Stanford’s Bloomgren to be Owls’ next coach
Stanford offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren and Rice were finalizing a deal on Tuesday for Bloomgren to become the Owls’ new football coach. A news conference to unveil Bloomgren is scheduled for Wednesday.
Bloomgren, a noted techie, talks a lot about school culture and the athletic department being the right fit. It a was similar message that Rice athletic director Joe Karlgaard said he was looking for in the days following the dismissal of former coach David Bailiff.
Bloomgren, 40, has been at Stanford for seven years. He joined the Cardinal staff as offensive line coach and run game coordinator in 2011 after spending four seasons with the New York Jets, for whom he served as assistant offensive coordinator (2010), offensive assistant (2009) and offensive quality control coach (2007-08).
At Stanford, Bloomgren served as offensive coordinator, associate head coach, and offensive line coach this season. He helped develop current and former Cardinal stars such as running backs Bryce Love, a 2017 Heisman Trophy finalist, and Christian McCaffrey, the 2015 Heisman runner-up.
Karlgaard, a Stanford graduate whose previous job was at the school, initially downplayed speculation he would tap a coordinator from his alma mater.
“We have people with Stanford experience in the athletic department, but I don’t see myself and I don’t think other people see me as a one-trick pony when it comes to hiring coaches,” he said.
But Karlgaard went back to his roots to lure Bloomgren from Palo
Alto, Calif., to Houston.
Bloomgren, who has been considered for other college and NFL coaching positions, spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle in November about the rumors surrounding him.
“For me, it’s always been: Don’t mess with happy,” he said. “I really feel like my next step is to be a head coach. I don’t feel any need to take an offensive-line job in the NFL for just a little bit more money. I don’t feel like that helps me toward my goal. I don’t feel like taking another college job as a coordinator helps me toward my goal.”
Bloomgren told the San Francisco Chronicle that he’d received about 10 college head coaching job offers over the years and that he’d been offered an NFL assistant’s job every year since 2011.
Rice can anticipate a physical brand of power football under Bloomgren’s watch — a philosophy that has helped the Cardinal excel in a pass-happy Pac-12.
The Florida native regularly utilized heavy sets, reimagining new positions to incorporate seven or even eight offensive linemen on a given play. He’s also known to employ multiple tight ends.
Stanford lost last week’s Pac-12 title game to USC and will play TCU in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28.
Rice’s impending deal with Bloomgren was first reported by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports.