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Rice Football 2024 Game Preview: Navy

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With an interim coach at the helm, Rice football is preparing to take on Navy for Homecoming. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

Now former Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren was relieved of his duties following a road loss to UConn last Saturday. In his place, interim head coach Pete Alamar will be tasked with leading the team this week against a Navy team also coming off a loss, albeit their first of the year. The Midshipmen fell to No. 12 Notre Dame at MetLife Stadium last weekend. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup between Rice and Navy.

Kickoff time | 3:00 PM CT
Venue | Rice Stadium – Houston, TX
TV | ESPN2 (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs Navy on this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, kicking off live on Wednesday on the Rice Athletics YouTube channel. Look for a recap of the game on the site afterward as well as on The Roost Podcast, which should be released early next week.

Sizing up the contenders

Navy suffered its first setback in a loss to Notre Dame, but the Midshipmen are still very much alive in the race for a spot in the American Conference Championship Game. Navy has its eyes on keeping its unbeaten conference record intact and still has much to play for as the calendar enters November.

Interim coach or note, Rice football just wants the chance to play a meaningful game after this week. A seventh loss would knock Rice out of a postseason berth days removed from Halloween with nothing left to play for beyond pride. That’s not how this season was supposed to go.

Series History

All Time | Tied, 6-6
Last Five | Navy leads, 4-1
Last Meeting | Home 2009, Navy won 63-14

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Rice Football Stat Notables

Passing | Warner – 160/263 (60.8 percent), 1573 yards, 10 TD, 9 INT /  Devillier 2038 (52.6 percent), 137 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT
Rushing | Connors – 94 carries, 518 yards (5.5 yards per carry), 6 TD / Atkins – 24 carries, 158 yards (6.6 yards per carry), 2 TD
Receiving | Sykes – 41 receptions, 476 yards (11.6 yds/rec), 3 TD / Campbell – 22 receptions, 261 yards (11.9 yds/rec), 1 TD / Connors – 45 receptions, 295 yards (6.6 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Morris – 43, Fresch – 40, Taylor – 36
Pass Breakups | Fresch/Ahoi – 6, Taylor -3
Interceptions | Taylor/Flowers/Williams/Mutombo – 1

Navy Stat Notables

Passing | Horvath – 53/85 (63.3 percent), 976 yards, 10 TD, 2 INT
Rushing | Horvath – 93 carries, 750 yards (8.1 yards per carry), 11 TD / Tecza – 61 carries, 339 yards (5.6 yards per carry), 7 TD
Receiving | Heidenreich – 25 receptions, 495 yards (19.8 yds/rec), 5 TD / Chatman- 10 receptions, 198 yards (19.8 yds/rec), 3 TD / Tecza – 6 receptions, 115 yards (19.2 yds/rec), 1 TD
Tackles | Ramos – 83, Jacob – 55, Campbell – 43
Pass Breakups | Peele- 4, Campbell/Lame – 3
Interceptions | Peele – 3, Lane – 2, Five others tied with one

Navy X-Factor | Play clean football

Entering their game against Notre Dame the Midshipmen had yet to turn the ball over against FBS opponents this season. They turned the ball over a staggering six times against the Irish and were summarily handed their first defeat of the season. When this team plays their brand of football and stays on schedule, the option-based scheme is hard to handle. They didn’t march to a 6-0 start on accident. 

Navy has a plan. And when they’ve been able to execute that plan this year, it’s been hard to overcome. Even a strong Rice defense will be tested by this scheme. But unless the Owls can get the Middies off their script, it’s going to be a tall task to overcome this system. 

Rice X-Factor | Keep up

The Rice defense has come alive in the last several weeks and hasn’t allowed an opponent to surpass 27 points since the Army game six weeks ago after allowing three straight FBS teams to surpass that mark. They then held Tulane and UConn to two offensive touchdowns apiece. But as good as the defense is, points are going to be a requirement against this Navy team, that’s just the reality.

Holding Navy to two offensive touchdowns would be a dream, yet it probably won’t be enough unless the Rice offense can get their act together and return fire. No matter who ends up playing quarterback, Rice has to find a way to keep up. Otherwise this one could get ugly in a hurry.

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One Final Thing

The die has been cast and Rice football is in the market for a new head coach. Unlike in the professional ranks, though, there are no incentives for losing out. There is no high draft pick awaiting the Owls at the end of this rainbow and thus, every win they can steal from this point onward is a credit to the players and the coaching staff remaining in the building. 

We covered a lot of ground in our emergency Roost Pod following Bloomgren’s firing. I hope you’ll give it a listen here. If you’re on the hunt for coaching search nuggets, I’d encourage you to subscribe on Patreon as that begins to develop in the weeks ahead.

As far as the game at hand is concerned, while an interim head coach typically signals a season gone askew, that doesn’t mean this team has quit on the season. Effort was never the problem under Bloomgren. And Rice knows firsthand the dangers of overlooking a team with an interim-tagged leader. The Owls lost to Charlotte days removed from the firing of Will Heally two years back.

