Will Swartz Archives

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

With the new offense comes a complete makeover of the Rice football tight end room. The new scheme will require some new skill sets, but fortunately for the Owls, they already had several players on campus who could fulfill those demands and impressed in their newfound tasks during the spring. This relatively unknown group could play a big role in the offense this fall.

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.

Subscriber content. Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?

** Photo credit: Maria Lysaker **

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Another impact offensive player has joined the 2025 Rice Football recruiting class. Hargrave tight end Will Swartz has committed to the Owls.

The recent run of commitments for the 2025 Rice Football recruiting class doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. The program has added players on both sides of the ball, raking in future difference-makers as they go. That includes Hargrave tight end Will Swartz, who committed to the Owls this week.

Swartz chose Rice over offers from UTSA and Arkansas State in yet another head-to-head win over an in-state rival, a common theme among players the Owls have added in the last week.

When it came down to it, Swartz cited the people at Rice as one of his biggest deciding factors. “Everywhere you go at Rice people want you to succeed,” he told The Roost. “From professors to coaches to other players, it’s all around just great genuine people who want to see you flourish.”

A participant in the official visits on campus in mid-June, Swartz didn’t take long to make up his mind. He will be enrolling early next spring, the next in a relatively new high school early enrollment program the Owls launched last year.

Swartz joins fellow tight end Luke Tevis in the class, giving the Owls a tandem of players at the position to serve as building blocks for a unit that continues to grow. The 2025 group already has pledges from multiple offensive linemen, wide receivers and a quarterback.

Premium: Rice Football Recruiting Offer and Commitment Tracker

When asked to describe his style of play, Swartz delivered this all-timer of a response. “I’m definitely a big-bodied tight end who loves to block,” he said. “There’s no better feeling to me than to move someone against their will.” That toughness and physicality shine through in his film. He’s a reliable pass-catching option, too.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.