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Rice Football: Undrafted free agent signings after 2020 NFL Draft

April 26, 2020 By Matthew Bartlett

The NFL Draft has come to a close and a new crop of Rice football pro hopefuls have signed with NFL teams as undrafted free agents.

Every college football player hopes to one day be an NFL Draft selection, but that’s not how every pro career begins. Conference USA had 10 players chosen. Alex Highsmith, an edge rusher from Charlotte was the first C-USA player taken. He came off the board in the third round.

Rice did not have any players chosen in the 2020 NFL Draft. This year’s crop of Rice football NFL hopefuls will attempt to make their marks as undrafted free agents. We’ll keep you updated as announcements come out. So far, these former Rice football players have signed with teams:

Nick Leverett, a starter for Rice on the offensive line last season after transferring from NC Central, has signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Leverett started all season for the Owls.

Myles Adams, the lone senior starter for the Rice football defense this past season, is heading to the Carolina Panthers. Adams had 42 tackles last season and one sack.

Justin Gooseberry, a one-year starter on the offensive line after transfering from Ouachita Baptist, has signed with the Atlanta Falcons.

Other notable signings

Former Auburn punter Arryn Siposs signed with the Detroit Lions. He’ll join Matt Wille and former Rice punter Jack Fox in a competition for the Lions’ punting job next season.

Rice Football recent NFL Draft history

The Owls’ streak of drafts without a selection has now stretched to five. Christian Covington, selected by the Houston Texans in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft, was the last Owl chosen.

Covington’s selection marked the end of a nice run of selections for Rice. From 2009 to 2015 Rice had eight players chosen: Jarret Dillard (2009), James Casey (2009), Cheta Ozougwu (2011), Scott Solomon (2012), Vance McDonald (2013), Luke Wilson (2013), Phillip Gaines (2014), Christian Covington (2015). McDonald was the highest selection, going No. 55 overall to the San Francisco 49ers.


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Filed Under: Football, Featured Tagged With: Myles Adams, NFL Draft, Nick Leverett, Rice Football

Rice Football 2019: Week 14 UTEP Press Conference quotes

November 26, 2019 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren discussed the Owls’ Senior Day win over North Texas and the upcoming game against UTEP in Week 14.

More: Rice Football game preview for Week 14 vs UTEP

Defensive tackle Myles Adams and wide receiver Bradley Rozner joined Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren at the podium on Tuesday. The trio discussed their second-straight win, which came last Saturday over North Texas, and previewed their upcoming season finale against UTEP.

From Mike Bloomgren

On the win over North Texas…

“Saturday’s win was a really big deal for our team. It was just huge and as we continue to build the culture around this program, it takes wins like we had on Saturday to continue to advance it. To continue to build the confidence in these coaches and this program. So, I’m really happy that we were able to do that. We talked all week about starting fast. As we always say, start fast, stay focused and finish strong. I thought for the most part, we did that in all three phases. We didn’t get the production that we wanted out of the offense in the second half. But we had a really good first half.”

On the impact a third-straight win would have on the program…

“The last thing we looked at when we challenged them in the bye week to win the last three [games] and to really get some momentum going. For the seniors to leave their mark and end with a winning streak, something that hasn’t happened here since 2014. To leave this place better than they found it for the seniors.

For the people who are coming back, it sets the tone for the offseason. It’s going to be a grind. It’s going to be a grind every day with Hans Straub. So why not go into it with a three-game winning streak and all of the optimism in the world for the 2020 season? Not to look ahead at all but the reality is that anytime you win your last game, everything feels better. You have momentum in recruiting. There’s some great graduate transfer targets that we’re after right now. Every little bit helps. So that’s what we can control. We can control going 1-0 this week by preparing like crazy.”

On injuries and the plan at quarterback this week…

“Good news from an injury standpoint — everybody who played in the last game is still available in this one. Nobody has been ruled out and JoVoni [Johnson] and Juma [Otoviano] have not been ruled out either so we could have both of them available as well. Tom Stewart will be the starting quarterback.”

