The source for Rice sports news

Rice Football 2021 Game Preview: Texas Southern

By

Rice Football returns home to take on Texas Southern in Week 4, still in search of their first win of the season. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Week 4 will pit a pair of winless teams against each other in the first ever meeting between intra-city foes. Rice football hosts Texas Southern on Saturday, hoping to bounce back from a deflating shutout loss to Texas the week prior.  Texas Southern enters equally beleaguered, having been outscored 106 to 24 in back-to-back losses to Prairie View and Baylor before having last weekend off.

Kickoff time | 5:30 PM CT
Venue | Rice Stadium – Houston, TX
TV | ESPN3
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs Texas Southern 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

It’s put up or shut up time for Rice football. After three back-breaking losses, the Owls cannot afford to fall to 0-4. The pressure is on Rice, who will enter the contest as the favorites.

Texas Southern hasn’t faired any better than Rice. Their lone win since the 2018 season came by way of a forfeit in an abbreviated spring season. A win over an FBS team would be huge for head coach Clarence McKinney and his staff.

Series History

All Time | Rice and Texas Southern will be meeting for the first time
Last Five | n/a
Last Meeting | n/a

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!

Become a Patron!

Rice Stat Notables

Passing | McCaffrey – 16/32 (50.0 percent), 181 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT
Rushing | Griffin – 39 carries, 173 yards (4.4 yards per carry)
Receiving | Myers – 11 receptions, 71 yards (6.5 yards per reception), 1 TD / Bailey – 9 receptions, 85 yards (9.4 yds/rec)
Tackles | Montero – 27 / Smith – 20/ Garcia – 18
Pass Breakups | Smith/McCord/Dunbar – 2 
Interceptions | Fresch/Taylor – 1

Texas Southern Stat Notables

Passing | Brown – 27/53 (50.9 percent), 277 yards passing, 1 TD, 0 INT
Rushing | Howard – 15 carries, 79 yards (5.3 yards per carry), 0 TD
Receiving | Davis – 9 receptions, 124 yards (13.4 yards per reception), 0 TD / Johnson – 7 receptions, 80 yards (11.4 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Cooper – 13 / Walton – 12 / Gibbs – 9
Interceptions | Marcantel -1
Pass Breakups | Six tied with one PBU

Texas Southern X-Factor | Make the big play

The formula to stymy Rice has focused on the big play. Arkansas gashed the Owls on the ground with their 245-pound quarterback. Texas let running back Bijan Robinson have their way with the Rice defense before getting other playmakers in open space for breakaway touchdown sprints.

There has been a handful of methodical, 10+ play drives against Rice this year. But the Owls have proven most susceptible when their opponents can cut the field in half with one or two big plays. If Texas Southern wants to make this interesting, they’ll need to hit on some home runs.

Rice X-Factor | Come prepared

In each of their first three games, the Rice offense has failed to take advantage of opportunities gifted to them by their opponents and/or their own defense. Three missed field goals, six interceptions, dropped passes and missed assignments. At this point, the offense doesn’t need to move heaven and earth. They need to do the basics correctly.

Against Texas Southern, the basics, when executed correctly, should be more than enough to set Rice up for success. And if Rice can’t clean up the little things, it’s going to be a long season when conference play arrives in two weeks.

Pick ‘Em Contest (Subscribers only)

Make sure you submit your entry for The Roost’s weekly pick’em challenge. There will be swag and prizes for the top finishers at the end of the season. Choose an answer to each of the six questions below and comment on this post on the Patreon page to enter. It’s that easy.

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?

Injury Report (Subscribers only)

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?

Need More?

The Roost’s 2021 Rice Football Season Preview has FIVE pages dedicated to every opponent the Owls face. There are depth charts, important new arrivals and positional breakdowns for every team in Conference USA sourced from local beat writers and sources on the ground who cover these teams every day. It’s the most thorough C-USA publication on the market.

One Final Thing

The last time Rice football lost three consecutive games happened in the middle of the 2019 season. The Owls dropped successive contests to UTSA, Southern Miss and Marshall with the point totals falling from game to game, averaging 13.3 points over that stretch.

Then the offense woke up, and the team went on a run. Rice beat Middle Tennessee, North Texas and UTEP, and averaged 27 points per game in the process.

That recent history is not necessarily prescriptive of what is to come, but it has to serve as some evidence that given enough of a hole to dig out of, this program has shown it can rise again. Doing it consistently is a bar they’ve yet to achieve, but getting back into the win column and doing it a few times is well within reach.

