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Rice Football: Note from first day of spring practice

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Rice football returned to practice for the first of several weeks of spring ball. Here are a few notes from the Owls’ first day back on the grass.

First off, it might not be purely football related, but Antonio Montero was wearing short sleeves and shorts in 40-degree weather. The Minnesota native was giving his more southern teammates a hard time.

1. Position changes, notes

  • Cam Montgomery is at running back.
  • Sam Glaesmann remains at wide receiver
  • Cameron Valentine moves to nose tackle
  • D’Angelo Ellis at corner, not listed on the offensive depth chart
  • Cole Garcia and Nick Leverett only players listed as starters with no backup on the two-deep

2. Offensive line and running backs

Juma Otoviano, Aston Walter and Cam Montgomery all had explosive plays during practice, bursting through big holes and accelerating downfield. That’s a credit to their speed, but also because of a more physical offensive line. JUCO transfer Nick Leverett is entrenched along the right side, most likely at right guard. Clay Servin looks like the real deal at left tackle.

Nashon Ellerbe missed most of last season with a nagging lower-body injury. He doesn’t appear to be 100 percent this spring. With Jawan King on his way, he’ll have to battle to get meaningful minutes.

3. All three JUCO transfers flash

In addition to Leverett, Naeem Smith and Bradley Rozner both made a few nice plays on their respective sides of the ball. Smith won the offseason conditioning program and has drawn rave reviews from several coaches all spring. Rozner made an impressive athletic catch down the sideline and seems to be slotting in well on the outside.

4. Quarterback remains a wait and see

Wiley Green will enter spring as the QB1 with Evan Marshman his primary competition. We really won’t know for sure if Green has secured the starting job before grad transfer Tom Stewart and freshman Jovoni Johnson get to campus later this summer. Still, Green threw some nice balls and made a few plays with his legs on Monday.

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Football: Owls name Mike Kershaw 10th assistant

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Mike Bloomgren has finalized the 2019 Rice football coaching staff, naming offensive assistant Mike Kershaw as his 10th assistant.

Rice football will promote from within. Mike Kershaw has been tabbed to complete the Owls’ 2019 coaching staff after serving as the team’s NFL liaison and offensive assistant during 2018. Prior to that, he worked as an assistant with Bloomgren at Delta State. He filled in briefly on the recruiting trail this winter, going as far as California as the team worked to finish their 2019 class.

His addition finalizes the Owls’ coaching staff, which had been one man short following Pete Lembo’s departure. Rather than fill his role directly, Kershaw will coach the wide receivers. That move will shift assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Jerry Mack from wide receivers to running backs. Drew Svoboda, who coached running backs in 2018, will shift full time to special teams.

The candidate pool for the final assistant spot was far-reaching, but the final list thinned out fairly quickly. Among the external candidates, former Rice tight end James Casey was in consideration before taking a job with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Continuity was something Bloomgren stressed throughout the entire process. If the best fit was an external candidate he was willing to go that route, but the ability to maintain the same message on special teams was a driving factor in the decision.  Rice skyrocketed from 114th to 17th in special team’s efficiency last season. Coach Svoboda, who already knows the vision and terminology which paved the way for the sizable improvement, should help make the transition as seamless as possible.

Kershaw won’t have to wait long to get his feet wet. Rice begins spring practices on March 4. The Owls will cap off the spring with the annual Blue-Grey Spring Game will be played at 11 a.m. CT on April 13.

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2020 Safety Plae Wyatt commits to Owls

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Rice football has their first commitment of the 2020 recruiting class, landing safety Plae Wyatt from Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, Tx.

National Signing Day for the 2019 class isn’t that far in the rearview mirror. Weeks removed from signing their 2019 class, Rice football is already making progress on 2020. Rice got their next class off to a great start with a commitment from safety Plae Wyatt, the top safety on their board. Wyatt has been a priority for this class for a long time, something he says was evident in his entire recruitment.

“They took time out of their day to give me a tour and talk about football and life,” he said. “I could feel the love from the first time I stepped on campus.” The culture being built by Mike Bloomgren and his staff at South Main has been instrumental in bringing talented playmakers like Wyatt to campus. He’ll be one of three players from Bishop Lynch High School on the team when he gets to school.

Rice football is developing a nice pipeline to Bishop Lynch. The Owls landed Cole Garcia in 2017, Jack Bradley in 2019 and now Wyatt in 2020. Garcia was an anchor on the offensive line last year. Both Bradley and Wyatt project as impact pieces quickly once they arrive on campus.

The 5-foot-11, 194 pound Wyatt had offers from SMU and Yale at the time of his commitment to Rice. The Dallas native was drawing interest from Oklahoma State as well. Instead, the Cowboys and others will have to watch from afar with everyone else as Wyatt builds his future in Houston.

247 Sports ranks Wyatt as the No. 103 recruit in the state of Texas. That ranking which could rise if Wyatt caps off is high school career with a strong season as expected. He was first-team All-District and second-team All-State in 2018, playing two ways as a safety and wide receiver. He’ll stick on the defensive side of the ball for Rice, most likely at free safety, though he’s comfortable playing all the safety roles in the Owls’ defense.