On true freshman walk-on center Isaac Klarkowski…

“At the very least, he’s going to be a backup in our program. He has earned our trust. I don’t see any time where we would ever say that we don’t trust Issac. The news came at 11:30 on Friday morning that we may not have Shea Baker available. It would be a game-time decision… We were really low on options. We got to a point where we all thought that (Issac) was our best one because of how smart he is, how well he’s done in the crossover work in the scrimmages in the bye week. By the end of practice on Friday, I looked at Coach (Jerry) Mack and said that I’ll be able to sleep tonight. I know he’s going to do fine.”

From DT Myles Adams

On the team’s mindset entering their finale against UTEP…

“I’m not focusing on the fact that this is the last game, I’m just focusing on the fact that we need to not try to take the foot off the gas because what we’ve been preaching the last two weeks is going all gas, no breaks. Just because it’s the end of the season [it doesn’t mean] we need to step up our efforts at all. We’ve been putting in work this whole season. It’s just that we got two wins in the last two weeks. So I’m preaching to the young guys to just stay focused.”

From WR Bradley Rozner

On the team’s mindset entering their finale against UTEP…

“The challenge is to finish strong. Obviously we need to stay focused. We really haven’t done much. All we’ve done really is win two games, so what this game really means is [we can be] headed into the offseason with the right mindset, that we can win games, that we can have a winning streak and this program really can be successful.”


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Filed Under: Archive, Football Tagged With: Bradley Rozner, Mike Bloomgren, Myles Adams, Rice Football

Rice Football: Owls outlast North Texas on Senior Day

November 23, 2019 By Matthew Bartlett

The 2019 Rice Football senior class went out with a bang, winning their final home game at Rice Stadium over preseason C-USA favorite North Texas.

The hot start exhibited by Rice football in their win over Middle Tennessee last weekend carried over into their final home game of 2019. Before North Texas had run their fifth offensive play the Owls held a 10-0 advantage.

Rice rode that hot start to their second consecutive win, the first time they’ve won back-to-back games since 2016 (at Charlotte, vs UTEP). Here are a few immediate thoughts from the win:

1. Out execute everybody

The Rice offense has morphed a bit throughout the 2019 season. The playbook has been slimmed down and the offense has incorporated more spread concepts than it had in recent weeks. Despite the shift, the Owls have remained loyal to some of their staple in the ground game.

Rice runs the ball out of dozens of different formation. In need of one yard or less on fourth down or on the goal line, they’ve gone to this play more often than not:

First score on Senior Day goes to sixth-year man Aston Walter. #GoOwls pic.twitter.com/3meCvxZdat

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) November 23, 2019

Rice stacks the line of scrimmage and puts multiple fullbacks in the box. All 22 players on the field are within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Everyone knows what’s going to happen next — Rice runs this play all the time — it doesn’t matter. The ball is snapped, and Rice gets the first down or the touchdown. Every time.

It’s one thing to put athletes in space and let the best man win. This play is rooted entirely in the 11 guys on offense doing their jobs. If they execute they can get a yard. From my memory, nobody has stopped this play yet this season and Rice has run it at least a dozen times.

2. More opportunities = more points

Midway through the second quarter the Owls looked up at the scoreboard and saw a 20-0 score displayed in the glowing red bulbs. The lead was the largest Rice had achieved this season, amassed in a joint effort from the offense, defense and special teams.

As good as the offense was — and they were great — it was the defensive performance that kept the disparity on the scoreboard so severe. North Texas didn’t get a first down until there were less than three minutes remaining in the first half.

The Mean Green scattered incomplete passes and shortened runs across the field, barely managing a pulse on offense until it was too late. Rice picked off Mason Fine on his second possession, setting up the offense for their first touchdown of the game.

In a potential momentum-swinging moment, Charlie Booker fumbled the ball to North Texas, giving the ball to their opponents in Rice territory for the first time that game. On the very next play, Naeem Smith knocked the ball onto the turf and Rice recovered. The offense took the ball down the field and scored.

