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Rice Football 2025: Houston presser quotes and depth chart

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Next up for Rice football, the home opener against Houston. Here’s what head coach Scott Abell had to say about the matchup and a few depth chart notes.

Head coach Scott Abell and a set of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the Louisiana game and looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with Houston.

The Roost Podcast: Rice Football vs Houston Recap

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

I loved our poise and composure as we opened the game. I think it’s really difficult for what we do offensively, going into week one, because the opponent has four or five weeks to prepare for our option schemes. That’s very advantageous for your opponents in our style offense. And so to have the composure and to execute at the high level we did to start the game in that first half, I’m incredibly proud of, and I thought our guys did a great job. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on what the team did well against Louisiana in Week 1

We missed some really, really good opportunities for some explosive plays, and we just missed them. A block here or there, a decision here or there and that’s an area that we really want to grow in. We loved that we controlled the clock. I thought it set the tempo of the game… But at the end of the day, the opportunity to score points is real and we didn’t take advantage of all those opportunities in week one. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on what his team can improve moving forward

I’ll leave that up to the powers of the two campuses, to be honest. My job is to get our football program ready each week, no matter who we’re playing. I’m going to focus on that. I will be grateful that I’m part of this rivalry and I have this opportunity this year. We’ll see what the future holds for both programs. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on the future of the Bayou Bucket Rivalry

If you know Coach Fritz, you know the defensive-minded coach that he is and his defenses are always very athletic. They use a variety of schemes to disguise stuff and they fly to the football and that’s the first thing that jumps off to me. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on what stands out about Houston

I played against Connor Weigman in high school actually. He has a strong one. He can extend plays with his legs, make good reads, poised in the pocket. So it’s gonna be a fun matchup to go against.– Linebacker Ty Morris on Houston quarterback Connor Weigman

It’s big, starting off the season with a win. The first game means a lot, as far as momentum and how things are going. Especially with Coach Abell coming in. His first game, it definitely means a lot. We want to keep the win train going. – Running back Daelen Alexander on the importance of starting 1-0

Depth Chart

Rice football released a late version of a depth chart in the days prior to the Louisiana game, but it did not feature some of the changes we’d seen up front, primarily on the offensive line. This week’s depth chart seems unchanged in that specific area. The more representative expectation for the starting line remains Sean Sullivan and Luke Miller at tackle with John Long and Patrick Valent at guard.

As for wide receiver, this is the first time that room has been split out with X and Z position. The reality is Aaron Turner, Drayden Dickmann, Landon Ransom and Tyson Thompson are the names to know there with Artis Cole the backup for Braylen Walker on the outside.

The defense looks more representative with what we saw on Saturday with Jack Kane earning a starting spot and shifting Marcus Williams over. Both were on the field against Louisiana and will remain fixtures on this unit, but it’s hard to keep Kane off the field right now with his penchant for big plays.

Stay tuned to practice notes later in the week for more commentary on how these deployments and rotations will be carried out on Saturday against Houston. As a quick reminder, you can get access to practice reports, analysis and special features during the week when you subscribe to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon today.

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

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Rice Football 2025: Louisiana presser quotes and depth chart

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Next up for Rice football, the season opener against Louisiana. Here’s what head coach Scott Abell had to say about the matchup and a few depth chart notes.

Head coach Scott Abell and a set of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the end of fall camp and then looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with Louisiana.

The Roost Podcast: Previewing the Rice Football defense this season

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

Press Conference Quotes

Let’s be clear, Louisiana is a 10-win team from last year opening up a brand new stadium. My guess is expectations, what they’re feeling, is probably a little bit more anxious that what we’re feeling. We’re excited to play football. We’re excited to now put everything we’ve installed to work and see what it looks like at a very hostile environment on the road. I think all the pressure’s on them. I think for our guys, let’s put his shoes on, let’s lace them up, let’s tie time, and let’s go have some fun. Let’s get after and compete. That’s what I want to see. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on pressure in Week 1

I’m incredibly comfortable going into each week not really sure what we’re gonna see. When you’re a little unique offensively, game plans are unique against you. That is nothing new to me… How someone defends the previous week’s offense, it’s not going to look like how they defend us, so to me, these adjustments will be the same as I look at each and every week. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on what he’s expecting from the Louisiana defense

He’s incredibly multiple. He’s a guy that can get on the edge. He can be involved in the passing game and he can be a downhill guy. And man, that’s a really nice thing for any offense. He brings a lot of tools to that unit, now how do we utilize all those tools to make everything around him execute on a high level. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on running back Quinton Jackson

His ability to really utilize his legs and his arm to hurt defenses made a big impression on us. His ability to escape, to really make something out of nothing, I think is important in every offense and ours is no different. And the fact that he’s comfortable in this system. He played a similar system coming out of high school. – Rice Football head coach Scott Abell on Chase Jenkins winning the quarterback job

Chase is like a brother to me… I think he’s grown as a leader. He’s having fun. He has joy on his face. I’m just happy for him. People [will] get to see what I see every day in practice, his speed, his excitement for the game of football, his excitement to run his offense. I’m just happy for Chase. Glad he’s leading us and I’m willing to do anything for my quarterback, for sure. – Running back Quinton Jackson on playing with quarterback Chase Jenkins

It’s all about focusing, keeping our poise this week. I feel that’s the main thing that we’re gonna focus on this week, worrying about what we’ve got going on, not worrying about the outside noise, what other people think, because that’s just a distraction. At the end of the day, what you put on tape is your resume, so we’re just gonna focus on what we’re gonna put on tape this week. – Linebacker Andrew Awe on the team’s focus this week

Depth Chart

There was no depth chart provided in the Rice football pregame notes this week. Louisiana had previously declined to provide a depth chart of their own, likely leading the Owls to forgo issuing their first official depth chart of the season in response.

