Offense excites new coordinator
As Rice kicks off a spring football season it hopes will run much smoother than last year, new faces line the field. Chief among them are two new coaches on the offensive side of the ball: coordinator/quarterbacks coach Marques Tuiasosopo and tight ends coach Jim Jackson.
Tuiasosopo comes to the Owls after four seasons with California, while Jackson spent the past two years at UMass.
“It’s really interesting when you have a job open these days the interest level you can get,” coach Mike Bloomgren said Tuesday about the pool of candidates. “What I’d say that blew me away and really humbled me is how many people see what our kids are doing and the progress that they’ve made and wanted to be a part of our staff.”
Tuiasosopo replaces former offensive coordinator Jerry Mack, who joined the staff at Tennessee.
After a stellar career as a college quarterback at Washington followed by NFL stints with the Raiders and Jets, Tuiasosopo made various coaching stops with the Huskies, UCLA, USC and Cal.
Having spent more than a decade in different offenses along the West Coast, Tuiasosopo brings a similar background as Bloomgren, who earned his own West Coast-based offensive chops as a coach at Stanford. Tuiasosopo said much of Rice’s offensive scheme will look relatively similar, since his offensive philosophy matches Bloomgren’s.
Tuiasosopo’s familiarity with a power-run, controlthe-clock approach made taking the job at Rice a nobrainer.
“Being able to come here and talk with coach Bloomgren and the direction of this offense, it was almost like lockstep,” Tuiasosopo said. “So being able to step in here and talk about run game and how we’re going to relate it to our play-action pass game and dropback game, it made that transition seamless.”
Tuiasoposo will also take control of the quarterback position. He said the four players currently at the spot will have a “clean slate.”
Jake Constantine, a transfer from Weber State with two FCS Playoff appearances under his belt, and JoVoni Johnson, who started in an upset win over then-No. 15 Marshall last season, are arguably the favorites to compete for the starting job. However, Tuiasosopo and Bloomgren both made it clear T.J. McMahon and Wiley Green will have a shot to stake their claim this spring.
“I’m excited for that competition,” Bloomgren said. “We’ve got four of those guys in, and I think it’s worth talking about all of them.”
Jackson and Bloomgren have crossed paths throughout their respective coaching careers, enough that Jackson said he looked at Bloomgren as a mentor. While he was coaching at San Diego, Jackson even marketed the program as “Stanford South” to recruits in reference to what Bloomgren was doing with the Cardinal’s offense.
The Owls are stocked with experience at tight end, where they bring back key pieces in Jordan Myers and Jack Bradley. However, as with the quarterbacks, Jackson said his position players will have a clean slate, meaning any one of them can end up atop the depth chart this season.
Bloomgren said he doesn’t love change by nature, which made it a blessing he was able to bring in coaches who fit his offensive vision. Now, with 15 total practices for the new staff and players to get acclimated, Rice, which went 2-3 in a short 2020 season, looks to set a solid foundation as it hopes to earn its first winning campaign since 2014.
“Truthfully, (Rice is) where I wanted to go coming out of high school,” said Jackson, a Mesquite native. “This is a great place. This is a special place.”