The biggest play, though, came on fourth down with 4:20 to play in the game. Mason Fine found Michael Lawrence in the endzone for what could have been the game-winning touchdown. No sooner had the receiver’s fingers touched leather did Treshawn Chamberlain lay a blow that reverberated around Rice stadium. The ball fell to the turf and Rice would go on to win the game.

3. Second half offense is quiet, again

Rice hasn’t scored in the second half of a football game since Oct. 26, a span of 28 days.  Some of that can be explained away by a scheduling quirk, the Owls’ second off weekend came two weeks ago. The rest is a bit puzzling, especially when juxtaposed against the 51 points this team scored in their first halves against Middle Tennessee and North Texas.

The good news for the Owls’ resides in the final box scores of their most recent pair of games. Rice did enough in each of those first halves to not require anything else from their offense after the break.

While it’s not a sustainable strategy and adjustments to any adjustments will need to be made, the results are as positive as Rice fans could ask for. The wins are still wins, but what the offensive looks like in the second half against UTEP will be more heavily scrutinized.

4. Senior Day shows

The 2018 and 2019 Rice football teams have been marked by their youth. Defensive tackle Myles Adams was the lone true senior honored during Senior Day festivities. Those who stood by his side were a mixed bunch.

Their journeys were all unique, but the collective showing from the Owls’ veterans was impressive in their last game at South Main.

  • Aston Walter, playing his final home game in his sixth season of college football, completed his first pass. It went for 27 yards.
  • Charlie Booker, a transfer from Harvard, scored his first Rice touchdown and led the team on the ground with 78 yards rushing.
  • Tom Stewart, also a Harvard transfer, won his first college football game played in the state of Texas.
  • Myles Adams led a front seven that limited North Texas’ starting running back Trey Siggers to 3.2 yards per carry.
  • Nahshon Ellerbe converted the clock-killing run in the final minutes, icing the game for the Owls

5. Finish strong

Rice football won two games in Year Zero under Mike Bloomgren in 2018. Although the rebuilding effort was expected to take several seasons, the lopsided win over Old Dominion to end the year combined with strong efforts on the recruiting front propelled expectations higher entering 2019.

The schedule was unforgiving and the team struggled to finish games. But even after an 0-9 start, Rice now has the opportunity to improve on their win total from last season.

If they can do it, the journey to three wins would have been a wild one — swinging from a certainty to a pipe dream — as the team rattled off a myriad of disparate results. A win their season finale against UTEP would give the Owls tangible improvement in the win column. There have been numerous encouraging moments, but wins and losses will forever be the way athletic success is measured.

Three wins, all coming in the final three games of the season, would be massive for this program, especially considering where things sat just a few weeks ago. Because of Saturday’s Senior Day win over North Texas, the Owls are just one win away. It looks like a lot can happen in one month after all.


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Filed Under: Featured, Football Tagged With: Aston Walter, Charlie Booker, game recap, Myles Adams, Rice Football, Tom Stewart

Rice Football Film Room: Texas review and Baylor preview

September 19, 2019 By Carter

Rice football has three games in the books and a lot of film to look through. This week Carter reviews Texas and previews Baylor.

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the film room. Not a lot of positives to take out of that Texas game, sadly, but I do want to highlight one play that shows some great work by the Rice football front seven on defense. Then we’ll switch things up and make this a preview column by looking at a particularly illustrative play from Baylor’s offense in their win against UTSA, so y’all can get an idea of what to expect from them on Saturday.

TEXAS: UT Ball, 2nd and 3, 8:04 3rd quarter

Setup

Texas is in an 11 personnel shotgun spread set. The back is behind Ehlinger and to his right and an H-back to that side of the line. Rice is showing a three man front, with JaVante Hubbard at a 0-tech nose and Myles Adams and Kenneth Orji as stand-up defensive ends.

Prudy Calderon is off the line to the strong side, ready to either cover the H-back or contain a backside QB run. Blaze Alldredge and Anthony Ekpe are at off-ball linebacker, and George Nyakwol has crept up in between the two and is already blitzing into the A-gap at the snap.

