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Rice Football Recruiting: Breaking Down the 2026 Signees – Defense, Special Teams

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The 2026 Rice Football Recruiting class includes several hand-picked impact players on defense and special teams. Here’s how those sides of the ball stacks up.

The 2026 Rice football recruiting class began with 18 signees during the Early Signing Period, the second recruiting haul for new head coach Scott Abell. Of those players, 16 are current high school seniors, eight play on the offensive side of the ball, plus one specialist.

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“I think we have found some great future Owls who are going to have an impact on our program,” Abell said during his introductory remarks regarding the group.

We’ve gone position by position breaking down each of those new people, dissecting how these Owls will help the program on the field.

* Denotes players who will enroll early in January

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** This piece has been updated to reflect new signees as of 2/5/2025 **
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Rice Football Recruiting: LB Jayden Cupitt commits to Owls

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The 2026 Rice Football recruiting class continues to stockpile talented defenders. Lake Ridge linebacker Jayden Cupitt has committed to the Owls.

It’s been quite the week for the 2026 Rice Football recruiting class, with a wave of new additions to the group, including the last three and counting from the defensive ranks. Owls’ defensive coordinator Jon Kay has had plenty to smile about as he pulls in talented players, several of which hail from just down the road. That includes the latest newcomer: Mansfield, TX product Jayden Cupitt from Lake Ridge HS has committed to the Owls.

Rice was in on Cupitt early in the spring, extending him an offer in March. That relationship continued to strengthen as Cupitt began to pick up interest from elsewhere, including a push from Boise State this summer. Ultimately though, Cupitt decided to stay home and play his ball in Houston, picking Rice over interest from Boise State, Liberty, Texas State, Bowling Green, Missouri State and others.

That’s three key additions for the Owls’ defense in the 2026 class now as Cupitt’s pledge comes on the heels of announcements from a pair of other commits: defensive lineman Quincy Tchikou and edge JD Singletary.

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Cupitt is a versatile defensive piece, something which jumps out quickly even from just a cursory look from his highlights. He’s quick for a 6-foot-3, 215 pound defender who probably lands at an outside linebacker role at the next level, a position that has proven quite productive in this defense in the past.

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