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2025 Rice Football Season Preview: Linebacker

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Next up in our 2025 Rice Football Season Preview: linebacker. Here’s our breakdown of the Owls’ plans for the group this season.

Once again, the Rice football linebacker room is fully stocked with top-of-the-line talent hindered more by the lack of available starting positions than by a lack of athletes to fill those roles. Sorting out playing time will be the challenge here, but that’s exactly the kind of problem defensive coordinator Jon Kay would prefer to have.

Rice Football Preseason Preview: Check out the rest of the series here.

This piece is part of our 2025 Rice Football Season Preview. Get access to it, as well as all other preview posts such as positional breakdowns, depth chart and schedule analysis and more when you subscribe on Patreon today. 

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** Photo credit: Maria Lysaker **

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Rice Football 2025 Spring Practice Notebook 6: In the Trenches

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The Rice football offensive line has impressed this spring as the group evolves into the Owls’ new offensive scheme one practice at a time.

Watching the offensive line transition from a West Coast scheme to a spread option offense has been one of the more intriguing journeys of Rice football spring practice. Every group has been learning a new language and a new way of doing things, but the way the offensive line has had to adapt and how effectively they’ve turned the page has been notable.

More: Spring Practice Notebook 5 — Slot School

This update dives into the progress the offensive line has made, what’s going to look different when it comes to how they’ll play on Saturdays and an early look at what players are lining up where this spring.

Impressing up front

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Rice Football 2025 Spring Practice Notebook 3: Defense takes shape

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The first signs of a hierarchy within the Rice football defense are beginning to form as the Owls work through the first few weeks of spring ball.

So much focus has, understandably, been given to the Rice football offense as it installs a new scheme under head coach Scott Abell. And while that has been fun to watch and filled with unexpected twists and developments, the relatively smooth deployment of the defensive scheme under first-year DC Jon Kay has begun to crystallize.

More: Spring Practice Notebook 2 — Unpacking the offense and QBs

This update digs into what potential starting roles on defense are nearly secured, which pieces are fighting for meaningful depth spots and a host of other spots still up for grabs as spring progresses.

Early contenders for First Teamers

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Rice Football 2024 Rising Star: Ty Morris

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A breakout sophomore season solidified linebacker Ty Morris as the 2024 Rice Football Rising Star.

There might not be an official statistic for it, but Ty Morris led the Rice football in “Woah” plays on defense. The kind of plays that force onlookers to straighten up in their seats and take a closer look at the game. The kind of plays that spark questions like, “Who did it?” and “Was that Number Three?”

Yes, it probably was Number Three, Ty Morris. The Owls sophomore linebacker plays the game with what, at times, feels like a supernatural awareness of where the football is and the best path to move himself through bodies to meet it. If there was a big play to be made, it’s a good bet that Morris was the one to make it.

“You could see it coming last year. You knew that there was going to be some good things down the road for him,” Rice football interim head coach Pete Alamar said of Morris toward the tail end of this season. “I think active would be a great word to describe Ty, as far as seeing how he plays. He’s all over the place. He runs hard. He plays hard all the time. Those are good hallmarks for young linebackers.”

The sophomore linebacker developed a knack for making plays in the opposing backfield, leading the team in sacks and finishing second to defensive end Charlie Looes in tackles for loss. And when he wasn’t taking the ballcarrier down himself, he always found a way to get into the mix, leading the team in assisted tackles.

More: 2024 Rice Football Season Superlatives

Morris credits his leap in production with a good spring, having extra time to familiarize himself with the scheme and the playbook, enabling him to think less and do more.

“It gets me to play confident,” Morris said of that added level of understanding. “It gets me to play fast and physical. I feel like that’s the way I feel this year.”

That internal confidence is translating to external production. That’s part of what has made Morris’ rise through the defensive ranks so exciting. As a freshman he had made a few plays here and there, but he wasn’t quite read to be the sort of player that stayed on the field for 50 or 60 snaps and took care of the dirty work from down to down. Now he is. And that growth hasn’t come by happenstance.