A loss on Saturday would be forgotten. A win, however, would be remarkable. Ranked or not, this would be one heck of a victory given all this team has gone through to this point in the year. The odds are stacked against them. They’re without their head coach. But that didn’t stop that Charlotte team and one would hope the effort inside the walls of the Brian Patterson Center won’t be crushed by another round of bad news, no matter how significant. 

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The Roost Podcast | BREAKING NEWS: Rice Football fires Mike Bloomgren

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Following a loss to UConn, Rice football has fired head coach Mike Bloomgren. We share our thoughts on the timing and what’s next for the program.

Mike Bloomgren has been relieved of his duties as the head coach of Rice Football. He leaves the Owls midway through his seventh season after compiling a 24-52 record. Given the direction this season had taken, this result isn’t surprising. What does the timing of the decision mean and where do the Owls go from here?

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 190.

Episode Notes

DCTF

The Roost Podcast is now part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You’ll still get the same content with the same hosts, but now under the DCTF banner.

Homefield

We’re thrilled to partner with Homefield Apparel, the premier proprietor of college football clothing. First-time buyers can use the code ROOST for 15% off their order. The Owls hoodie is a personal favorite as is the Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Make sure you check out the brand-new sailor hat (pictured below) as you shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!

You can also grab the Luv-Ya-Owls shirt if you haven’t picked one up yet!

Homefield

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Recapping Rice Football fires Mike Bloomgren

  • First reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, The Roost was able to independently confirm the news of Bloomgren’s dismissal on Sunday
  • Logistics: Pete Alamar takes over as interim head coach
  • Why now? What about the timing of the decision made sense and what questions remain unanswered?
  • What’s next for Rice?

Where can you find us?

The Roost Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You can find this podcast and all of our partner podcasts on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.



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BREAKING: Rice Football to part ways with Mike Bloomgren

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Mike Bloomgren will no longer be the head coach of Rice Football, effective immediately. The Owls are making a leadership change within the program.

The Roost can confirm reports, first from ESPN’s Pete Thamel, that Mike Bloomgren has been fired. This decision comes in the days following another disheartening loss, this time to UConn, sinking the Owls’ record to 2-6 on the season.

The 2024 record reflects what had become a disastrous seventh season for Bloomgren at Rice. Picked to finish seventh in the preseason media poll, the Owls’ lone win in their first five games came against FCS Texas Southern. They are now 1-3 in conference play

Bloomgren leaves Rice with a 24-52 record across seven seasons. He routinely delivered some of the best recruiting classes the program has ever seen, hauling in the top-rated class in program history on at least four separate occasions. He was one of just three coaches in program history to reach back-to-back bowl games. At the end of the day, though, he never won consistently enough to deliver on expectations.

Athletic Director Tommy McClelland released this statement:

“I want to express my sincere appreciation to Coach Bloomgren. Over his seven seasons of service as our head football coach, he has represented our university and football program with the utmost class and integrity,” said McClelland. “However, as I evaluated our program and compared our current and desired trajectory, I determined new leadership is necessary to guide us into the future.”

A national search is expected to begin immediately to find his replacement. Associate Head Coach & Special Teams Coordinator Pete Alamar will serve as the Owls’ interim head coach for the remainder of the 2024 season.

** Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker **



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Offense flounders as Rice Football succumbs to UConn

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Rice Football delivered a dazzling defensive effort but never got the offense in gear, losing to UConn on the road and falling to 2-6 on the season.

“Obviously disappointed with the way we performed today on the offensive side of the ball,” head coach Mike Bloomgren, said, beginning his post game press conference at the heart of the Owls’ issues on Saturday. “I thought there were a lot of opportunities the defense gave us.”

Those offensive shortcomings were impossible to overlook and set the tone for what was an underwhelming afternoon on the East Coast. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Devillier debut comes up short

It wouldn’t be a Rice football season without a start from a backup quarterback. Seven years into his tenure, head coach Mike Bloomgren has not yet been fortunate enough to see the same passer take the opening snap in every regular season game. Facing a similar quandary this week, Bloomgren gave starter EJ Warner a shot to play against UConn on Saturday but when Warner was unable to go, it cleared the way (officially) for freshman Drew Devillier to make his first collegiate start.

Devillier had taken the vast majority of the reps with the first team offense during the week and his insertion into the starting lineup didn’t come as a surprise. But no amount of practice reps can simulate the real thing and mop-up duty against Texas Southern and Houston doesn’t produce the same stakes as a zero-zero tilt at the opening kickoff.

Add a strong wind, gusting up to 26 miles per hour, and a defense that ranks top five in the nation in third down stops to those first-start jitters and you get a tough day at the office for Devillier and the Rice offense.

“I think that’s what it comes down to. First start on the road against a very, very complex defense. That’s not an ideal situation,” Bloomgren said. “Those are tough things.”

Bloomgren was quick to acknowledge how difficult the UConn defense made it for Devillier, crediting their post-snap movement with confusion early in downs and acknowledging they were part of the reason for the young quarterbacks’ struggles.

“The ball disruption was real tonight,” Bloomgren said. They did a great job getting their hands up and not allowing some of those short completions that could have turned into big things to happen.”

