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Owls’ special teams surging under the direction of Pete Lembo

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Coach Mike Lembo has turned the Rice football special teams unit into the gold standard for special teams in college football.

Special teams coordinators around the nation need to focus their attention on South Main. The Rice Owls are the cream of the crop when it comes to special teams, and they’re just getting started. Through four games, Rice ranks ninth in kick return defense, 24th in punt return defense, fifth in net punting and 20th in kick returns.

The man behind the resurgence is special teams coordinator and associate head coach Pete Lembo. One of the new additions to the 2018 staff, Lembo’s impact cannot be understated. His focus on skills that translate from special teams to each individual players offensive or defensive position has created a synergy that drives the program forward.

Part of the success has come from the team’s commitment to the discipline of special teams. Head coach Mike Bloomgren dedicates a meaningful amount of practice time to the oft-forgotten unit. He’s expanded beyond punting and kicking to creative plays – like the successful 2-point conversion the Owls’ pulled off against Southern Miss.

“Coach Lembo is always going to spend the hours and time on task to make sure we have options,” said Mike Bloomgren. Whether it’s fakes, kickoffs, formations or different looks for the defense, Bloomgren has been staunch in his commitment to “stealing points” wherever he can.

That aggressiveness has led to a culture that focuses on finding the “hidden yardage” and maximizing every play. Lembo knows the early success is only a taste of what is to come, saying the team is “starting to understand how important [special teams] is and starting to understand what a difference it can make.”

Jack Fox and Austin Trammell are producing at a high level and the special teams unit continues to elevate the play of the entire team. If ranking in the top 25 in four different statistics is the start, the finish should be worth waiting for.

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Owls face internal test against Wake Forest

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Rice football isn’t in must-win mode quite yet, but the effort in Saturday’s game will determine how committed the Owls are to getting better.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren won’t say it explicitly, but his team faces a potential watershed moment against Wake Forest. The results from the Southern Miss team didn’t sit well with this team and Saturday’s tilt with the Demon Deacons marks the first return to action after that disappointing performance.

The Owls’ options on Saturday are simple: press on and continue to grow or acquiesce to a hum-drum season. When evaluating his team’s performance against Southern Miss, Bloomgren was slightly confused, going as far as to say “We didn’t play like us. We didn’t play like we want to.”

Bloomgren’s most honest, and starting statement put this team on notice. Now is the time to show up. Rice football might lose again, but it won’t be from lack of effort.

It wasn’t the first weekend we were tested. It was the first weekend we didn’t respond. I can’t look you in the eye and tell you we made progress in last week’s game, and I told the team that in no uncertain terms. I wish I could tell you why, I wish I could explain to you why we didn’t make the progress we all wanted to make because it’s not like they don’t want to make the progress. We just simply didn’t perform.Mike Bloomgren

This puts the 2018 Rice football team at a crossroads. It’s not win or go home, it’s want or go home. If they pack it in they’ll still probably manage to pick up another win along the way, showing improvement from the 1-win campaign a year ago.

But this team is mad. “They outhit us,” Bloomgren vented. “We say intellectual brutality, but just saying it and creating the hashtag doesn’t mean you are it.” Becoming what they want to be and reaching that end goal is a ways away, but as he said in the Owls’ midweek press conference, this is a process, and it’s not going to be easy.

Saturday’s game against Wake Forest isn’t just a test against a solid Demon Deacons squad. It’s an internal battle, between each player and himself. This is a make or break moment for this team, and the future of the season hangs in the balance. Their resiliency is the backbone of progress.

With that progress will eventually come wins. Ultimately, that’s why Mike Bloomgren left Stanford and ended up at South Main. After practice this week he cocked his head and said with a grin, “My wife is prettier after a win. Everything in your life is better after a win. We’re in this to win.”

The wins will come. On Saturday, we need to see the effort.

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Shawn Stankavage talks homecoming, Wake Forest press conference notes

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Rice football hopes to learn from their mistakes last weekend against Southern Miss as they approach their Week 5 game against Wake Forest.

The tone of Tuesday’s press conference was toughness and consistency. The Southern Miss game left a sour taste in the mouths of the coaching staff and the players, but they know this is one data point in a much larger journey

“Any time you hit one of those rough patches, whether its in life or in this game, the only way to get out of it is to work,” said head coach Mike Bloomgren. “You hear me talk about process a lot, and the team has heard me talk about process a lot more.”

That process is what’s going to take last year’s one-win team and turn it into something better. It’s going to take this 1-3 squad and make it better. Little by little. Bloomgren admitted the struggle is tough, but he also didn’t hold any illusions that things would ever have been much smoother:

“One of the things we all want to do is speed it up,” remarked Bloomgren. “That’s not reality all the time. I think when you’re trying to do great things and when you’re striving for greatness, the journey is tough. And we have to understand that.”

As far as objectives for the upcoming game, Bloomgren hit on the importance of the team controlling time of possession, limiting big plays on defense and utilizing their weapons on offense.

Zach Abercrumbia

Defensive lineman Zach Abercrumbia doubled down on Bloomgren’s intensity, describing the theme of the week as “say less and work more”. He led a players-only meeting on Sunday, evidence of the desire this team has to get better.

There is a time to focus on what the team did last weekend, but there’s also something to be said for turning over a new lear this week. Abercrumbia stressed that every game is important, and he’s getting ready for Wake Forest the same way he’d prepare for anyone else, remarking, “Every time you’re out there is the biggest game of the season. If you don’t believe that then a lot of times what happened Saturday will happen.”

