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Mike Bloomgren talks about finishing strong, Old Dominion press conference notes

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Rice football had the chance to go up against an SEC foe in Week 12. The team learned a lot, but now they look ahead to Old Dominion and the last game of the 2018 season.

Mike Bloomgren on the team’s performance against LSU

They stood toe to toe with those guys and they hit, and they hit, and they hit. I thought it was a physical football game.

Bloomgren on the upcoming game against Old Dominion

It’s going to be a great challenge for us. We know it’s going to be a four quarter battle. We want it to be a four quarter battle. We’ve got to get it to deep water and give our guys a chance to win this game. If we can play like we’re capable of on O and D and let special teams be the difference for us we’re going to be happy with those results.

Bloomgren on how big a win would be this weekend

For my sanity, it would be huge. For the direction of the program, it would be a big boost in recruiting. I think winning this football game would mean a lot to this program…It’s a constant battle of doing the things you win football games, preparing the right way. We always use the word process around here.

Bloomgren on his confidence in the program

I am disappointed that our record wasn’t better for these kids. I am not wavering in our belief that we’re going to get it done. We’re going to play in bowl games and we’re going to win championships here.

Captain Zach Abercrumbia on the significance of a win over ODU

Faith is believing in things unseen. Right now we’re holding onto the faith that we’re making progress. And we are… but to get a win would finally get us something tangible to hold on to.

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Why not us? LSU press conference notes (11/13)

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Rice football faces their toughest task of the season on Saturday as they travel to Death Valley to take on the SEC’s LSU Tigers. Mike Bloomgren and the team remain confident.

There won’t be many people around the country that have a Nov. 17, 2018 matchup between Rice and LSU circled on their calendars. From a national perspective, it’s a vaunted SEC superpower against a lowly Group of 5 opponent. While that might be the trend, Rice football seeks to be the exception.

“They’re going to be more talented than us,” head coach Mike Bloomgren freely admitted in his Tuesday press conference prior to the game. “But every week in college football you see a team go into one of those places [and win].” Bloomgren said every week there’s one game that forces you to do a double-take when you check the score on your phone and gasp, “Those dudes beat them?”

Old Dominion toppled Virginia Tech, Akron beat Northwester and Eastern Washington upset Purdue. A massive upset happens every week. Why not this week? Why not Rice? Bloomgren didn’t shy away from the possibility, remarking “Nobody outside of these walls believes we can do it and we know we can.”

The key to engineering the upset starts with cleaning up mistakes from last weekend. Quarterback Sean Stankavage’s three interceptions were at the top of Bloomgren’s gripes against Louisiana Tech. The running game, primarily on the legs of Aston Walter was better, but still has a long way to go until it gets back to the level this team is capable of.

The team is confident, but measured. Safety Prudy Calderon, who picked off two passes against Louisiana Tech knows they’re in for an arduous task. LSU is a team that he described as having that “one shot capability” – something Rice has struggled with throughout this season. Calderon’s insertion into the starting lineup has helped, but the secondary as a whole will have to step up their game even further.

“Our guys are up for the challenge,” Calderon declared, echoing Bloomgren’s believe in his team and hopes for Saturday. It’s gong to be a battle. Rice knows if they’re still standing in the fourth quarter they’ll have a shot. That’s all they’re asking for.

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Youth movement continues, LaTech Press conference quotes (11/6)

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Rice football suffered a tough loss to UTEP in Week 10. Mike Bloomgren recaps the loss and looks forward to Louisiana Tech in Week 11.

On the rough start against UTEP

That’s absolutely something we have to get out of these kids minds – the soft attitude of letting one play affect the next. We’ve got to be able to move on to the next play. We’ve got to be mentally tough. We’ve got to understand what we can control in that moment, what’s important in that moment, and not what just happened.

On how the team has responded this week

We’re continuing to stress our process and demand that these guys do it our way. To these kid’s credit they came back in the building yesterday, they watched the film, they listened to me talk about the things that win football games… and then they went out on the practice field and worked.

On the health of starting quarterback Shawn Stankavage

Senior quarterback Shawn Stankavage, our day one starter, is going to be able to return from injury this week a lot faster than everybody thought.. we expect him to start [the rest of this] season. We’re excited to have Sean’s leadership and experience back in the huddle.

On the impact of the new redshirt rule on the program going forward

Some of these freshmen are playing 60-80 plays a game. It’s going to pay dividends, I know it is… the redshirt rule is awesome in that regard… I think going into spring ball knowing the tempo of what a college football game feels like instead of knowing what a practice feels like has so much value.

On Louisiana Tech’s star defensive end Jaylon Ferguson

Jaylon Ferguson is as good of a defensive end as I’ve seen in this conference… he’s how you would design a defensive end on the Madden video game. He’s going to be a great challenge for all of our tackles and backs and tight ends to get a chance to block.

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UNT review and UTEP preview, press conference notes (10/30)

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Head coach Mike Bloomgren broken down Rice football‘s performance against North Texas and preview the UTEP game.

On learning how to start strong and finish games

We played well enough to win for about 47 minutes, but that’s not how long a football game is.

Our football team plays much better… when we get that early score. It carries over to all the other phases of our football team.

On Wiley Green‘s performance

He played a really solid game. He did a lot of things with his feet, he improvised on a couple and protected the ball to the best of his ability.

On the involvement of Juma Otoviano

It was not the intention for him to have 19 carries, but he ended up having a really hot hand. We saw him play physical. We saw him break tackles… He’s also somebody we know can be in that wildcat package, but he has the ability to throw the ball down the field as well. We could see more from Juma as this season continues.

On the play of Anthony Ekpe

Mason Fine is an outstanding quarterback and we hit him 10 times and sacked him three. Anthony Ekpe had those three sacks. I thought he was pretty unstoppable on some of those third downs. It was really exciting to see him dominate a game like that and I thought those hits paid dividends as the game went on.

On “Jack Fox doing Jack Fox things”

Jack Fox Had a career-long 76-yard punt against North Texas, averaging 47.3 yards on seven punts with five punts downed inside the 20.

For the fourth time this season he’s on the Ray Guy Award’s Eight List this week. We think he’s a deserving candidate of that award.

On the UTEP game and Homecoming

It’s a huge game for our football team, a huge game for our program and we’re working as such. We are attacking this week no different than we have other weeks. We’re putting in the work.

It’s our homecoming. We hope to have all our letterman and alumni back. We want our letterman to know how important they are to this program, so we hope they all come back and watch it and I hope we put on a show for them.

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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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