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Rice Football 2021: Owls hitting their stride in practice prep for Southern Miss

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Rice football got some pieces back this week as it preps for its conference opener against Southern Miss. The latest from practice, here.

Things are starting to settle in for Rice football. Fresh off their first win of the season with several players expected to return to the field after missing time with injuries, spirits were high on South Main this week. This update will hit on those key returning pieces and discuss how Rice will approach the wide receiver and quarterback positions this week against Southern Miss.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Practice reports are reserved for our subscribers. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to deploy its quarterbacks, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. You can get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe to our All-American Tier on Patreon today.

Cedric Patterson takes the lead

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Rice Football 2021: Southern Miss presser quotes, practice notes and depth chart

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Rice football kicks off conference play this weekend against Southern Miss. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about it, injury updates and practice notes.

This is the first of a couple of updates coming this week as Rice football prepares to take on Southern Miss. We’ll include updates from head coach Mike Bloomgren’s midweek press conference, then dig further into the details on the depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

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Rice football found some answers at quarterback this past week and looks to be getting a bit healthier as conference play rolls around. One of those newly healthy players is back at the top of the depth chart this week. We’ll tackle that addition as well as a few developments from practice early this week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I feel like we took some real steps forward as an offense. I think that’s a big thing for us to do. 620 yards, making explosive plays, being able to be efficient at the quarterback position — those are things that we’ve struggled to do over time. It’s really good to go into conference play knowing we’re on an upswing. That gives me a lot of comfort.

Knowing that our defense — we’ve been missing a couple of pieces in the past couple of weeks, but we should get some of those back — that’s really encouraging to me too. Special teams: we’re just continuing to grow. So what do I know? I know that we’re a team that is playing really hard for each other and at times playing really well, but we’ve got to become a consistent bunch for 60 minutes.” – Mike Bloomgren on what he learned about the team in nonconference play

“Defensively, we made a lot of adjustments during the game. I felt like they made a lot of plays. We were really close on a lot of things but kind of a step behind on getting those things done. I don’t think it’s anything we can’t get fixed this week and that’s what we’re working towards. Coach (Brian) Smith is really doing a great job with the defense, getting everyone on the same page. We’re going to try to get out there and look like our defense for 60 minutes. That’s the goal this week.” – Mike Bloomgren on the defense

“Great education and running the football. It’s pretty simple. I went to Colgate Unversity which was about greater education and running the football, so finding something that had they same type of patterrn and being able to get a great degree from it, that was pretty much a no-brainer. ” – Jovaun Woolford on what drew him to Rice

“It’s definitely a lot of fun, actually, just switching around positions on the d-line. Playing end, playing rush, playing tackle, playing nose — I’ve really played all four [positions] this season, I feel like. All the other guys on the d-line are what Coach Calhoun calls ‘bilingual’. It just makes us a lot more adaptable for to whenever sudden change situations come up in a game and makes us a better team in general.” – Ikenna Enechukwu on the versatility of the defensive line

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart shifted in response to last week’s performance and a key injury along the offensive line. Hopefully, there will be some more stability from this point onward. Bloomgren hinted he’d like to get to that point in his comments this week. “There’s no more experimenting going on right now,” he said. “We’ve got a group that we trust and we’re going to go forward with those guys.”

Secondary shifts after TSU’s passing outburst

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Rice Football 2021: TSU presser quotes, practice notes and depth chart

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Rice football caps off its nonconference schedule against Texas Southern. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about it, injury updates and practice notes.

This is the first of a couple of updates coming this week as Rice football prepares to take on Texas Southern. We’ll include updates from head coach Mike Bloomgren’s midweek press conference, then dig further into the details on the depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

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To some degree, Rice football finds itself in the twilight zone. Conversation this week focused on the quarterback situation and the adjustments needed for this team to bounce back and find the win column once again. There were a handful of significant adjustments to the depth chart and some developments from practice early this week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“I think we learned more about individual players. We learned who would be able to step up in those situations and no matter who the opponent, be able to get their job done and do their one-eleventh. I think that’s great information that our coaching staff needed. Sometimes people can do in practice and can’t do it on game day, and we learn that about some guys unfortunately too. Because it’s a meritocracy, we’ll have to make some tough changes, and changes that nobody wants to make, but I love these kids. We told them in their living room, that’s one thing they could count on. – Mike Bloomgren on what the team has learned so far in nonconference play

“I was impressed with the way Jake was able to come in and really manage everything and get everything orchestrated and make plays go and find the open guy and deliver the ball. I was also impressed with Coach Tui and how they communicated on the sideline and how they got him into some calls he was comfortable with. There was some good there and some lessons learned, to say the least.” – Mike Bloomgren on the play of Jake Constantine

