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Rice Athletics: Top 10 Moments from 2024

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2024 was filled with highs and lows for Rice Athletics. The Roost picked out 10 moments that stood out the most along the way.

10. Rice basketball defeats Memphis

It was a season of mixed results, but the high points were worth savoring for Rice basketball this year. Head coach Scott Pera’s team earned perhaps their most memorable win of his tenure on January 31, upsetting Memphis on the road.

9. Rice Football defeats Navy under interim coach Pete Alamar

Days removed from the dismissal of head coach Mike Bloomgren and following the second-longest rain delay in college football history, Rice football stunned the AAC by knocking off Navy, which had previously been undefeated in league play.

8. Soccer posts dominant home season

Rice soccer bounced back from a down season in 2023 in tremendous fashion, nearly completely an undefeated season at home before falling on Senior Day 1-0 to Charlotte. Nevertheless, a dominant 10-1-1 record at home was impressive after the squad went winless at Holloway Field the year prior.

7. Lots of new beginnings

This year, Rice introduced new coaches (Rob Lanier – basketball, Scott Abell – football) and new sports. The women’s diving team returned for the first time since 1991 and the Owls announced the coming addition of the women’s golf team which will debut in 2026.

6. Parker Smith drafted by hometown Houston Astros

A Houston native and multi-year Friday night ace for Rice Baseball, Parker Smith was a fourth round selection of the Houston Astros in July, the highest an Owl has been drafted since Trei Cruz went in the third round in 2020.

5. A two-fer of Tennis successes

Divna Ratkovic won the AAC women’s individual championship right at home, clinching the victory on campus at the George R. Brown Tennis Center. The men’s team didn’t take home the AAC crown, but they did clinch their first trip since 2017 to the NCAA Championship as a team.

4. Genny Volpe posts 400th career win

If it feels like Volpe has been leading Rice Volleyball to successful seasons year after year for quite some time, that’s because she has. Volpe earned career win number 400 this season when the team beat Tulane in their AAC opener. All 400 of those wins have come at Rice.

3. Two podiums for Women’s Track and Field at NCAA Championships

Tara Simpson-Sullivan took home second and Mckyla Van der Westhuizen placed third in their respective events, hammer throw and javelin, at the 2024 NCAA D1 Outdoor Championships. Simpson-Sullivan broke her own school record and AAC record in the process while Van der Westhuizen delivered a personal best to reach the podium.

2. Luke McCaffrey drafted 100th overall

With the final pick of the third round, the Washington Commanders selected Rice football wide receiver Luke McCaffrey. McCaffrey became first Rice player drafted since Christian Covington in 2015 and the highest Owl drafted since Phillip Gains went in the third round to the Chiefs in 2014.

1. Rice women’s basketball wins AAC, makes NCAA Tournament

Following a tough stretch in February, 10-Seed Rice Women’s Basketball caught fire in March, running through the AAC Tournament on their way to the programs first ever AAC Tournament Championship. That earned them a trip to the NCAA Tournament, where they gave 3-Seed LSU all they could handle before falling on the road.

Honorable Mentions…

How about you? Which of these moments from Rice Athletics did you enjoy the most? Cutting this down to 10 was challenging. Which Rice Athletics events should be added to the list?

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Rice Football 2024: UAB presser quotes and depth chart

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Next up for Rice football: UAB. Here’s what interim head coach Pete Alamar had to say about the matchup and a few depth chart notes.

Interim head coach Pete Alamar and a set of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the bye week and then looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with UAB.

More: Rice Football Head Coaching Search — Names to Know ($)

We touch on those items, then dig into the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like heading into the weekend. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

A team who’s record does not reflect the type of football team they are. First of all, it’s always tough to win on the road but now you’re going there on their senior day… I know they’re a well-coached team. Coach Dilfer and his staff are going to have great gameplans up. You can see it on film, just looking at all three phases. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on UAB

I’ve had the chance to get to know Coach Dilfer a long time ago back on the West Coast. He’s a former Fresno State Bulldog that went into the league and then started really what became the Elite 11 stuff and all that. Trent is obviously a very good quarterback coach. He’s coached a lot of good young quarterbacks. He’s a guy that [was] an NFL player, was a pro-bowler of his own so you’ve got the opportunity to learn from that knowledge. I think any quarterback would appreciate that opportunity and I think you see that. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on the UAB coach Trent Dilfer

