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Rice Football 2021 Game Preview: Charlotte

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Rice Football needs a bounce-back win in the worst way as they travel to Charlotte for a Week 10 tilt. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Both Charlotte and Rice football would rather forget their last trips to the gridiron. Charlotte was dismantled by Western Kentucky, falling on the road by a final score of 45-13. Rice played their opponent, North Texas, much closer, but an overtime loss was no more satisfying given the expectations they carried into the game. Both teams need a reset in the worst way. Here’s what you need to know:

Kickoff time | 2:30 PM CT
Venue | Jerry Richardson Stadium – Charlotte, NC
TV | ESPN+
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs Charlotte this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. You can also catch the recap of last week’s game on The Roost Podcast, which should be released shortly. Find us on the podcast page or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. (And consider leaving us a 5-star review while you’re at it.)

Sizing up the contenders

Charlotte and Rice each enter this game .500 in C-USA action with four more games to play. The winner is still probably on the outside looking in regarding a potential trip to the conference championship game, but the loser is in danger of tumbling even further down the standings.

Each program has flashed moments of success. Charlotte upset Duke earlier in the season. Rice knocked off UAB. Neither has been able to channel those everything-went-right games into the type of consistency they need to regularly win conference games so far. After being viewed as up-and-coming programs entering the 2020 season, this game has the potential to reinforce those aspirations or crush them, depending on who ends up on which side of the result.

Series History

All Time | Rice leads Charlotte, 2-0
Last Five | Rice leads Charlotte, 2-0
Last Meeting | Away 2016, Rice won 22-21

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Rice Stat Notables

Passing | Constantine – 65/96 (67.7 percent), 806 yards, 5 TD, 2 INT
Rushing | Myers – 82 carries, 316 yards (3.9 yards per carry), 7 TD
Receiving | Bailey – 39 receptions, 433 yards (11.1 yds/rec), 2 TD / Patterson – 20 receptions, 296 yards (14.8 yds/rec), 2 TD
Tackles | Montero – 54 / Smith – 44 / Garcia – 44
Pass Breakups | McCord/Dunbar – 5, Smith – 4
Interceptions | Smith/Nyakwol – 2, Four others tied with one

Charlotte Stat Notables

Passing | Reynolds – 127/192 (66.2 percent), 1537 yards passing, 16 TD, 5 INT
Rushing | Camp – 74 carries, 451 yards (6.1 yards per carry), 3 TD / Byrd – 92 carries, 375 yards (4.1 ypc), 1 TD
Receiving | DuBose – 37 receptions, 561 yards (15.2 yards per reception), 5 TD / Tucker – 40 receptions, 553 yards (13.8 yds/rec), 2 TD
Tackles | Murray – 55 / Watts – 45 / Alexander – 41
Interceptions | Alexander -2, Two tied with one apiece
Pass Breakups | Creamer – 4, Rogers – 3, Ursery – 3

Charlotte X-Factor | Take a few shots, and convert on them

Charlotte has one of the better “intermediate” offenses in Conference USA. The 49ers aren’t quite explosive — they’ve tallied six plays of 30+ yards against conference foes, tied for the second-fewest in Conference USA — but they have a knack for getting 10 yards, and they do it almost as well as anyone else in the league.

Charlotte’s 62 plays of 10+ yards rank third in Conference USA play. While they don’t hit home runs very often, they’ll nickel and dime defenses all the way down the field. If they do start producing players further down the field, the offense can get dangerous, quickly.

A veteran quarterback and two playmaking wide receivers have the ability to give the Rice defense all sorts of trouble. If they do, not only will they be ready to trade punches with the Owls, they might be able to deliver a few knockout blows of their own.

Rice X-Factor | Jake Constantine

Constantine hasn’t been perfect this season, but he’s been a key piece in two of the Owls’ three wins this year. He rallied the team last week, showing off some schoolyard improvisation skills to will the team down the field and force overtime.

With Wiley Green likely to miss extended time after suffering an ankle injury last week and the running game struggling to get going this year, Constantine is going to have to take charge. If he doesn’t, it’s hard to decipher how the Rice offense is going to find enough success to win on the road without his help.

