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Rice Football 2021: Spring Practice Week 4 Notebook

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Rice Football has completed its final scrimmage prior to the Blue-Gray Spring Game. There was a ton to unpack from this week’s sessions.

The second of two spring scrimmages wrapped up last Friday. Rice football took the field for 12 drives then finished up with a few situational drills. The defense won the day in what head coach Mike Bloomgren dubbed “a defense-dominated scrimmage”, but the biggest gleanings might have come from what transpired on the other side of the ball.

There is a lot to discuss regarding the quarterback situation. From there we’ll touch on the offensive line a bit and some of the highlights from the skill players. Then, yes, we will bestow some well-deserved praise on the defense.

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For those that might have missed it, you can check out the initial depth chart reactions as well as the Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3 practice notebooks. Not subscribed? The Roost will have you covered every step of the way this spring and beyond. Subscribers get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and special features. Subscribe on Patreon and get access to it all today.

The elephant in the room

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Rice Football 2021: Spring Practice Week 1 Notebook

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Rice football returned to the practice field this week. Here are a few initial reactions from the first week of spring ball.

For the first time in three months, Rice football put on the pads and hit the practice field. It was a refreshing sight that seemed almost normal after a winter that was anything but conventional.

There were a few new faces this time, including quarterback Jake Constantine. But there were things to be learned from players head coach Mike Bloomgren would dub “the old heads” as well. We dug into some initial thoughts on the depth charts earlier this week. This edition will focus on what transpired on the grass itself.

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The Roost will have you covered every step of the way. Subscribers get access to all spring practice notes, recruiting updates and special features. Subscribe on Patreon and get access to it all today.

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Rice Football: First glimpse at probable 2021 returners

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Rice Football players have returned to campus for offseason activities, giving us our first clear indication of who intends to return for 2021.

Rice Football welcomed its players back to campus on Friday following the winter break. In a typical year, this wouldn’t be much in the way of an event, rather a mere formality. It is anything but in 2021, which still bears the marks of an unpredictable 2020 season.

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What makes this year so unique is the additional year of eligibility afforded to all players who otherwise would have finished their careers in December. Those who have moved on needn’t worry about the offseason conditioning programs or spring practice. That means, for the first time, we have a fuzzy list of who will most likely be on the roster in 2021.

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Putting an imperfect 2020 Rice football season into perspective

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The 2020 Rice Football season has come to an end. Putting the up-and-down campaign into perspective will be an ongoing task.

With 49 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, Rice football trailed UAB 21-16. Third-string quarterback Wiley Green lined up alongside third-string running back Ari Broussard, dropped back and threw to Jake Bailey. First down. Three plays later Green found Bailey again. First down. Then, on fourth-and-18, Green uncorked a Hail Mary pass which was intercepted on the 2-yard line. Game over.

“I guess I need to be more prayerful,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said after the game. He was speaking more broadly about the unfortunate injury luck his team had suffered at key positions this season, but his whistful “what if” hung in the air. Just like that last-second pass from the arm of Green.

Green, the backup to the backup quarterback, targeting a tight end in the endzone from 50 yards out was, in many ways, a fitting final play of the Owls’ bizarre 2020 season. Rice almost had to throw it to a tight end because they had run out of wide receivers.

Bradley Rozner had been injured and opted out before the season. Transfer Christian McStravick never played a down for the Owls. Neither did Zane Knipe. August Pitre caught one pass in the season opener before suffering an injury. Austin Trammell, who set multiple school records when he exploded for five touchdowns and 219 yards in the Owls’ first two games, didn’t suit up in this game either.

Rice was down to Jake Bailey, who had missed practice time during the week with an injury, and freshman Andrew Mason. Converted running back Kobie Campbell, who hadn’t touched the ball this season, was targeted twice.

“We had multiple weeks where we had a practice with one scholarship wide receiver healthy,” Bloomgren admitted, “We just love this game, and we said ‘we’re going to play’.”

Takeaways: Rice Football falls to UAB

At quarterback, Mike Collins was missing his second straight game. Backup JoVoni Johnson had been injured a few drives earlier. And that doesn’t take into account the secondary which had made do all season with players coming in and out of the lineup or the continued absence of lead running back Juma Otaviano.

Bloomgren isn’t one to make excuses, and he acknowledged Rice wasn’t the only team who had to deal with adversity this year. Their opponent on Saturday had more than a dozen key players missing (but they did have their quarterback, something that proved fateful for the Owls). Still, the Owls’ headman did say this: “We’re all better with our ones.”

Instead, that last-second heave fell into the hands of a defensive back and a year of highs and lows came to an unpleasant end. Rice was in the running for a bowl bid with a win. The loss ended the Owls’ season sooner than anyone hoped it would finish.

“We know nothing’s perfect in 2020,” Bloomgren affirmed.

Before he stepped off the stand and began the first steps of the Owls’ sudden offseason, he posed one more “what if”.

“We lost today by one score… we had a double-overtime game. We got to find a way to win those things, and that’s the difference. Think about how different we feel about our season right now, and how jubilant everybody would be if we’d won one or two of those games.”

Rice didn’t win those games. Their final 2020 record will forever be inked at 2-3. But Bloomgren’s hypothetical isn’t too farfetched. It might even have more merit than initially meets the eye. Rice beat the C-USA East champ and was one third-string-quarterback Hail Mary from beating the top team in the West.

A few more favorable bounces wouldn’t have helped the teams Rice defeated. Those victories both came by three scores. But one more bounce, or a prayer, in those losses might very well have been enough. It wasn’t perfect, but in 2020, nothing was.

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Rice Football 2020 Practice Notes: Presser quotes and o-line growth

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Rice football took advantage of the off week to rest up and get healthy. The Owls are working toward this week’s game at Louisiana Tech.

There was plenty to observe and talk about as Rice football got back to practice after an unexpected free Saturday following the postponement of the UTSA game. Head coach Mike Bloomgren shared his thoughts on the future of that matchup. I recapped those thoughts, shared a few quotes from Tuesday’s press conference and dug into some observations from the Rice o-line at practice this week.

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UTSA postponement

At this point, both UTSA and Rice have made it abundantly clear who they want to be playing on Dec. 5. The Owls were originally free that day before Conference USA slated Marshall into that open weekend only days before the Rice vs UTSA game was postponed.

UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor has gone on record saying he wants to see that game rescheduled. Bloomgren echoed those sentiments on Tuesday, saying “if we had our choice, we’d love to play the team down the road.” Bloomgren reiterated that would ultimately be a conference decision.

Notes and Quotes

“We all love the rhythm of a college football season. We love the routine, but 2020 has been anything but routine, as we all know. And something we’ve asked our players for is flexibility and adaptability … I would love to get into a routine for the next six or seven weeks … but at the same time I think we’re probably going to have more opportunities where we’ve gotta be flexible.” – Mike Bloomgren on the unexpected schedule change

“We’ve been in the system — this is our third year — now it’s just like riding a bike … They’re great young men. They have great balance on and off the field and when we come in here it’s just football.” – Defensive line coach Cedric Calhoun on the improvements this year

I know that we’ve been really efficient on first and second down and then that’s allowed us to be really efficient on third down. I think it’s been a really notable thing from this season. We’ve had a couple third and shorts that we converted on. It’s something we take a lot of pride in. But I also think what you’re seeing is that we’re finding ourselves being pretty dang dynamic, because we’re being so efficient on first and second down… if we do our job up front, this offense is really going to shine.” – Sanders Davis on the overall – on the growth of the offense

Giving some love to the offensive line

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