You just watch how he’s grown just through reps and time on defense. You could see it coming last year. You knew there was going to be some good things down the road for him. You’ve got a young man that works hard, that prepares, takes the time. Coach [Jon] Kay has done a great job with him as his linebacker coach, just teaching him of playing the fine points of playing linebacker in our system. He shows up in the blitz game for us. I think active would be a great word to describe Ty, as far as seeing how he plays. He’s all over the place. He runs hard. He plays hard all the time. Those are good hallmarks for young linebackers. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on the growth of linebacker Ty Morris

He has a great arm. He has the ability to do extend plays. We just have to play top down on the back end, make him throw the ball. They have a pretty good group of skilled, explosive guys. If we’ll be able to stop the run, that’ll be a good thing for us. – Linebacker Ty Morris on the UAB offense

They’re a super athletic group. They love to fly around. They’re going to present a unique challenge as very new defense does and we’re going to have to rise to a level to beat that. – Tight End Graham Walker on the UAB defense

Depth Chart

Depth Chart Notes

Alamar was asked directly during his Tuesday media availability to comment on injuries and sidestepped the question, almost entirely. “We keep our injury stuff kind of to ourselves, for the most part,” he said. Offering this general, optimistic summary: “We’re in a fairly healthy mode.”

That attitude is reflected in the depth charts we’ve seen since Alamar took over. There have been no changes over the past three weeks. The only difference between this week’s depth chart and the Memphis depth chart is the removal of fullback Geron Hargon who is out for the year.

If you haven’t yet, this is a good reminder to subscribe on Patreon to get access to our practice notes later in the week, coaching search nuggets and an actual report of any players who might be in danger of missing the game this week based on participation this week.

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Rice Football overcomes 5-hour delay to knock off Navy

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Rice football persevered through a five-hour delay and a water-logged field to knock off Navy in the Owls’ first game under interim head coach Pete Alamar.

The rain eventually let up, but Rice football never did. Despite the adversity of an in-season firing and a game against a Navy team previously unbeaten in conference play, the Owls took the Midshipmen to deep water and drowned them in the Houston storms. The win was the first for Rice over Navy since 2002 and the first-ever career win for interim head coach Pete Alamar. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Hours, not minutes

When he met with the media on Tuesday for the very first time as interim head coach, Pete Alamar made a vow to all assembled. “A Pete Alamar led football team is going to fight their butt off for 60 minutes or however long it takes,” he said. Little did anyone know much more than 60 minutes would be required for the Owls’ interim head coach to make good on that declaration.

Rice football was scheduled to host Navy, undefeated in conference play, at 3:00 PM CST on Saturday afternoon. That start time came and went as roving thunderstorms took turns abusing South Main. The ball was finally kicked at 5:30 pm but the Owls were only permitted one drive, which ended in a punt, before the weather forced both teams to their locker rooms for another hour.

When play resumed — three and a half hours after the original kick time — Tyson Flowers intercepted Navy quarterback Blake Horvath’s first attempt. Rice ran three plays and got the ball inside the five-yard line before lightning again forced an extended delay.

In total, the delays would last five hours and six minutes, approximately 20 minutes shy of the longest recorded weather delay in college football history. The stadium clock read 8:39 pm when the ball was snapped and Dean Connors sprinted off tackle for the opening touchdown. Rice took the lead on that play and never let up.

Hours upon hours of frustration and angst following the dismissal of head coach Mike Bloomgen earlier in the week boiled over in an outburst that would not be quelled. Led by an interim head coach, the Owls posted their most impressive win of the season.

Offensive explosion

That outburst would not have been possible without precision execution from the Owls’ offense once the game truly began in earnest. Rice built on Connors’ touchdown run with a hook-and-ladder conversion on third and long to set up a pin-point touchdown toss from EJ Warner to Matt Sykes between double-coverage.

Tim Horn tacked on a 47-yard field goal on the Owls’ following possession. Just like that, the double-digit home underdogs had a three-score lead over one of the league’s three remaining unbeaten teams.

The offense was held in check for the next four drives. Navy was more disciplined on defense during that time, but they were also aided by an incredulous interception by Warner, who threw into double coverage in the endzone on a first down play in which his receiver was beaten off the line and never had a chance to play on the ball.

After trading punts to start the second half, the offense returned to form, grinding out an 11-play, 80-yard drive punctuated by another touchdown run from Connors to put Rice in front 24-7. Buoyed by an impressive defensive showing, that proved to be more than enough to get the job done.

