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2024 Rice Football Recruiting Class pickup up steam before NSD

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As National Signing Day nears, the 2024 Rice Football Recruiting class (and the 2025 class) keeps getting better and better. Here’s the latest.

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Big moves since the Early Signing Period

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Rice Football Recruiting: DB Lavonte Johnson commits to Owls

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The 2024 Rice Football recruiting class picked up a massive late cycle get, adding DB Lavonte Johnson, the highest-rated commit in program history.

One of the higher-rated unsigned players following the early signing period, North Shore defensive back Lavonte Johnson has his fair share of opportunities to play at the next level. With time ticking down before National Signing Day, Johnson has made his decision and become the latest member of the 2024 Rice Football Recruiting class.

Johnson picks Rice after receiving offers from a host of notable programs including Ole Miss, Houston, Nebraska, Purdue, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and SMU. He was also offered by fellow AAC programs Tulane, North Texas and UTSA.

Recruiting services agreed with his lengthy offer list, grading him out as a high three-star prospect. As things currently stand, Johnson would become the highest-rated signee in program history when he puts pen to paper in February. That distinction currently belongs to Jeremy Eddington (2010). Gabe Taylor (2020) is the highest-rated signee under head coach Mike Bloomgren so far, third all-time.

Johnson played his senior season at North Shore High School, the longtime home of current Rice linebackers coach Jon Kay, however, he spent his first three seasons at CE King High School and wouldn’t have played for Kay. This isn’t merely Kay landing a former player of his, this is Rice continuing to elevate their talent level with an impressive recruiting win.

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The tape matches the ratings. Johnson is quick out of his breaks and arrives ready to deliver a heavy blow. At 6-foot-2, 180 pounds he has the size to match up with just about any pass catcher. It remains to be seen where he’ll land in the Owls’ defensive scheme which emphasizes versatility, but his natural athleticism and abilities to cover one-on-one downfield will suit him wherever he lines up

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Rice Football 2023 Team MVP: JT Daniels

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This offseason Mike Bloomgren finally landed quarterback JT Daniels. The veteran quarterback delivered and became the 2023 Rice Football Team MVP.

It’s not every day national news media are buzzing about the latest happenings on South Main, but that was certainly the case when word broke last winter that long-traveled quarterback JT Daniels was headed to Rice. Expectations were high. Daniels delivered. He’s our 2023 Rice Football Team MVP.

On that day, Bloomgren stepped to the podium and explained the process that allowed the two sides to come together, after almost a decade of attempts from Bloomgren himself to get Daniels onto his team.

Bloomgren started recruiting Daniels in high school, while Bloomgren was on staff at Stanford, and followed every step of his college football journey. From USC to Georgia to West Virginia and, finally, to Rice.

“I’ve known him forever and have wanted to coach him forever,” Bloomgren said then. “As he and I are saying now, the fourth time’s the charm. I’m just really glad it’s working out.”

The pairing, alongside offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo, proved to be lightning in a bottle. Following seasons of a dogmatic commitment to the running game, the Owls leaned fully into an aerial attack in 2023 with Daniels at the center.

Take the ECU game, for example. Rice averaged less than two yards per carry, running the ball just 20 times. They turned to Daniels to air it out, tossing 32 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns.

“I really don’t care about the word balance in the context that I used to when I was trying to manage the game and shorten the game. Now I feel like we can score points,” Bloomgren said after that game. “I don’t really care how we do it, how we move the sticks and end up in the zone right now.”

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Move the sticks, Rice did. The Owls led the American Conference — a conference with a slew of talented quarterbacks — in passing while Daniels was on the field as Daniels climbed program leaderboards with each successive feat. He became the first Rice quarterback in program history to throw for 400+ yards twice in a single season, and tossed a career-best 21 touchdowns, which were fourth all-time in a single season at Rice.

It wasn’t just volume that powered Daniels up the charts, though, it was an unbelievable playmaking ability that you had to see to believe. Wide receiver JoVoni Johnson said it best. “It feels like he’s Houdini. Whenever he’s put in really tough situations, he always makes a play or finds something, somewhere on the field,” Johnson mused. “He makes all the plays he’s supposed to make, but when things break down and he has to make a split-second decision, he’s always finding something positive on the field.”

Every week, Daniels dazzled. From off-scheduled heaves down the field to laser-lined balls put into pockets with defenders on either side, no throw was too much for Daniels. He made them all. His prowess was so stunning that it almost became a running joke among his pass-catchers.

