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Rice Football: Khalan Griffin shines, offense sparks in first fall scrimmage

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The first full scrimmage of the 2020 Rice Football fall camp is in the books. Khalan Griffin stole the show, but he wasn’t the only meaningful takeaway on Saturday.

It was a busy week at South Main. A few housekeeping items, first. The Rice football online roster is updated to match the newest version from fall camp. I try to be diligent with tagging players in stories and updates, so if you’re ever looking to see what I’ve written about Blaze Alldredge, Mike Collins or anyone else, head on over their and click on their name for a list of everything I’ve tagged them in. The Rice football schedule has been updated as well. If you haven’t yet, you can pick up the Season Preview here.

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If you’re on the fence about subscribing, I put some meat into these write ups. This one is a little more than 1,100 words and includes some notes on the Rice football injury situation and improvements on the offensive side of the football. Though the first week and a half of camp, those two trends have been front and center.

COVID Update

Rice has one player test positive who was unable to practice today. Contact tracing protocols left the Owls without four additional players. Of the 106 players on the roster, that’s a .09% positivity rate.

Offense looking up

Expectations for the Rice defense are much higher than the offense entering camp. Assuming health, the Owls should have one of the better defensive units in the conference. As it was last season, the defense started fall camp ahead of the offense, but I did see a few things during the scrimmage today that make me believe the offense has taken some meaningful steps.

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Rice Football: Optimism abounds as Owls embrace fall camp

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Fall camp has begun and Rice Football is attacking the new challenge with vigor. Head coach Mike Bloomgren implores his team to seize the moment.

Rice football is one week into a fall camp experience unlike any other. The most noticeable change is the weather. The Owls have traded the swelter summer heat for the first cold front of the fall with their delayed start date.

Though the journey was bumpy, Rice still prepared as if football was on the horizon. “We’ve done more walkthroughs than any team I’ve ever been a part of,” Bloomgren said. Our kids have a good understanding of our schemes.”

That much has been evident on both sides of the ball. In some years, it takes freshmen some time to get up to speed. This time around, the youngsters look much more comfortable with the ball in their hands. Rather than being buried on the depth chart, these newcomers are making waves. That’s especially encouraging given the Owls don’t have a game scheduled for another three weeks.

“We’re in a good place. We’re as conditioned as we’ve ever been coming into camp,” Bloomgren said. “[The team has] about 100 zoom hours so we just need 10,000 reps on the field and that’s what we’re going to try to do in the next month.”

Podcast: Panic Meter — Assessing the Owls fall camp injury report 

Beyond counting minutes on the grass, Rice has objectives set to quantity the leap in preparedness from camp in year two to year three. On offense, coordinator Jerry Mack wants to see an increase in explosive plays. That theme began in spring practices, but carrying it over with new faces in camp is one of his priorities.

Defensive coordinator Brian Smith put turnovers at the top of his to-do list. “Communication has been so much better than it’s been in the past,” he said, crediting the group’s in-sync behavior as a building block toward that effort.

If Rice can do both of those things, the bizarre circumstances it took to reach this point in Bloomgren’s coaching tenure will have been well spent. Looking back at the past few weeks, Bloomgren was emphatic the team was moving in the right direction, saying “we’ve done all the right things to get prepared for this moment.” How he and this team uses the next several moments leading up to October 24 will determine the trajectory for this season. So far, the Owls are on the right track.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 54 – Pro Owls updates and Rice Football injury alerts

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Rice Football is back at practice this week, but some key players haven’t suited up yet. Carter and Matthew give their panic levels for preseason injuries.

The prior edition of The Roost Podcast featured a big announcement: Rice Football was back! A few days later, there came some less than stellar news. A few key members of the roster have yet to make their preseason debuts with various bumps and bruises, subscribers can read the full update here. Should we be concerned? Carter and Matthew debate the ramifications of the injuries.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 54.

Episode 54 Notes

  • Housekeeping — If you haven’t yet, grab a copy of the 2020 Rice Football season preview and subscribe on Patreon. You’ll get practice reports, recruiting news and the latest analysis and updates on all things relating to Rice Athletics.
    Become a Patron!

    Want to take a test drive first? We’ve unlocked a few posts for a limited time so you can get a feel for what to expect as a subscriber.

  • Pro Owls Update
    • MLB: Anthony Rendon, Brock Holt and Tyler Duffey’s 2020 seasons have come to an end
    • NFL: Jack Fox is setting NFL records and crushing his debut. Austin Walter has signed with the 49ers practice squad. Plus, a few updates on the 11 Owls in the NFL.
  • Rice Football injury panic meter — Carter and Matthew provide updates on injuries to key Rice players including a few potential starters. Then they debate their level of concern should any of them miss a meaningful amount of time.

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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Rice Football 2020 Practice Report: First depth chart and injury updates

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The first depth chart of the 2020 Rice Football season has been published. There weren’t many surprises, but some of those starters weren’t at practice.

I won’t bury the lede, here’s the first depth chart for Rice Football this season. For the most part, it’s chalk. The upperclassmen and vets are in the same spots as they were last season with the freshmen and new names at the bottom of the ranks with room to move upward in the next couple of weeks.

Beyond the depth chart, this update has some important injury updates, including a key player that Rice might be without for a significant amount of time. Later in the week, I’ll have a few early camp standouts.

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Rice Football, depth chart

Depth chart takeaways

1. Special Teams

If Jordan Myers really does take over the primary punt return duties this year he’ll be one of the first tight ends to fill that role that I can remember. An OR designation at the punter spot was also somewhat of a surprise. It’s still going to be Charlie Mendes’ job to lose, but it sounds like it’s going to be a real battle between the redshirt freshmen and Stanford transfer Collin Riccitelli.

2. Quarterback

If it wasn’t evident before, this is officially a two-horse race. As mentioned in the previous update, the man out in front early is

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Rice Football 2020: First week of fall camp practice notes

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Rice football wrapped up its first padded practice of fall camp on Saturday. Here are a few early impressions of the Owls.

We made it. Thank you to all who have subscribed so far, hoping we’d get to real football. I had to pinch myself on Friday and Saturday as I watched Rice Football practice for the first time in sixth months. If you haven’t subscribed yet, check out this sneak peek for a better idea of the content you’ll have access to. I’ll also be giving away a free copy of the 2020 Rice Football Season Preview to one new subscriber this week.

Alright, now that we’ve gotten the housekeeping out of the way, fall camp is going to be just as unusual as the rollercoaster ride of an offseason which preceded it. Rice football is three practices into its preseason and it’s been different too. Community Gatorade cup distributions have been replaced with individual water coolers. Social distancing is being taken very seriously.

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Through all of those changes, there have been a few meaningful takeaways from the first few days of camp. Starting with the quarterback battle…

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Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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