Several freshmen find chance to compete
Young Owls advance through depth charts in gaining experience
Shortly after February’s national signing day, quarterback Wiley Green — then a high school senior in Plano — reached out to his fellow Dallas-area Rice signees looking to meet up and throw the football around.
Green was one of several late additions to the class from the Metroplex, and like several of the future freshmen in his class, Rice coach Mike Bloomgren had sold Green on the potential for early playing time.
“I was seeing if any of the guys in Dallas who were committed to Rice (wanted) to hang out,” Green said. “I got like six or seven guys, even some O-linemen. We got a good group of guys together. That’s when we first got some guys from the freshman class together and started bonding. That’s how I got to know (Kebreyun Page) pretty well.”
After competing against future Owls such as Brendan Harmon and Andrew Bird in high school, Green was tossing passes to them as future teammates. He also met fellow offensive players Clay Servin and Jacob Doddridge.
Eight months later, half of those players have found the field. And with a conference title and bowl out of reach, the class of 2022 has seized on the opportunity to try to expedite a promising future.
“We’ve got a lot of freshmen stepping up and taking roles that maybe they weren’t expecting to at the beginning of the year, but they’ve really decided to make that their goal to try to play as quick as possible and do what they’ve been asked by coaches,” Green said.
After debuting in a losing effort to Florida International, Green is expected to earn his first start for Rice (1-7, 0-4) against North Texas (6-2, 2-2 in C-USA) on Saturday.
“We’ve really bonded over this past year,” Green said of the freshman class, which has risen throughout the first and second strings of the depth chart. “Through those summer workouts and through fall camp we were really able to get close and I feel like that’s something that’s really special about this freshman class. We are coach Bloomgren’s first class but at the same time we’ve grown together really close as a family and not only as freshmen but with upper classmen.”
To let Rice’s upperclassmen tell it, those freshmen have galvanized older players on both sides of the ball with their drive and focus. For the freshmen, the acknowledgment of their growth and ability is surreal and it’s bolstered their trust in a coach who kept his word from months ago.
“It’s been great getting experience and being able to play this year,” tackle Jake Syptak said. “It’s something (Bloomgren) recruited us on, so it’s been really cool that we actually get to play. The first couple games were a little nervewracking, especially preparing for them because the game plans from high school to college are completely different.”
Despite that complexity, the fact so many freshmen are undergoing the same process helps.
“It just helps that we’re all trying to learn at the same time so we can all push each other to be better at it,” Syptak said
Syptak noted his biggest adjustment to the college game has been the size of players. No longer able to physically dominate, he said it’s forced him to develop his technique in a focused manner.
The future might be bright, but it’s not here. The freshmen — and upperclassmen — peppered into the starting lineup have a significant challenge facing preseason division favorite North Texas, a team loaded with talented veterans including QB Mason Fine (who leads C-USA in most major passing categories), E.J. Ejiya (a disruptive linebacker who’s racked up seven sacks), and Nate Brooks (a corner named as a Thorpe Award semifinalist).
For Green, that talent isn’t lost on him. But after the FIU contest offered him a chance to get accustomed to the college game, he’s confident it will slow for him as he adjusts his approach.
“I expect more out of myself to go in there to make plays,” Green said of the FIU game. “I was just trying to do too much, I wasn’t trusting myself and the people around me. For me, it’s trying not to outdo myself.”