“I wasn’t even expecting the ball on the play I scored on. They were literally calling out my route while I’m sitting there,” freshman receiver Landon Ransom said, recalling his touchdown grab against Tulsa. “He can put the ball anywhere. I’m never surprised. That’s why I always run my routes to full potential because he can put it anywhere that he wants to, whenever.”

More: 2023 Rice Football Offensive Player of the Year — Luke McCaffrey

Injury would prove to be the only way to slow down Daniels’ dealing. He suffered an ankle injury that forced him out of the end of the USF game, a game many onlookers contend Rice could have won had they had Daniels down the stretch.

Playing on essentially one leg with no practice the following week, Daniels led Rice football to victory over ECU. Afterward, when asked about the injury to his leg, Daniels joked he spent a good portion of the game “basically trying not to use it.”

Without the luxury of rest, Daniels and the Owls marched on. He led Rice to a primetime win over Tulsa and nearly knocked off Tulane at home the following weekend, falling by two points. His season would come to a premature end the following weekend when he suffered a blow to the head against SMU, a hit that would end his playing career once and for all.

Daniels would not play for Rice football again after that game, suffering a concussion that would eventually lead doctors to recommend he medically retire from the sport. Even still, Daniels’ productivity and impact in nine games is hard to understate.

Daniels led a run-first team, with an explosive back in Dean Connors, to the top of the AAC leaderboard in passing. He took a team that hadn’t beaten crosstown rival Houston in 12 years to a thrilling overtime victory, the only Power 5 win by an AAC program in the regular season. Lastly, with Daniels leading the charge, Rice football reached six wins and a bowl game, their second-consecutive postseason trip.

“He’s one of the best guys I’ve ever coached,” Tuiasosopo declared after the regular season. “It would have been fun to have a fun version of him healthy. You know? What could have been?”

For better or worse, that will be the question that lingers from Daniels’ time with Rice football. He took the Owls to new heights, but how much higher could this program have gone had Daniels been able to finish the season healthy?

That question will never be answered, but the evidence Daniels delivered in his healthy games will be remembered by Rice football fans for decades to come. He was special.

“Everyone believed,” Tuiasosopo said. “When they see this guy perform, they’re like, ‘We have have a chance.’ And that’s exciting. ”

* Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker *

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Rice Football 2023 Offensive Player of the Year: Luke McCaffrey

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In only his second year at the position, wide receiver Luke McCaffrey was a gamebreaker for this team and a surefire pick for our 2023 Rice Football Offensive Player of the Year.

For as much as he may have been able to rely on his innate athleticism and find instant success, Rice football wide receiver Luke McCaffrey would never be content with a singular standout season.

After transitioning from quarterback to pass catcher before the 2022 season, McCaffrey was learning on the fly as he posted a team-leading 58-reception season with a team-best 903 all-purpose yards all while missing the last few games of the regular season. McCaffrey’s beginnings as a wide receiver set the stage for a stellar senior season.

“Every rep is gold, from an experience standpoint. Being able to go through a whole season, being able to go through a spring ball, fall camp and another spring ball and this year, capping it off with another great month of training is so helpful,” McCaffrey said on the cusp of the 2023 campaign. “From a preparation standpoint, [I feel] better than I ever felt.”

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Following a quiet start in the Owls’ opening game against Texas, McCaffrey turned those positive offseason feelings into game-changing production. His helmetless touchdown grab against rival Houston in Week 2 earned him Pop-Tarts “Crazy Good” Play of the Week honors and helped propel the Owls past the Cougars for the first time since 2010.

“I don’t know that he has an easy catch,” head coach Mike Bloomgren would later joke. “He certainly doesn’t have an easy touchdown catch on the year. Every one’s contested, his helmet is coming off, someone’s poking him in the eye. It’s crazy.”

McCaffrey would build on those theatrics with a career-best 199-yard game against USF, mixing in seven yards on the ground to go above 200 total yards for the day. Week after week, McCaffrey continued to raise the bar.

The senior receiver would only continue to heat up from there. Beginning with a two-touchdown day against UConn, McCaffrey would register nine touchdowns in the final eigth games of the season. His second half score in the Owls’ regular season finale against FAU would put Rice ahead for good, clinching a sixth win and back-to-back bowl game appearances.

All that, in just his second year playing the position.

“There’s usually a drop off somewhere,” offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo said of McCaffrey’s ascendance. “But he was lights out really… He was locked in, focused. He kept pushing. That to me is what puts him in that upper echelon.”

