Rice is counting on three players to step up as replacements.
Defensive lineman, offensive tackle, LB trying to lead units
Rice defensive lineman Roe Wilkins spent the better part of Monday’s practice ripping, swimming and blasting through football sleds and dummies.
Following a progressive spring into an intensive summer, Wilkins and the other Owls are ready to hit someone other than their teammates or inanimate objects.
They speak of their gains in matter-of-fact terms.
The teammates are collectively more focused and players from each unit are giving more of themselves.
The Owls’ confidence is infectious, but they will require more than attitude to flip the script following a 1-11 campaign during 2017. And despite those convictions, Rice must still replace some of its best talent following an offseason of transfers and graduations.
The three players with the biggest shoes to fill in 2018:
Roe Wilkins
Rice’s defensive line excelled last season and is poised to do so again in 2018.
Wilkins established himself last year, finishing fifth in Conference USA in sacks with 6½. But that success was secondary to that of conference sack leader Brian Womac (10½), whose nonstop engine helped earn him a contract with the Los Angeles Rams.
Not only is Womac gone but so is defensive tackle Preston Gordon, who transferred to Texas Tech. And Wilkins’ friend and former defensive end Blain Padgett died in March.
Still, Rice is loaded with upperclassmen talent, including sixth-year veteran Graysen Schantz and redshirt senior Parker Hanusa.
Wilkins, a redshirt junior, feels liberated in new defensive coordinator Brian Smith’s scheme. As Wilkins has sought to shape his role as a leader of the unit, he has been pleased to see the team’s more natural leaders begin to take command.
“We’re fully capable of breaking the sack record; we’ve got the players to do it,” Wilkins said. “We’re all playing for (Padgett) and that’s what this season is about. Yeah, there’s big shoes to fill, but we’ve got the players to fill them.”
Sam Pierce
Despite last season’s uncertainty at quarterback, Rice coaches lauded an experienced offensive line led by players such as Trey Martin, Peter Godber and Calvin Ander- son.
Martin dominated last year but he graduated. Godber is playing professionally in Canada and, after a publicized recruiting process, Anderson transferred to the University of Texas.
All of this while the relative uncertainty at quarterback lingers on.
Although injuries forced younger Rice linemen into action, Pierce enters the 2018 season as the lone returning starter with 34 games and 23 starts under his belt.
In preparation for this season, during which linemen will be crucial to the success of coach Mike Bloomgren’s ground game, Pierce has worked to trim body fat while maintaining his strength and improving his technique. He said he’s more agile and better conditioned than he has ever been.
“Some of our workouts have just been a lot harder than in the past,” Pierce said. “We’re working a lot more drills, working on a lot more technique stuff instead of just concepts. … We’re going to be at a mechanical advantage.” As a redshirt senior, the right tackle has sought to take more ownership as a leader for younger Owls players this offsea- son. He joined the team’s leadership council, a program created to foster better guidance in potential team leaders.
As he looks forward to the season, Pierce is confident last year’s experiences provide the building blocks for promising new starters.
“All those guys (Martin, Godber, Anderson) are great players and we are young this year,” Pierce said. “But at the same time I’ve been lucky to play a lot.
“Joe Dill, my right guard, has played a lot. Shea Baker redshirted last year. but he’s a solid player — he’s been killing it.”
Martin Nwakamma
Former Owls linebacker Emmanuel Ellerbee accounted for 15 percent of Rice’s team tackles over the past two seasons. For reference, the next highest tackler (Destri White) accounted for almost 7 percent.
But Ellerbee has moved on to the Atlanta Falcons and the linebacking corps has been thinned by senior departures.
That leaves Nwakamma as the most experienced returnee in a group of mostly fresh faces.
But that inexperience doesn’t faze the senior, who said he has been mentally preparing to step into the role for some time.
“I started feeling that — I wouldn’t say pressure — but a need to step up probably around the end of last year,” Nwakamma said in describing how his confidence rose as the 2017 season and his performances progressed.
“Those guys are really good football players,” he said of Ellerbee and former teammate DJ Green. “But for me I have to remember why I’m out here. I just have to play my game, play fast and just study the tape. And as long as I’m on top of that it’ll come.”
After learning his third defense in three years, Nwakamma is focused on polishing his technique during training camp. He also wants to be a voice and a force that his teammates can rely on on the field.
“Our linebacker play in spring could have been better, but we’re starting to see the big picture now,” Nwakamma said. “We’re practicing different, we’re competing different, and we’re training very differently now.
“So for Rice fans out there it’s going to pay dividends.”