The Roost Podcast: Previewing the Rice Football offense this season

Stay tuned to practice notes later in the week for an unofficial best estimate of the current two-deep. As a quick reminder, you can get access to practice reports, analysis and special features during the week when you subscribe to our Starting Lineup Tier on Patreon today.

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Rice Football 2024: USF presser quotes and depth chart

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Next up for Rice football: South Florida. 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 UAB game and then looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with South Florida. Additionally, it was announced that defensive coordinator Brian Smith was named a finalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation’s top assistant.

More: Rice Football to name Scott Abell 20th head coach

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

This week’s Senior Day. Not only is the last home game, but it’s out last game. There’s going to be a large group of seniors who are going to play the last football that they’ll ever play in their life… This game is a great game but at some point the game tells you its time to put your helmet up and you don’t get the chance to do it again. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on Senior Day

The last five weeks have been freaking awesome. I mean, it was a tough situation, you come in and replace a very good friend, but the opportunity to lead the guys that are in this program, to have a staff that has worked as hard as our staff, has been really cool. When you do something for 40 years, you build a lot of memories, but the last five weeks of memories will far outshine so many other ones. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on his experience as interim head coach

Obviously there’s a lot surrounding, but here’s the thing. You gotta look at where we’re at. We’re the 2024 Rice Owls. Anything that’s going around right now has to do with the 2025 and beyond Rice Owls. We need to compartmentalize that and remember that it’s our family. We’re going to talk about that today and how to deal with that and handle that… We’re going to quiet the noise and just go play and we’re going to enjoy every minute of it. Because you only get so many shots. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on the noise surrounding the program right now

Love the process because results come and go. You can get discouraged if you put in all the work and you might not get the result, but the process is where you find the joy and it’s where you build the memories. It’s where you build the brotherhood that you’re going to have for the rest of your life. It teaches you the necessary lessons that you have to learn like showing up every single day, working together for a cause. Enjoying the process, what goes into the winning, is going to help you in all aspects of life. – Linebacker Chike Anigbogu on his advice to future Owls

It’s not just another game. I mean, it’s the last football game you might ever play. [You have to] make sure that you leave it all out on the field, leaving nothing behind, but definitely not changing up your process. There’s a reason we’ve all gotten to this point that we’re out now and if you try and change things up that usually doesn’t go well, so just continue with what you do but realizing that this game means a lot to a lot of people.- Running back Dean Connors on Senior Day

Depth Chart

Depth Chart Notes

There were no changes to the two-deep this week. If you haven’t yet, this is a good reminder to subscribe on Patreon to get access to our notes later in the week pertaining to Saturday availability, the coaching search and more.

And in case you haven’t heard… Rice football has a new head coach! We broke the news here and reacted on the podcast here.

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

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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.

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

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Rice Football 2024: Memphis presser quotes and depth chart

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Next up for Rice football: Memphis. 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 Navy game and then looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with Memphis.

More: Game Preview: Rice Football vs Memphis

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

“It makes the next week a lot more fun I know that. It was great to celeberate as a team in the locker room afterward and to see the smiles on everyone’s faces, mine included. You want to take that momentum and you want it to propel you into the next week and go play, and play hard. I think anytime you play well there’s a sense of belief in your ability to go do it again. I think that’s obviously what you’d hope the reaction is. To be rewarded for your hard work is always a great thing. They were rewarded for their hard work. We’ll take that into this week and see if we can’t do it again.” – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on the impacy of the Navy win

“You’ve got a guy that’s been there for four years, okay… He’s the only FBS starter that’s stayed at the same school [for four years]. Everybody else, the longterm starters in FBS, have all bounced around. This guy stayed right there. The leadership, the confidence he has in running the offense, being able to keep the play alive while still focusing his eyes down field… His ability to keep the play alive and still scan the field downfield and find receivers is a great trait.” – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on Memphis quarterback Seth Henningan

“Fast. Physical. Want to play on your side of the line of scrimmage. They’ll feed off their energy up front. I think their front creates a lot of big plays for them, creates energy. And then you’ve got secondary that can run with anybody. No matter how you line them up, if they can do that then that creates a challenge for you.”– Interim head coach Pete Alamar on the Memphis defense

“I think we did well. There’s also some things left out there, too, a couple missed tackles, a couple of plays where we lacked some eye discipline. I still think we have a lot on the table. Our coaches hold us accontable every week. We know our goal is to be the best defense in the country and I think we’re making steps towards their goal but we haven’t had that perfect game yet and that’s the scariest part. I think we have so much more we can do as a defense.” – Safety Peyton Stevenson of the play of the defense 

“It doesn’t really change, who our opponent is. Our opponent is Memphis this week, so we’re focused on them and picking those guys apart however we can. I know that our coaches are going to come up with a good plan and EJ [Warner] is going to have something for us to do. Obviously we go into every game feeling confident. That’s what it’s about.” – Wide receiver Thai Bowman on the team’s approach against Memphis

Depth Chart

Rice Football

Depth Chart Notes

There were no official depth chart changes this week, which is understandable given the short week and the changes the program has gone through in recent weeks. That said, there are a few differences between the two-deep above and the lineup Rice football has trotted out in practice this week as they prepare for Memphis.

If you haven’t yet, subscribe on Patreon to get access to our practice notes later in the week as well as a behind-enemy-lines report from folks who know the Memphis program well.



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

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