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Rice Football 2020: Middle Tennessee Depth chart released

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The first official depth chart of the 2020 Rice Football season has been released. Given the injuries and uncertainties, there’s a lot to unpack.

We’ve reach the end of fall camp and the beginning of Week 1 prep for Rice football. On Monday the Owls released their first depth chart for the 2020 season. Some positions aligned perfectly with expectations: Mike Collins is the QB1. Others provided more intrigue.

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Typically the weekly depth chart doesn’t come out until Tuesday when Rice will hold its weekly press conferences. Those came out a bit earlier than expected this week with everything going virtual. To that end, subscribers will want to stay tuned to practice reports later this week to see who will be in and out when game day arrives.

Don’t forget to put your entry in for the 2020 pick’em challenge

Here’s how Rice football will line up against Middle Tennessee

Rice Football depth chart

Expected results

Mike Collins is the Owls starting quarterback

This was never really in doubt during fall camp. Head coach Mike Bloomgren made it official last week. Now it’s been published in ink with no OR designation. Mike Collins will be the guy against Middle Tennessee. The third string man, if it had been listed, would have been Wiley Green, who started the Owls’ opener last season. That’s a pretty solid quarterback room after a few years of flux.

Surprises

Fullback

Brendan Suckley hasn’t been spotted so far during camp, so I wasn’t expecting him to be on the depth chart against Middle Tennessee. Brian Hibbard, who had taken reps in his place, was out last week as well. That left Jerry Johnson working with the ones. The move to insert Jaeger Bull is a surprise to be sure, but his skillset as a blocker and h-back type players makes the move a reasonable one.

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Conference USA Football 2020: Week 7 C-USA Roundup

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Conference USA Football was back in action this weekend. Here’s the latest from the teams on the gridiron in Week 7.

Team Week 7 Result Week 8
Charlotte vs FIU PPD vs UTEP
FAU — OFF —  – at Marshall
FIU at Charlotte PPD — OFF —
LA Tech vs Marshall L, 35-17 at UTSA
Marshall at LA Tech W, 35-17 vs FAU
MTSU vs North Texas L, 52-35 at Rice
North Texas at MTSU W, 52-35 — OFF —
Rice — OFF —  — vs MTSU
Southern Miss at UTEP PPD at Liberty
UAB vs WKU w, 37-14 vs Louisianna
UTEP vs USM PPD at Charlotte
UTSA vs Army L, 28-16 vs LA Tech
WKU at UAB L, 37-14 vs Chattanooga

Notable Week 7 results – Standings

Medic!

What UTSA was able to accomplish to start its season is praiseworthy. Going 3-0 with a first time head coach with the offseason as challenging as it was proves something is in the works in San Antonio. What the new staff couldn’t do is predict the quarterback carousel. UTSA lost Lowell Narcissa against Army, after losing Josh Adkins earlier in the season. Previously injured Frank Harris replaced him. That’s a lot of injuries in a short span of time, which somewhat explains the backstep to 3-3.

If you can’t play defense…

North Texas can’t play defense. Regardless of who is available on any given Saturday, the Mean Green are just going to have to outscore their opponents. It worked this week. North Texas gained 768 yards, a season-high, and tallied 52 points, the most the team has scored against a Conference USA opponent since beating UTEP at home last November,

Sitting at home on Saturday

Two Conference USA games were postponed this week, bringing the total up to 14 conference games postponed since the season began. Some schools have been hit harder than others and only two schools (Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee) have avoided any postponements to this point.

Week 8 storylines

Rice Football is back!

After delaying its season on several occasions, Rice football returns to the gridiron in Week 8. The Owls host Middle Tennessee next weekend with no fans permitted inside the stadium. Rice is trending upwards and has high expectations for the year, making a win in their home opener an important first step.

Those extra weekends could come in handy

Conference USA announced a delay to its conference championship game this week. Rather than playing it on Dec. 5, the game was moved to Dec. 18, giving two more weekends of buffer at the end of the year. FAU already has a game that weekend and could need the other weekend soon. The Owls are working through an outbreak and have already postponed multiple games this season.

Sun Belt showdown

UAB has proven itself to be the creme of the crop in Conference USA. Their coming test against Louisiana could be another feather in the Blazers’ cap. For the most part, nonconference play hasn’t treated C-USA well this year. A UAB win would help ease a few lopsided losses the conference has suffered so far.

Rice Football Opponent Scouting Report

A weekly update on who the Owls will be playing this season including updates on key storylines, injuries and more.

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Conference USA Football: 2020 Postponements Tracker – October update

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Conference USA football has been noticeably impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but some schools have been hit harder than others.

Since August 26, roughly the start of the 2020 season, at least 33 games featuring FBS opponents have been canceled or postponed. Conference USA football represented at least one part in 14 of those games.

Rice football announced its intention to delay its season until Oct. 24, but the rest of the conference (excluding Old Dominion) has been trying to play for more than a month. So, how’s it going?

In total, 11 conference schools have had at least one game impacted by COVID-19.  To this point, Western Kentucky and MTSU have not had a game canceled since the season began. MTSU actually added a game, sliding into an open date against UTSA when the Roadrunners’ original opponent (Memphis) had to back out.