“He works hard. He practices hard,” defensive coordinator Brian Smith said of Morris. “He’s really taken off and made a jump this year.”

Morris had at least one tackle in every game and was involved in at least one play that went for a loss of yardage in nine of the Owls’ 12 games this year. That next step from flashy moments to sustained success arrived and with it came an up-and-coming player who was prepared to seize the moment.

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If Morris has anything to say about it, that trajectory won’t stop now. As veterans on the defense graduate and others opt to move on with the wave of changes surrounding the program as it swaps head coaches and offensive schemes, Morris has an opportunity to position himself at the forefront of what this team will look like in 2025 and beyond.

“He’s somebody who should lead this defense for years to come. That should be his next step, being that guy that’s able to take over and be a leader on the field,” Alamar projected. “As he grows and gets older, his voice will become louder.”

Perhaps this rising star has only just began his ascent.

** Photo Credit: Maria Lysaker **
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Rice Football 2024: UAB presser quotes and depth chart

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Next up for Rice football: UAB. Here’s what interim head coach Pete Alamar had to say about the matchup and a few depth chart notes.

Interim head coach Pete Alamar and a set of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the bye week and then looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with UAB.

More: Rice Football Head Coaching Search — Names to Know ($)

We touch on those items, then dig into the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like heading into the weekend. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

A team who’s record does not reflect the type of football team they are. First of all, it’s always tough to win on the road but now you’re going there on their senior day… I know they’re a well-coached team. Coach Dilfer and his staff are going to have great gameplans up. You can see it on film, just looking at all three phases. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on UAB

I’ve had the chance to get to know Coach Dilfer a long time ago back on the West Coast. He’s a former Fresno State Bulldog that went into the league and then started really what became the Elite 11 stuff and all that. Trent is obviously a very good quarterback coach. He’s coached a lot of good young quarterbacks. He’s a guy that [was] an NFL player, was a pro-bowler of his own so you’ve got the opportunity to learn from that knowledge. I think any quarterback would appreciate that opportunity and I think you see that. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on the UAB coach Trent Dilfer

You just watch how he’s grown just through reps and time on defense. You could see it coming last year. You knew there was going to be some good things down the road for him. You’ve got a young man that works hard, that prepares, takes the time. Coach [Jon] Kay has done a great job with him as his linebacker coach, just teaching him of playing the fine points of playing linebacker in our system. He shows up in the blitz game for us. I think active would be a great word to describe Ty, as far as seeing how he plays. He’s all over the place. He runs hard. He plays hard all the time. Those are good hallmarks for young linebackers. – Interim head coach Pete Alamar on the growth of linebacker Ty Morris

He has a great arm. He has the ability to do extend plays. We just have to play top down on the back end, make him throw the ball. They have a pretty good group of skilled, explosive guys. If we’ll be able to stop the run, that’ll be a good thing for us. – Linebacker Ty Morris on the UAB offense

They’re a super athletic group. They love to fly around. They’re going to present a unique challenge as very new defense does and we’re going to have to rise to a level to beat that. – Tight End Graham Walker on the UAB defense

Depth Chart

Depth Chart Notes

Alamar was asked directly during his Tuesday media availability to comment on injuries and sidestepped the question, almost entirely. “We keep our injury stuff kind of to ourselves, for the most part,” he said. Offering this general, optimistic summary: “We’re in a fairly healthy mode.”

That attitude is reflected in the depth charts we’ve seen since Alamar took over. There have been no changes over the past three weeks. The only difference between this week’s depth chart and the Memphis depth chart is the removal of fullback Geron Hargon who is out for the year.

If you haven’t yet, this is a good reminder to subscribe on Patreon to get access to our practice notes later in the week, coaching search nuggets and an actual report of any players who might be in danger of missing the game this week based on participation this week.

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