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Rice Football 2021 Media Days Roundup: Top Quotes

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Members of the 2021 Rice football team and coaching staff met with the media this past weekend to preview the 2021 season. Here are some highlights.

Shortly after the first scrimmage of fall camp, members of the Rice football team and coaching staff traded the grass for microphones to discuss the upcoming 2021 season. Below are a selection of quotes from members of the staff and players.

Mike Bloomgren on the timeline for a starting QB decision

“I don’t feel a need to call a winner anytime soon. I’d rather it not drag into game week and I’d rather it not drag into the third week [of camp], if we can help it.”

Bloomgren on the depth on defense

“We roll guys in and out and there shouldn’t ever be a big difference depending on who’s in the game and who’s not. I mean, that’s the way they set the standard over there. If you’re going to play in the top two you’re going to play meaningful snaps and you better be ready to come in and do your job.”

Defensive Coordinator Brian Smith on the experience of the defense:

“Returning all the starters that we have, the experience that we have, so when we get in a tough situation I know how they’re going to respond. That level of trust that’s been built, that’s what gives me the most confidence. We’ve been through some battles before with most of these guys and I know how they’re going to respond to adversity. We’re playing together right now as a defense. Guys are communicating. They know what they’re doing, and when you know what you’re doing, you can play faster.”

Offensive Coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo on training camp:

“We’re right in the meat and potatoes of installs and training camp. We’ve said scrimmage you make the biggest strides, usually, In my experience, from scrimmage one to scrimmage two and I think I’m really excited to see what that looks like in the next four or five days.”

“Training camp is supposed to be tough, and our staff we challenge our guys daily. We try to make it as hard as possible. So when we get to game day it becomes easy. And I think they’re right on track.”

Tuiasosopo on the quarterbacks and the scheme

“We’re going to run the football and we want to have a smart passing game where we take advantage of what the defense is giving us. Regardless of who we bring in here [at quarterback], it’s being able to mold what they do well, individually, and how it fits within the structure of our system.”

Special teams coordinator Chris Monfiletto on the continuity of the coaching staff

“Yeah, I mean, it’s unbelievable. It’s everything that you want in a job, right? It’s everything that you want in a boss, somebody that if you provide value to the program is going to be able to promote you. I’m so grateful for that. I think that that gives the guys on the team tangible evidence that if you’re going to provide value to the team there’s going to be a role for you and we’ll find a role for you on the field. It’s not just the coaching staff, it’s every member of the team from the walk-ons to the guys that maybe haven’t played in the past. You keep working hard and you keep providing value, and then there’s going to be an opportunity.”

Tight end Jordan Myers on his confidence in the offense

The more you’re in the offense, the more comfortable you get in it, the calmer you can be. That’s just when you go out and play football and that’s what we can here to do, paly football and have fun.”

Myers on expectations for the season

“The standard is always be 1-0 at the end of every week. We want to prepare like we’re going for championsips. We want to prepare like we’re going to win bowl games. That’s the thing that we always talk about in this building and that’s never changed”

Safety Naeem Smith on the defense

“I’m happy where we’re at, but at the same time, we have even higher expectations… Two things we gotta do better is just try and create turnovers and sacks and things like that, but overall, happy with where we’re at but we still have a long ways to go before the season.”

Wide receiver Bradley Rozner on returning to action

“I just want to be on the field playing again. I love this game. I’ve been playing it for a very long time and I’m gonna keep playing for as long as I can because I know these days are numbered. It’s a fun game. I love the grind, the competitiveness of all of it. Wherever the coaches see me, that’s where I’ll be.”

Rozner on the wide receiving corps

“We can stretch the ball vertically, horizontally, diagonally, it doesn’t’ matter. I feel like we can go anywhere with the guys we have and we can be really explosive and make plays all over the field.”

Safety Treshawn Chamberlain on defensive improvement

“There’s always ways to get better. A lot of people might miss the small errors, but when we are in the film room, we’re critiquing ourselves to a tee… There’s always another level that you can take it. And that’s what we’ve been attacking, we’ve been focusing on where our mind needs to be before the play even starts.”

Quarterback Wiley Green on the leap he expects on offense

“There’s always room for improvement. But we expect that jump to be now. We expect that jump to be happening this season. We expect that jump to be week one against Arkansas so we really expect to be able to put some points on the board, especially when we’re down close in the red zone and make it happen.”

Quarterback Luke McCaffrey on the type of player he is

It depends. I think the biggest thing that I want to be as a football player, I want to be somebody who goes out there and has the ability to make a play when it’s needed and has the ability to run an offense when that’s needed. And so I think that that is a very diverse skill set and, and I’m lucky enough to have the guys around me to let that happen.”

What’s next?

Rice football will play their second scrimmage of fall camp this coming Saturday. Stay tuned for more updates throughout the week (including a deep-dive on the quarterback position) and look for a debrief following that scrimmage.

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CUSA Media Day Roundup: All eyes on the Rice football offense

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After a busy offseason, change was the pivotal word for Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren when speaking about his offense in 2021.

The Rice football defense was one of the most dominant units in Conference USA last year. The Owls climbed all the way up to No. 12 in the nation in scoring defense and blanked a Top 15 team on the road. If any facet of this team deserved to be the focal point of conversation when the 2021 season rolled around, the defense had done everything they conceivably could to put themselves in the spotlight.

But beginning with the first question Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren was asked during Conference USA Media Days and proceeding to the last, the focus was clear: offense, offense, offense.

To some extent, the defense is a known commodity at this point. They’re going to be good, really good. But minus one notable departure, former linebacker Blaze Alldredge, that unit will look the same. The offense is going to look different.

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“I’m not normally very comfortable with change,” Bloomgren admitted in his opening remarks, “but I’m excited about these changes,” he said, referring primarily to the hiring of new offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo. The addition of transfer quarterback Luke McCaffrey fits in that “change” category as well.

Bloomgren didn’t get too far into x’s and o’s, beyond specifying from a play design and scheme standpoint “a lot of it’s the same”, with only so many different combinations of blocks and routes. But how that offense is executed, and who’s executing on those instructions is what’s meant to be differential.

That’s where Luke McCaffrey comes in. Although he wasn’t guaranteed anything beyond a locker and helmet when he arrived, early returns are already positive. Bloomgren was effusive when praising his character and how he carried himself. The on the field production, that matters too.

“That’s a very talented individual that’s been successful on a big stage coming to our program,” Bloomgren said knowingly before getting into how the offense can utilize the run game to take shots downfield. They’ll also have the benefit of returning all five starting offensive linemen, what Bloomgren estimates is probably a first for him in his coaching career.

Add in 10 returning offensive starters overall and you get a delicate mix of familiarity and change. How the coaching staff sorts through the chaos and puts the pieces together will mean all the difference.

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Rice Football: OC Marques Tuiasosopo brings new spin to familiar scheme

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Rice football has hired Marques Tuiasosopo as its new offensive coordinator. His task: reinvigorate the Owls’ offense.

Marques Tuiasosopo was introduced on Tuesday as the new offensive coordinator for Rice Football. Tuiasosopo brings a wealth of experience from the Pac-12 with him to South Main. His path to Houston includes stops at Washington, UCLA, USC and Cal where he served in a variety of roles coaching tight ends and quarterbacks.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren said Tuiasosopo checked his three most important criteria, saying Tuiasosopo “see[s] the game the way I do”, can design and call the passing game, and can “build the quarterback room from the ground up.”

To quell any illusions of what would or wouldn’t be changing, Tuiasosopo was emphatic about what the Rice offense was going to look like under his direction.

“Hey, we’re going to run the ball.”

The son of a defensive lineman, Tuiasosopo explained the physicality and importance of winning in the trenches was something that had been ingrained in him from a young age.

He talked about a commitment to being able to “throw it over the top”. That will still be a component of the offense. But Tuiasosopo noted the ability to take those vertical shots starts with running the rock. He and Bloomgren are aligned on that central tenant.

That balance goes all the way back to his playing days. The former Washington quarterback became the first player to throw for 300 yards and rush for 200 yards in a game as he set a school record of 509 yards in a win over Stanford.

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He credits a lot of his growth to this point to a handful of notable coaches he’s had the privilege to work under. From Jon Gruden, he learned the importance of protecting the quarterback. From David Shaw, he learned how to stay poised under pressure. Steve Sarkisian, who he’ll stand on the opposite sideline from this coming fall, instilled in him the value of executing at a high level without sacrificing all of the fun.

Now at Rice, the first-time offensive coordinator for the first time in his career seeks to bring all of that experience together into one coherent plan of attack.

When it comes to the X’s and O’s, Bloomgren reiterated he doesn’t expect a seismic shift in the scheme. The notable change, if any, would a deeper exploration into RPO’s and similar concepts Tuiasopopo has direct experience with in the past.

At the end of the day, no matter how Tuiasosopo and Bloomgren build it, the expectations are rising. The offense has lagged behind the defense, most notably in the past two seasons. The changes to the coaching staff reflected Bloomgren’s desire to reset and address that side of the ball. “I wanted some fresh ideas to come into the building,” Bloomgren said.

Tuiasosopo has been on campus for a matter of days. He has one spring practice under his belt. Both he and the Rice offense have a lot of work to do this spring. That could include another reset at the quarterback position

On that front, probably Tuiasosopo’s most imminent priority, the new OC stressed a fresh start. “There’s a clean slate for those four young men in the quarterback room here at Rice,” he said. “Let’s go out and see who can be the best guy this year.”

From the quarterback spot to the offense as a whole, Tuiasosopo will be busy.

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