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Rice Football 2023: NFL Owls Week 9 Roundup

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Rice Football is well represented on 2023 NFL rosters. Here’s the latest from the NFL Owls in action in Week 9.

There are former Rice football players scattered across the NFL. Stay tuned each week for their game results and notables from each player.

Team NFL Owl(s) This Week Result Next Week
Denver Broncos Elijah Garcia (DL)  — BYE —  — at Bills (MNF)
Detroit Lions Jack Fox (P)  — BYE —  — at Chargers
Indianapolis Colts Kylen Granson (TE) at Panthers W, 27-13 at Patriots
Los Angeles Rams Austin Trammell (WR) at Packers L, 20-3  — BYE —
New England Patriots Calvin Anderson (OL) vs Commanders L, 20-17 vs Colts
Pittsburgh Steelers Chris Boswell (PK) vs Titans W, 20-16 vs Packers
Seattle Seahawks Myles Adams (DL) at Ravens L, 37-3 vs Commanders
Tampa Bay Bucs Nick Leverett (OL) vs Texans L, 39-37 vs Titans

Offense

Calvin Anderson – OT, Patriots

Anderson was inactive for the Patriots’ Week 9 game against the Commanders.

Kylen Granson – TE, Colts

Granson returned to the field after missing the last two weeks with a concussion. He was targeted twice this week but did not record any receptions.

Nick Leverett – OT, Buccaneers

Leverett was active but did not play in the Bucs’ Week 9 game against the Texans.

Austin Trammell – WR, Rams

Trammel was busy on Sunday, returning three punts, one kick return and recording a six yard reception.

Defense

Myles Adams – DL, Seahawks

Adams was inactive for the Seahawks Week 9 game against the Ravens.

Elijah Garcia – DL, Broncos

Garcia and the Broncos were on bye in Week 9.

Special Teams

Jack Fox – P, Lions

Fox and the Lions were on bye in Week 9.

Chris Boswell – K, Steelers

Boswell was perfect once again this week, delivering a pair of short field goals and two extra points in the Steelers’ Thursday Night Football victory over the Titans.

More Owls in the NFL

From practice squads to current free agents, there are other Owls on the cusp of returning to active rosters. Find more detail on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 166 – Rice Football falls short vs SMU

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Rice football was down multiple defensive starters and had no JT Daniels late, but still managed to give SMU a dogfight down to the final whistle.

When Rice football quarterback JT Daniels didn’t emerge from halftime, the situation felt dire. Yet somehow, Rice rallied and gave one of the best teams in the AAC a run for their money. This isn’t a podcast purposed to dwell on moral victories, but there were a lot of things to take away from this game, many of them good. We break it down in this week’s show.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 166.

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. So is the brand new Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!

Homefield

Patreon

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Recapping Rice Football vs SMU

  • A loss that will sting, even given the circumstances
  • Special teams shows out
  • OC Marques Tuiasosopo calls a brilliant game
  • Proof of concept on offense, even without JT Daniels
  • Defense makes big plays late
  • Massive matchup looms this weekend against UTSA

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.ri

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Rice Football 2023 Game Preview: UTSA

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Rice football visits UTSA this week in another matchup of Texas-based AAC teams. How to watch, key stats, x-factor picks and more.

UTSA took care of business last weekend, holding on to beat North Texas on the road. Rice football was less fortunate, falling at home to SMU in a game that came down to the final possession. That sets up a pivotal matchup for both teams this weekend. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup between Rice and UTSA.

Kickoff time | 6:30 PM CT
Venue | Alamodome – San Antonio, TX
TV | ESPNU (Viewing Guide)
Radio | Varsity Radio App (Online)

Audio / Visual Preview

We’ll preview Rice football vs UTSA on this week’s episode of the Blue and Gray Preview Show, streaming live on Wednesday at Noon 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

UTSA is still very much in the hunt for a spot in the AAC Championship Game, but getting there might still require some work. They’re undefeated in league play, but so are the Tulane Green Wave and the SMU Mustangs. The Roadrunners need to keep winning to stay in the race.

