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Urgency, focus drivers for Owls, FIU presser notes (10/16)

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Rice football remains winless in Conference USA play and gets their next shot at a win against FIU in Week 8. Mike Bloomgren remains confident this team can make progress.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren kicked off this week’s press conference with an endorsement of this team’s effort and will to win. He said the last six weeks “have been hard on everyone in our building,” but remained resolute that “this team still cares” and is working to right the ship.

Translating that effort into results has been the challenge for this team of late. Bloomgren referenced a quote from the late Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder and Seattle Seahawks owner who passed away this week.

As long as we work together with both urgency and determination there are no limits to what we can achieve

Bloomgren cited the diligence and effort of the senior leadership and the freshman class. Both of those groups have seen success on the field. Many of the seniors were a part of the team that won the Hawaii Bowl in 2014. Many of the freshman are coming off successful high school campaigns of their own. The Owls’ current junior class has won five games at Rice. Bloomgren didn’t try to sugarcoat it: “That stinks.”

Coaching up “what’s between the ears” for that group of players is going to be key to the Owls success on the field against FIU this weekend. If that means a change of who’s playing, so be it. More individual packages and plays are going to continue to be incorporated as the coaching staff determines which guys are excelling in particular areas.

Presumably with Evan Marshman starting at quarterback, Rice will try once again for their first win in conference play. Bloomgren said he knows how important a win on Saturday would be for this program. He feels it, and so does the team, who is coming off what he called their “best practice of the year”. The question is: can they do it on Saturday? We’ll find out soon enough.

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Mike Bloomgren previews UAB, press conference notes (10/9)

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Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren addressed the media on Tuesday, highlighting the Owls upcoming game against UAB on Saturday.

Mike Bloomgren had nothing but praise for the Owls’ upcoming opponent, UAB. The Blazers are 4-1 (2-0 CUSA) and enter the game tied for first place in the CUSA West. Rice sits at 1-5 (0-2) and is still looking for their first conference win. They’ll face a tough test against the Blazers, an opponent whom both the Owls and coach Bloomgren have a lot of familiarity.

On head coach Bill Clark:

They’ve got a great football team. I think what Bill Clark has done in resurrecting that program is phenomenal… I think he’s an unbelievable football coach.

On the amount of experience UAB has on both sides of the ball:

They have 27 seniors on their two-deep right now, older bigger guys that have some good experience. They are a great challenge for our guys up front.

On the UAB schemes and plan of attack

Bill Clark knows how he wants to win games. He wants to win games with an unbelievable defense swarming to the ball and then he’s going to pound the rock. He’s not going to mess it up on offense. They’ll still try to get their explosive plays and take their shots, but he’s going to make you stop the run. He’s going to make you bow your neck and stop the run or he’s going to keep pounding it.

The [defense is] playing like their hair is on fire. They’re No. 11 in America (in team defense) right between Utah and TCU… They play the game angry and they’re having fun playing the game right now.

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Mike Bloomgren evaluates early season results, presser notes (10/2)

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Rice football coach Mike Bloomgren didn’t mince words in his presser entering Saturday’s game against UTSA. He offered honest feedback on his team’s production across the board.

The press conference kicked off on a sober note as head coach Mike Bloomgren gave a few final remarks about his team’s performance against Wake Forest. Turnovers combined with a slow start put the Owls in an early hole from which they were never able to recover. Through the challenging situation, he remained unwavering in his belief of his team.

“As we sit here in this tough time I think our unity and our culture is going to shine through,” Bloomgren declared, “What I think you have right now is a hungry football team, to get back home play another conference opponent and put a much better product on the field for four quarters this Saturday.”

Quarterback

Playing for quarters starts with the position that gets more credit when the Owls win and more blame when they lose: quarterback. Bloomgren called the play of Shawn Stankavage “a little up and down” through the first five games of the season, offering a succinct critique for his starting quarterback, “the reality is he’s got to play better for our offense to be efficient and operate the way we want it to.”

Don’t read too far between he lines on that one. There isn’t any turmoil at the quarterback position. Stankavage is the Owls’ starter, and has shown early on in the season he can progress in his understanding and command of the offense. As coach says, he just needs to keep learning and executing.

Running back

It didn’t take long for Bloomgren to acknowledge his star running back Austin Walter, currently ranked No. 1 in the nation in all-purpose yards. He gleamed with pride, mentioning that Walter is the kind of player that “makes coaches look smart.”

Offensive line

Perhaps the most bothersome unit on offense thus far, Bloomgren expressed concerns with how his front five had progressed throughout the year. “We’re having problems with plays that we’ve repped multiple times against the same look, being able to perform and execute those assignments in games,” he said. Not a problem he hoped to be dealing with at this point of the season.