Defensive dominance

Navy came into the contest averaging 46.5 points per game in conference play, the best mark in the AAC. The Midshipmen run a triple-option scheme similar, albeit not quite the same, as the offense Army runs. The Black Knights dropped 37 points on the Owls a few weeks ago and didn’t seem to break a sweat. Holding Navy to a respectable output would have been a reasonable measure of success, but the Rice football had loftier goals in mind.

Rice held Navy to 112 yards of total offense in the first half, allowing exactly one drive in the Midshipmen’s first seven to extend beyond 15 yards. Owls were flying to the ball and making tackles, keeping deep shots out of the hands of receivers and, in at least two cases, taking the ball away themselves.

The defense stonewalled Navy on fourth and short in the redzone midway through the third quarter. They held the Middies to a field goal on an 18-play, 8-minute drive in the fourth quarter, utilizing sure-tackling and the clock to stifle the triple-option attack. Two fumbles, both of which Navy recovered, slowed that march, draining the clock and further.

Nothing was easy for the Navy offense on Saturday. The option attack, which had fooled so many teams, was rendered almost entirely ineffective against the Owls who were as assignment-sound of defense as they’ve been in any game this season. Navy had one run of 20+ yards, who made the right defense read time and time again.

A Navy offense that led the conference at 7.8 yards per play against conference foes was kneecapped on Saturday night and limited to just 4.3 per play. Horvath, who had been sacked three times in seven games, was sacked twice by Rice alone. The defense never flinched.

Just enough special teams

Not to be outdone, special teams did their part as well. Tyson Thompson routinely set the offense up with superb field position, averaging 17 yards per return on punts including a long of 30 yards. He put one on the deck but was able to recover. After taking over the job from Sean Fresch midseason, Thompson has found his niche and made several important contributions to this game.

Horn’s 47-yard field goal was the longest by an Owl this season and while Alex Bacchetta’s 50-yard boot wasn’t a season-long for the Owls’ punt team it rolled to a stop on the one-foot line, marking another superb field position win in a game in which every yard came at a premium.

It wasn’t a perfect day on the special teams front. Horn missed a 45-yard kick that would have made it a three-score game with 4:25 on the clock, but by that time the writing was on the wall. Everyone had done just enough and Rice football was going to win.

Predictably unpredictable

In many ways, Saturday’s stunner will become a fitting footnote on the 2024 Rice football season, which has not gone according to plan in any respect since the year began with a home upset to Sam Houston. The Owls weren’t expected to go 2-6, nor was snapping a decade-long losing streak to UTSA in the cards. Beating Navy with an interim head coach on the helm as double-digit underdogs? That wasn’t in the realm of possibility either.

But in the same way that none of this year has made sense, the unexpected continues to find Rice football.

Against Navy, that pendulum swung back in favor of the blue and gray as hard as it possibly could. Rice got a marquee win and the players in a locker room that has absorbed so much sadness in recent weeks had the chance to celebrate and exhale. Finally, after everyone had counted them out and the season had been written off as a failure, relief had come in the form a Homecoming win that so many on this team will remember for a lifetime.

Digging deeper

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Rice Football 2024: Navy Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football has an interim head coach, quarterback uncertainty and an injured captain. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

Mike Bloomgren is out. Pete Alamar is in. And Rice football marches on. Navy is next up on the docket, no small task for any permutation of the Owls’ program. This update will touch on a few logistical adaptions to the weekly practice schedule now that Alamar is calling the hots as well as the latest on the injury front, which continues to have lasting ramifications for the program as the season progresses. Here’s where the team stands prior to the Navy game this weekend.

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On the (interim) head coach

Make sure you check out this feature released earlier in the week on Alamar and what the program is going to look like for the next few weeks under his direction. That’s going to impact the day-to-day operations around South Main to some extent, but there’s no sense in reiterating the same information twice. Things have gone more or less according to plan, in those respects.

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What will Rice Football look like under Pete Alamar: October 2024 Q&A

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Pete Alamar has been named the interim coach for the remainder of the 2024 Rice Football season. What will the program look like now? We look at both in this month’s subscriber Q&A.

There are still four games remaining in the 2024 Rice football season. The decision to move on from Mike Bloomgren midseason — the first time such a move has happened in season in program history — has shifted a lot of responsibilities around South Main. What will the program look like under the direction of interim head coach Pete Alamar? We tackle that question, ranging from the specific adjustments to the more philosophical ramifications.

Questions were edited briefly for clarity. Want to get your questions answered? Subscribe on Patreon for our monthly mailbag.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

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Q: Just how does Alamar run things in the interim…delegate to the coordinators?

Q: Will we notice anything different with Alamar? Is he changing personnel or implementing anything interesting schematically?

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