“My composure in the pocket, I’d say is really good. I’d like to say I stand my ground real strong and keep my eyes downfield. I definitely think I can improve in some things like getting rid of the ball on time, last game just coming in there a little rusty, I definitely think there’s some fixing that I could do with my own play, but I’m just excited to get after it this week.” – Jake Constantine on his strengths as a quarterback

“I do think the defense is a lot better. The reason I believe that is because I know the work we put in. I know what we did last year. We’re only missing one piece from that team last year. We were ranked in the top 20. And I believe that all of our players understand that we haven’t played to our standard yet. We play up to our standard in the first three quarters against Arkansas, but since then, defensively, we haven’t plated to our standard. We need to get back to playing how we know we can because that’s a big thing about Coach Blooms philosophy: run the ball, control the clock and play great defense. If we can’t play great defense, we can’t do the other two.” – Kenneth Orji on whether the defense is better than the numbers reflect

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart was updated following the Texas game and for perhaps the first time this season, the primary changes involved some performance-based role changes in addition to the more customary injury adjustments.

Injuries shake up depth chart

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Rice Football 2021: Pre-Texas offensive tweaks and practice notes

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Rice football needs to rebound on offense in the worst way this week. Here’s what’s changing headed into the Texas game and some other practice notes.

Neither side of the ball was happy with how they performed against Houston last Saturday. Noticeably eager to put rinse the bad taste away, Rice football hit the practice field hard this week getting in work despite a minor disruption from Hurrican Nicholas.

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For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Practice reports are reserved for our subscribers. If you want updates on how Rice football plans to deploy its quarterbacks, position battles, standouts, injuries and more, this is your go-to source. You can get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features like this one when you subscribe to our All-American Tier on Patreon today.

Scheme adjustments prior to the Texas game

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Rice Football 2021: Texas presser quotes, practice notes and depth chart

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Rice football hits the road again this weekend to face Texas. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about it, injury updates and practice notes.

This is the first of a couple of updates coming this week as Rice football prepares to take on Texas. We’ll include updates from head coach Mike Bloomgren’s midweek press conference, then dig further into the details on the depth chart and what the team looks like on the field headed into the weekend.

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While some attention was given to Texas, much of this week’s discussion revolved around the Houston game. Bloomgren was able to shed greater clarity on what went wrong and offer some comments on how the Owls plan to fix those issues. Practice notes are lighter with the hurricane throwing a wrench in the typical schedule. Expect a deeper breakdown on that front later in the week. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“We just think he gives our team the best opportunity to be succesful, not only today, but going forward. There’s thing that he brings to the position and to the team that are diferent. The ability to affect the game with his legs. The ability to keep plays alive. When he’s comfortable and stands in there and throws or when he’s on the move, he’s got a super strong arm. But the ability to keep plays going and do things with his legs are really the reasons right now.” – Mike Bloomgren on the decision to start Luke McCaffrey at QB

“Going back to the commonality of the opponent, I think it should be very encouraging to our guys to watch what we did against Arkansas and and watch [Texas against Arkansas], and know that we can go stand toe to toe with these guys. If we just stick to our fundamentals, listen to our coaches and play our butts off, we’ll have a chance to stand toe to toe in front of these guys, get the game to the fourth quarter and hopefully find a way to win that thing.” – Mike Bloomgren on the common opponent with Texas

“I think when you go into and yoilook at the schedule and you get to play those old South West Conference teams, I think a lot of our fan base was excited. I think they’d like us to beat a couple of them, and certainly we would like that as well. But you look back at the history of this game and how many times it’s been played, it’s a great rivalry. Now, it’s been a little bit of a one sided rivalry, right? I think the last win we have in this program is 1994, but we’ve done a lot of firsts in the last three years and we’d sure like to find a way to earn this victory. And our guys are going to work our butts off to try and make that our reality.” – Mike Bloomgren on rekindling the rivalry with Texas, SWC opponents

“We have grown so much. Being here for four years, I’ve seen a lot of downs and those downs have been really hard. I think we’re on the trajectory of going up and on Saturday that obviously was not showing our progress, but we’re on the way there.”  – Shea Baker on the growth in the program since Rice last played Texas in 2019

“We felt like we’ve played good corners but not full games, and that’s not good enough. Anytime that the offense gets the ball, we can’t let them score, it’s as simple as that, especially not in the red zone. We haven’t been good enough in the red zone. We given up too many points, which I know will get corrected. I believe in it. I believe in our scheme, our players. Not not the way we wanted to start our season defensively, but we have 10 more games.” – Antonio Montero on the play of the defense

Depth Chart

The Rice football depth chart was updated following the Houston game. The primary changes were injury related.

Depth Chart Changes and injuries

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