The Play

It looks like this is a zone read, because Ehlinger appears to be focusing on Myles Adams at the snap. Since Adams has to go around the H-back, he doesn’t crash quickly enough to tackle the back, and so Ehlinger makes the right read and hands it off. It could be that it’s a called hand-off, with the H chipping Adams long enough to keep him from making the play, but it looks more like he’s trying to get to Prudy Calderon in case Ehlinger keeps it.

Blaze Alldredge’s is the star here. He flows to the B gap, stacks and sheds the right guard, and slides into the backfield to make the tackle. But the rest of the Rice front is great on this play as well. The right tackle can’t stay engaged with Ekpe, who might have managed to stop the play for no gain had the back gotten by Alldredge.

Hubbard backs the reaching right guard two yards into the backfield, as does the 182-lb Nyakwol with UT’s 300-pound center (!!). Both are eventually overpowered, but not till after they’ve clogged up the interior gaps. Orji turns the left tackle perpendicular to the line to seal the edge, preventing the back from bouncing the play outside (which is critical—if Orji doesn’t hold the edge, the back is gone by the time Alldredge sheds his blocker). Even Adams stays in pursuit long enough to have chased down the back if Alldredge had merely plugged his gap instead. It’s a loss of one.

BAYLOR: BU Ball, 1st and 10, 9:45 1st Quarter

Rice Football

Setup

Here’s a play from early in Baylor’s win over UTSA in Week 2. I picked it to illustrate the kind of headaches an aggressive spread run scheme like Baylor’s can cause. Baylor’s in 11 personnel, with all three receivers and the back to the right and the TE to the left. UTSA is in a basic 4-man front nickel package.

The Play

The base run play here is called GT Counter, in which both the backside guard and tackle pull to clear the way for the running back. It’s a popular play these days, in particular being the staple of Oklahoma’s run game. It can be run out of a number of variations and with a variety of options built into it, so it’s a versatile play to have in your book.

Here, it starts with a basic spread option read. The backside defensive end is left unblocked, and the QB will read him, exactly like zone read. If he stays wide, the QB hands it off. If he crashes inside, the QB keeps. Here the DE does what’s called “attacking the mesh”—he sprints upfield to the mesh point, hoping the QB won’t make the read quickly enough and that he’ll be able to make the play no matter who has the ball. It’s a good way to defend these plays if you’ve got a really athletic end, but it’s risky because if the QB decides quickly you can get burned.

Here, Charlie Brewer does what every QB should in this situation (handoff as quickly as possible), and the end takes himself out of the play. From there, UTSA has clogged the middle enough to force Trestan Ebner to cut it back, but once he does there’s nobody in between him and the first down marker, and it’s a big play all the way to the red zone.

The Roost Podcast | Rice Football vs Texas review and Baylor Preview

But this isn’t just a basic option run play—it’s an RPO. Take a look at the innermost slot receiver (what the defense would mark as the No. 3 receiver). As the outer two receivers clear out and set up to block, he goes out for a screen. So actually Brewer’s read here is probably that if the end doesn’t crash inside (or attack the mesh), he pulls the ball out and throws the screen. Some teams, Oklahoma included, will run plays like this but keep the QB run option, making it a true triple option with the screen replacing the pitch.

That play pretty well encapsulates the basic idea of Baylor’s offense. They’re built around a couple of core run concepts, which they use to build out a playbook filled with option runs, play-action and RPOs.

I made the Oklahoma comparison a couple of times, and it’s similar to what they do in their run/option/RPO packages, but without the Air Raid passing roots of Lincoln Riley. It’s more wide open than the old school offense Matt Rhule ran as the head coach at Temple, but it’s still built on running the football. It’s relatively simple for the offensive players to run but deceptively difficult for defensive players to recognize and stay disciplined on the plays. Hopefully Rice football is up to the challenge.


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Filed Under: Football, Archive Tagged With: Blaze Alldredge, film room, George Nyakwol, JaVante Hubbard, Kenneth Orji, Myles Adams, Rice Football

Rice Football Film Room: Breaking down the fourth down stop vs Army

September 4, 2019 By Carter

Dig deeper beyond the box score. Carter Spires breaks down a key defensive sequence for Rice Football in their Week 1 game against Army.

