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All treats, no tricks: Rice Football crushes Southern Miss on Halloween

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Rice Football put together a complete team performance as the Owls took down Southern Miss on the road for their first win of the 2020 season.

There was plenty of frustration following Rice football’s season-opening loss to Middle Tennessee. The Owls did so many things well, but mental lapses and killer turnovers ended in a heartbreaking defeat.

The Owls took out all of that angst against Southern Miss. From the opening kickoff, Rice dominated Southern Miss. The atmosphere of The Rock turned quiet quickly as Rice found success on offense and defense, scoring points and forcing turnovers in what looked to be one of the most complete team performances of the Mike Bloomgren era.

The win moves Rice to 1-1 on the season, staying a perfect 1-0 against teams from the C-USA West. Here are a few immediate thoughts with an exciting nugget for our subscribers on the end.

Defense starts start strong

You couldn’t have asked for a much better start on defense than Rice got on Saturday, especially considering the circumstances. Neither Kirk Lockhart or Treshawn Chamberlain made the trip to Hattiesburg, further depleting a secondary already running low on bodies.

Southern Miss didn’t waste any time, going straight at the Rice secondary early in the game. It was true freshman Gabe Taylor with a fourth down breakup to stop the Golden Eagles’ first drive. On the second drive, Miles McCord picked off Southern Miss quarterback Jack Abraham, his first career interception.

The defense gave up yards, 85 total on the first two Southern Miss drives, but no points. That’s a recipe for success, especially with so many important pieces absent.

The third Southern Miss drive went three and out as the clock ran out to end the first quarter. Rice has now held their last 11 opponents scoreless on their first possession of the game and has not allowed a point in the first quarter this season.

Seem good? Here’s the first half drive chart for the Southern Miss offense: Downs, Interception, 3-and-Out, Fumble, Field Goal, Fumble, 3-and-Out, Field Goal.

Offensive explosion

It was fairly evident things were off to a good start when Rice ripped off first downs on four consecutive plays on the way to a 14-play scoring drive in the first quarter. The Collin Riccitelli field goal marked the fifth consecutive game in which Rice had scored first, but settling for three points after first and goal from the five was disappointing.

From that point onward, Rice didn’t squander many possessions. Mike Collins hit Austin Trammell for a 72-yard touchdown on the following possession.

The very next play, Collins found Jake Bailey for a 25-yard touchdown reception.

Rice averaged 17.9 points per game last season. Despite the loss of so many receivers, the addition of Collins and strong play from the offensive line have elevated this offense to heights previously unknown in the Bloomgren era. Rice has scored 64 points in their first two games. For reference, it took the Owls five games to reach that point threshold in 2019.

Takeaways help

Both the defense and the offense had fantastic outings against Southern Miss, but those strong days were amplified by takeaways. After losing the turnover battle 3-1 against Middle Tennessee, Rice had three takeaways on Saturday to one for Southern Miss. Better still, Rice scored 17 points on possessions immediately following a Southern Miss turnover.

The Owls’ lone misstep came at the end of the second quarter. The Rice punt coverage unit bumped into return man Jordan Myers, causing a fumble. The mistake cost Rice three points before half, not nearly as damaging as it could have been.

Turnovers amplify production. If the Rice offense wasn’t clicking, they wouldn’t have proven as impactful as they ended up becoming. Combing those turnovers with a dangerous offensive attack proved too much for Southern Miss to handle.

All gas no breaks

The lack of aggressiveness in overtime last week against Middle Tennessee proved costly when Riccitelli’s kick sailed just a few inches too close to the post. There wasn’t an ounce of passivity in the gameplan the Owls’ employed on Saturday. Rice had their foot on the gas from the first possession and never waived.

The team was playing so well that Bloomgren elected to call timeouts to give the team another chance at points in the final minute before halftime. The move would backfire when the Owls’ fumbled on what looked to be a mistake from the coverage unit, but the message was clear: we’re not slowing down.

You saw that aggressiveness repeatedly. Following a special teams fumble from Southern Miss, Collins immediately went to the endzone and found Jake Bailey for a touchdown. Rice rolled the dice on fourth down early in the second half, failing to convert, but showing the intent to go for the jugular and put the game out of reach.