If he plays as well as he’s played up to this point, Rice will put points on the board. And that’s something Charlotte does not want any part of this year. The 49ers rank second to last in conference play, allowing 38.8 points per game.

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One Final Thing

Up until last week, Rice hadn’t lost a game to someone they were “supposed to beat” and they’d engineered one of their most memorable upsets in recent memory when they took down UAB on the road. Not that oddsmakers would have had faith in the Owls before, but now they’ve put Rice back in the underdog role. Given how this team faired last week, easing up the pressure can’t be a bad thing.

Still, this team has to be feeling some pressure. They’re on the precipice of losing control of a postseason bowl appearance. To get there, Rice needs to win three of four, a feat they’ve done once already this year. They haven’t won three in a row yet, though, a feat the Owls’ haven’t achieved since the final three games of the 2019 season. For a team that has been erratic from week to week, preserving that margin of error seems like an absolute necessity.

Whether it’s a coincidence or not that the Owls have been more proficient on the road than they have been at home doesn’t really matter. All that matters right now is finding a way to win this game. After the UAB win, it was easy to think ahead at what could be. Now that luxury has passed and all eyes have to be on Charlotte. The wiggle room is running out.

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Rice football: Ball falls to Jake Constantine as running game stutters

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Jake Constantine fell just short of leading Rice football to a comeback win. With Wiley Green injured, the task of getting the team back on track falls to him.

For everything that went right when Rice football upset UAB the weekend prior, there was something that seemed to go wrong in the Owls’ overtime loss to North Texas.

The contest immediately following Wiley Green’s career game saw him leave the field on a cart. The defense, which stopped the Blazers on downs twice and forced two turnovers gave up touchdowns following all but one Rice scoring drive, excluding the final kneel down before overtime.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren ran through all of what went wrong for his team on Saturday, but summed it up with a crushing reality of what sunk Rice against North Texas: “Our inability to effectively run the ball and to stop the run — two things that we think are trademarks of our program – When we can’t do those two things it’s going to be hard for the Rice Owls to win.”

Rice football averaged 2.1 yards per carry against North Texas, the seventh time since the beginning of the 2020 season in which the Owls have averaged fewer than 3.0 yards per carry, a span on 13 games. Conversely, Rice has averaged more than 4.0 yards per carry on three occasions over the time, one of which was a blowout loss to Texas earlier this season.

Rice has won games with poor showings on the ground in the very recent past. Their 2.94 yards per carry clip against UAB was underwhelming, but they got just enough when they needed it. Nevertheless, in general, it’s been tough sledding on the ground for a team that wants to run the ball.

On the other side of the ball, Rice has held its opponents below 3.0 yards per carry three times in the last 13 games and allowed 5.0 yards per carry on five separate occasions. Injuries up front have hampered the Owls’ on the defensive line this season, but even without De’Braylon Carroll off the field, they’re still trotting out good defensive linemen, a few of which have drawn attention from NFL scouts.

More: Rice Football falls in overtime to North Texas 

Despite those shortcomings, and particularly the Owls’ struggles on this particular Saturday, Rice fought back and tied the game in the final seconds. “I thought the defense finding a way to get a stop at the end and the offense finding a way to take the ball down and send the game in overtime, that’s winning football,” Bloomgren said. “Now what we did in overtime is not.”

Unfortunately for Constantine and the Owls, the proverbial clock struck midnight before the comeback could be truly completed. But it was his arm and his legs that gave Rice the only real chance they had to win this game. On the eve of Halloween, the veteran gunslinger put on his best Houdini impression, escaping would-be tackles to create off schedule. On two separate fourth down conversions, he broke free, kept the play alive, and delivered a strike at the moment his team needed it the most.

“I’ve been messing around, making those plays since I was a little kid,” Constantine said afterward, shrugging off his own heroics.

