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Rice Fight: Rice Football battles for big win over Louisiana

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On Saturday, Rice Football went toe-to-toe with Louisiana, outlasting the Ragin’ Cajuns and earning a signature win for head coach Mike Bloomgren and the Owls.

As Rice football quarterback TJ McMahon walked away from the podium on Saturday night following a monumental victory over Louisiana, he voiced one final exclamation, “Rice Fight!”

Over the years, I’ve been to many postgame press conferences. To the best of my memory, things have never ended that way.

To be fair, Rice football had never won a game quite like this one, snapping the nation’s longest winning streak in the process. As 12-point underdogs, Rice had won by exactly 12 points. And it probably could have been even more one-sided.

But as for McMahon’s exhortation, that was new. Part of the reason for that, unfortunately, has been the somber nature of many of those gatherings. Even in the Owls’ better games, things had gone the wrong way on the scoreboard more times than any of the blue-and-gray-clad faithful might have hoped. Postgame gatherings didn’t often end in celebration. And even the victories offered less fanfare.

Now entering Year 5 of head coach Mike Bloomgren’s tenure, there might be no more fitting words to describe what happened at Rice Stadium on Saturday night than “Rice fight”.

In his second career start, quarterback TJ McMahon tossed three interceptions, all of which came before halftime. The Owls squandered a redzone possession late in the first half and entered the break trailing by one. Then we saw Rice fight.

Rice football came out of halftime and scored the go-ahead touchdown. Then the defense, which had only given up one score to this point, blanked Louisiana in the third quarter. Leading 19-14 entering the fourth quarter, the Owls were on the verge of something special.

“We know we can stick around. We know we can play with anybody,” corner Jordan Dunbar said about an hour later following the postgame festivities. “We gotta finish.”

His words proved true. After Rice took a two-score lead at the beginning of the final quarter, Louisiana drove the length of the field and saw running back Chris Smith thunder into the endzone from 22-yards out. One defensive stop and the Ragin’ Cajuns would have the ball down by six, one touchdown away from ruining the Owls’ celebrations. The outcome of the game hung in the balance. Right fought.

McMahon and company responded with a 10-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that took 6:14 off the clock. Rice kicked the ball back to Louisiana leading by two scores with less than three minutes to play. The defense made one more stop, then it was over. Rice had fought and Rice had won.

More: Rice Football upsets Louisiana, snaps nation’s longest winning streak

“There’s been some great wins in this program since we’ve been around,” head coach Mike Bloomgren couldn’t help but reminisce afterward. “Whether it’s beating Marshall [on the road] in ‘20 or beating UAB at their place last year, the first time they’ve lost at home [since the program restarted]. We’ve done some cool things, but to do this in our third game of the 2022 season… it feels great.”

More succinctly, Bloomgren began his remarks this way: “That’s a big-time win for our program.”

It’s a big-time win for a myriad of reasons.

First, Rice has now won a game as a double-digit underdog in each of the last three seasons. Second, Rice is now 2-1 for the first time under Bloomgren and four games away from win number six and a trip to the program’s first bowl berth since 2014.

But most importantly, it’s because of the effort it took from the collective group of coaches, players, administrators and support staff to get Rice football to this place.

“I felt like we didn’t doubt we were going to win today and that’s why the locker room was really fun today,” Dunbar said. “That was my favorite win, personally.”

The Rice defense held Louisiana to 175 yards of total offense, that’s the Ragin’ Cajun’s worst offensive output since September 9, 2011 against Kent State, more than a decade ago. This was a program that had won nine or more games eight times in the last 12 seasons and been bowling 10 times over that span. They’d become accustomed to being the bully. Then Rice knocked them down a notch, or maybe wo.

“Obviously we would love to be 3-0,” Bloomgren said in his closing comments. “But for the steps this program has taken and for the quality of this win and what it means for our team. Just to be in that locker room and see them celebrate the way they did and know they earned it, and they earned it from the work they put in all week. It’s really cool. So yeah, I’ll take win number two right now.”