Wyatt hopes to be the first of many. “I have to act like a recruiter now,” he said. “In a few years we’re going to be something special.” He’s not alone. That same mindset has begun to saturate South Main, and more recruits will follow. If he can encourage players of his caliber to follow, the Owls’ future will only get brighter from here.

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Rice Football: Offensive coordinator Jerry Mack named Associate Head Coach

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A staffing announcement out of South Main. Current offensive coordinator Jerry Mack has been named Rice football Associate Head Coach.

The title of Associate Head Coach was vacated during the offseason when Pete Lembo departed Rice for Memphis to work on Mike Norvell’s staff as the special teams coach. That left some reconfiguring to do for Mike Bloomgren for the first time since he built his staff upon his arrival at South Main.

The first beneficiary of the change is Jerry Mack. The former head coach at North Carolina Central, Mack took over the Owls’ offense last season. He will retain his role as offensive coordinator alongside being named the Associate Head Coach.

For Mack and the offense, 2018 was a year of adjustments. The Owls experienced their fair share of growing pains as they transitioned to a more physical, run-dominant offense. Mack guided the offense through multiple quarterback injuries and a fluctuating offensive line.

Rice averaged 318.4 yards per game, finishing seventh in Conference USA with 143.6 yards per game on the ground. Both of those numbers are expected to improve next season with a fortified offensive line, which will include three graduate transfers, and a more stable quarterback situation.

The team ended on a high note, defeating Old Dominion in the final game of the regular season. They registered 275 rushing yards against the Monarchs, the most of any conference game that season.

Mack’s promotion does not involve special teams responsibilities. As previously reported, the candidate pool has been narrowed to two names with interviews forthcoming, held off until after National Signing Day. The decision on how that coaching spot will be filled is expected to be made in the coming weeks.

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Owls raise the ceiling and the floor with 2019 recruiting class

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National Signing Day marked the completion of the 2019 Rice Football recruiting class. The new Owls will be met with both excitement and expectation.

Mike Bloomgren stood in front of a microphone on National Signing Day and couldn’t help but smile when he talked about the 2019 Rice football recruiting class. He has to smile. He has to give those cliched axioms. “We have addressed everything we wanted to,” he said. “We’re a year better everywhere.”

But for this team, and this recruiting class, Bloomgren’s words were much more than platitudes. That’s because the 2019 class marked a significant change. It marked the official tipping point between Year 0 and the heart of the Mike Bloomgren era.

The second-year head coach isn’t an excuse maker. He carries himself with a humble confidence, celebrating the good times and vowing to push his staff and his team through the bad. And now this team is his team.

“Two-thirds of the team are guys that we brought in,” Bloomgren acknowledged “[the 2018 and 2019 signing classes] knew the expectation when they walked in the door.” For a man who has preached Process in his first year at South Main, the rubber is beginning to meet the road.

It’s no secret Bloomgren inherited a blank slate. The roster and the direction of the Rice football program were handed to him by athletic director Joe Karlgaard when the first-time head coach was hired away from Stanford following the 2017 season. Bloomgren crafted a plan and set it in motion.

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A lot has transpired since. Rice opened their 2018 season against Prairie View. After winning that game in thrilling fashion, the Owls put up strong performances in the next two games against Houston and Hawaii, both losses. Both defeats highlighted some glaring issues with the roster Bloomgren inherited — it wasn’t fast enough, strong enough or deep enough, not by a longshot.

In the weeks that followed Rice would win just one more game. Injuries ravaged the quarterback room and finding consistent performers on the defensive side of the ball was a weekly challenge. Freshmen, several recruited by Bloomgren in his first signing class at Rice, became stars.

Prudy Calderon and Antonio Montero built names for themselves on defense. Wiley Green, Cole Garcia and Juma Otoviano paved the way for the Owls’ climactic send-off win over Old Dominion. Despite the two-win record, there were pieces. There just needed to be more of them.

Bloomgren cut to the chase. “We need to raise the ceiling of talent on both sides of the ball all across this program, but we’ve also got to raise the floor.” He said, “We’re doing that right now.” The turnover on the roster has been hard to miss. Rice started six upperclassmen against Old Dominion — two of those will return to the roster in 2019: safety George Nyakwol and defensive tackle Myles Adams.

I love that we actually have competition. The way it’s supposed to be in college football.Mike Bloomgren

With the youth movement comes both challenge and opportunity. The incoming class has proof the team is going to start whoever earns each spot on Saturday. They’ll be competing for jobs out of the gate, something that can and must push the incumbents to work harder. “I love that we actually have competition. The way it’s supposed to be in college football,” remarked Bloomgren.

Competition. Process. Results. The wheels set in motion more than a year ago will continue to turn as the newest Owls make their way to campus, some in the spring, others in the summer. No matter when they arrive, they’ll each be asked to push themselves and this program further and harder than ever before. For Bloomgren and his staff, the future is now.

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