Shawn Stankavage

The most interesting personal story of the week belongs to Rice quarterback Shawn Stankavage. Before he transferred to Rice from Vanderbilt, Stankavage grew up in North Carolina, surrounded by a family of UNC Tarheels He was the unique one, opting to fo west, twice, rather than stay home with his family.

That family will be out in full force supporting him this weekend. Stankavage said the thought of starting in his home state means a lot to him, “It’s going to be awesome. It’s not like any other game, it’s going to be a special one for me,” adding that it was “something I’ve always dreamed about.”

To get there, he and the Owls need to keep moving forward. “We’re not where we want to be,” echoed Stankavage.

 

 

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Owls to focus on themselves, Practice notes (9/24)

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Focus was the mantra of Rice football practice on Monday. After a disappointing performance against Southern Miss the Owls are ready to make some changes.

“The only thing you can do in a situation like this is work, so we’re just going to get to work and do everything we can do to fix it and not have that kind of result again.” That was offensive lineman Sam Pierce’s purposeful remarks on Monday following the Owls’ disheartening loss to Southern Miss. The team came out strong but didn’t punch back with the same verve that kept them in games against Houston and Hawaii well into the fourth quarter.

The same refrain was echoed by the rest of the offense, who went three-and-out for times against the Eagles. “If everything is going well, we put our head down and continue to work. If everything is going bad, we put our head down and continue to work,” said lead running back Emmanuel Esukpa, “We just have to continue to work and focus and it will turn around.”

The change in effort was noticeable. Aaron Cephus was vocal during drills, coaching up the younger receivers. Shawn Stankavage was dialoguing with his coaches, working with a concerted effort to get better. This team knows they can play better, and their performance against Southern Miss wasn’t up to their own standards.

Offense

Aaron Cephus continues to develop as a pass catcher. The raw physical tools have always been there, but now we’re starting to see them put to use. He’s grabbed hold of Intellectual Brutality and tailed his game to match that theme.

That was put on display Saturday when Cephus pulled in not one, but two goal line touchdowns. The first multi-touchdown performance of his career, he’s working to make sure it’s not his last. He’s gotten much better at attacking the football in the air and has learned how to position his body to keep defenders away from the football. With a 6-foot-4 frame, boxing out most of the corners he’ll see in Conference USA should be easy work.

Along the offensive line, the focus of the day was unity. “If we’re all five working together we’ll be fine. We just have to get on the same page, communicate and work within ourselves and do what we know what we can do,” declared Sam Pierce, who went on to remark he’s seen the progress made by the younger players.

Only a few freshmen have played key roles on the team thus far, something that could change going forward as the newcomers continue to adapt to the college game. That’s something to monitor on both sides of the ball going forward.

Defense

I delved into the good and bad of the secondary in the Southern Miss post-game recap. A bright spot for the Owls against Southern Miss and again at practice on Monday was linebacker Blaze Alldredge. Playing in place of veteran Dylan Silcox, out sick on Saturday, Aldredge stepped in front of a Jack Abraham pass, registering the Owls’ first interception of the young season.

Alldredge was at it again in practice, tipping a pass over the middle into the air and watching it fall into the open arms of one of his teammates who raced back the other way with an interception. The defense tallied a few interceptions, a positive sign that that unit is working to become more opportunistic in the coming games.

 Injuries

  • LB Dylan Silcox – Questionable to play against Wake Forest. Bloomgren is “hopeful”, but Silcox has yet to be cleared
  • TE Jordan Myers – Injured shoulder against Southern Miss. No further information at this time.
  • WR Cam Montgomery – Sidelined this fall with a back injury. He remains “out for the foreseeable future”
  • CB D’Angelo Ellis – Ellis returned to practice in non-contact jersey, actively participating in team drills with the defense. He’s not been cleared by doctors and still has a ways to go, but getting him back on the field was a positive first step.
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Owls must pick up the pieces from USM loss and move on

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Rice football couldn’t get anything going against Southern Miss, falling to the Eagles 40-22 to start conference play 0-1.

The offense sputtered and the defense couldn’t keep a potent Southern Miss offense contained, resulting in the Owls’ third loss of the 2018 season. Southern Miss put Rice in their largest deficit of the season (25 points), and the Owls weren’t able to rally.

The loss was a tough pill to swallow for the Owls. Even though they’d dropped back-to-back games, the momentum seemed to be trending in the right direction following positive comments during the bye week. Instead, Rice saw a similar final result and the schedule doesn’t get any easier.

Rice stays on the road in Week 5, traveling to Winston-Salem to play a dangerous Wake Forest team before getting back to Conference play in Week 6 against UAB. For Mike Bloomgren and his staff, it’s time to take what they can from the Southern Miss game and move on. And that’s the difference in this team, this year. They can move on.

The 2018 Owls aren’t going to wallow in what could have been or try to write the rest of the season off after the three-game skid. This team is going to fight. They’re going to look at the film, figure out what changes need to be made and be ready for the Demon Deacons next weekend.

Owls’ fans knew this season was going to have some growing pains. That’s what happened on Saturday against Southern Miss. Rice needs to do some growing up across the board, and they will. The process is working, and the Owls are still very much so alive and well in Conference USA. One win won’t disqualify them, and they won’t be content to settle with where they’re at now.

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