For Rice, they’ve turned their attention to a second consecutive bowl berth. With three games remaining, the Owls need two wins. Getting one of those this weekend with a road trip looming in Charlotte would be an extremely encouraging result. Knocking off UTSA in the process would be another signature win for head coach Mike Bloomgren. 

Series History

All Time | UTSA leads, 7-3
Last Five | UTSA leads, 5-0
Last Meeting | Home 2022, UTSA won 41-7

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Rice Football Stat Notables

Passing | Daniels – 121/287 (63.1 percent), 2443 yards, 21 TD, 7 INT
Rushing | Connors – 65 carries, 414 yards (6.4 yards per carry), 5 TD / Otoviano – 63 carries, 225 yards (3.6 yards per carry), 4 TD
Receiving | McCaffrey – 45 receptions, 700 yards (15.6 yds/rec), 9 TDs / Connors – 35 receptions, 371 yards (10.6 yds/rec), 3 TD
Tackles | Wyatt – 60 / Morrison – 54 / Conti – 52
Pass Breakups | Fresch, Taylor, Devones – 6 / Wyatt – 5 /  Jean, Flowers – 3
Interceptions | Taylor -2 / Devones, Conti – 1

UTSA Stat Notables

Passing | Harris – 147/228 (64.5 percent), 1722 yards, 13 TD, 6 INT
Rushing | Barnes – 127 carries, 606 yards (4.8 yards per carry), 6 TD / Horry – 70 carries, 419 yards (6.0 ypc), 7 TD
Receiving | Cephus – 62 receptions, 750 yards (12.1 yards per reception), 7 TD / Ogle-Kellogg – 26 receptions, 440 yards (16.9 yds/rec), 6 TD / McCuin – 25 receptions, 365 yards (14.6 yds/rec), 2 TD
Tackles | Robinson – 47 / French – 45 / Moore, Wisdom – 40
Pass Breakups | Alexander – 11 / Fortune – 5 / Wisdom – 4
Interceptions | Davidson – 2, Five tied with one

UTSA X-Factor | Make Rice one-dimensional

The UTSA defense hasn’t been nearly as dominant as it’s been in previous seasons, but they have found success on the ground against conference opponents. UTSA’s five AAC opponents have averaged just 3.3 yards per carry, the second-best mark in the league. Given the Owls’ uncertainty at quarterback this week, controlling the ground game has to be near the top of the Roadrunners’ objectives.

But the numbers go deeper than those averages. UTSA’s last two games — closer wins against East Carolina and North Texas — have been kept close by their opponents’ rushing successes. Those two teams combined to rush for 328 yards against the Roadrunners. That defense was able to snuff out poor rushing teams, but can they limit the tandem of Dean Connors and Juma Otoviano?

Rice is going to want to run the football. UTSA has to stop them. If they can, the Owls are going to have less margin for error with their offense, regardless of which quarterback is on the field. 

Rice X-Factor | Be Physical 

Through the first two drives for Rice football against SMU, things looked like they might be over quickly. The Owls were getting blasted off the ball, losing battles in the trenches and were fortunate to get a big special teams play to keep them in the game. Then the team adjusted and started throwing haymakers of their own.

From the second quarter on the physicality with which Rice played was unmistakable. It’s the only compelling explanation for how a defense that was missing four starters (Jojo Jean, Josh Pearcy, Chris Conti, and Gabe Taylor) was able to go toe-to-toe with one of the most productive offenses in the AAC. Likewise, a Rice offense relying on a backup quarterback had tremendous success against a potent SMU front. 

Cornerback Sean Fresch explained it this way. “SMU’s offense hasn’t played a defense like ours and hasn’t really been in a dogfight like that,” he said. “Once they saw they were in that, we fed off of that. That’s what we do. No retreat, no surrender. That’s our saying.”

The injury report is lengthy this week. Rice will be the underdog once again. It’s going to take creative scheming on both sides of the ball and some fortunate bounces, but above all, Rice has to come ready to go 10 rounds and trade blows with UTSA. If they can punch back, the Roadrunners will have a game on their hands.

