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Rice Football 2024 Iron Man: Josh Pearcy

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A fixture of the Rice football defense for half a decade, Josh Pearcy defined what it meant to be the 2025 Rice Football Iron Man.

Hearing terms like “sixth-year senior” is more common than ever. Often players that reach that point of their collegiate careers have been in school for that long, but need to ramp up their production over the years. Those with such expensive bios rarely have the production that mirrors the long road trodden. Rice football defensive stalwart Josh Pearcy is that exception.

Pearcy took the field for the last time against South Florida on Senior Day, which was technically his third Senior Day since signing with the Owls in December 2018. When he checked into the game shortly thereafter he set the all-time program record for games played, 57. He shares that designation with teammate Chike Anigbogu, a longtime special teams leader and defensive contributor.

More: 2024 Rice Football Season Superlatives

The distinction that makes Pearcy’s run so impressive is how impactful he was along the way. He wasn’t accruing empty appearances, he was impacting the game every time he took the field, particularly in his four complete seasons on South Main.

Pearcy leaves Rice in the Top 10 all-time in tackles for a loss (8th) and sacks (5th), especially impressive totals when considering he played special teams during his four-game redshirt in 2019 and played in just five games in the Owls’ shortened 2020 season. Pearcy wasn’t just an average player who played in a lot of games and racked up stats. He reached those totals in essentially four years.

That would have been enough in itself, to leave Rice football with a couple marks in the record books and good memories along the way. Part of what made Pearcy special, though, was his commitment to becoming a better player.

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“I just wanted to be able to do as much as I can for this team and be coached and learned more about the entire defense,” Pearcy said this spring, explaining his next developmental goal for himself.

Initially an edge player tasked with putting his hand in the dirt and rushing the passer, Pearcy slowly worked further and further off the ball as his career progressed. By the time the 2024 season arrived, Pearcy was playing much more a hybrid outside linebacker role while still finishing tied for second on the team in sacks.

Pearcy has NFL aspirations, something that led to him expressing an interest in showcasing his versatility as a defender. “He’s been more productive,” defensive coordinator Brian Smith said of the move. “We’ve kind of moved him around and played more linebacker off the ball.”

Having a chess piece like Pearcy is a defensive coordinator’s dream. As the secondary waded through injuries and players rotated in and out, Pearcy could be positioned in so many different places on any given play giving Smith options as he worked to get the best defense on the field that he could.

The Rice football defense finished the regular season fourth in scoring and third in yardage allowed against conference opponents. The Owls don’t get there without Iron Man Josh Pearcy, a mainstay on South Main that made everyone better around him.

** Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker **
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Rice Football 2024 Offensive Player of the Year: Matt Sykes

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The last man standing in the wide receiver room this season, Matt Sykes is our 2024 Rice Football Offensive Player of the Year.

A year removed from a one-catch season, Matt Sykes was expected to enter the fall as, at best, the fourth option in the Owls’ passing game. Instead, he became the go-to guy and the somewhat surprising 2024 Rice Football Offensive Player of the Year.

The journey from a second-string receiver to the Owls’ No. 1 downfield target was almost meteoric and came almost as much by necessity as by ability. Even still, Sykes had to seize the opportunity and make the most of it, and reality that proved more and more necessary as the injuries around him began to snowball.

Between the spring and the start of fall camp, Landon Ransom suffered an injury that would keep him out for the season. Florida transfer Thai Bowman made it one practice in camp before a lower-body injury sidelined him for the better portion of two months. Even still, Sykes was far from a lock to be the starting outside “X” receiver until Rawson MacNeill went down at the end of camp.

By the time Rice football opened its 2024 season it was Sykes — who had one Rice reception to his name at that point — who had emerged as the must trustworthy receiver for new starting quarterback EJ Warner.

More: 2024 Rice Football Season Superlatives

Sykes led the team in receiving in their opening game against Sam Houston. He caught his first touchdown with the Owls the following week against Texas Southern. Then, after a quiet two-catch game against Houston, Sykes took off in earnest, hauling in six or more passes in seven of the Owls’ final nine games.

Sykes’ emergence right around the start of conference play coincided with a meaningful step forward in the team’s offensive production. It was also around this time it became clear no more reinforcements were on their way. Bowman would be the only receiver expected to make a return during the year and even his reinsertion into the lineup was far from a sure thing.

The task of reinvigorating the offense fell to the few healthy weapons left in the passing game, Sykes at the forefront among then once again when tight end Boden Groen suffered an injury that would keep him out for the remainder of the year, another dose of bad news in a receiving corps that was running out of bodies.