Hey y’all! For those that haven’t listened to The Roost Podcast yet (and you should!), I’m Carter Spires. I’m a Rice grad (B.S. Physics, 2013, Jones) and a huge college football fan. In addition to the podcast, I’ll be popping up here at The Roost to do a weekly review piece where I highlight a couple of important plays from the previous game.

My particular interest in covering football is in strategy and tactics: schemes, formations, play calls, decision-making, and the like. I want to know why a particular play turned out the way it did, in a more complete way than “X threw the ball to Y.”

Sometimes those answers are simple, but sometimes they’re not. So my goal in this column is to dive into a few plays a week and really try to break them down in detail, so that we can really understand what happened. A smarter football fan is a better football fan, I think, so hopefully I’ll get smarter in writing these and you’ll get smarter in reading them.

Sound good? Then let’s get started.

First Quarter (11:43) | 3rd-and-1

This week we’re looking into Rice’s close, heartbreaking Week 1 loss to Army in which the Owls’ defense held Army’s flexbone option offense to a mere 231 yards rushing (4.1 YPC) and 14 points. Most of those yards and all of those points came on just two drives.

While the result of the game wasn’t what Rice fans wanted, the stellar defensive effort (against an Army team that dropped 70 on our crosstown rival Houston Cougars their last time out) was enough to give hope that these Owls will be a lot tougher to score on than in recent years.

Let’s give credit where it’s due. Here’s a closer look at the defensive performance, highlighted by a sequence on Army’s first offensive drive, in which Rice made consecutive short-yardage stops on 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1 plays to force a turnover on downs.

Rice Football, Army, gif

The setup

Army is lined up in their standard flexbone formation—QB under center, fullback (or B-back, in the flexbone terminology) a couple of yards deep, two slotbacks (or A-backs) lined up outside each tight end, and two wide receivers split wide. In this down and distance, Army’s running a play called “zone dive”—a quick-hitting run play that’s a staple of their offensive scheme.

It looks a lot like the “inside veer” option which is the first component of the “triple option” often associated with this offense. However, instead of a true option play where a defender left unblocked and then read by the QB, zone dive is a called handoff to the B-back. Zone dive is such a fast-developing play that it’s almost impossible for the defense to prevent the B-back from gaining a yard or two.

More: 5 Takeaways from the Owls’ Week 1 game against Army

Rice responds with a defensive formation called the 46 front, often called the Bear front due to its association with the dominant defense of the 1985 Chicago Bears. The Bear front involves putting five men on the line of scrimmage, with an additional linebacker just off the line to the strong side.

It was once a base defensive formation for teams like those Bears, but because of it’s almost exclusively focused on stopping the run, it’s rare in football these days. Still, most defensive coordinators keep the Bear front in the playbook for short-yardage situations and for use against these flexbone offenses.

Here, Rice has Viper Treshawn Chamberlain lined up off the line at OLB. DEs Anthony Ekpe (top/offense’s left) and Kenneth Orji (bottom/offense’s right) lined up at 7-technique DE (in the C-gap between the tackle and slotback), DTs Elijah Garcia (top) and Myles Adams (bottom) lined up at 3-tech* (outside shoulder of the guard), and NT JaVante Hubbard lined up at 0-tech (head on with the center).

The linebackers and safeties are still playing their option responsibilities to prevent Army from catching Rice off-guard, but for the linemen, their assignment is clear: defeat your block(s) and tackle the back before he can get the first down.

How it happened

At the snap, the left A-back goes in motion to show Army’s triple option look. But this isn’t an option play. Army QB Kelvin Hopkins opens up the right and no Rice players on that side of the line are left unblocked (the right A-back is on Orji, the tackle is climbing to the second level, and the RG is [trying] to block Myles Adams). So Hopkins isn’t reading anyone, which is the hallmark of a true option play; therefore, this is a called dive play to the B-back.

