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Rice Football 2022: USC press conference quotes

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Rice football opens its 2022 season on Saturday against USC. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren and players had to say about the matchup.

Rice football Head coach Mike Bloomgren and a pair of players met with the media on Tuesday for their customary weekly availability. They previewed the USC game, discussing how grateful they were to get back on the field and their expectations for the matchup.

Unlike a typical week, Rice football did not release a depth chart along with their game notes, although that should be coming shortly. We’ll touch on that when it’s released. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I think (the team) is as excited as I am. I think everybody is in a great place mentally. I think everybody is fired up and everybody is excited about the opportunity to play this game with each other… I’m pleased with the level that we’re playing at. I’m pleased with the intensity that we’re practicing at. I’m pleased with the knowledge and expertise that our players have for our systems. Again, everything is a lot of fun right now. If you ask them where they are mentally, I think they would tell you that they are in a really good place.” – Mike Bloomgren on the team’s mentality right now

“I think both lines are going to be really interesting. I think our offensive line is the best that it’s ever been. I’m not surprised by where the (defensive) line is. You see what we’ve been able to do on the offensive line and the experience factor there. Shea Baker’s about to break 2,800 snaps in this game. That’s a lot of football….. with the matchups, up front is going to be really fun to see on both sides of the football. Our defensive secondary is going to be challenged. It’s Lincoln Riley and the Air Raid. It’s all of these great receivers and Caleb Williams. So there’s going to be these challenges up the field.

One thing you can never sleep on with a Lincoln Riley offense is how well they run the counter play. You look up at the end of games and they have 200-250 yards rushing. So it’s a great challenge for our defense. Offensively, Coach Tuiasosopopo has put together an unbelievable plan with the staff. I think we’re prepared to put people in great positions. I think Wiley (Green) knows exactly where they are going to be and when they are going to be there. I think it’s going to be a fun college football game.” – Mike Bloomgren on key matchups in the game 

“Now, literally at every position — you know you have the old adage of a pair and a spare. You’ve got a couple tackles you believe in, whether its offense or defense and at least one more than can go in everywhere. We’ve got receivers that we’ve just not had in the program that I think can stretch the field vertically and make contested catches over and over. I think the depth everywhere has not only made us better on game day, I think it made us better in camp.” – Mike Bloomgren on the depth of the roster

“I think we’ve got brilliant coordinators. When you give Brian Smith and Marques Tuiasosopo more time to work on you, they’re going to find things. We’ve had a lot time to go back and look at these guys’ body of work through their coaching careers’ this summer  and wach a lot of football — a lot of Oklahoma football — and we feel like we’ve got a great plan in this one too. ” – Mike Bloomgren on game planning for season openers

“I don’t think anybody has any idea what our team looks like right now. If they haven’t been to our practices, if they haven’t been to our scrimmages, I don’t know if they realize what a healthy Wiley Green and a healthy George Nyakwol means to this football team. And then you bring up De’Braylon Carroll who missed the entire season last year. You bring up Bradley Rozner who missed all but two quarters of last season. We’re different. Plus we added some really cool, fun pieces.” – Mike Bloomgren on the view of the roster from the outside 

“Having the injury this past year, it really helps you appreciate how much this game of football is and what it brings to my life and the people around me. I was blessed with a chance to come back and continue grad school here and continue to play football. There’s not much more that you can say… It’s really special. Words can’t describe how much it means to be and how excited I am to get back out on the field.” – Rice football quarterback Wiley Green on how much he appreciates his opportunity this season

“Everyone’s beatable. It just comes down to us playing our best ball. [USC WR Jordan Addison is] going to make plays but its on us to respond and keep the ship steered the right way and finish in the fourth quarter.” – Rice football safety George Nyakwol on USC wideout Jordan Addison

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Rice Football 2021: LA Tech presser quotes, updates and depth chart

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Rice football wraps up its 2021 season on Saturday against Louisiana Tech in a battle of 3-8 teams. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about the matchup, injury updates and depth chart notes.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren and a pair of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the UTEP loss and looked ahead at the week ahead, discussing how important the season finale against Louisiana Tech was as the Owls honor their seniors. We touch on those items, then dig into the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like heading into the weekend.