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One Final Thing

For two weeks in a row, Rice football has come up agonizingly short from a statement win. Beating either Tulane or SMU would have been momentous for the Owls’ program. Knocking off UTSA, especially if Rice enters the game undermanned, might be equally impressive.

On a personal note, I had a conversation in the press box a few weeks ago with someone who isn’t directly on the Rice beat but pays attention to the program. We agreed that although this team was maddeningly inconsistent at times, they had the potential and the talent to deliver one more statement win.

Whether it was against Tulane, SMU, or UTSA, we agreed Rice would find a way to win one of them.

If that prediction is going to come true, Rice has to find a way to win this weekend.  

No matter the outcome, Bloomgren’s reminder following the SMU game rings true. When addressing the comeback that fell short, Bloomgren said this: “That’s something we never could have done in years past. We never would have been able to rally around a freshman quarterback and give him a chance to make some plays and make this thing a really good game against a great team.”

He was 100 percent correct. This Rice team is better than they’ve ever been. Sooner or later, that talent has to shine through. Otherwise, the Owls will be the unluckiest of teams once again. It’s possible, but that math suggests otherwise. Hopefully the scales balance back this weekend. The Owls are certainly due.

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Rice Football valiant comeback effort falls short against SMU

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Rice Football pushed another AAC heavyweight to the brink on Saturday, but came up short with a backup quarterback, falling to SMU at home.

Down to a true freshman backup quarterback for the entirety of the second half, Rice football hung around and had their chance to knock off SMU, one of the AAC’s three remaining teams to be unbeaten in league play. Chase Jenkins led multiple scoring drives but was picked off in the final minutes as the Owls fell on Homecoming night.

“It’s a win business. And the fun is in the winning and we all know that,” Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren said in his comments after the game. “They’ve been trained in that way they understand that, but I told them it doesn’t change the fact that I’m incredibly proud of them and how they fought in the second half of this ballgame through a lot of adversity and gave them a chance to win against an incredibly talented football team. That’s something we never could have done in years past.”

Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Special teams show out

It’s been a bumpy road for the Rice football special teams this season. Following a particularly disastrous day against UConn, which featured a missed field goal and a muffed punt, head coach Mike Bloomgren delivered a rather confident defense of special teams coordinator Pete Alamar, promising better days.

“What I do know, is we have the best special teams coordinator I’ve ever been around in Pete Alamar and I trust him to fix it,” Bloomgren said that night. “I’ll certainly do everything I can to help him.”

The Owls haven’t kicked many field goals since then and the punting hasn’t been noticeably improved, but Saturday’s start was just about the best showing that phase of the football has had all season. In the span of a few minutes, the Rice special teams accomplished the following: snuffed out a fake punt, kicked a 50-yard punt and finally blocked an SMU punt and returned it for a touchdown.

Rice was never going to have a chance in this game if they didn’t find a way to compete on special teams. That unit gave the Owls a chance. Quinton Jackson added a 44-yard kickoff return. Tim Horn made a fourth quarter field goal. In just about every special teams phase, Rice had success.

Manufacturing an offense

In baseball, there’s a concept of manufacturing runs. When the bats aren’t swatting the ball all over the yard, managers resort to stealing bases, bunts, sac flies and everything else they can scheme up to find a way to get a run. The terminology carries with it the idea of stealing points when you’re not having a banner day on the offensive side.

Onlookers at Rice Stadium witnessed the football equivalent on Saturday night. The Rice offense totaled minus one yard in the first quarter. Quarterback JT Daniels was sacked three times before he registered his third completion of the night and the running game wasn’t working. The SMU defense was overwhelming the Rice line and the offense was stuck.

Yet somehow, Rice went into halftime with 21 points, trailing by just a field goal.

In what has to be one of the most impressive offensive performances we’ve seen at South Main this year, offensive coordinator Marques Tuisosopo was — as the kids say — in his bag. There were tight ends in motion, jet sweeps, reverses, lots of orbit motions and more importantly, extended drives that kept the SMU offense off the field.