Eight yards shy of a 1,000-yard season, McCaffrey has accepted an invitation to the East-West Shrine Bowl and is off to the NFL. In just two years, he’s climbed into the top 10 in several all-time program-receiving ranks. With a touchdown in the SERVPRO First Responders bowl, he has clinched the third most touchdown receptions in program history.  He ranks ninth in yards and 10th in receptions.

More: Rice Football Defensive Player of the Year — Sean  Fresch

Three years ago, McCaffrey committed to Rice football with aspirations to play quarterback. He leaves South Main as one of the most productive wide receivers the school has ever seen. McCaffrey was a team captain and a leader, someone his teammates and the entire coaching staff leaned on in big moments. Time and time again, he delivered.

“We talk about Luke McCaffrey so much, and we don’t talk about him enough,” Bloomgren said upon the conclusion of McCaffrey’s final regular season game against FAU. “I think that couldn’t be more true. The impact that he has on our team and the player that he is. I feel so blessed to be able to work with him.”

** Photo credit: Mara Lysaker **
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Rice Football 2023 Defensive Player of the Year: Sean Fresch

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Sean Fresch took his game to new heights this season, earning our highly contested 2023 Rice Football Defensive Player of the Year award.

The 2023 Rice Football defense was filled with standout performers. The entire defensive line played well, veteran linebacker Myron Morrison was a stabilizing for in the middle of the field and defensive backs Gabe Taylor and Tre’shon Devones made big plays in big moments. Picking a Defensive Player of the Year was incredibly challenging, but Sean Fresch ultimately earned the nod partly because of his journey to this point.

A season ago, there were games in which opposing offenses chose to build their entire game plan around Fresch, and not in a complimentary way. They viewed him as a player they could beat, pushing the ball in his direction. Fresch was hunted, not feared, and to some extent, that’s what to be expected when a 5-foot-8 defensive back takes on FBS-caliber wide receivers. That’s where this story starts.

Rice hired Jeremy Modkins to coach corners in the offseason. Through his work with Modkins and a personal rededication to bettering himself, Fresch made a leap players make in their fourth collegiate season. Even before the games began, the buzz around South Main regarding Fresch’s improvement was inescapable.

“Sean Fresch is playing the most outstanding football I’ve ever seen him play,” head coach Mike Bloomgren declared before the season-opening game against Texas. Expectations and pressures were already mounting. Top corner Jordan Dunbar had taken a leave of absence from the team in the week prior to the season, thrusting Fresch into the spotlight. He did not blink.

Fresch began the season strong, tallying three pass breakups in the Owls’ upset win over the Houston Cougars and leading a secondary that would go on to finish second in the AAC in yards per game allowed through the air. Fresch started every game and provided a spark on special teams with his dynamic punt return abilities. Opposing defenses didn’t key in on him anymore. In fact, they started going the other way.

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“He doesn’t get the [pass break ups] because he’s covered the guy,” coach Modkins would joke midseason.

Whether the ball was headed his way or not Fresch, played like a new man.

“How I feel. How I play. How I carry myself around this building. How I carry myself with my teammates. The leadership role that I have, I walk around and the confidence is there,” Fresch said. “I’m just playing different.”

Fresch started every game this season, posting career highs in tackles, tackles for a loss, punt returns and punt return yardage. He also had his first sack on a big third down play against Charlotte. He was so amped up that he almost forgot to sprint down to the other end of the field and return the ensuing punt. It soon became just another exciting moment for Fresch in an incredible season.

Modkins, in his first season working with Fresch, didn’t have a full perspective of what Fresch looked like a year ago compared to the player he became under his tutelage. Nevertheless, Modkins says he never doubted Fresch putting together the kind of year that he did.

“He’s a tremendous competitor. He works his tail off. He does whatever you say to do and he wants to get better. He listens. He works,” Modkins said. “The proof is kind of in the pudding with him. I’m not surprised by the results he’s having at all.”

More: Rice Football Rising Star — Dean Connors

A surprise or not, Fresch’s resurgent season made this defense function at a high level. Defensive coordinator Brian Smith has built his scheme around having two strong cover corners who can win one-on-one battles on the outside. When the corners do that, in this scheme, it frees up the rest of the defense to pressure the quarterback and make plays.

Through it all, Fresch credited confidence and discipline as the driving force for his sustained improvement. “Just trusting that and falling back on my technique every single play,” he said. “Staying disciplined and finishing.”

One needs to look no further than the season finale against Texas State in the SERVPRO First Responders Bowl. Although it wasn’t a banner day for the team as a whole, the secondary held a potent Texas State offense to 150 yards passing with eight three-and-outs. It was a fitting end for Fresch and a strong defensive season.

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