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Rice Football turns in mirror image showing in rebound win

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From the lowest of lows to the highest of highs, Rice football soared past McNeese State, vanquishing whate

Rice football turned the ball over four times against USC, with three interceptions coming on balls that were tipped off the hands of their own wide receivers. On Saturday against McNeese State, it was Rice doing the taking away, forcing five turnovers (one of which came via deflected pass) on their way to a rout of McNeese State.

The Rice offense did its part too with quarterback TJ McMahon accounting for five touchdowns (four by air, one on the ground) while completing 20-of-29 passes for 274 yards. That could not have looked any more different from last week’s multi-interception game in which McMahon through for just 65 yards and no scores.

Stay Tuned: Rice Football vs McNeese coming soon on The Roost Podcast

“USC was kind of like a reality check for us,” McMahon said at the postgame podium, recapping the most decisive victory in the four-plus-year tenure of Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren. While it’s true the Owls might have come down to earth, they soon took off, again.

In light of the result, McMahon was able to laugh off a false start penalty in the second quarter in the second quarter against wide receiver Luke McCaffrey. “I think he’s just faster than everyone else,” he said with a grin. The handful of deep passes that fell out of reach were met with a stern “good not great, definitely a lot of things to learn and work on.” But even that came with a smile.

No man was smiling bigger than Bloomgren, who had remarked in the aftermath last week that this still was a “very, very good football team.”

“Thank God I was right,” Bloomgren said with a chuckle when reminded of that comment.

“I knew we were a good football team. I knew we didn’t perform the way we wanted to or put our best foot forward [against USC]… And if we didn’t put our best foot forward and we didn’t protect the ball it was gonna be a long day, and it was,” Bloomgren said. “Today, kind of the opposite happened.”

Part of that opposite was thanks to perfectly executed plays by Rice defenders. Safety Gabe Taylor, who returned his takeaway 91-yards — the third-longest interception return touchdown in program history — mentioned he knew where the ball was coming and that they’d repped similar situations in practice.

When asked how he went from finding the football to finding the endzone, he just laughed. “I just don’t want to get tackled,” he said. “I’d rather hit people than get hit so I just want to catch the ball and run as fast as I can to the endzone.”

Taylor’s score was the third Rice touchdown in an eight-minute span during the second quarter, more points than Rice scored in a full 60 minutes against USC. It almost felt like a different team was on the field.

To a large degree, much of it probably comes down to execution. Bloomgren said he was most happy to see. “I saw people win their one on ones. I saw people whip the guy across from him and it doesn’t matter who you’re playing that’s what football is all about,” he remarked.

On Saturday, Rice football dominated every star, won most in-game matchups and capped it off with a lopsided result on the scoreboard. Bloomgren and Co. know this is just one step on the road to where they want to be, but it was evident they were aware of how important the win was to the program, especially considering how far the Owls had come in just one week.

“I think it was pretty good. Pretty dominant, if you will, with a lot to improve on,” Bloomgren said. “As a coach, what more can you ask for?”

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USC Onslaught a wake-up call for bruised, yet resolute Rice football

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Rice football started strong but stumbled to a lopsided finish in their season opener against USC, prompting the Owls to find a solution before next week.

“To say that things snowballed is probably an understatement.”

When Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren uttered those words following a 66-14 rout at the hands of the USC Trojans on Saturday night, the admission wasn’t surprising. Even heading into the game — Rice was a 32.5-point underdog on the road — it would have been foreseeable to envision a scenario in which a Top 15 program with a Heisman-caliber quarterback outplayed the Owls.

But nobody could have envisioned how the onslaught unfolded.

“There are four plays that really led to this game going the way that it did,” Bloomgren followed, making direct reference to the four interceptions thrown by Rice quarterbacks. Yes, quarterbacks, plural, because the Owls had their starter knocked from the game with an injury for the fifth time in their last 10 games.

