WINNING MINDSET
Moral victories won’t do for an Owls team intent on turning corner
During Rice’s nine-game losing streak last year, there came a point when coach Mike Bloomgren declared an end to moral victories.
The Owls have evolved in Bloomgren’s 25 games at the school. They can produce points and attract talent in ways they failed to near the end of former coach David Bailiff’s tenure.
But as Bloomgren prepares for his third season on South Main, his old message forms the backbone of the Owls’ 2020 perspective: Rice can be — and should be — a winning team.
“When you look around, especially for programs that weren’t in a good place, the third year is a very important year to have growth, and it’s a year we’ve pointed to,” Bloomgren said.
Rice hasn’t had a winning season or been to a bowl since 2014, but it’s worth acknowledging how far the Owls have come in Bloomgren’s two years. Players have gushed about their physical development under strength and conditioning coach Hans Straub. Bloomgren and his staff extended Rice’s recruiting terrain from coast to coast and tapped a junior college pipeline Bailiff never thought existed.
Rice’s program overhaul was accompanied by a broader investment in athletics — including a new indoor practice facility — and students, through a 2018 policy that expanded financial aid for families with incomes up to $200,000. Bloomgren believes the latter helped land quality walk-on talent, including cornerback Tre’shon Devones, who has since earned a scholarship.
All of that has earned Rice a new reputation as the not so wimpy kid on the block.
“A coach at UAB called me last year after we played,” linebackers coach Scott Vestal said of the 35-20 loss. “He said, ‘Bro, we were scared.’ When opposing coaches say, ‘You guys are a hell of a lot better than we wanted you to be,’ that’s when you know you’re making progress.”
In each of Bloomgren’s first two seasons, the Owls needed every game on the schedule to illustrate improvement. They won their second game of the 2018 season in the finale against Old Dominion; a similar scenario led to their third win in the final game against UTEP last year.
Ahead of this season, three of the Owls’ most difficult opponents — defending national champion LSU, Army and Houston — were removed from the schedule due to cancellations related to COVID-19, although director of athletics Joe Karlgaard said he hopes to reschedule games against Army and UH.
Rice returns the bulk of its defense in 2020, including linebacker Blaze Alldredge. Bloomgren is confident the Owls can make up for what they lose on offense through a blend of returning starters and incoming talent.
“Just because Mike Collins hasn’t done it in a Rice uniform doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to do it well,” Bloomgren said of his quarterback, a graduate transfer from TCU.
Collins held an edge over redshirt freshman JoVoni Johnson after spring, although Bloomgren said he might use both to capitalize on Johnson’s mobility, as he did late last year. They’ll have two proven targets in receivers Bradley Rozner and Austin Trammell. Redshirt sophomore running back Juma Otoviano is expected to reassert himself after an injury in 2019.
Tackle Brandt Peterson is part of a relatively young but experienced offensive line. While COVID-19 disrupted offseason workouts and jeopardized the season, Peterson said he and his teammates took the time to better understand schemes and assignments.
“The last few years, everyone just understood their individual part, whereas now it’s more of an orchestra, with everyone playing off each other and understanding what everyone else is doing at the same time so everything just meshes together,” he said.
No Rice players were selected for the 2019 preseason AllConference USA team. Entering this year, several are listed on national award watch lists, including Alldredge (Bednarik, Nagurski and Butkus awards) and Rozner (Biletnikoff ).
But Rice’s defensive strength is more about depth than star power. Alldredge overshadows two ballhawks in Antonio Montero and Treshawn Chamberlain, who combined for 147 tackles in 2019. Backup safety Prudy Calderon is the active career interception leader (four).
Most notably, Rice ranked no better than 12th in C-USA in 30yard plays allowed from 2014 through 2018. The Owls tied for fifth last season, giving up fewer such plays than any Rice defense had in the past decade.
Rice drew within one possession in four of its nine defeats last season. The team added kicker Collin Riccitelli from Stanford to help close out games in 2020.
“We’re on the cusp of something pretty good. We really are,” Vestal said of the Bloomgren era. “This is our best team, period. End of story.”