His coach was more effusive in his praise. “The plays he made to Jake Bailey and plays he made with his feet, he gave us a chance,” Bloomgren said. “That’s who that kid’s been since he’s been here. You know, he’s been a wild horse rider and finding a way to make plays.”

If the running game isn’t working, perhaps it’s time to hand the ball over to the one man who was able to find production in an otherwise disappointing fall afternoon. Protection was up and down, but Constantine repeatedly picked himself up off the mat and made play after play after play. Had he put a touch less on a third-down pass in overtime, the result could have been different. But by and large, if Constantine wasn’t clicking, not much else was.

From week to week, the running game has been hot and cold. The defense has been good and bad. The special teams have shared in those highs and lows. Constantine, while not perfect has thrown five touchdowns to just two interceptions and been at the controls of the offense in two of their three wins.

Given the expected severity of Green’s injury, it will more than likely fall to Constantine to lead Rice the rest of the way. “We’re definitely not out of the fight into making a bowl game,” he said. “I think we’re a great team and we can easily win three more games.” It won’t be easy, but it’s possible. And much of it will fall on his shoulders to carry Rice football to where they want to go.

Photo credit Maria Lysaker
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Rice Football 2021: Offense preps for encore as UNT game looms

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It was a positive week of practice for Rice football as they prepare for North Texas. Halfway through the season, the Owls are finding their rhythm.

Who wasn’t on the field was almost as big of a story for Rice football this week as who would be available. The depth chart will have differences based on availability, but those who will go have been active on the practice field this week.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Practice reports are reserved for our subscribers. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to deploy its quarterbacks, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. You can get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe to our All-American Tier on Patreon today.

Finding the right ryhthm in the backfield

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Rice Football 2021 Game Preview: UAB

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Rice Football looks to rebound from its first C-USA loss, but they’ll have their work cut out for them against UAB. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Rice football and UAB, the Owls’ upcoming opponent, could not have had more diametrically opposing weekends. The Blazers blanked a Southern Miss team Rice had just edged out at home, winning by a final score of 34-0. Meanwhile, Rice was in the middle of a shutout of their own, but the Owls were on the wrong side of the margin, falling 45-0 to UTSA.

UAB will look to keep rolling at home this weekend while Rice needs a bounce back in the worst way. Here’s what you need to know:

Kickoff time | 2:30 PM CT
Venue | Protective Stadium – Birmingham, AL
TV | ESPN+
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs UAB this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. You can also catch the recap of last week’s game on The Roost Podcast, which should be released shortly. Find us on the podcast page or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. (And consider leaving us a 5-star review while you’re at it.)

Sizing up the contenders

UAB currently sits tied atop the Conference USA West standings with UTSA and UTEP, all three of which boast sterling 3-0 records. If the start of conference play is any indication, the battle for this division might be close, making every game all the more important for each team still in the hunt.

Rice (1-1 C-USA) isn’t technically eliminated from that race, but the Owls have some issues of their own to work through before they can seriously start to consider themselves bonafide contenders. Sitting at 2-4 on the season, the Owls need to finish 4-2 down the stretch to reach bowl eligibility. That task gets decidedly harder if they don’t walk away from Birmingham this weekend with the upset.

Series History

All Time | UAB leads Rice 6-3
Last Five | UTSA leads 4-1
Last Meeting | Home 2020, UAB won 21-16

Get the Inside Scoop

Get access to practice reports, analysis and special features during the week when you subscribe to our All-American Tier on Patreon today. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to deploy its quarterbacks, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. A few sections of this preview are reserved for those subscribers. Don’t miss out! Join now!