The onus, in Bloomgren’s eyes, falls on the players on the field. “I’m a sideline away if someone doesn’t block the right dude,” he acknowledged, “more than anything we need that to be the mentality in the huddle during the week” adding “the technique, all the stuff in the weight room doesn’t come into play if we don’t block the right dude”

Dependability is the sticking point as this position, something which has opened up doors for other players in the past few weeks.

New faces

Although he stressed that the title “starter” wasn’t important, Bloomgren did name a few players that had elevated their play to warrant more playing time. Antonio Montero, Brendan Harmon, Cole Garcia and Gio Gentossi were all mentioned by name during the press conference.

At the end of the day “every rep you see if earned,” emphasized Bloomgren, before elaborating with “some of our more dependable players right now are some of those young guys and new guys to our program”

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Shawn Stankavage talks homecoming, Wake Forest press conference notes

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Rice football hopes to learn from their mistakes last weekend against Southern Miss as they approach their Week 5 game against Wake Forest.

The tone of Tuesday’s press conference was toughness and consistency. The Southern Miss game left a sour taste in the mouths of the coaching staff and the players, but they know this is one data point in a much larger journey

“Any time you hit one of those rough patches, whether its in life or in this game, the only way to get out of it is to work,” said head coach Mike Bloomgren. “You hear me talk about process a lot, and the team has heard me talk about process a lot more.”

That process is what’s going to take last year’s one-win team and turn it into something better. It’s going to take this 1-3 squad and make it better. Little by little. Bloomgren admitted the struggle is tough, but he also didn’t hold any illusions that things would ever have been much smoother:

“One of the things we all want to do is speed it up,” remarked Bloomgren. “That’s not reality all the time. I think when you’re trying to do great things and when you’re striving for greatness, the journey is tough. And we have to understand that.”

As far as objectives for the upcoming game, Bloomgren hit on the importance of the team controlling time of possession, limiting big plays on defense and utilizing their weapons on offense.

Zach Abercrumbia

Defensive lineman Zach Abercrumbia doubled down on Bloomgren’s intensity, describing the theme of the week as “say less and work more”. He led a players-only meeting on Sunday, evidence of the desire this team has to get better.

There is a time to focus on what the team did last weekend, but there’s also something to be said for turning over a new lear this week. Abercrumbia stressed that every game is important, and he’s getting ready for Wake Forest the same way he’d prepare for anyone else, remarking, “Every time you’re out there is the biggest game of the season. If you don’t believe that then a lot of times what happened Saturday will happen.”

Shawn Stankavage

The most interesting personal story of the week belongs to Rice quarterback Shawn Stankavage. Before he transferred to Rice from Vanderbilt, Stankavage grew up in North Carolina, surrounded by a family of UNC Tarheels He was the unique one, opting to fo west, twice, rather than stay home with his family.

That family will be out in full force supporting him this weekend. Stankavage said the thought of starting in his home state means a lot to him, “It’s going to be awesome. It’s not like any other game, it’s going to be a special one for me,” adding that it was “something I’ve always dreamed about.”

To get there, he and the Owls need to keep moving forward. “We’re not where we want to be,” echoed Stankavage.

 

 

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Southern Miss Press Conference Notes (9/18)

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Coach Mike Bloomgren discussed Rice football‘s returns from the bye week and upcoming game against Southern Miss, the Owls’ second road game of the season.

Coach Bloomgren admitted the 1-2 start has featured a mixed bag of highs and lows. “We got to continue to play four quarters of football and finish strong.” He doesn’t blame conditioning, but rather the lack of consistency for the Owls’ last two losses. “If we just do the same things we’re doing in the second and the third quarter in the fourth quarter we might find a way to win,” he suggested, adding “You can’t do the things we did late in that game against a good football team… and expect to win the game.”

With the lumps have come moments of pride. “This team is showing great fight,” praised Bloomgren, “They’re continuing to work. They’re fighting for each other and they’re doing all the things we ask of them.” Little by little the Owls are making that incremental progress, something the bye week was particularly useful for this past week.

A few individuals earned special recognition for their strong starts. Bloomgren talked encouragingly about the progress quarterback Shawn Stankavage was making this year, citing his mental acuity on the field in addition to his accurate arm. Graysen Schantz was nominated for the Campbell Trophy, given to the nation’s top scholar-athlete, an award Bloomgren admittedly holds with great esteem.

Emmanuel Esukpa, who currently ranks in the top 15 in rushing, earned a shout out from his head coach as well. Bloomgren went beyond that, saying “What he’s doing without the ball in protection might be as impressive as what he’s doing with it.” Not faint praise for one of the better backs in Conference USA, and maybe the nation.

On the injury front, the Owls should have a full complement of weapons at their disposal on Saturday. All starters are expected to be available, with Dylan James the only member of the two-deep listed as questionable.

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