There were execution problems, but no one can accuse this team of playing it too conservative or too safe. And the results, well, Rice picked up its first win in Hattiesburg since 2014 and move to 1-1 on the season.

Digging deeper

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Rice Football 2020 Practice Notes: Breaking down the wide receivers

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The Rice football receiving corps is running low on bodies. How will the Owls move forward and who will take the field against Southern Miss?

I was paying close attention to the wide receivers at practice this week and had some time to catch up with Rice football wide receivers coach Mike Kershaw. Between the injuries Rice had coming into the season opener against Middle Tennessee and the loss of a starter in the opener itself, the need for answers at the position has never been more pressing.

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Beyond the individuals, there’s also some insight below on the offense as a whole as a result of the thinned out receiving corps. How the Owls will line up against Southern Miss could be impacted by their limited numbers. If you’re looking for a deeper dive, I dug into the reasons I believe the offensive uptick can continue despite the injuries in this month’s All-American Q&A.

And then there were five…

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Rice Football Film Room 2020: Middle Tennessee Review

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Rice Football has one game in the books. We learned a lot about this team, both good and bad in this week’s edition of the film room.

Well, that was a heartbreaker, wasn’t it? Normally after a disheartening loss like that, I’d be tempted to put it all behind us and use the Film Room to preview the next week’s opponent. The problem there is that Southern Miss, this week’s opponent, is now on their third head coach and possibly third quarterback of the year? So I don’t even know what that offense (the only part of this USM team really worth discussing) is going to look like at this point. Plus, I really do think there are some positives to take away from the MTSU game.

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Key mistakes early put Rice in a big hole, and conservative playcalling plus an absurdly improbable doomed the Owls in overtime. But the Owls dominated the game between the middle of the third quarter and the end of regulation, outsourcing MTSU 21-6 over that time period. If Rice can recreate the efficiency they displayed on both sides of the ball during that stretch, they’ll be in good shape going forward. Let’s look at a play from each side of the ball from that run of solid play.

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Rice Football 2020 Practice Notes: Post MTSU presser, changes and injuries

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Rice football returned to the practice field this week determined to put the MTSU game behind them. Here’s where things stand headed into Week 9.

The season is back in full swing and we’ve got a full slate of Rice football updates on deck for everyone this week. I’ll include a few snippets from today’s press conference here as well as updates from practice on Monday.

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Press conference notes and quotes

“Last week’s game obviously didn’t go the way we wanted it to. There’s no denying that. We didn’t get the result we wanted and we’re in a results-oriented business. The hard part about that is I look at it, and I thought our kids played incredibly hard from the start of the game, through overtime, through both overtimes. But as we said, the outcome wasn’t what we wanted. There’s a lot of things we need to clean up between game one and game two so that we don’t feel that way again. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. We’re committed to doing that.” –  Coach Mike Bloomgren

“I think what hurt us most on the defensive end is when we got a little more passive … that’s just the wrong mentality for us to have. That’s not who we are. We’re aggressive. We’re dominant. And just taking our foot off the gas pedal at all, is just not who we are.” – LB Blaze Alldredge

Looking back at it, we left way too many points on the board. The game should never have been that close. We should never have been in the position to need to score a last second touchdown, and that falls on me. But, talking to the offensive line, and the running backs and the receivers and everybody, we all know that we left too many points on the board, and we just got to get fixed.” – QB Mike Collins

What to look for this week from practice

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Rice Football 2020: Overtime doinks doom Owls’ against MTSU

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Rice football almost rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat Middle Tennessee before an infamous bad bounce soured the Owl’ opener.

Things started off well for Rice football in their season opener against Middle Tennessee. The Owls received the opening kick off, marched down the field and took the lead. The Owls defense was able to hold Asher O’Hara at bay early, but the inexperienced secondary was soon under fire as Rice went into halftime trailing 14-13 courtesy of two long O’Hara touchdown passes.

Middle Tennessee hit some deep passes in the second half, but the Rice defense was able to hold their own and keep the team in the game. The Owls were able to claw back from a two-score deficit and get one more crack at the win in the final minutes. Rice took over trailing 31-26 with 2:24 to play.

