Aiming higher
Rice thinks it can outperform being picked sixth in its division.
FRISCO — Rice receiver Austin Trammell said he felt “hurt” when he saw the Owls were picked to finish sixth in the Conference USA West Division in the league’s preseason media poll.
But he also understood how voters could have reached that conclusion after the Owls went 2-11 in 2018.
“You can’t blame anyone for that,” Trammell said. “It’s also motivation. Prove everyone wrong. It puts a chip on our shoulder and makes us want to play that much harder to prove to Conference USA and college football we’re not the Rice we used to be.”
As he enters his second season at Rice, coach Mike Bloomgren says he’s unable to define what success looks like. Instead of slapping a projected win total on the 2019 campaign, Bloomgren said Wednesday at the Conference USA Football Kickoff in Frisco that his only focus is building toward the first practice.
“I know that sounds cliché or like a cop-out. It’s not,” Bloomgren said. “I can’t wait to see what that first practice looks like and what these guys look like individually and how we’re going to fit them all together. That’s what I'm so excited for.”
The Owls are planning to keep their systems consistent in all three phases, Bloomgren said. During his first year with Rice in 2018 after seven seasons as an assistant at Stanford, Bloomgren instilled a physical style of play dubbed “intellectual brutality.”
That won’t change in 2019, but Bloomgren said he is focused on helping his players become more comfortable in the fourth quarter of close games — what he calls the “deep water.”
“Our emphasis this offseason is understanding how to finish,” Bloomgren said. “Talking about finishing in every way we can and making them understand the mindset is, ‘I'm with my brothers, and we’re going to finish this together.’ ”
Trammell said he’s hoping for “at least seven” wins this season, aspiring toward the possibility of a bowl and a conference championship. But he also describes himself as someone who doesn’t like to focus on numbers.
“I look at, as a team, what we’re doing,” Trammell said. “If we’re playing well together. If all the guys are doing what they’re supposed to do and not just think about myself. That’s what wins games.”
Defensive end Myles Adams said the sixth-place projection is “just numbers.” He said last year taught him how to adapt to Bloomgren’s system and culture. Now the Owls have an energy, urgency and accountability that was missing early last year, Adams said.
The dividends started to show in the 2018 finale when Rice beat Old Dominion 27-13 to snap an 11game losing streak.
“I always knew that we had the pieces. We just had to put them together,” Adams said. “We just kept trying to put the wrong puzzle pieces in the wrong spots. Against Old Dominion, we put them together and played pretty good football.”
The Owls have added a few puzzle pieces heading into 2019, welcoming 10 transfers — seven graduate students and three from junior college. The group is expected to add to an experienced core that includes seven returning starters on offense and six on defense.
“We have the confidence of knowing how college football is,” Trammell said, “and we just want to win games like we know we can.”