But at this point, those are all hypotheticals. The Owls are going to have to show they still believe in themselves and what they’re playing for. It’s well past time to play ball.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Insult and injury: Rice football blasted by Texas in Austin

By

There were no clouds in the sky on Saturday night, but Texas rained down points on Rice Football all night long as the Owls struggled through another crushing defeat.

When Rice football lined up against Texas on Saturday night in Austin, nothing seemed amiss. Texas marched down the field and scored. Rice got a defensive stop and kicked off an efficient drive of their own. Then it all went sideways.

Not only would Rice not score a single point, but the Owls lost both their starting quarterback and backup quarterback to injury before halftime. After taking a 17-7 lead against Arkansas two weeks ago, Rice has been outscored 133-7. To say it’s been a rough month would be an understatement.

Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

No risk it, no biscuit

The Rice offense was handed an early mulligan following their first three-and-out of the game. Thanks to a terrific interception generated by the pass rush of Ikenna Enechuwku, Gabe Taylor’s pick got the ball back for the Owls who had fallen behind early 7-0. Then Rice fell into third and long, again.

That was when Luke McCaffrey attempted his first pass of the game, a first down to Jake Bailey. He completed his second pass of the day on the next play, also for a first down, this time to Jack Bradley. Khalan Griffin ripped off a big gain.

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

Quip with the playcalling if you’d like, the crux of the issue was how the drive ended. Rice faced third-and-eight from the 10-yard line and dumped the ball off to Jordan Myers. On fourth-and-five, Rice settled for a field goal, which was missed.

Playing it safe and trusting the defense, especially one as reliable as Rice has, is usually a pretty sound strategy. When you’re playing Texas, though, sometimes the risks are worth taking. Rice opted not to take the risk. Texas responded with a 72-yard touchdown run on the ensuing drive to take a 14-0 lead.

Quarterback quandaries continue

Luke McCaffrey led what probably should have been a scoring drive that ended in a missed field goal. Then he left the game, presumably with some injury, which remains undisclosed. Wiley Green came in as his relief and lasted a few drives before he also left with an injury. By the time Rice was closing out the first half, it was Jake Constantine making his Rice debut with the Owls trailing by six touchdowns.

Just three games into the 2021 Rice football season, Rice has turned to at least three different signal callers for the fourth consecutive season. McCaffrey looked fairly promising in his limited work, officially ending his night 2-for-3 for 20 yards with one 5-yard scramble on third down.

Without him or Green and the game out of reach midway through the second quarter, there wasn’t much else to take away from another incomplete offensive performance.

Not so special teams

Special teams have been one of the most promising aspects of the Rice football program under head coach Mike Bloomgren. Punter Jack Fox made the Pro Bowl last year. The tandem punting combo of Adam Nunez and Chris Barnes was one of the best units in Conference USA. Field goal kicking has taken some odd (to say the least) bounces but has largely been effective.

The 2021 iteration has been a complete misadventure. Perhaps we should have sensed something coming when Rice had not one, but four kicks blocked during their second scrimmage of fall camp. An issue with the holding was identified at that point and the problem was ostensibly fixed. That wouldn’t be the end.

Placekicker Collin Riccitelli missed a field goal on Saturday, his third miss in four tries on the season. The Owls’ punt team had a punt blocked, the second occurrence of the year following a block by Houston the week prior. Sean Fresch has been a plus in the return game, but he hasn’t had many opportunities.

Special teams have been exceptional. Former special teams coordinator Pete Lembo has moved up to South Carolina. His successor, Drew Svoboda, now coaches tight ends at Alabama. They’re going to have to figure something out without them.

0-3 is 0-3

Rice football left moral victories and “good” losses in the rearview mirror some time ago. The reality is, this program (and its fans) expects to be at a place where wins are counted on fingers and toes rather than feel-good emotion.

The schedule was daunting from the start. Reminders were built in along the way not to overreact to three games against, arguably, the toughest competition the Owls will face this year. But try as one might to look past the losses and find the good, it’s thankless work.

Four years into Bloomgren’s tenure at Rice, these were expected to be, at the very least, competitive and hard-fought battles. Instead, Rice was outscored in a landslide and struggled to put up many points of their own.

The sun will come up tomorrow. The Owls will begin their prep for Texas Southern. The schedule eases up considerably moving forward, but the margin of error has been significantly trimmed. If Rice really does have bowl aspirations, it’s time to put together a complete performance. Pronto.

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.

Recent Posts

Rice Football 2021: Pre-Texas offensive tweaks and practice notes

By

Rice football needs to rebound on offense in the worst way this week. Here’s what’s changing headed into the Texas game and some other practice notes.