To the left side of the offense, Ekpe is left unblocked. The idea here is that he won’t get there in time to make the tackle until the ballcarrier is past him. The offensive tackle moves inside to cut block** Garcia, who is brought to the ground but does well to keep moving and stay involved with the play. The left guard and center combine to double-team the 264-pound Hubbard, who stands his ground against the center but (understandably) loses his balance when the 310-pound LG Jaxson Deaton plows into his side.

To the right side, the right tackle appears to quickly try to double team the 3-tech (more on him in a second) before climbing to the second level (he loses his balance and falls, but Blaze Alldredge has “scraped” outside of him by then so he likely wouldn’t have made that block anyway).

The Owls’ defense executes

Our key players here for Rice are Myles Adams and Kenneth Orji. On zone dive, the fullback is reading the block of the playside guard. If he drives his man outside, the back hits the A-gap between guard and center. If the guard drives his man straight back or inside, the back hits the B-gap between guard and tackle.

At the snap, Adams gets his outside shoulder into the guard’s inside shoulder, clogging the A-gap. The slotback tries to block Orji and does a pretty good job pushing him back, but Orji manages to maintain inside position, squeezing the gap. So by the time the back gets the ball, there’s nowhere for him to go. He takes a step, hesitates, and by then Myles Adams has fully beaten the guard’s block. Adams makes first contact, stopping the back’s momentum, and then a whole host of Rice defenders arrives to finish the play off for no gain. Now it’s 4th and 1.

First Quarter (10:04) | 4th-and-1

Rice Football, Army, gif

The setup

On this play, Hopkins does a reverse pivot once he has the snap, which makes the play look like it’s going to be “rocket toss” to the motioning A-back. It’s actually just another zone dive, this time to the left side. Nothing fancy. Again, Army is hoping that the quick-hitting action of this play will allow them to grind out a yard before Rice can manage the tackle.

Rice is lined up in the Bear front. Army blocks the same: the backside end (Orji) is unblocked. The A-back blocks the playside end (Ekpe). There’s a cut block on the backside 3-tech (Adams) and a double team on the nose (Hubbard).

This time, though, it looks like the playside guard and tackle actually manage an effective double team on the playside 3-tech (Garcia). Treshawn Chamberlain is unblocked and doesn’t bite on the motion by the backside A-back, but I think Army’s hope was that even if he didn’t he wouldn’t be there in time to make the play. And he may not have been, if not for Anthony Ekpe and Myles Adams.

How it happened

Adams, who I hope this sequence has proved will be one of Rice’s most disruptive linemen all season, is so quick off the snap that the backside tackle has no chance of cutting him—in fact he lands behind Adams’ heels. Check this frame: Adams has already crossed the line of scrimmage by the time the handoff is made. He may have managed to make the tackle himself even if no one else had managed to beat their blocks.

Rice Football, Army, Myles Adams

Ekpe, meanwhile, has driven through the attempted block of the slotback. Even though he’s falling down as he does it, he drives to the fullback’s feet and totally arrests his momentum. He can’t wrap up, but his efforts slows the fullback enough. Adams and Chamberlain arrive to make the tackle, followed by another swarm of Owls (a parliament, perhaps?), and it’s Rice ball.

This was a really crucial effort from Ekpe and Adams here. The playside linemen, playing 3-on-2 against Hubbard and Garcia, have cleared out enough space that any extra bit of momentum for the fullback might have allowed him to fall forward for the first down.

Well, that was a lot to say about just two plays! Hopefully it was all enlightening and that it got you excited all over again about the level of intensity this Rice defense brought in the opener. It’ll be a totally different challenge this Friday against Wake Forest. I’ll be back next week to run through some film from that game with y’all.

Notes

*They might be lined up in a 2-technique, head-on with the guards, but it’s hard to tell based on the angle of the camera. Either is an option in the Bear front.

**A common tactic for option offenses, in which the offensive player goes low to “cut” out the legs of a defender; not to be confused with an illegal chop block, which is when a blocker goes at the legs of a defender who is already engaged with another blocker.


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Filed Under: Archive, Football Tagged With: Anthony Ekpe, Elijah Garcia, film room, Kenneth Orji, Myles Adams, Treshawn Chamberlain

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