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Months ago, Chris Knauls was one of the top targets in the 2026 Rice Football recruiting class but the timing wasn’t right. Knauls made plans to sign with Michigan State before the coaching change opened the door for further conversations with Rice. Those progressed over the past week and are paying off now. Knauls has committed to the Owls.
Knauls will be one of the highest-rated players in the Owls’ class and had a long list of interested suitors before initially settling with the Spartans. The Frisco Lone Star product had offers from Texas Tech, Indiana, Houston, Utah, Kansas State, Tulane, Boise State, Cal, Colorado and a host of others. He’s one of a growing list of players to pick the Owls over a choice of Power conference programs.
With Knauls accounted for, the class now boasts seven defensive linemen, including a pair of rush ends. Knauls is the second new addition this week to the defensive front, joining JUCO signee Brock Reddic, who made things offer on Wednesday.
There’s so much to love with Knauls on tape. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound is quick on his feet and versatile, something that Rice will certainly take advantage of when he arrives on South Main. His length will make him problematic for opposing quarterbacks.
The 2026 Rice football recruiting class began with 18 signees during the Early Signing Period, the second recruiting haul for new head coach Scott Abell. Of those players, 16 are current high school seniors, eight play on the offensive side of the ball, plus one specialist.
“I think we have found some great future Owls who are going to have an impact on our program,” Abell said during his introductory remarks regarding the group.
We’ve gone position by position breaking down each of those new people, dissecting how these Owls will help the program on the field.
* Denotes players who will enroll early in January
The 2026 Rice football recruiting class began with 18 signees during the Early Signing Period, the second recruiting haul for new head coach Scott Abell. Of those players, 16 are current high school seniors and nine play on the offensive side of the ball.
“I think we have found some great future Owls who are going to have an impact on our program,” Abell said during his introductory remarks regarding the group.
We’ve gone position by position breaking down each of those new people, dissecting how these Owls will help the program on the field.
* Denotes players who will enroll early in January
Scott Abell had been on campus for a matter of days when his first signing day arrived and while he honored every commitment in the prior class, the 2026 Rice Football recruiting class was the first group the bore his fingerprints.
“This year being kind of a full year officially now with our staff here, recruiting for schematically who we are offensively, defensively, special teams, I think is incredibly impactful,” Abell said, introducing 18 new signees to the program on Wednesday.
The class is headlined by Marcus Page, an offensive lineman from Forney, TX who flipped from Baylor this week, picking Rice over the Big XII program because of the program’s stability. But it wasn’t just Page. The 2026 class includes eight lineman, including a pair of impactful rush ends and two more on the offensive side of the ball alongside Page. That focus on big bodies was no mistake.
“Every week I’m asked, what are our keys to the game? We gotta win the line of scrimmage. It all starts there,” Abell said. “When you look at that, I think continuing to build our depth, that was really important.”
The class also includes hand-pick skill talent and a dual-threat quarterback. Following a season in which Abell and his staff did their best to assimilate the existing roster into their own schematic ideals, the staff now has 18 new players with skillsets they believe are tailored to what this staff wants to do.
The job isn’t done just yet. The Owls will continue to look at high school options for the February window and explore collegiate transfer options when that window opens in January. As things currently stand, the class is the highest-rated in program history. And Abell and company are just getting started.