Marshman to start at quarterback
Bloomgren has complete trust in former walk-on
Rice, looking to curb a six-game losing streak, will go with redshirt freshman and former walk-on Evan Marshman at quarterback for Saturday’s game at Florida International.
“We’re playing a redshirt freshman I completely trust,” coach Mike Bloomgren said of Marshman. “Is that ideal, no, that’s not how I mapped it out at the beginning of the season. but it’s where we are.”
Marshman was 6-of-16 passing for 57 yards in last week’s 42-0 loss to Alabama-Birmingham after taking over in the second quarter for Shawn Stankavage, who injured his ankle. Marshman had been working his way up the depth chart since spring, gradually earning coaches’ trust to the point where he challenged for the secondstring role heading into last weekend’s contest.
Offense struggling
He takes the reins at a time the offense’s production has fallen off while the defensive and specialteams units have made strides.
“I think we’re losing the fact that our defense is really coming on,” Bloomgren said. “I think in six out of seven games, we’ve dominated special teams but I think we kind of live and die with the offense maybe a little too much. I think the last six weeks have been hard on everyone in our building. But I truly believe this team still cares.”
Rice (1-6, 0-3 C-USA) is looking for its first conference win. To try to get over that hump, coaches and team leaders have tried to energize a group that’s become accustomed to losing.
“Those two groups are really keeping us together right now, the old heads and the young bucks that have a whole lot of energy,” Bloomgren said, before addressing the juniors on his roster. “They’ve got five wins in three years, that stinks.
“Losing stinks and so we’ve got to do a lot of work between their ears with those classes to really get them to understand that we’ve got to change some things. We have to change their mindset and we have to change their belief system.”
Part of that process is continuing to see greater strides on the field on game day. On defense, that starts with getting pressure on FIU signal-caller James Morgan, whose 171.14 passer rating is first in C-USA and almost 20 points higher than the next-best QB. FIU (4-2, 2-0) is also second in scoring offense (35.8 points per game).
“We need to make sure we get in his face and hit him early and often,” defensive end Graysen Schantz said. “They live and die with their quarterback so we have to get after it like coach Bloom said.”
Rebuilding confidence
For Rice’s offense, part of that process entails confidence, or at least reinstilling it.
“I think the biggest thing would be confidence,” tackle Sam Pierce said of the difference between weeks 2 vs. 8. “I think we’ve lost a bit of confidence with the offensive line in particular. Just keep working. That’s all we can do in this situation is just work harder than we have before.”