If you want to talk about statistics more staggering than three pick-sixes in a single game, five injured quarterbacks in 10 games come pretty close.

There is no official diagnosis of Green’s injury nor is there an established timeline for his return. Once more, Rice football doesn’t have a lot of answers.

“This is a tough pill to swallow,” safety George Nyakwol said. “This is just a good wake-up call for us to prepare us for the rest of the season.”

Likewise somber, offensive lineman Shea Baker was already moving on to the next game. “We’ll watch the film, learn from our mistakes, not repeat the same mistakes and move on,” he said with a defiant resolve.

The offensive line undoubtedly has improvements to make in the running game as well as in pass protection. As Nyakwol would also go on to admit, the Owls’ tackling could stand to improve as well. There are lots of little tweaks to be made and things to correct before they take the field again next week against McNeese State.

But regardless of who is on the field or who is playing quarterback, three tipped pass interceptions that went in and out of the receiver’s hands, as Bloomgren himself described it — that won’t do. “You gotta be able to throw and catch,” Bloomgren said point blank. “We’re playing college football.”

Whatever happened on Saturday from the second quarter on was a miserable excuse for a college football game. It was a slaughter, brought on by correctable errors by players who have already proven they can play much better than they did against the Trojans.

To that end, Bloomgren’s final refrain seems believable, if not somewhat likely.

“I don’t see anything that’s terminal. I’m not gunna hang my head on this thing,” he declared. “I still think we are a very, very good football team and I think we showed that in spurts today but certainly not for a complete game.”

Rice football hosts McNeese State on Saturday, September 10. They will be expected to win.

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Rice Football 2022: USC press conference quotes

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Rice football opens its 2022 season on Saturday against USC. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren and players had to say about the matchup.

Rice football Head coach Mike Bloomgren and a pair of players met with the media on Tuesday for their customary weekly availability. They previewed the USC game, discussing how grateful they were to get back on the field and their expectations for the matchup.

Unlike a typical week, Rice football did not release a depth chart along with their game notes, although that should be coming shortly. We’ll touch on that when it’s released. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I think (the team) is as excited as I am. I think everybody is in a great place mentally. I think everybody is fired up and everybody is excited about the opportunity to play this game with each other… I’m pleased with the level that we’re playing at. I’m pleased with the intensity that we’re practicing at. I’m pleased with the knowledge and expertise that our players have for our systems. Again, everything is a lot of fun right now. If you ask them where they are mentally, I think they would tell you that they are in a really good place.” – Mike Bloomgren on the team’s mentality right now

“I think both lines are going to be really interesting. I think our offensive line is the best that it’s ever been. I’m not surprised by where the (defensive) line is. You see what we’ve been able to do on the offensive line and the experience factor there. Shea Baker’s about to break 2,800 snaps in this game. That’s a lot of football….. with the matchups, up front is going to be really fun to see on both sides of the football. Our defensive secondary is going to be challenged. It’s Lincoln Riley and the Air Raid. It’s all of these great receivers and Caleb Williams. So there’s going to be these challenges up the field.

One thing you can never sleep on with a Lincoln Riley offense is how well they run the counter play. You look up at the end of games and they have 200-250 yards rushing. So it’s a great challenge for our defense. Offensively, Coach Tuiasosopopo has put together an unbelievable plan with the staff. I think we’re prepared to put people in great positions. I think Wiley (Green) knows exactly where they are going to be and when they are going to be there. I think it’s going to be a fun college football game.” – Mike Bloomgren on key matchups in the game 

“Now, literally at every position — you know you have the old adage of a pair and a spare. You’ve got a couple tackles you believe in, whether its offense or defense and at least one more than can go in everywhere. We’ve got receivers that we’ve just not had in the program that I think can stretch the field vertically and make contested catches over and over. I think the depth everywhere has not only made us better on game day, I think it made us better in camp.” – Mike Bloomgren on the depth of the roster