If Rice kept everything vanilla, it felt as if the SMU front would have blown them off the field. They dialed up the creativity and pulled out almost every stop. Credit to all parties involved — coaches and players — for finding a way to make this game extremely competitive, starting quarterback or not.

Nights like tonight expose the quality of your scheme. When everything goes wrong, can you still move the ball? Rice was able to do that in very challenging circumstances against the best defense in the conference with a backup quarterback. There are no moral victories, but the coaching staff absolutely carried their weight on Saturday night.

Where’s JT?

So many Rice football seasons under Bloomgren have featured a familiar, painful narrative: quarterback injuries. Even after JT Daniels left the USF game with an ankle injury the Owls felt like they’d escaped the curse when their rugged signal caller returned the following week to play against UConn. The undeniable willpower of No. 18 made this season feel different.

And while the Owls’ season is not anywhere close to finished, watching Daniels view yet another game from the sidelines was a punch to the gut Rice fans had thought they’d put well behind them in the rearview mirror.

Chase Jenkins took the first snap of the third quarter while Daniels was nowhere to be found on the Owls’ sideline. He would later emerge from the Brian Patterson Center and walk down to the field with a ball camp on his head and no helmet in sight. That sight — Daniels alone on the sideline as the offense took the field — was absolutely crushing.

Bloomgren revealed he wasn’t aware Daniels was in any danger of missing time when he entered the locker room at halftime. Daniels was then taken away by team doctors and examined where it was then revealed he did not remember his final drive or the score of the game.

The game could have been over at that point, but Jenkins wasn’t going to roll over. Jenkins finished 10-for-16 with 85 yards passing. He ran the ball four times for 21 yards, including a long of 14 yards. He led multiple scoring drives against an elite SMU defense. You couldn’t have asked for much more from a true freshman backup quarterback who started the season working with the scout team.

Playing on fumes

The secondary entered the game without Marcus Williams or Jojo Jean available. Sean Fresch and Gabe Taylor each spent time on the turf during the game, with Taylor unable to finish the game and Fresch willing the defense to hold together. When logic dictated the defense should be out of gas, they delivered their best moments of the entire game.

Following a touchdown drive by the Mustangs to start the second half, the Rice defense limited SMU to just six points for the remainder of the contest, much of which came when SMU starting quarterback Preston Stone was still in the game.

Bloomgren acknowledged the effort. “The way those guys fought, that’s what it comes down to,” he said. Those guys just fought together and for each other. That’s a beautiful thing. That’s really cool.”

Margin

Earlier in the season, Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren talked about margin. He talked about this team being talented enough to win games, even when they weren’t having their best day. After Saturday’s result, Rice has itself wrestling with a new kind of margin, the kind that ties directly to bowl eligibility.

Sitting at 4-5, below .500 for the first time this season, Rice now must win two of its final three games to secure six wins and clinch bowl eligibility. They had back-to-back “quality losses” but that doesn’t matter on the final ledger. If they didn’t already, the Owls officially have their backs up against the wall.

When asked whether the team was feeling that pressure, Bloomgren remained resolute. “We talked about UTSA. You know how we’re going to take this,” he said. It’s going to be one [game] at a time. It’s not going to be about margin. It’s not going to be about anything.”

“They all can see big picture. They’re smart kids; they go to Rice, but for us, we’re going to talk about the things that matter and preparing the right way. And what a big win it would be next week in the Alamodome if we can have a great week of practice and find a way to get that thing done.”

Rice has three games left: at UTSA, at Charlotte, vs FAU. They’ve played some really good football in recent weeks, but they’re running out of time to cash in on positive performances that come without a win on the final scoreboard.

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Rice Football: Behind enemy lines with an SMU Insider

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SMU is next up on the 2023 Rice football schedule so we’re going behind enemy lines with Mustangs’ insider Billy Embody from On3.

Mustangs insider Billy Embody from On3 was kind enough to stop by and answer a few questions about the upcoming matchup between Rice Football and SMU. The answers below should shed some light on the Owls’ upcoming opponent.

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