UConn knocked down at least four passes at the line of scrimmage and sacked Devillier twice, including on the Owls’ penultimate snap of the game, thwarted any final hopes of a comeback.

Things would have looked even worse had it not been for a 100-yard kick return touchdown from Quinton Jackson, the longest in program history. His effort gave the Owls offense one more chance late in the fourth, but it would prove to be too little, too late.

“We know what kind of player QJack is,” his roommate, Tyson Flowers exclaimed after the game. “He’s explosive. It’s about dang time he got in the endzone. It was really cool, and for him to do it in a game at a time like this, as clutch of a score as that was, that was really, really exciting.”

Turnover fortune bounces back

Winning the turnover battle was a key talking point during practice this week, understandably so after Rice gave the ball away five times in their loss against Tulane. Even still, it was hard to be overly confident the Owls would be able to produce immediate results on this front given their struggles to produce takeaways of any kind during Bloomgren’s tenure.

Sure enough, Rice, not UConn, put the ball on the ground first. A botched exchange between the center and Devillier on a third and short produced a mass of blue and white jerseys fighting for the ball. The Owls were fortunate to come out of the pile with the pigskin, preserving an even turnover margin for at least a while longer until fortune finally found the turnover-starved Rice defense.

Daveon Hook came streaking out of the secondary on a safety blitz and hit UConn quarterback Nick Evers. As the signal caller was headed to the ground, reinforcements arrived allowing Hook to punch out the ball. Rice recovered. A few plays later Tim Horn kicked a field goal, putting Rice ahead and turning that takeaway into points.

Two drives later, Gabe Taylor stepped in front of a quick pass from Evers and picked it off, the second takeaway in the span of a few minutes of real time.

The jury is still out on whether or not any of this is sustainable. Another fumbled snap and a muffed punt from return man Tyson Thompson, who was able to fall on it, all went the Owls’ way. There’s another version of this game in which Rice loses the turnover battle despite those important takeaways they forced early on.

Penalty problems persist 

Whether it was the cold or the angst of two teams that really needed this game, the level of tension and angst was palpable in this contest from start to finish. Neither team played a clean game and mistakes and penalties were plentiful. Rice was the beneficiary of the games’ most impactful mishaps, the aforementioned turnovers, but the Owls shot themselves in the foot way too many times to pass over.

Rice committed 12 penalties for 95 yards in the game. At halftime, the Owls’ 70 penalty yards at that point were equal to UConn’s combined offensive output: 70 yards on 36 plays. The final Rice penalty before the break came on a botched center/quarterback exchange, the second of the afternoon. That resulted in a 10-second runoff, taking the game clock to zero and preventing Rice from attempting what would have been a 49-yard field goal attempt.

During Bloomgren’s first three years with the Owls, Rice averaged 3.97 penalties per game. The program might not have had the talent to contend, but they didn’t beat themselves with foolish mistakes very often. That hasn’t been the case for the last several seasons and it’s been noticeably problematic this year. Rice committed a season-high 11 penalties for 93 yards against UTSA.

Rice is now averaging seven penalties per game.

When you’re playing with margins as slim as the Owls have been working with this year, every yard counts. This team can’t afford to be giving so many of them away for free, particularly when it comes to dead ball, unsportsmanlike conduct fouls, which Rice was whistled for on multiple occasions on Saturday.

Out of options

Earlier this year after the Owls had gotten off to a tough start, Bloomgren commented that no more reinforcements were on the way. If this team was going to figure it out and get back to their winning ways, they were going to have to find their answers internally.

Those comments weren’t directed at individual players who had yet to see the field, but any illusions that there were remaining personnel waiting in the wings to save the Owls’ season were quelled on Saturday in East Hartford.

Against UConn, Rice saw extensive run from their backup quarterback — often the assumed savior whenever a starter struggles — and finally got receiver Thai Bowman back on the field. Neither was able to produce a meaningful difference in an offense that has been stuck in the mud in recent weeks. There aren’t any other players to turn to. This is the team. This is the coaching staff. And they’ve almost run out of time.

Sitting at 2-6, any subsequent loss will knock Rice football out of bowl contention. A failed season is staring Bloomgren and Co. in the face and putting his future at the head of the program in jeopardy. Running the table feels improbable, at best, but that’s the only hope this team can cling to as they move ahead.

“We have been playoff football mode many times, where we got to win out and we gotta get this thing done to get to a bowl,” Bloomgren said. “I think this team wants to play in a bowl, badly. And I think this team can earn the right to do that. But you also know, 1-0 next week ain’t going to be easy. We’re gonna have to play our butts off and we’re gonna have to find a way to score some points and get our defense to stop an offense that’s been scoring a lot of points in Navy.”

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Defensive prowess not enough

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Rice Football: Behind enemy lines with a UConn Insider

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UConn is next up on the 2024 Rice football schedule so we’re going behind enemy lines with Huskies’ insider Joe Arruda from The Hartford Courant.

Huskies’ insider Joe Arruda was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions about the upcoming matchup between Rice Football and UConn. The answers below should shed some light on the Owls’ upcoming opponent.

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