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Rice Football: OC Jerry Mack to coach quarterbacks

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The Rice football coaching staff has two additional changes. Offensive coordinator Jerry Mack is moving to the quarterback room.

Earlier this spring, when Rice football practices were still in session, two of three notable coaching changes were announced. Sanders Davis and Chris Monfiletto were promoted from within, filling vacated spots on the coaching staff. Davis will coach the offensive line while Monfiletto will coach the tight ends.

One more change has been announced. Mike Bloomgren detailed the additional move during a conversation the JP Heath on an episode of Rice Owls Insider. Offensive coordinator Jerry Mack will now coach quarterbacks while former quarterbacks coach Robbie Picazo will coach running backs.

This is Mack’s third position group he’s been responsible for at Rice. He started with the wide receivers in 2018 before shifting to running backs last season. His experience as a head coach at North Carolina Central combined with experiences in several different offenses made him a valuable sounding board for the rest of the offensive staff.

During the year he was inserted in the quarterback meetings. Bloomgren credits that to the development of the position over time. “We were best last year when Jerry Mack was in the quarterback room full time,” he said, later adding that position group, in particular, were ones who “need to hear the voice of our coordinator.”

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Mack’s influence on the offense was clear in the tail end of the 2019 season. With JoVoni Johnson at the controls, the Owls spread things out, balancing their traditional ground and pound with a more conventional look. Bloomgren hinted more of that could be in store for the future, making Mack’s presence in the quarterback room going forward a key component of any offensive evolution.

Picazo won’t be going far, but he will have a new responsibility. Learning from Bloomgren at Stanford, Picazo’s only experience has been in this system working with quarterbacks. Bloomgren wants him to give him a chance to develop and influence a new portion of the offensive. Former running backs coach Drew Svoboda has been working with him during the spring as he gets up to speed.

From an optics standpoint, the swap makes a lot of sense. The Rice offense looked its best last season when Mack had a direct line of communication into the quarterback room. Credit to Bloomgren for noticing the improvement and acting on it, even if that required some musical chairs on his staff to accomplish.

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Rice Football: Owls believe C-USA offers even playing field

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After four grueling battles, Rice Football has finished nonconference play. The Owls hope for better fortunes as Conference USA play begins.

The positive side for Rice Football is clear. Mike Bloomgren sees his team as battle-tested. As he said following four games against teams who hold a combined 13-2 record, “who the heck are we going to be scared of?”

The Owls might not be scared, but they do need to find their offense.

Rice football averaged 6.0 yards per carry in their season opener against Army. The Owls’ executed their gameplan to a tee, controlling the game and putting themselves in position for a game-winning drive. That drive stalled out just outside the redzone. The Rice offense stalled with it.

In subsequent games against Wake Forest, Texas and Baylor the Owls averaged 1.8, 2.8 and 1.8 yards per carry, respectively. Rice just wasn’t winning in the trenches against those three Power 5 opponents to the same degree they did against Army.

On the basis of talent alone, that makes sense. All three of those programs ranked inside the Top 60 in weighted four-year recruited rankings. Rice checks in at No. 119 and Army at No. 103. So, in theory, once the Owls resume playing opponents of a similar caliber, the offense should get back on track. At least, that’s what Rice offense coordinator Jerry Mack is counting on.

“The speed of the game is just so much different when you play those upper-tier top 25 teams,” he said, “Those guys are still really talented in Conference USA, but the size of the guys is a little bit different… Now those guys are a couple of inches smaller or 20 pounds lighter. So it should balance out a little bit more just from a physicality standpoint.”

More: Rice vs Louisiana Tech Game Preview

Closer to even in terms of team talent. Rice will stick to their guns and run the ball. They’ll have the benefit of tackles Clay Servin and Justin Gooseberry, both of whom missed the Owls’ most recent game with injuries. Not having bruising fullback Reagan Williams will be a big loss, but the Owls have a stable of backs ready to give it their best shot.

Mack is sticking to his guns. “You can’t panic. You have to stay the course. I think at the end of the day, we know want to have a physical brand. We know we want to be a run-first style of offense and we have to stay committed to that.”

The Owls are committed. On Saturday we’ll see whether or not that resolve is well placed.

