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Rice Football Recruiting: OL Brad Baur commits to Owls

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With National Signing Day looming, the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class has picked up another big addition in the form of offensive lineman Brad Baur.

The 2022 Rice Football recruiting class got off to a great start in the early signing period, but a few gaps still remained. One of those needs came at offensive line, a position that accounted for roughly half of the Owls offers in December and January combined. With National Signing Day mere days away, Rice got their man. Brad Baur has committed to the Owls.

Baur is a three-star offensive lineman out of Rocklin High School in California. Rice swooped in with an offer on January 29. He committed two days later. At the time his other offers included Cal Poly, San Diego, Fordham Idaho, Portland State and others. The Owls are quite happy the 6-foot-6 people mover in the trenches is headed to Houston.

The 2022 Owls’ haul at the position in this cycle is smaller, but when paired with fellow offensive line commit Miguel Cedeno, quite powerful. Rice will bring in a few additional walk-ons at the position and may keep their eye on the transfer market should the right fit arise, but Baur and Cedeno give Rice great building blocks for the future.

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There’s a lot to like when it comes to Baur’s play on the field. He’s going to enter college with the requisite frame to play the position at the high level, that’s a strong starting point. Baur is going to be a great piece of clay for the Owls’ to work with as he continues to develop.

He plays with a lot of power in his game and that showed in much of his film. His knack for playing through the whistle and finishing plays violently will fit right in at South Main.

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Rice Football Recruiting 2022: Recapping a busy Junior Day

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More than a dozen potential members of the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class were on campus this weekend. Here are a few names to know.

The vast majority of the 2021 Rice Football recruiting class has put pen to paper and made their pledges to the Owls permanent, predominantly during the Early Signing Period. There are a few names left to formalize, but there’s enough nailed down to allow the Rice staff to turn one eye toward the future and host their first Junior Day of the year.

In this update, we’ll hit on which recruits were on campus, which received offers and share a few comments from some of the Owls’ newest targets.

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Rice Football Recruiting: JUCO TE Boden Groen commits to Owls

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The 2022 Rice Football recruiting classes solidified their tight end haul this week with the commitment of JUCO tight end Boden Groen, formerly of Mater Dei High School in California.

The first wave of 2022 Rice Football commitments came from the high school ranks. Once the Owls had established a base from the younger ranks, they turned toward the Transfer Portal. Rice picked up four transfer additions to the class in December. They’ve now added their first transfer commitment of the New Year in the form of JUCO tight end Boden Groen.

Groen, together with former Cal tight end Gavin Reinwald, provide reinforcements for a tight end room that has experienced a sizable amount of change in the past year. Jordan Myers moved to running back and Jaeger Bull opted to transfer. That leaves Jack Bradley and Robert French as the only remaining players in the tight end room that have seen meaningful snaps in the regular season. Reinforcements were needed and Rice has found them.

Standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 230 pounds, Groen appeared in nine games at Saddleback. He caught 14 passes for 152 yards and one touchdown, average 10.9 yards per catch. But that might not paint a complete picture regarding how Rice plans to involve him in the offense.

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Groen has already updated his Twitter bio to reflect his recent pledge and it reads very simply, “Rice FB”. Fullbacks don’t exactly grow on trees and often are developed from able players who slide backward from the offensive line or tight end.

Departing tight end Bull is a great example of how the Owls might utilize Groen, primarily as a blocker with the ability to leak out of the formation as needed. The first few clips of his highlight reel showcase that ability. He moves well in the open field and can get to the next level. He’ll fit in well with what Rice wants to do.

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Rice Football Recruiting Director Alex Brown hired by SMU

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Rice Football Recruiting Director Alex Brown to be named Director of Scouting at SMU, The Roost can confirm.

First reported by Yahoo’s Pete Thamel, The Roost can confirm that now-former Rice football director of recruiting Alex Brown is leaving to take a position at SMU. Although his work was mostly behind the scenes, the impact Brown had on this program was tremendous. Initially hired away from Houston, Brown revamped the full scope of recruiting operations at South Main.

Brown was with Rice football from the spring of 2019 through the 2022 Early Signing Period. Rice signed some of its most highly-rated recruiting classes under his tenure. Beginning with the 2019 signing class, Brown helped Rice land four consecutive Top 6 classes in program history. The last Rice recruiting class to rank inside the Top 10 all-time was the 2015 class.

Signees like Gabe Taylor, DJ Arkansas and Jake Bailey all rank among the Top 10 signees in program history. Fellow signees Rawson MacNeil, Sean Fresch and Davion Carter round out three more from the Top 20 players ever signed by the Owls.

The results on the field didn’t always live up to the level of talent being brought to campus, but as far as Brown’s role was concerned, there was never a lack of playmakers on the way in. Replacing his contributions to the Rice football recruiting operation will be challenging. Fortunately for the Owls, the structure and strategies he put in place should pay dividends for many classes to come.

No formal announcement has been made by Rice football at this time regarding a replacement. Recruiting assistant Daniel Clements will handle duties in the interim.

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Rice Football Recruiting: Owls target o-line in latest run of offers

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The Transfer Portal has been a focal point of Rice football recruiting in recent weeks, including a flurry of offers on the offensive line.

The 2022 Rice Football recruiting class got off to a great start during the early signing period, but there’s more work to do before the class is completed later this spring. For the time being, the Transfer Portal has taken center stage. Rice has been active in recent weeks, shifting their focus to transfer targets with much of their high school contingent now signed.

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It only takes a brief look at the Owls’ most recent offer list to identify the current priority: offensive line.  The five most recent offers for the upcoming 2022 Rice Football recruiting class have all come at that position, including four transfer targets and one high school senior.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Recruiting analysis like this piece is reserved for our subscribers. Get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

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