability on both sides of the ball last season. In the end, that’s all it was though, flashes. The biggest question mark facing this team this year was always going to be their ability to play for four quarters and finish. One week into the 2019 season and the Owls have mustered some sort of answer.

Every phase isn’t running smoothly, but as a team, the 2019 Rice Owls are better than they were a season ago.

More: Read more about the Owls’ next opponent, Wake Forest, in our 2019 Season Preview

The heavy underdogs played mostly penalty-free football and had a quality opponent on the ropes on the road. Rice isn’t going to play the triple option every weekend, but the kind of defense they displayed on Friday night will travel.

It’s disappointing to leave West Point without a win, particularly with how close the game was from start to finish. Rice played well enough that they should feel scorned by the narrow defeat. That in itself is proof of a marked improvement.

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Rice Baseball: Texas Longhorns edge Owls in Austin

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Rice baseball took a midweek contest with the Texas Longhorns down to the wire but couldn’t find the clutch hit, falling 3-1.

Another tough midweek test went against Rice as the Owls dropped a close one to Texas in Austin on Tuesday evening. The win gave Texas a sweep of the season series with Rice in their final scheduled meeting of the season. A third bout between the two Texas teams would require both teams to make the postseason. Here are a few things to take away from the defeat.

More arms to trust

In a rematch of an 11-4 February game at Reckling Park, pitching proved to be the deciding factor even though each staff was stretched thin. Rice used six arms; Texas threw five. None allowed more than one run and only the starters (Kel Bordwine for Rice and Ty Madden for Texas) allowed more than two hits.

The same Rice bullpen which was beaten up the first time around proved much more capable in their encore performance. After falling to FIU over the weekend, Coach Matt Bragga said he had five relievers he felt he could trust to produce consistently. That number could be growing.

Drake Greenwood allowed five runs in the first game with the Longhorns, but worked a scoreless inning on five pitches on Tuesday. Dalton Wood had a scoreless frame while Blair Lewis pumped strikes, allowing a single earned run in two innings. The pen isn’t perfect, but this was a step in the right direction.

A Justin Collins conundrum

Collins was hit on a ricochet in the series finale against FIU. He stayed in the game to catch, but was removed in the ninth inning without swinging the bat following the injury. Brandt Frazier suited up behind the plate against Texas. He’s hitting .152 on the season. Collins has a .267 average with a .408 on base percentage, leading the team with 27 walks. The advantage he provides at the plate and behind hit is significant.

Bragga has yet to give an indication on when Collins will return to the lineup. The longer he’s out, the larger the problem. He’s one of the few position players Rice can ill afford to lose for any meaningful amount of time.

Start a new streak

One loss has led to two for Rice too many times this season. In games following a loss Rice is 7-13, turning a single deficit into a losing streak four times in eight opportunities. The Owls have had losing streaks of 5, 2, and 7 and are in the midst of a three-game skid. Conversely, they’ve won more than three games in a row once this year.

Rice has always had some sort of answer to a bad week, but the margin for error has shrunk as the season grows older and older. Rice is seven games under .500 and six games back in the CUSA standings. If they’re going to rally, there’s no better time than the present.

UP NEXT | at Charlotte (Fri – Sun)
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Owls offense shut out for first time since 2000 in loss to UAB

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Rice football dropped their Week 7 home contest to the UAB Blazers as the Owls’ offense was muted for the second week in a row and the defense surrendered a few big plays.

A week removed from a 3-point performance against UTSA the Owls’ offensive struggles continued against UAB. Things got worse against UAB. Rice football was shut out for the first since they lost 37-0 against No. 11 TCU in 2000, a span of 210 games.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren and his staff will once again be forced pick up the pieces after another disheartening loss which dropped the Owls to 1-6 overall and 0-3 in CUSA play. Here are some initial reactions from the loss.

1. The secondary is still getting beat deep

The UTSA game will more than likely prove to be the highwater mark for the season for the Rice secondary. That’s not to say this unit won’t have more days, but holding any team to under 50 yards passing is an extremely rare feat. Even knowing this week would more than likely feature a higher yardage total, the resultsĀ were still frustrating.

Justin Bickham and Brandon Douglas-Dotson were both beat down the field for long touchdown passes. The secondary as a whole allowed several UAB receivers to get behind the last line of defense and were fortunate to some degree that they were either overthrown or not targeted.

The defense allowed 274 yards through the air and two passing touchdowns. Both were improvements from their season averages coming into the game, but each number could have been better … or much worse. Needless to say there will be plenty of film to watch and things to be corrected from this game. That goes for the front seven as well, who were equally unproductive against the run.

2. The offensive line remains out of sync

The offensive line is Mike Bloomgren’s area of expertise. Before being elevated to the offensive coordinator position at Stanford he was the offensive line coach and run game coordinator for the Cardinal. He has proven success in the trenches, but thus far the offensive line at Rice hasn’t been able to gel.

After hearing rumblings of potential changes throughout the week, Rice started the game with true freshman Jake Syptak at left tackle in place of Ozuma Osuji who had started the Owls’ previous six games. Joining him wereĀ Jack Greene, Shea Baker, Joseph Dill and Sam Pierce.

With just under seven minutes to play in the first quarter Rice found themselves in fourth and one. They went to the jumbo package, with all 11 players jammed into the middle. Jordan Meyers got the carry and went nowhere, turning the ball over on downs. That’s the kind of situation that Bloomgren lives for making it equally frustrating when the result was a short loss.

The unit struggled with pass protection too. UAB picked up three sacks and two quarterback hurries. Shawn Stankavage and Evan Marshman were decent when each had time to throw, averaging 10.5 yards per completion with a few nice balls thrown downfield by each of them.Ā If the line does not improve the offense is not going to get much better.

3. Creative playcalling not enough to jump startĀ the offense

Don’t miss the forest for the trees here. Offensive plays that pick up big yardage aren’t automatically “good play calling” and plays that result in negative results aren’t “bad play calling”. First and foremost, the Owls have an execution issue. Poor execution renders any sort of playcalling futile.

After a dismal offensive performance against UTSA the Rice offense needed some kind of spark. Credit is due to offensive coordinator Jerry Mack and the rest of coaching staff for coming up with some new wrinkles to add to the Owls’ repertoire on Saturday. The execution wasn’t there, not just on the new looks, but on the basic fundamentals of this offense.

Freshman running backĀ Juma Otoviano saw his first action of the season, coming in as the Owls’ wildcat quarterback and picking up a few yards on the ground. Rice also incorporated a shovel pass, some creative reads and just about everything but the kitchen sink.

It’s clear that this offense is stuck in neutral and needs to figure out how to move the ball consistently. They didn’t find the answer against UAB, just like they didn’t figure things out against UTSA. There are a host of plays that the offensive staff is going to want back, but poor execution is just as much to blame as the playcalling, if not more so. The execution was so spotty on Saturday that even the better play calls fell flat.

4. It’s time to talk about the quarterbacks

The head coach and the quarterback get too much credit when a team wins and too much blame when the team loses. That’s never going to change, but it’s important to make a distinction between individual performances and collective offensive issues when evaluating quarterback play.

With that disclaimer, here are the stat lines for the Rice quarterbacks against UAB:

  • Stankavage: 7-for-12, 79 yards
  • Marshman: 6-for-16, 57 yards

All of the Rice quarterbacks spent as much time under duress as they did looking down the field. The fear of the oncoming pass rush was noticeable for Stankavage, who looked uncomfortable in the pocket from the start of this game.

It was another game in which Stankavage wasn’t awful, but didn’t show the same growth in the offense as he did early in this season. He just hasn’t progressed enough as a passer. That, combined with a struggling offense, had opened the door for someone else to take the reigns on offense. Bloomgren’s hand was forced, though, as Stankavage left this game in the first half before returning to the sideline with his left foot in a boot.

5. Final thoughts

It’s not fun to lose. Rice fans know that as well as anyone else in the country, and so does Bloomgren.Ā If Rice wanted to try and catch lightning in a bottle with an up-and-coming coach they could have gone that route in the hiring process. Instead, they opted for Bloomgren. Someone who’s had tremendous amounts of success and recruited extremely well. He has a plan, a great coaching staff and he’s building for the long term.

Recruiting is just as much a part of a new coaching staff as installing an offense, defense and special teams. The talent at Rice needs to get better for the Owls to compete, and the coaching staff needs to continue to grow as well. Those aren’t mutually exclusive, and they’re not things that happen overnight. Grow pains hurt. They’re not fun, just like Saturday wasn’t fun, but they’re a part of the process.

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Both sides of the ball struggle as Owls fall to Wake Forest on the road

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Rice football dropped their fourth consecutive contest, falling on the road to an explosive Wake Forest squad. Where do the Owls go from here?

Wake Forest scored early and poured it on. Before Rice could catch their breath they were trailing big on the road and the game was out of reach. This wasn’t the prettiest game from either side of the ball. There will be plenty to address in the film room and on the practice field next week before the Owls return to conference play at home against UTSA in Week 5.

Here are a few things that were most evident from the Owls decisive defeat against Wake Forest:

1. This time, the final score almost really does tell the full story

There’s so much more to any one result than can be told be a simple box score. Wins and losses are the statistics that carry the most weight, but how the game was won or loss is just as meaningful when evaluating the result. In this case, it doesn’t require a look much deeper than theĀ 56-24 result to understand the chasm that stood between these two teams on Saturday.

Short of an upset the likes of which Rice fans haven’t seen in quite some time, Wake Forest besting the Owls at home wasn’t an outlandish notion. The Owls’ players knew this would be one of the toughest tests they’d face all season, but the mentality entering the game was centered around the team’s own effort and mindset.

A non-conference win over a Power 5 opponent would have been monumental for the future trajectory of this program, but a loss didn’t need to be another heavy blow to aĀ program that had shown so much progress early in the season. Rice had three losses entering this game, but their defeat at the hands of the Demon Deacons stung as much if not more than the other three losses. You didn’t need to watch this one to feel the magnitude of the defeat.

2. The secondary

The back end of the Rice defense has struggled early on this season. Even though they gave up a sizable chunk of yardage against Southern Miss, they tightened up their defense against big plays. After allowing five combined touchdowns of 30+ yards in their games against Houston and Hawaii, Rice didn’t allow any scores against Southern Miss.

Greg Dortch and Wake Forest erased that four-quarter streak, quickly. Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman connected with Dortch on a 57-yard bomb to kick off the scoring. Dortch already had four steps on several members of the Rice secondary by the time he had hauled in the pass and proceeded to turn on the afterburners and race the remainder of the distance to the endzone.

The ACC’s leading receiver entering the game, Dortch padded his stats against Rice. He scored three touchdowns in the first half, finishing with 163 yards on 11 catches and four touchdowns. Part of what made him so effective was Wake Forest’s effectiveness on the ground. Cade Carney kept the offense on schedule, opening up holes in the secondary as they tried to key in on the offensiveĀ backfield.

Dortch is a burner. As much as the Owls tried to keep pace, they weren’t able to stay with him step for step in the open field. That’s not a new concern for this defense. They won’t face many more pass catchers as talented as Dortch this season, but that doesn’t make the problem go away.

3. The offense

Rice tallied three three-and-outs, three offensive yards and three punts in their first three possessions. The offense was rather dismal before Austin Walter jump-started the first touchdown drive of the game early in the third quarter. Thanks to two big plays from the versatile running back, Rice went 72 yards in three plays before Walter took into the endzone on a shovel pass from Shawn Stankavage.

Before that the drive chart was bleak: punt, punt, punt, interception, field goal, fumble, missed field goal, punt. The offensive line wasn’t opening up holes, Stankavage was pressing and the receivers weren’t finding much separation. When one unit did their job, the other pieces let them down. The inability to play fundamentally sound football with any level of synchronization was frustrating, and it showed.

The silver lining was do-it-all ball carrier Austin Walter. When the offense gets stuck in the mud he’s proven he can be the guy that flips the field with one big play. His decisive running style and ability to make a quick cut and explode down the field turned a stalled offense into one that was able to move the ball down the field. He finished the afternoon with 256 all-purpose yards.

For the Owls, Walter’s heroics were too-little, too-late. They were playing catch up all day and had let the deficit grow too large to overcome.

4. Where do the Owls go from here?

This result was ugly. In what felt like the blink of an eye the Owls found themselves in a four-touchdown deficit with no momentum and issues on both sides of the ball. Rice trailed by as many as 25 points to Southern Miss. They fell behind further against Wake Forest, with the 28-0 hole representing their largest deficitĀ of the season so far. Then the gap grew to 35-3 then 42-3 before topping out at 56-10.

When head coach Mike Bloomgren stands in front of the media next he’s going to say a few things that he has to say. He’ll lament the effort against Wake Forest, which he should. He’ll talk about the process, which he should. And then he’ll get back to work on Monday and get to work.

In no way is this rough outing a reason for anyone to jump ship. In fact, it might be the perfect time to buy stock in the Bloomgren era of Rice football. After the 1-0 start, they’ve suffered four straight defeats of increasing levels of frustration.

They’re not going to pack it in. Instead, there will be changes on both sides of scrimmage. Starters will be challenged for their roles and every player is going to have to solidify their claim to being on the field. The fallout from this defeat is where the culture of the program will be tested. If the team can push through, and I expect they will, brighter days are ahead for Rice football.

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