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The SOS was answered emphatically by Sykes who delivered a walk-off touchdown reception against UTSA, one of 52 receptions he registered against AAC opponents, the most by any pass catcher in the conference by seven grabs. He averaged 78.9 yards per game in league play, finally surpassing the century mark in his final game, a 118-yard performance against South Florida on Senior Day.

Sykes wasn’t as flashy as Luke McCaffrey and he didn’t post the absurd touchdown tallies that Bradley Rozner did a few years prior. But he was consistent, reliably answering the call and helping a wounded offensive move the ball when all other external factors seemed to be against them. He was rewarded with AAC Honorable Mention status for his efforts, underappreciating just how impactful he was for this team.

Meant to be a reserve, Sykes led Rice football in receptions, yards and receiving touchdowns. He more than doubled the production of the next most active receiver alongside him, emerging from obscurity when his teammates needed him most. Dean Connors was the engine that made this offense go, but Sykes was the conductor that kept it on the tracks.

** Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker **
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Rice Football 2024 Special Teams Player of the Year: Quinton Jackson

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One record-setting return was only part of a tremendous season for Quinton Jackson, our 2024 Rice Football Special Teams Player of the Year.

Quinton Jackson set a program record when he returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown against UConn on October 26. The return was one of the most exciting moments in a wayward season for the Owls and contributed to Jackson being the runaway winner for our 2024 Rice Football Special Teams Player of the Year.

To accurately describe Jackson’s heroics, we must first start with Pete Alamar. Alamar was the Owls’ special teams coordinator that day who would soon after be promoted to interim head coach following the dismissal of head coach Mike Bloomgren. That news came the day following Jackson’s scamper that brought the team within a score of tying the game but would not be enough to salvage the win.

A 40-year veteran in the industry, Alamar had coached a lot of football before taking charge at South Main. His brief stint as the headman of the Owls’ program was a momentary departure from the world of special teams that have been his central focus for most of his career.

During that time, Alamar had the honor of coaching some of the best of the best ever to play teams.

He coached Desean Jackson at Cal and Dennis Northcutt at Arizona. Then he went on to coach Ty Montgomery and Christian McCaffrey at Stanford. This man was well acquainted with what excellence special teams play looks like. That’s what made his endorsement of Rice return man Quinton Jackson so impactful.

More: 2024 Rice Football Season Superlatives

“What he did was phenomenally cool,” Alamar said of Jackson’s big return.

“I’ve told the team, that cat, right there,” he said during that week’s media availability, pointing toward Jackson, “is as good as any kick returner I’ve had at hitting and getting. His first 25 is what makes him special because when he hits it, he hits it.”

Jackson “hit it” that day, but that play was one of 22 kick returns Jackson had during the season. Jackson averaged 26.8 yards per return, eighth nationally among all players. His 589 total return yards ranked fourth and his 49.1 kick return yards per game ranked fifth.

When you have a 4-8 season, not many players rank in the top 10 nationally in any metric. For Rice football, Jackson was the exception, earning AAC Special Teams Player of the Week following that return, the only weekly individual honor any Owl received from the conference this season.

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Jackson carried himself humbly when given the opportunity to react to the special moment. At the same time, he knew the play didn’t come about by accident. He credited the hours and hours of work put in by his protection unit and everything and everyone surrounding him that helped set up that moment.

At the end of the day, it was Jackson that had to made to make the play.

“I feel like I’ve been confident all year. It’s just waiting for my moment to happen.”

Jackson did his best best to absorb the moment and savor the memory he had helped create. Then it was time to move forward, to think about the next game and consider what more could be done to help the team find a way to win.

“You can’t let that get into your head, though. That’s just one,” Jackson remarked. “You can’t just be a one-hit wonder.”

Jackson’s return was the first Rice football kick return touchdown since 2012. Even if Jackson’s tally stops at one, he’ll have carved his names in the program’s record books forever.

** Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker **
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Rice Football 2024 Rising Star: Ty Morris

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A breakout sophomore season solidified linebacker Ty Morris as the 2024 Rice Football Rising Star.

There might not be an official statistic for it, but Ty Morris led the Rice football in “Woah” plays on defense. The kind of plays that force onlookers to straighten up in their seats and take a closer look at the game. The kind of plays that spark questions like, “Who did it?” and “Was that Number Three?”

Yes, it probably was Number Three, Ty Morris. The Owls sophomore linebacker plays the game with what, at times, feels like a supernatural awareness of where the football is and the best path to move himself through bodies to meet it. If there was a big play to be made, it’s a good bet that Morris was the one to make it.

“You could see it coming last year. You knew that there was going to be some good things down the road for him,” Rice football interim head coach Pete Alamar said of Morris toward the tail end of this season. “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.”