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The depth chart did not change week over week, but who lines up at several spots this coming Saturday is in flux. Injuries to Jake Constantine and others leave us with lots to work though in this week’s updates. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I thought we came out fast and competed well, and overcame a lot of adversity in the first half. I thought we finished that (first) half in almost a perfect fashion, going down and scoring with a minute thirty, (UTEP) trying to get a two-minute drive going, Gabe Taylor forcing the turnover, and then two plays later, Ced Patterson finds himself in the end zone. That’s a 14-point swing in the game in the last 1:TO in the second quarter is a big-time way to go into the half. That’s exactly where we wanted to be, going up 21-14.

In the second half, there are a lot of things we have to fix. From finding a way to extend that lead on offense and putting more points on the board and putting the game in a different place and on defense, I don’t know, aside from the Texas game, if anyone has scored on them four straight drives like that and there are some things we have to get fixed there. We’re working towards that.” – Mike Bloomgren on the UTEP loss

“The thing that I love about this team, is how much they care. I love how they are competing and trying to get better and I know that they will. When we play well in all three phases of the game, I believe we can beat anyone on our schedule. There’s nobody in the locker room who is flippant about winning or losing in the locker room. They care a lot and they are going to try and find a way to go 1-0 this week.” – Mike Bloomgren on the locker room

“I’m very comfortable. I spend a lot of time in my playbook, a lot of notes writing down, going back through them every night. Trying to know it like the back of my hand. I know when you can go out there and play fast and play confident, you’re pretty much unstoppable. So I was really trying to just know the playbook like I know my own name.” – Wide receiver Cedric Patterson on his comfort level in the Rice offense 

“I know when I first came here as a freshman, these seniors took me in and like welcomed me in, really helping me, helping us help lead this team. They put in the same work that we all do every day and they’ve been here the longest. So I definitely look up to them, definitely want to win this game for them, definitely finishing out a win for their last game is going to mean the world for all of us because we all got the same love for these guys.” – Edge Joshua Pearcy on winning this game for the senior class 

Depth Chart

There are no official changes on the official Rice football depth chart heading into the Louisiana Tech game. However, there will be a few differences based largely on who is able to go on Saturday.

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Next man up: quarterback edition?

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Rice Football 2021: UTEP presser quotes, updates and depth chart

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Up next Rice football visits UTEP in the Owls’ last road game of the season. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about the matchup, injury updates and depth chart notes.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren and a pair of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They discussed the loss to Western Kentucky and how the team planned to approach their upcoming game against UTEP. We’ll include updates from Bloomgren and those players, then dig further into the details of the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

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The depth chart continues to fluctuate, although most of the changes of late can be attributed to injury. Rice football is been beat up down the stretch, but there shouldn’t be too many surprises this week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I think Coach Dimel sees winning championships the same way I do. I think he’s had success doing it at whatever level of football he’s been at. When he’s won, we’ve talked about this before, that’s kind of the formula. We’re able to do those things and yeah, it’s interesting. I think both of us are over 35 minutes time of possession so something’s gonna have to give in this game. One of us is is going to lose that battle. But in any case, I think we see the game very similarly and probably because of our backgrounds, both being at the offensive line spot, we love the ability to control the game that way.” – Mike Bloomgren on similarities between himself and Dana Dimel

“Aidan is a guy that we saw on recruiting film and fell in love with instantly. He’s sideline-to-sideline, making plays. My concerns with recruiting Aidan were never if he was good enough, it was whether we would be able to hold onto him throughout the whole recruiting process. We were able to get him and his family to fall in love with this place and this team.

I’m so thankful that he’s here. I’m thankful to see his role grow pretty much every week of the season to the point where he’s now a starter for us. I’m really excited for him to be in that role all week in practice and get to see the results against what we know is going to be a physical offensive line from UTEP” – Mike Bloomgren on linebacker Aidan Siano

“That first start was everything I could have asked for. It was a lot of fun. I was definitely nervous going into the game but… it was a lot of fun. I definitely wish the game could have gone a little bit differently, but it was a blast and I’m just blessed to be in this role” on his first start Saturday vs WKU” – Linebacker Aidan Siano on his first career start against Western Kentucky

“This offense, just day in and day out, seeing the guys come in and go to work every week. It’s college football, every week you’re not going to have the greatest game of your life. But if you can come back and work every week and continue to perfect your craft and continue to go through the scheme and continue to just practice and work together and practice hard throughout the weeks of the season with the same guys over and over. I believe that you’re obviously going to have some progression. What we’ve done is pretty nice, and I look forward to keep going.” – Running back Cam Montgomery on the growth of the offense

Depth Chart

There were no changes on the official Rice football depth chart heading into the Western Kentucky game. That’s not the case this week. There are a few changes, impacting both sides of the ball.

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Injuries

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Rice Football 2021: WKU presser quotes, updates and depth chart

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Rice football knows what’s at stake this week against Western Kentucky. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about the matchup, updates and depth chart notes.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren and a pair of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They discussed the tough loss to Charlotte and laid out expectations and their prep work for their game against Western Kentucky next week. We’ll include updates from Bloomgren and those players, then dig further into the details of the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

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Rice football has found stability at the quarterback position after injuries and lineup adjustments. With that settled and no major injury updates looming, the lineup is starting to normalize. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I think for three and two-thirds quarters, we played about as well as we needed to. We certainly left some opportunities out there like you always do. We played good enough to win and we weren’t able to capitalize down the stretch and that’s really disappointing.” – Mike Bloomgren on the Charlotte loss

“We know [Western Kentucky] have a dominant offense. They have a great quarterback and they have been playing as good a defense as they have all year. They’re creating turnovers. They’re really playing solid in all three phases. They’re really good on special teams. They get after it on special teams. So, it’s going to be an unbelievable challenge for us.” – Mike Bloomgren on the Western Kentucky game

“I really think the past few weeks, it’s just been getting the five dudes together, gelling more as these five guys. And then also, it’s just a testament to our coaching. We’ve talked about it before. We have probably five or six elite level offensive line coaches just in this building. We’re really a product of our training when it comes to our coaching. And every week that we’ve gotten better, I would say as part of it is every week, our coaches have worked harder. So I think that’s a big testament to some of our recent successes.” – Guard Cole Garcia on the growth of the offensive line

“They’re going to throw the ball a lot. So we got to get back there. And [defensive line] coach [Cedric] Calhoun always says ‘put it on us’. The d-line is going to always give 100 percent effort and try and get some pressure on the QB to help on our DBs.” – Defensive end Miles Adams on Western Kentucky

Depth Chart

There are no changes to the official Rice football depth chart this week.

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Secondary is on notice

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Rice Football 2021: Charlotte presser quotes, updates and depth chart

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Rice football plays Charlotte next in a battle of 2-2 C-USA foes. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about the matchup, injury updates and depth chart notes.

This is the first of a couple of updates coming this week as Rice football prepares to take on  Charlotte. We’ll include updates from head coach Mike Bloomgren’s midweek press conference, then dig further into the details on the depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

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Rice football will be forced to make a quarterback change once again. We’ll dive into the move from Wiley Green to Jake Constantine and how this impacts the Owls this week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I was really proud of how the guys attacked it (in practice). Thought they were locked into the game plan. And I was disappointed to see it not fully translate on Saturday. There were parts of it that were good. They were individual players that were really good, but certainly thought we had opportunities in every phase that we could have played better and probably would have been able to win the game had we played better.” – Mike Bloomgren on the North Texas loss

“Obviously, Wiley [Green’s] injury on our first offensive drive of the game was tough. It was tough for everybody. It was tough for me. It was tough to see Wiley hurting. He’s one of our rocks and I don’t think there was anybody on our team who wasn’t rocked by his injury. It took us a little bit of time to get past that. We eventually did. We worked through it as a team and we started playing football again.

“An update on Wiley; he will be out this week. I did talk to him. He is in great spirits. His message to the team was to go do what we said we were going to do, which is go earn an opportunity to play in a bowl game. That’s what we’re going to try to do for him.” – Mike Bloomgren on Wiley Green

“Moving forward with Jake Constantine as our starter, I thought that, again, once he got settled in, he played some good really good football. He had a great me-to-you factor with Jake Bailey and I thought Jake made some tremendous plays for us. Staying alive and then making plays when the ball was in the air to keep some drives alive and to help us end up in the box. So that was great.” – Mike Bloomgren on Jake Constantine

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart has one minor tweak this week, and one rather large one:

Rice Football

Quarterback changes, again

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