Neither side of the ball was happy with how they performed against Houston last Saturday. Noticeably eager to put rinse the bad taste away, Rice football hit the practice field hard this week getting in work despite a minor disruption from Hurrican Nicholas.

Subscriber content.<br /> Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

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.

Scheme adjustments prior to the Texas game

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.

Recent Posts

Rice Football 2021: Texas presser quotes, practice notes and depth chart

By

Rice football hits the road again this weekend to face Texas. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about it, injury updates and practice notes.

This is the first of a couple of updates coming this week as Rice football prepares to take on Texas. We’ll include updates from head coach Mike Bloomgren’s midweek press conference, then dig further into the details on the depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

Subscriber content.</em><br /> <em>Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

While some attention was given to Texas, much of this week’s discussion revolved around the Houston game. Bloomgren was able to shed greater clarity on what went wrong and offer some comments on how the Owls plan to fix those issues. Practice notes are lighter with the hurricane throwing a wrench in the typical schedule. Expect a deeper breakdown on that front later in the week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“We just think he gives our team the best opportunity to be succesful, not only today, but going forward. There’s thing that he brings to the position and to the team that are diferent. The ability to affect the game with his legs. The ability to keep plays alive. When he’s comfortable and stands in there and throws or when he’s on the move, he’s got a super strong arm. But the ability to keep plays going and do things with his legs are really the reasons right now.” – Mike Bloomgren on the decision to start Luke McCaffrey at QB

“Going back to the commonality of the opponent, I think it should be very encouraging to our guys to watch what we did against Arkansas and and watch [Texas against Arkansas], and know that we can go stand toe to toe with these guys. If we just stick to our fundamentals, listen to our coaches and play our butts off, we’ll have a chance to stand toe to toe in front of these guys, get the game to the fourth quarter and hopefully find a way to win that thing.” – Mike Bloomgren on the common opponent with Texas

“I think when you go into and yoilook at the schedule and you get to play those old South West Conference teams, I think a lot of our fan base was excited. I think they’d like us to beat a couple of them, and certainly we would like that as well. But you look back at the history of this game and how many times it’s been played, it’s a great rivalry. Now, it’s been a little bit of a one sided rivalry, right? I think the last win we have in this program is 1994, but we’ve done a lot of firsts in the last three years and we’d sure like to find a way to earn this victory. And our guys are going to work our butts off to try and make that our reality.” – Mike Bloomgren on rekindling the rivalry with Texas, SWC opponents

“We have grown so much. Being here for four years, I’ve seen a lot of downs and those downs have been really hard. I think we’re on the trajectory of going up and on Saturday that obviously was not showing our progress, but we’re on the way there.”  – Shea Baker on the growth in the program since Rice last played Texas in 2019

“We felt like we’ve played good corners but not full games, and that’s not good enough. Anytime that the offense gets the ball, we can’t let them score, it’s as simple as that, especially not in the red zone. We haven’t been good enough in the red zone. We given up too many points, which I know will get corrected. I believe in it. I believe in our scheme, our players. Not not the way we wanted to start our season defensively, but we have 10 more games.” – Antonio Montero on the play of the defense

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart was updated following the Houston game. The primary changes were injury related.

Depth Chart Changes and injuries

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.

Recent Posts

Rice Football 2021 Game Preview: Texas Longhorns

By

Rice Football heads to the state capital this week for a matchup with the Texas Longhorns in Week 3. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Both teams hope their second Southwest Conference reunion of the season turns out better than the first. Rice football fell to Arkansas in Week 1. Then Texas followed them with a loss to the Razorbacks in Week 2. Texas enters this game 1-1 with their win coming over a ranked Louisiana squad at home while Rice sits at 0-2 after falling to Houston their last time out.

Broadcast Info

Kickoff time | 7:00 PM CT
Venue | Darrel K Royal Stadium – Austin, TX
TV | Longhorn Network
Radio | Sports Map 94.1 (FM) / Stretch Internet (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs Texas 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

It’s been more than two years since Rice football last beat Texas, knocking off the Longhorns most recently in 1994. Should pull off the upset in Austin this time around, they’d push new head coach Steve Sarkisian to 1-2 and, turning grumblings generated from the Arkansas loss into a full-blown panic.

Reaching that point seems more even more daunting after last weekend’s dismal outing against Houston. But the Owls will find some solace in a reeling Texas team that doesn’t look nearly as invincible as it did after their opening weekend victory.

To some degree, the bulk of the pressure rests on Texas in this game. The Rice faithful expect clearly visible improvement. The struggles from the Houston game need to be rectified and this team needs to look competitive. Texas fans demand a win, preferably by a comfortable margin.