Excluding Rice, Charlotte and FAU are the only schools to have more games postponed than games played through seven weeks. This assumes all games scheduled to be played as of Saturday morning are still played.

Conference USA

Here is the list of games that were not played as scheduled for each Conference USA team, including the reason for the postponement/cancelation. The count to the right of the school name (2 – 1/1) represents the total number of games postponed. The number in the middle represents games postponed by the school (2 – 1/1) and their opponent on the right (2 – 1/1).

Charlotte (4 – 2/2)

  • at UNC (COVID-related postponement by Charlotte)
  • at Georgia State (COVID-related postponement by Georgia State, later admittedly an error)
  • vs FAU (COVID-related postponement by FAU)
  • vs FIU (COVID-related postponement by Charlotte)

FAU (3 – 2/1)

  • at Georgia Southern (COVID-related postponement by FAU)
  • vs USF (COVID-related postponement by USF)
  • at Southern Miss (COVID-related postponement by FAU)

FIU (1 – 1/0)

  • at Charlotte (COVID-related postponement by Charlotte)

Louisiana Tech (1 – 1/0)

  • at Baylor (COVID-related postponement by Louisana Tech)

Marshall (2 – 0/2)

  • at ECU (COVID-related postponement by ECU)
  • vs Rice (Rice delays start of its season)

North Texas (1 – 1/0)

  • at Houston (COVID-related postponement by North Texas)

Rice (2 – 2/0)

  • at Marshall (Rice delays start of its season)
  • vs UAB (Rice delays start of its season)

Southern Miss (2 – 1/1)

  • vs FAU (COVID-related postponement by FAU)
  • at UTEP (COVID-related postponement by Southern Miss)

UAB (1 – 0/1)

  • vs Rice (Rice delays start of its season)

UTSA (1 – 0/1)

  • vs Memphis (COVID-related postponement by Memphis)

UTEP (1 – 0/1)

  • vs Southern Miss (COVID-related postponement by Southern Miss)
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Rice Football: 2019 Defense flexed against C-USA’s best passers

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The Rice football defense took significant steps in the secondary last season and the numbers bear out the noticeable improvement on the back end.

The defense was the brightest spot for Rice football last season. That side of the ball has faced some attrition through injuries and transfers, but many of the same faces remaining.

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I’ve broken down the numbers for each of the C-USA quarterbacks the Owls faced last season. In doing so, I’ve separated yardage and touchdown averages in opponents’ other games (excluding Rice) and then comparing that to the production they had against the Owls.

Each opposing quarterback’s PFF ranking from last season (among all 130 FBS teams) is included for reference. Games in which Rice faired better than the average school each quarterback faced are highlighted in green.

The Breakdownown

Rice saw every kind of quarterback and every kind of offense in 2019. For the most part, the defensive staff was prepared for what their opponents were going to throw at them through the air. They allowed four C-USA quarterbacks to throw for 300 yards on them in 2018, including a 428-yard performance by Southern Miss’ passer Jack Abraham.

Only one C-USA quarterback reached 300 yards passing against Rice this year (Asher O’Hara) and that came in a furious comeback attempt. Even still, O’Hara barely eclipsed that mark while in come-back mode and needed a busted coverage 90-yard touchdown throw to the speedy Ty Lee to get there. Those yards count too, but when taken into context, it’s hard to be encouraged at the secondaries clear 180.

The UAB game was arguably their only truly “bad” outing against a Top 50 quarterback.  Allowing Tyler Johnston to toss up three long-ball touchdowns was inexcusable, even if the game was against the defending champs on the road.

Bottom Line

Seeing the Rice football secondary flex against the best C-USA can throw at them is good news. It’s much easier to look past low points (like the UTSA game) when there’s tangible proof this secondary with these players can be good enough to get the job done. Another year of experience with a mostly intact front-seven in front of them is a further reason for hope.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 56 – 2020 Rice Football Preview with JP Heath

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Rice Owls voice JP Heath returns to the show to discuss the upcoming Rice Football season and what it’s going to look like from his booth.

Returning for his second appearance on The Roost Podcast, Rice Owls voice JP Heath joins Carter and Matthew and shares his thoughts on the 2020 Rice Football Season. The trio talk through the biggest news from the previous week — the emergence of Mike Collins as the starting quarterback and the opt-out of wide receiver Bradley Rozner — as well as a few items near and dear to JP’s heart.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 56.

Episode 56 Notes

  • Housekeeping — Don’t miss this opportunity to subscribe on Patreon. You’ll get practice reports, recruiting news and the latest analysis and updates on all things relating to Rice Athletics.
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  • Rice Football breaking news!
    • Mike Collins has been named the starting quarterback
    • Wide receiver Brad Rozner will not participate this season, instead choosing to opt out
  • Conference USA news and notes
    • UTSA salvages a “moral victory” against BYU
    • FAU has only played one more game than Rice
    • Louisiana Tech leads the West. FAU and Marshall lead the East
  • JP Heath joins the show and shares his thoughts on:
    • Rice football fall camp including standout freshmen, position groups of worry and the quarterback battle
    • What the broadcast is going to look like this fall, and what’s still up in the air
    • Mental Health week and his plan to raise awareness

What do you think?

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