The Owls went forwards, then they went backward. Then Mike Collins found Austin Trammell up the middle for 48 yards and again for the go-ahead touchdown. Pushed to the brink, Rice rallied to take the lead. MTSU would force overtime where Rice had the chance to win… then this happened:

This stunk. Here’s what we learned.

Mike Collins is a baller

There was a lot of good things said about Rice quarterback Mike Collins as he progressed through the spring and into fall camp. He’s taken command of the offense well and understands the protection schemes and the system. The biggest question mark going into the year was his accuracy, a problem in the spring which had looked better in fall camp.

Collins completed just two of his first 10 passes against Middle Tennessee. A career 56.6 percent passer across 10 games at TCU, Collins ended his Rice debut completing 51.4 percent of his throws. After the woeful start, he completed 16-of-25, ending the day with 242 passing yards and four touchdowns.

The protection was okay, but Collins did take a few big hits. One of them resulted in a strip-sack and a fumble, shifting all the momentum to the visiting team midway through the third quarter. There will be better days ahead for Collins and this passing attack. Today, they looked a bit rusty, but he came through in key situations down the stretch.

Corner quandary

Middle Tennessee didn’t test the young Rice corners very much in the first quarter, but once they did, they didn’t stop. Starters Miles McCord and Sean Fresch were both making their first D1 starts of their career, and for all the encouraging moments, that lack of experience showed.

O’Hara is not a superb deep-ball passer. There’s a reason that most of his balls stay closer to the line of scrimmage. But even he was unafraid to take his shots.

Both of the Blue Raiders’ first half touchdowns were shots from O’Hara to the endzone daring the Owls’ secondary to make a play. Although there were Rice shirts in the vicinity on both plays, neither reception was contested. That can’t happen in the redzone.

Allowing O’Hara to drive the length of the field in 30 seconds to set up a tying field goal was a sore spot as well.

The depth chart is thin and there doesn’t appear to be an immediate answer on the horizon. The corner play simply has to get better. It will be interesting to see how defensive coordinator Brian Smith adjusts the defense to help minimize the risks on the outside when the Owls take on a much better downfield thrower next week in Southern Miss quarterback Jack Abraham.

New faces

Injuries and exciting moments in fall camp put several younger players on the top of mind entering the season.

Khalan Griffin didn’t see much involvement until the fourth quarter, but it’s hard to fault the coaching staff for relying heavily on Juma Otoviano. Healthy and running well, Otoviano carried the ball 20 times for 84 yards with a long of 16. He was elusive in the open field and made big plays for this offense.

Griffin’s role will grow and his underutilization on Saturday shouldn’t be viewed as a knock on his ability. One needs look no further than his drive to start the fourth quarter. He got on the field and promptly ripped off two big runs, the first for 10-yard and the second a 20-yard scamper up the middle. He’s going to be a key piece of this offense in 2020 and beyond.

Sean Fresch got introduced to the speed of the college game quickly. As a whole, the corners did not hold up well. He was exposed underneath a few times, but that’s going to happen when the secondary is preoccupied with giving up the long ball. From my memory, and I’ll have to look back at the tape on this one, he wasn’t burned as often down the field as some of the Owls’ other options.

Jake Bailey was perhaps the most impactful youngster. He’s not a freshman, but his role is going to be significantly different in his second season on South Main. Bailey was a favorite target of Collins on Saturday but caught only two passes for 26 yards on five targets. He was also active in the return game, leading the team with 76 kick return yards. His 97 all-purpose yards were second most on the most on the team.

Closing thoughts

Rice football made history when they kicked off against Middle Tennessee on Saturday. Never before had a team opened its season against a team that was playing their seventh game. Getting to this point, in spite of all the challenges presented by COVID-19 was huge for the program. Remember, it was only a month ago that we were wondering whether or not there would be a season at all.

No season might sound palatable after that gut-punch. But Rice football fans should take away two things from this game. First, after all the ups and down, Rice could have, and probably should have won. Be upset. For as far as the Owls have gone, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Second, the fight to rally in the fourth quarter and get to this point was infectious. It’s hard to imagine not paying dividends down the road. Less self-inflicted wounds would have enabled Rice to finish things off. That said, the road will get tougher. The Owls won’t be playing a 1-5 Middle Tennessee team every week.

Digging deeper

Every week we’ll have a stat, storyline or key learning from the game reserved for our subscribers.

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.

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