“I think we’ve got brilliant coordinators. When you give Brian Smith and Marques Tuiasosopo more time to work on you, they’re going to find things. We’ve had a lot time to go back and look at these guys’ body of work through their coaching careers’ this summer  and wach a lot of football — a lot of Oklahoma football — and we feel like we’ve got a great plan in this one too. ” – Mike Bloomgren on game planning for season openers

“I don’t think anybody has any idea what our team looks like right now. If they haven’t been to our practices, if they haven’t been to our scrimmages, I don’t know if they realize what a healthy Wiley Green and a healthy George Nyakwol means to this football team. And then you bring up De’Braylon Carroll who missed the entire season last year. You bring up Bradley Rozner who missed all but two quarters of last season. We’re different. Plus we added some really cool, fun pieces.” – Mike Bloomgren on the view of the roster from the outside 

“Having the injury this past year, it really helps you appreciate how much this game of football is and what it brings to my life and the people around me. I was blessed with a chance to come back and continue grad school here and continue to play football. There’s not much more that you can say… It’s really special. Words can’t describe how much it means to be and how excited I am to get back out on the field.” – Rice football quarterback Wiley Green on how much he appreciates his opportunity this season

“Everyone’s beatable. It just comes down to us playing our best ball. [USC WR Jordan Addison is] going to make plays but its on us to respond and keep the ship steered the right way and finish in the fourth quarter.” – Rice football safety George Nyakwol on USC wideout Jordan Addison

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Rice Football: Conference USA’s best kept secret?

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Rice football enters the 2022 season with a revamped roster and high expectations. Are outsiders sleeping on the Owls this year?

Saturday’s Rice football media day served as another touchpoint in the ever-quickening run up to the 2022 season. Beyond the encouraging sentiments and discussions of schemes and depth charts, the gathering served as a reintroduction to a host of Rice players that wasn’t on the field in the same capacity last season.

Last September, TJ McMahon was the scout team quarterback. Now he’s vying for the starting job. Luke McCaffrey threw passes; now he’s catching them, alongside Bradley Rozner who has missed essentially the past two seasons with injuries. Safety George Nyakwol, who hasn’t played in a conference game since 2019, was there as well.

And while these are familiar faces to Rice fans, few outside of South Main have any real level of appreciation for what they could become on the field in 2022.

Nyakwol, typically a soft-spoken leader in years past, wasn’t bashful when given the opportunity to inform the world what the Owls were truly capable of becoming this season.

More: Offense shines in Rice Football fall scrimmage

“I definitely think we’re underrated.” Nyakwol declared. “And this year, I think people will notice us. When we’re in a dogfight and we come out on top, people are going to notice because the guys we’ve had before are more experienced and older, wiser, smarter, faster and stronger”

Optimism always abounds in the preseason, but Nyakwol stressed this team isn’t relying on individuals improving their own games, although that would certainly be a component of his team’s growth. No, instead Rice was finally getting all of their weapons back on the field at the same time.

“We’re pretty much just reloading,” he surmised.

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren has taken notice of Nyakwol’s increased outspokenness. “He’s become an awesome leader. He’s been more vocal than he’s ever been,” Bloomgren said. “It’s still not in his comfort zone to be rah-rah but he is coaching and leading that group back there. And it’s been awesome for me to see.”

More: Conference USA Football Preseason Preview

Bloomgren can see the growth. Nyakwol sees how talented his peers are around him. The roster on a whole is, objectively, as talented as it’s been in Bloomgren’s tenure. Rice football hasn’t accomplished what they’ve hoped to on the field just yet, but they seem to be embracing their underdog role with vigor.

When asked about the program’s perception from outsiders, McCaffrey — now a wide receiver — just grinned. “I don’t know if [being underrated is] a bad thing. Hopefully, if it’s a well-kept secret, we can shock some people.”

Nyakwol offered a more emphatic tone. “This is the year, believe me. I can see it in the eyes of our guys. I can see through the attention to detail that we’ve had and the focus that we’ve had,” he declared. “It’s good to be back.”

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