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Rice Stat Notables

Passing | Constantine – 49/66 (74.2 percent), 564 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT
Rushing | Myers – 60 carries, 264 yards (4.4 yards per carry), 5 TD
Receiving | Bailey – 23 receptions, 245 yards (10.7 yds/rec), 1 TD / Patterson – 14 receptions, 226 yards (16.1 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Montero – 45 / Smith – 37 / Garcia – 33
Pass Breakups | Smith/Dunbar – 4, Nyakwol – 3
Interceptions | Nyakwol – 2, Five others tied with one

UAB Stat Notables

Passing | Hopkins – 62/102 (60.8 percent), 973 yards passing, 10 TD, 2 INT
Rushing | McBride – 80 carries, 421 yards (5.3 yards per carry), 2 TD / Brown Jr. – 59 carries, 343 yards (5.8 yds/car), 2 TD
Receiving | Prince – 17 receptions, 357 yards (21.0 yards per reception), 6 TD / Shropshire – 12 receptions, 265 yards (22.1 yds/rec), 3 TD
Tackles | Wilder – 42 / Boler – 32 / Wright – 26
Interceptions | Swoopes – 2, Six tied with one apiece 
Pass Breakups | McWilliams – 4, Five tied with two apiece

UAB X-Factor | Make Rice earn it

UAB enters this game tied for second in the conference in 20+ yard plays allowed. They’ve given up 26 such plays across seven games, an average of 3.7 per contest. That number almost disappears when considering their conference games. In three games against North Texas, Florida Atlantic and Southern Miss the Blazers have allowed just four gains of 20+ yards, 1.3 such plays per game.

The Rice offense has struggled on third down. Poor protection put them in long downs and distances frequently last weekend against UTSA. If UAB can keep Rice behind schedule, forcing them to need long gains to stay on the field, it’s game over for the Owls who enter the weekend dead last in Conference USA with 16 plays of 20+ yards across six games.

Rice X-Factor | Start fast

For all the growing pains that have beset Rice football over the past several seasons, starting strong was never a problem for this team until now. Rice entered the UTSA game riding a 16 games streak in which they’d prevented a conference opponent from scoring on their opening drive, dating back to their meeting with UTEP in 2018.

Rice scored first in every game last season and did not allow a single first quarter point in five games. Perhaps that high of a standard was unsustainable — and it probably was — but regressing as far as they have has been much too excessive of a slide, especially considering the talent they have returning.

So, until proven otherwise, Rice absolutely must start strong if they’re going to find the motivation and confidence to play a four quarter football game. Two bad possessions on top of each other has doomed Rice in several games already this year, and the season is only six games old. For Rice, they need to do everything they can control to lead 7-0 after the first couplet of drives, even if that means pulling out every trick in the book.

Pick ‘Em Contest (Subscribers only)

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One Final Thing

Dwelling in the past never does too much to benefit the present, but there are a few glaring similarities between where Rice stands entering the UAB game and where Rice stood a year ago prior to their now lauded road tilt with No. 15 Masrhall.

Rice football had just been dealt a discouraging loss, on the road to a conference opponent they were expected to (at the very least) contender with. The Owls saw their starting quarterback get injured in that game and were already without multiple starting players on the defensive side of the ball and had been without Bradley Rozner for the season.

With not much going for them other than what the team coined “unwavering belief”, they pulled up one of the most significant upsets in the history of the program. Rice needs to get out of the business of being multi-touchdown underdogs, but if nothing else, they’ve always found a way to bounce back from their bottoming-out moments.

Rice started 0-9 in 2019 before winning three straight to close the year. They recovered from the quadruple-doink in 2020 to squash Southern Miss 30-6 on the road. And then were was the aforementioned rebound against Marshall. This team hasn’t discovered consistency whatsoever, but they have been resilient when they’ve needed it most. They need that resiliency now more than ever.

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Rice Football outclassed by UTSA in blowout loss

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Despite having two weeks to prepare, Rice football was bludgeoned off their bye week by a scoring hot UTSA squad that never let up.

UTSA threw the first punch against Rice football at the Alamodome on Saturday night. Then they threw the second. And the third. In a highly anticipated Lonestar showdown, Rice football was outclassed in every aspect of the game, dropping their first conference road game of the season in a ghastly fashion.

Rice had two weeks to get ready for their return to San Antonio, the site of what was one of their most heartbreaking losses of the 2019 season. Both teams had changed dramatically since then. But UTSA looked like their new-and-improved selves this time around. Rice did not. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

It’s how you start

There’s no golden rule that insists your first fifteen minutes of a football game has to be your best fifteen minutes, but that’s certainly been a prerequisite for Rice football so far this season. The opening quarter of the UTSA game made that abundantly clear.

The Rice defense kept UTSA in front of them on their first possession, but two third down conversions and a fumble forced that landed in the hands of a UTSA receiver saw the Owls fall behind 7-0. The offense went three-and-0ut, then the defense sagged before holding UTSA to a field goal.

Rice needed a spark on their second drive and got into a favorable position — third and short — before Jake Constantine was sacked. Another three-and-out. Following a booming punt by Charlie Mendes, the Rice defense then allowed an 81-yard run to stud Roadrunner tailback Sincere McCormick and a touchdown two plays later.

This start proved eerily similar to the Houston game. Two three-and-outs on offense and a defense unable to get off the field on third down, leading to a three-score deficit in the first quarter. Altogether, this was about as disastrous of a starting sequence as Rice has seen in recent memory.

Overwhelmed in the trenches

Part of what led to the awful beginning for the offense was severe protection issues up front. On the Owls second third down, Constantine dropped back to pass and was almost immediately met in the backfield by not one, but two UTSA rushers.

As if that wasn’t problematic enough, it happened again on the very next possession. Facing a fourth down near midfield, Constantine again dropped back to pass and again saw two defenders in his face immediately. He did his best to throw over the free rushers, but the ball was tipped, caught and returned for a pick-six.

Whether it was the running back, the quarterback or the line, someone didn’t make the right lead. Bad protection leads to bad plays, plain and simple. This play looked doomed from the start, and it might have put any hopes of making this game competitive to bed immediately.

Oftentimes, sacks are as much a quarterback stat as a protection stat. It takes both positions operating together to avoid those negative plays. Constantine wasn’t perfect either, but he was set up to fail from the start and the ramifications were disastrous.

Insult and injury

Rice did themselves no favors in any of the three phases on Saturday. But once again, injuries at a key position proceeded to stack the deck further against the Owls. Following an incomplete pass on third down on the second drive of the second quarter, starting quarterback hobbled to the sideline. Luke McCaffrey, who was “1B” on the quarterback depth chart, was suddenly the last man standing at the position for Rice football.

For Rice, the injury luck at this essential position has been unfathomably awful. Rice has started three quarterbacks in six games this year. Three different passers appeared in games in 2020, and Rice churned through signal callers in each of the 2018 and 2019 seasons as well.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week 

Saturday’s performance was incriminating enough on its own aside from Constantine’s injury. But the sheer fact that we have to have this conversation — discussing yet another Rice quarterback knocked out of a game with an injury — is downright maddening.

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Rice has been the unluckiest program in the country when it comes to quarterback health. And it’s not even close.

From winning streak to gut punch, yet again

A back-and-forth season pivoted back away from the Owls on Saturday night at the Alamodome. Rice has won six of their last 10 conference games, beaten previously undefeated No. 15 Marshall yet never seemed to be in the same zip code of a UTSA team that looked as good as advertised and remains the lone remaining unbeaten team in Conference USA.

A perfect conference record was improbable at best. That’s out the window. Reaching bowl eligibility and perhaps even getting a shot to contend for a conference title? Both of those objectives are in mathematically in play. But this time Rice won’t have the luxury of two weeks to prepare. And they’ll be playing an opponent (UAB) that is at least as good, if not better, than the UTSA squad that blew them out on Saturday.

It would be nice to see this team get another signature win to prove their trajectory remains as high as it felt entering the year. They’ve proven they can. It gets lost in the shuffle, but the Marshall upset came on the heels of a disastrous showing against North Texas (on the road) where the Owls’ starting quarterback was injured and unable to go against the Herd. That’s not to say the situations are synonymous, but there’s something about this team that doesn’t follow a linear pattern whatsoever.

If the two-game winning streak lessened the pressure, it’s back on, with interest. Rice needs to put a completely different team on the field next week. Another no-show performance would cannot take place.

Digging deeper

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Headed in the wrong direction

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