The sophomore linebacker developed a knack for making plays in the opposing backfield, leading the team in sacks and finishing second to defensive end Charlie Looes in tackles for loss. And when he wasn’t taking the ballcarrier down himself, he always found a way to get into the mix, leading the team in assisted tackles.

More: 2024 Rice Football Season Superlatives

Morris credits his leap in production with a good spring, having extra time to familiarize himself with the scheme and the playbook, enabling him to think less and do more.

“It gets me to play confident,” Morris said of that added level of understanding. “It gets me to play fast and physical. I feel like that’s the way I feel this year.”

That internal confidence is translating to external production. That’s part of what has made Morris’ rise through the defensive ranks so exciting. As a freshman he had made a few plays here and there, but he wasn’t quite read to be the sort of player that stayed on the field for 50 or 60 snaps and took care of the dirty work from down to down. Now he is. And that growth hasn’t come by happenstance.

“He works hard. He practices hard,” defensive coordinator Brian Smith said of Morris. “He’s really taken off and made a jump this year.”

Morris had at least one tackle in every game and was involved in at least one play that went for a loss of yardage in nine of the Owls’ 12 games this year. That next step from flashy moments to sustained success arrived and with it came an up-and-coming player who was prepared to seize the moment.

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If Morris has anything to say about it, that trajectory won’t stop now. As veterans on the defense graduate and others opt to move on with the wave of changes surrounding the program as it swaps head coaches and offensive schemes, Morris has an opportunity to position himself at the forefront of what this team will look like in 2025 and beyond.

“He’s somebody who should lead this defense for years to come. That should be his next step, being that guy that’s able to take over and be a leader on the field,” Alamar projected. “As he grows and gets older, his voice will become louder.”

Perhaps this rising star has only just began his ascent.

** Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker **
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Rice Football 2024 Defensive Newcomer: Charlie Looes

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An Ivy League pass rusher headed South for one last ride, defensive end Charlies Looes is our 2024 Rice Football Defensive Newcomer of the Year.

Expectations were high when Ivy League-leading sackman Charlie Looes made the decision to transfer from Dartmouth to South Main for his final season of collegiate eligibility. He made the most of his time in Texas, tying for the lead among all Owls’ defensive linemen in sacks on his way to earning honors as our 2024 Rice Football Defensive Newcomer of the Year.

Looes, like many before him, was limited by Ivy League eligibility restrictions which bar graduates from playing in the league. For graduates who still want to play college ball, they must go elsewhere. That opened a door for him to become the next in a growing pipeline of Rice football players who honed their craft in the Ivies before transferring south for their final season.

More: 2024 Rice Football Season Superlatives

Returns were positive early on as Looes seamlessly fit into the scheme and learned the defense during spring practices. “They’ve been bought in since we recruited them,” defensive line coach Cedric Calhoun said about Looes and fellow transfer Michael Daley from BYU, making it clear he was happy with what he’d seen from the newcomers thus far.

But when Coleman Coco’s waiver for another season was denied during the summer, the pressure on Looes to be productive started to ramp up. Coco, another Ivy League transfer, had led the Owls in sacks the prior season and was expected to compliment Looes on the line in 2024. Now that aspiration was squarely on Looes who did not disappoint.

In his second play in a Rice football uniform, Looes burst through the line and sacked Sam Houston quarterback Hunter Watson, killing the drive which led to a quick three-and-out. Rice wouldn’t win the game, but Looes would rack up another half sack and four total tackles in his debut.

“He didn’t make you wait long to learn his name if you didn’t already know it,” then head coach Mike Bloomgren remarked. “Really proud of Charlie stepping in there and doing that.”

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As injuries and shifting personnel around him ebbed and flowed, Looes kept working and finding ways to contribute. He would go on to lead the team in tackles for a loss (nine) and was the only player to both force a fumble and recover a fumble this season, he had two of the latter. He even had a pass breakup, too.

A finalist of the Bushnell Cup in his final season at Darthmouth, an award given annually to the league’s best defensive player, Looes was a bonafide plug-and-play disruptor in the defensive trenches during his time at Rice.

Often times it’s hard for a team to know exactly what they’re getting when they sign a player out of the Transfer Portal. Getting the kind of season they got from Looes is a deal worth taking every time. If you’re only getting a guy for one year he needs to show up and show out, something Looes did with flare.

Looes would bookend his season on South Main with a sack in his first and last game, playing a meaningful role in a Senior Day win that assuredly meant so much to him and a host of Rice football veterans that played their final game in the season finale against South Florida. Like those seniors, Looes did all he could to send this team out on a high note and his efforts were rewarded.

** Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker **
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