Series History

All Time | Texas leads 73-21-1
Last Five | Texas leads 5-0
Last Meeting | NRG Stadium 2019, Texas won 48-13

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!

Become a Patron!

Rice Stat Notables

Passing | McCaffrey – 14/29 (48.3 percent), 161 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT
Rushing | Griffin – 32 carries, 121  yards (3.8 yards per carry)
Receiving | Pitre – 4 receptions, 97 yards (24.3 yards per reception), 1 TD / Bailey – 5 receptions, 62 yards (12.4 yds/rec)
Tackles | Montero – 21 / Morrison – 14 / Schuman – 13
Pass Breakups/Interceptions | Smith, McCord – 2 PBU, Fresch – 1 INT

Texas Stat Notables

Passing | Card – 22/36 (61.1 percent), 285 yards passing, 2 TD, 0 INT
Rushing | Robinson – 39 carries, 172 yards (4.4 yards per carry), 2 TD
Receiving | Whittington – 12 receptions, 145 yards (12.1 yards per reception), 1 TD / Robinson – 5 receptions, 77 yards (15.4 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Overshown – 21 / Brockmeyer – 14 / Foster – 11
Interceptions/Pass Breakups | Cook – 2 PBU, Foster – 1 INT

Texas X-Factor | Quarterback

Hudson Card was named the Texas starter prior to the start of the 2021 season. He completed 14-of-21 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns in the opener, effectively guiding the Longhorns to victory. He was much less composed in Week 2, compiling 61 yards on 8-of-15 passes before being benched in favor of Casey Thompson.

Thompson was more productive, primarily as a rusher. He scored twice on the ground and added 57 yards passing, but it came well after Arkansas had built a comfortable lead. Rice can sympathize about the struggles of finding consistent play at the quarterback position, but that doesn’t change the pressure the Texas coaching staff will be under this week.

Whether it’s Card or Thompson, someone is going to have to emerge for Texas to get into a rhythm along the lines of where they were in their opener. Whatever happened last week was not the answer for the Longhorns.

Rice X-Factor | Getting off the field

Last week against Houston, Rice was rather impressive on early downs and rather abysmal on third down. Try as they might, they just could not get off the field. The Owls allowed 3.3 yards per carry and 5.9 yards per attempt on first down. On third down, those numbers ballooned upwards to 12.8 yards per carry and 9.7 yards per attempt.

Houston converted 4-of-5 third downs of nine yards or more. For comparison, all five of the Owls’ third down conversions came with four yards to gain or fewer. Rice converted none of their third and long tries and only 38.5 percent of their total third down opportunities. Houston converted 61.5 percent, despite averaging almost a full yard more to-gain (8.1 to Rice’s 7.2) per attempt.

Rice did the right thing by forcing their opponent into third and long. They brought pressure, but Clayton Tune put the ball on the money, frequently finding his favorite target, Tank Dell. If Texas can assemble a similar third down performance, the Owls will be fighting a losing battle.

Pick ‘Em Contest (Subscribers only)

Make sure you submit your entry for The Roost’s weekly pick’em challenge. There will be swag and prizes for the top finishers at the end of the season. Choose an answer to each of the six questions below and comment on this post on the Patreon page to enter. It’s that easy.

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?

Injury Report (Subscribers only)

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?

Need More?

The Roost’s 2021 Rice Football Season Preview has FIVE pages dedicated to every opponent the Owls face. There are depth charts, important new arrivals and positional breakdowns for every team in Conference USA sourced from local beat writers and sources on the ground who cover these teams every day. It’s the most thorough C-USA publication on the market.

One Final Thing

Playing with a “goldfish mentality” is something various members of the Rice defense have mentioned over time. It’s something we’ve seen this unit improve upon. After being picked apart down the field in Year 0 and showing signs of shellshock like Riec football head coach Mike Bloomgren mentioned in his postgame comments last week, they’ll need to return to that state of being with haste.

Like the fleeting memory a goldfish memory, the Rice defense has long preached their commitment to putting the last play behind them and focusing on the task at hand. If they’re going to show positive improvement from Week 2 to Week 3, it’s going to be one play at a time. That same will be true for the offense, which couldn’t put more than one extended driver together.

Both sides of the ball need to forget the Houston game in its entirety. They need to bring whatever mindest they entered the Arkansas game with. That mentality, although lacking perfect execution, got them to where they wanted: into the fourth quarter with the chance to pull off a big win.

Rice would happily take a 17-17 fourth quarter state again this time around. But even if they get there, they’ll need to find a way to finish it.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts