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Rice Football: Mike Bloomgren reacts to UTSA loss

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Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren met with the media following his teams’ discouraging loss to UTSA. Here are his words as he discusses the game.

We’re going to do this a little bit differently this week. Oftentimes, this is the space for a postgame featurette recapping the most recent game and delving into an aspect or two that proved important or consequential in some form. This week, this column will be reserved for the words of Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren himself in his postgame comments with the media following the Owls’ 45-0 loss to UTSA. No need to dress it up. Here’s the head man himself:

Opening Statement

“Obviously not how we wanted this game to go, not how we planned for this game to go. We got taken to the woodshed. They beat us pretty good tonight. And we got outcoached and got outplayed — out-executed — it’s hard to say outplayed because I think our guys always play hard, but we had too much error in our game and made a lot of mistakes. And we paid dearly for them against a very, very good football team. We’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to continue to talk about ascending as a program. I think our fans deserve better. And we’re going to work our butts off to give it to them.”

On the loss coming directly following a bye week

“I think [the bye week] allowed us to feel really good about the gameplan; that allowed us to feel like we were in a really good place. And coming off two wins, you felt like we were taking positive steps, and tonight certainly was not a positive step. I think the only thing that I would point to tonight is that I thought our guys were really into the game for each other, they were playing for each other, and they were encouraging each other throughout the whole game. I think that’s where magic starts but nothing’s fun when you get beat like that, right?

There’s encouragement. There’s fight to the end. But we have to play better. We are in this to win. Coming out of the bye, thought we’d play a lot better than we did tonight, and we didn’t really execute on defense star standard and obviously offense was really bad.”

On what needs to change regarding the slow starts

“It’s probably confidence as much as anything. We are still fragile. We are still learning how to consistently win. And we’ve got to get to the point where when something bad happens, we set our jaw and when we say like, let’s go to the next play, let’s worry about what we can actually control, which is the next play, not the ones that have already happened. I think that’s something that we got to continue to work on. We are talking about it a good bit. And until we can get our confidence, I think that’s what we got to do. We got to find a way to make our own confidence, to earn our own confidence, and that’s why you practice, that’s why you do things in practice, that’s why you try to make those things really hard. But right now, we’re not able to shift the tide.

Momentum is such a big deal in this world. And I feel like when we get momentum rolling our way, we’re pretty fun. We have a lot of fun on the field and we’re scoring points and stopping people. We got to find a way to make that momentum go our way early in games.”

On what adjustments needs to be made moving forward

“I think that we’re gonna have to let this thing hurt, and we’re gonna have to learn from these corrections that these coaches will make on Monday and we better put a great game plan together for UAB. Because it’s not like they’re not the defendant conference champs…

We’ve got to make sure we have a complete understanding of what we’re doing, give our kids the best chance, and then we have to go execute. So we got to find out what we can execute at a high enough level to beat a team in Conference USA. And that’s what we need to do on offense and defense right now, whatever we’re good enough at. If we need to simplify, we need to simplify. If we need to do more, then we need to do more, we need to get more scheme. But again, it’s really heartbreaking to me for our players because I do think they’re playing really hard, they’re just not always playing well.”

On what needs to improve on offense

“I mean, look at those numbers. Gosh, we threw for 36 yards. We’ve got to make sure that we’re catching the ball when we throw it. We’ve got to throw it to the right place. We’ve got to throw it to the open guy. There’s not going to be a lot of magic here, but we also got to protect better. That’s where it’s always going to start for us. If we can protect the passer, we believe in our guys to take a drop and find the guy that’s open. But as I said we had a couple big drops that are disappointing, but we’ve got a long way to go in the throw game that we’ve got to improve on.”

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“It was a grimy game, and we got it done”: Rice Football wins ugly

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Rice football found a way to win ugly, downing Southern Miss for their first 1-0 conference start under Mike Bloomgren.

After losing three of their last four games, Rice football was well aware of what could possibly go wrong in a college football game. The Owls had experienced their fair share of negative plays over the past month, including in their prior win against Texas Southern.

If there were looking for a perfect game on Saturday against Southern Miss, they didn’t get it. But they did win.  “It was a grimy game,” super senior defensive tackle Elijah Garcia said with a smile, “And we got it done. That’s something I’m really proud of this defense for.”

It wasn’t that long ago Garcia took the postgame podium and used words like “hurt” and embarrassing”. In fact, only two short weeks later, he praised a defensive unit that gave up 378 total yards to a team relying on what was essentially their third-string quarterback, a team that committed error after error on special teams.

The positive sentiment wasn’t rooted in the individual lines on the final box score. No, Garcia was referencing the scoreboard.

“I feel good man,” he said. “We fought to the end.”

Ultimately, that’s what made the biggest difference. Garcia called it “grimy”. At sometimes it was downright bad. But this time, Rice was able to win ugly. That’s not something this team has done in recent memory. Bad games have typically doomed them to bad results. This time was different. “Guys didn’t cry,” safety Kirk Lockhart said of the team’s mistakes. “They didn’t drop their heads.”

More: Rice football outlasts Southern Miss for first conference win

No, rather than drop their heads they raised their level of play. The defense forced two interceptions in the fourth quarter. They sacked quarterback Jake Lange twice. Running back Frank Gore Jr. was held in check, telling six total yards in the final frame. “We actually came out and finished,” Lockhart reiterated.

That in itself implies Rice has reached a certain level of maturity as a team they might not have fully embraced in prior seasons. Everything doesn’t have to go right for this team to win. They’d prefer it did, but they can cobble together enough good to get things done in a pinch. That in itself is a positive the Owls will certainly be hanging onto moving forward.

Equally jovial in his postgame remarks was Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren. A winner of six of his last nine conference games, Bloomgren couldn’t suppress his smiles when he looked back at what was the first 1-0 start in Conference USA play in his Rice tenure.

“I don’t really give a dang how we win. Every win is beautiful to me,” he said with a grin. “We’re going to work on [the mistakes] whether we win or lose, and I promise you it’s a lot more fun to work on it when you win. The fun is in the winning.”

Rice hits the bye week on a two-game winning streak. There’s optimism the Owls could get several key players back following the bye, reloading for what they hope is a run toward their first bowl berth since 2014. Bloomgren himself called his special team’s unit “a work in progress”. There’s work to be done. But like Bloomgren said, the work will be just a bit more fun.

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

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Rice football kicks off conference play this weekend against Southern Miss. 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 Southern Miss. 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.

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Rice football found some answers at quarterback this past week and looks to be getting a bit healthier as conference play rolls around. One of those newly healthy players is back at the top of the depth chart this week. We’ll tackle that addition as well as a few developments from practice early this week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I feel like we took some real steps forward as an offense. I think that’s a big thing for us to do. 620 yards, making explosive plays, being able to be efficient at the quarterback position — those are things that we’ve struggled to do over time. It’s really good to go into conference play knowing we’re on an upswing. That gives me a lot of comfort.

Knowing that our defense — we’ve been missing a couple of pieces in the past couple of weeks, but we should get some of those back — that’s really encouraging to me too. Special teams: we’re just continuing to grow. So what do I know? I know that we’re a team that is playing really hard for each other and at times playing really well, but we’ve got to become a consistent bunch for 60 minutes.” – Mike Bloomgren on what he learned about the team in nonconference play

“Defensively, we made a lot of adjustments during the game. I felt like they made a lot of plays. We were really close on a lot of things but kind of a step behind on getting those things done. I don’t think it’s anything we can’t get fixed this week and that’s what we’re working towards. Coach (Brian) Smith is really doing a great job with the defense, getting everyone on the same page. We’re going to try to get out there and look like our defense for 60 minutes. That’s the goal this week.” – Mike Bloomgren on the defense

“Great education and running the football. It’s pretty simple. I went to Colgate Unversity which was about greater education and running the football, so finding something that had they same type of patterrn and being able to get a great degree from it, that was pretty much a no-brainer. ” – Jovaun Woolford on what drew him to Rice

“It’s definitely a lot of fun, actually, just switching around positions on the d-line. Playing end, playing rush, playing tackle, playing nose — I’ve really played all four [positions] this season, I feel like. All the other guys on the d-line are what Coach Calhoun calls ‘bilingual’. It just makes us a lot more adaptable for to whenever sudden change situations come up in a game and makes us a better team in general.” – Ikenna Enechukwu on the versatility of the defensive line

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart shifted in response to last week’s performance and a key injury along the offensive line. Hopefully, there will be some more stability from this point onward. Bloomgren hinted he’d like to get to that point in his comments this week. “There’s no more experimenting going on right now,” he said. “We’ve got a group that we trust and we’re going to go forward with those guys.”

Secondary shifts after TSU’s passing outburst

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

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Rice football caps off its nonconference schedule against Texas Southern. 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 Southern. 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.

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To some degree, Rice football finds itself in the twilight zone. Conversation this week focused on the quarterback situation and the adjustments needed for this team to bounce back and find the win column once again. There were a handful of significant adjustments to the depth chart and some developments from practice early this week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I think we learned more about individual players. We learned who would be able to step up in those situations and no matter who the opponent, be able to get their job done and do their one-eleventh. I think that’s great information that our coaching staff needed. Sometimes people can do in practice and can’t do it on game day, and we learn that about some guys unfortunately too. Because it’s a meritocracy, we’ll have to make some tough changes, and changes that nobody wants to make, but I love these kids. We told them in their living room, that’s one thing they could count on. – Mike Bloomgren on what the team has learned so far in nonconference play

“I was impressed with the way Jake was able to come in and really manage everything and get everything orchestrated and make plays go and find the open guy and deliver the ball. I was also impressed with Coach Tui and how they communicated on the sideline and how they got him into some calls he was comfortable with. There was some good there and some lessons learned, to say the least.” – Mike Bloomgren on the play of Jake Constantine

“My composure in the pocket, I’d say is really good. I’d like to say I stand my ground real strong and keep my eyes downfield. I definitely think I can improve in some things like getting rid of the ball on time, last game just coming in there a little rusty, I definitely think there’s some fixing that I could do with my own play, but I’m just excited to get after it this week.” – Jake Constantine on his strengths as a quarterback

“I do think the defense is a lot better. The reason I believe that is because I know the work we put in. I know what we did last year. We’re only missing one piece from that team last year. We were ranked in the top 20. And I believe that all of our players understand that we haven’t played to our standard yet. We play up to our standard in the first three quarters against Arkansas, but since then, defensively, we haven’t plated to our standard. We need to get back to playing how we know we can because that’s a big thing about Coach Blooms philosophy: run the ball, control the clock and play great defense. If we can’t play great defense, we can’t do the other two.” – Kenneth Orji on whether the defense is better than the numbers reflect

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart was updated following the Texas game and for perhaps the first time this season, the primary changes involved some performance-based role changes in addition to the more customary injury adjustments.

Injuries shake up depth chart

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Rice football: Owls must put Bayou Bucket loss behind them, quickly

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Nothing went right for Rice football in a frustrating loss to Houston in the Bayou Bucket. Where do the Owls go from here?

“We can’t go out there and do what we just did,” Rice football defensive tackle Elijah Garcia said, point-blank following a particularly discouraging loss to crosstown rival, Houston. “It hurt. It was embarrassing. We just got to do better.”

From a defensive perspective, it seems plausible that better days are indeed ahead. Rice allowed 18.8 points per game last year in a schedule limited to five conference opponents. Through two games in 2021, Rice has allowed 41 points per game with largely the same personnel, with a few parts and pieces swapped out via injury or transfer. Surely, the defense will revert closer to that standard once the schedule eases up.

But the offense, that’s a tougher sell. To borrow a word from Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren in the aftermath of Saturday’s loss, this team looked a lot like its head coach felt: “shellshocked”.

That’s how Bloomgren opened his brief comments with the media following the loss. And that’s how this team looked in the first quarter of a game that — on paper — was more favorable to the Owls’ chances of winning than their previous contest. Except Rice managed to hang with their Week 1 SEC opponent, Arkansas, well into the fourth quarter. The Houston game felt like it might be out of reach in the first 15 minutes of regulation.

More: Takeaways from disappointing Rice football loss to Houston

Rice football has now played 86 minutes and 16 seconds of game time since Wiley Green hit August Pitre on a wide-open 44-yard bomb to open the third quarter against Arkansas. They have seven total points to show for it. Rice averaged 23.4 points per game last season. They’re down to 14 points per game in 2021, a small sample, but still a noticeable reduction.

“I thought we would be able to fight them tooth and nail,” Bloomgren said in disbelief. “That’s not the way it went.”

The Owls have seven days to pick up the pieces and ready themselves for a road trip to Austin where they’ll face Texas, a team they’ve beaten once since 1965. They last topped the Longhorns in 1994, before every member of the current Rice roster was alive.

A rough start was always possible, given how strenuous the schedule seemed to be. Two games in, those worries have turned into reality. Rice won’t play Arkansas, Houston and Texas every week, but they’ll have to deal with the repercussions of a brutal opening stretch. There’s no better time than the present.

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