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Rice Football: Year 2 gains the focus of Owls’ 2019 Media Day

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Rice Football hosted its 2019 Media Day. Several coaches and players spoke, but all shared the same refrain. The team is starting off on a better foot in Year 2.

“Talking season” is upon us, which means meaningful football games aren’t far away. Mike Bloomgren, Austin Trammell and Myles Adams attended Conference USA Media Days in July. Bloomgren, his coordinators, and more than a dozen players were made available for the Owls’ own Media Day on Saturday.

The conversations were varied, ranging from the finer details of special teams to the impactful freshman already turning heads. But one theme which ran through every discussion was the difference between Year 1 and Year 2.

Bloomgren began the conversation in his opening statement.

I think when you talk to all the coaches in this room and the players that were here last year, just the ability to be in the same system, to hear the same message taught and realize that we are singing out of the same hymnal day in and day out. I think that’s really important. It’s really good for the players, really good for the coaches. And it certainly allows me to be more comfortable in everything that we’re doing. I feel like we are making big, big gains.Mike Bloomgren

That continuity applies to the incoming freshman class as well. Even though they didn’t experience the 2018 season, they’re benefiting from the effort put in to build the culture they’re walking in to. Defensive coordinator Brian Smith said those newcomers have allowed the team “to raise the floor” and have built “depth at every position.”

More: Practice notes from the first scrimmage of fall camp

That depth will be tasked with bolstering the Owls’ who were thrown into the fire as freshmen last season. Some of those freshmen, like Cole Garcia on the offensive line, Antonio Montero at linebacker and Prudy Calderon in the secondary, became fixtures on the team who have maintained their position entering 2019.  Offensive coordinator Jerry Mike isn’t taking that experience for granted.

Across the board, we’re just so much more experienced. Like coach always says, everything is better in Year 2. And I think right now we’re reaping some of those benefits. It’s not perfect, by no stretch of the imagination. But one thing that we’re doing is we’re continuing to grow each day… we’re trying to figure out the best techniques and all the best schemes that we can develop against our defense that will carry on into the season.” Jerry Mack

That theme carried over to the special teams. Under the direction of newly appointment coordinator Drew Svoboda, the Owls’ special teams will have to replace Jack Fox and Hayden Tobola, but Svoboda is confident they have enough continuity as a unit to stay successful saying Rice will need to “make improvements and little tweaks and polish up little things.”

Like Bloomgren mentioned in his introduction, everyone is on the same page. Sticking to the process and making improvements as needed are the Owls’ marching orders. Now it’s time to execute.

You can read more about Bloomgren and his process in a special feature in our 2019 Rice Football Preview.

 

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Jerry Mack stresses simplicity the key for the offense against UAB

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The Rice football offense has some growing up to do. After a strong start to the season, it’s back to square one against AUB in Week 7.

It’s time to move on. That’s how offensive coordinator Jerry Mack described the mindset of this team following the Owls’ frustrating offensive performance against UTSA last weekend. They sustained one scoring drive, ending in a Haden Tobola field goal. No touchdowns. No explosive runs. They registered one play of 20 or more yards.

There wasn’t any semblance of momentum on that side of the ball against the Roadrunners. Something that head coach Mike Bloomgren promised to address during the week. He vowed to figure out what this offense was going to be able to do well and lean on its strengths.

The biggest change to the gameplan against UAB won’t be new plays or schemes. There won’t be any sort of personnel overhaul or new identity established. It’s going to be all about getting back to the basics. It’s cliche, but making things as straightforward as possible is something this team needs right now.

Mack said the goal of the coaching staff this week was to “simplify some things and compartmentalize some things a little bit better.” He asserted the issues unearthed against UTSA were “a lot of it was just base fundamental stuff that we screwed up on”, things like “a guy not taking the right step or a guy not communicating the way he’s supposed to.”

In a word, the direction for the offense this week is minimization. Communication up front with the offensive line remains an issue, and if the Owls can’t translate basic things like that from the practice field to Saturdays they’ll continue to find themselves in problematic situations.

There’s no rocket science being applied to the offense on South Main this week. As Macks says, they’re simply working on “taking the right steps.” It’s the same process, but hopefully one that produces different results on Saturday.

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