The 2026 Rice Football recruiting class has its quarterback in the fold. Playmaking signal caller Aiden Smalls has committed to the Owls.
Getting the right triggerman in place is paramount for success and the 2026 Rice Football recruiting class has found its solution at that all-important position. Quarterback Aiden Smalls has committed to the Owls.
Landing Smalls represents a massive recruiting win for the Owls’ new staff. To this point in his recruiting process, the bulk of Smalls’ offers have come from regional schools, including a wide array from the Power 4. He picked Rice over offers from NC State, Duke, Boston College and Virginia Tech, as well as Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, James Madison, Liberty and others.
To get Smalls to Texas and away from schools of that caliber is impressive and required several supporting factors. First, there was some existing familiarity between the Smalls family and Rice head coach Scott Abell, who formerly coached football at the same high school as Small’s father coached basketball, with Abell coaching a relative of the family during that time.
Additionally, part of the Owls’ pitch was where Smalls would play. Some of those programs viewed Smalls as an athlete, typecasting his athleticism into a skill position — although Smalls did confirm at least one of those P4 programs and all of the Group of 5 programs interested in him were recruiting him at quarterback — whereas Rice had remained adamant the entire time that they wanted Smalls at quarterback where he can use those abilities to impact the game on a down-to-down basis.
“I like the fact the offense will utilize my ability to use my legs and my arm. I feel like I am the true definition of dual threat. This offense allows me to showcase that part of my game,” Smalls said. “I also like the offense is read based. That tells me that whatever the defense try’s to do, there is a counter. It’s about taking advantage of the opportunities that’s there. I can see us putting up big numbers offensively.”
The commitment to put Smalls at quarterback and the intrigue of being the point man for Abell’s electric offense were enough for Smalls to pull the trigger, further solidifying the Owls’ 2026 class, already at three commitments and growing. Smalls joins tight end Colten Cole and offensive lineman Clay Mitchell in the fold thus far.
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Turn on the tape and get ready for a show. Smalls can chuck it deep, make plays on the move and, of course, use his legs to make defenders look silly. He’s the ideal quarterback to run this offense. To get him on board this early is huge for the Owls and will enable them to build around their potential QB1 of the future.
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