Daniels’ status still uncertain
Saturday is Rice’s first American Athletic Conference home game after opening league play last week in a 42-29 setback at South Florida. This will be the first football game between Rice and East Carolina since 2010. The series is tied 2-2 with the home side winning each time, playing as members of Conference USA.
While the Owls have started league action, this is ECU’s first league game of 2023. The Pirates closed their non-conference portion last week. Benefiting from tremendous field position, ECU dominated mistake-riddled GardnerWebb 44-0 for its first shutout in 23 years and first victory this season following three defeats.
Here are five things to watch going into the first matchup between Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren and his ECU counterpart Mike Houston.
Quarterback question
The main question from the Rice standpoint is the health of quarterback J.T. Daniels, who left the game in the third quarter at USF with a lower-body injury.
Earlier in the week, Bloomgren said the Owls were preparing like Daniels would play on Saturday. It may be a game-time decision on Daniels, whose 432 passing yards against the Bulls is the third most in a single game in program history.
Daniels leads the AAC in yards, yards per game, passing touchdowns and efficiency. He has bettered his longest career completion in consecutive games — a 70-yard TD to Kobie Campbell versus Texas Southern, then an 80-yard score to Dean Connors at USF. If Daniels is unavailable, A.J. Padgett, who relieved Daniels at USF, would get the start.
ECU QB rotation
East Carolina has been splitting time between its quarterbacks, making a change at the position after the second game.
Mason Garcia started against Michigan and Marshall. Alex Flinn made his first start at Appalachian State and got the nod again against Gardner-Webb. Garcia is the team’s top rusher at 178 yards on 32 carries, helping the passing game on quick hitters. Flinn has thrown for a team-high 365 yards on 34-of-68 passing.
Owls can score
Putting up points has not been a problem for Rice. A 323.8 passing yards average leads the league. Over its past three games, the Owls are averaging 43.6 points. Daniels has thrown for 1,237 yards and 11 touchdowns against three interceptions on 80-of-125 passing.
Luke McCaffrey has caught 20 passes for 370 yards and four touchdowns.
Dean Connors is the team’s leading rusher at 153 yards. Coming out of the backfield, Connors has emerged as key receiver, catching an 80-yard scoring pass from Daniels at USF.
“A combination of a really good quarterback, a solid offensive line, and playmakers that have big-play ability,” Houston said.
Fast starts
Striving for consistency is every team’s objective. One thing the Owls have mastered this season is scoring early. Rice has put up points in the first quarter in each of its first four games, with 28 against Texas Southern and 21 against Houston. Over its past three games, the Owls have scored on eight of nine first-quarter possessions. Rice has totaled 59 first-quarter points over four games.
Bloomgren said it comes down to the players being comfortable with the coaching staff ’s vision.
“(Offensive coordinator Marques) Tuiasosopo putting a good plan together all week and giving the guys the comfort in the plan,” Bloomgren said. “There’s so much comfort with not only the primary looks the (opposing) defense will give us, but also the secondary looks.”
Aggressive Pirates
East Carolina has been winning the turnover battle. Last year ECU was plus 13 in turnovers. This year the Pirates are plus one, but over their past two games the Pirates have managed seven takeaways while turning the ball over four times.
Gardner-Webb fumbled eight times against ECU, losing five. The Bulldogs’ offense never got untracked against the Pirates. In addition to the five turnovers, Gardner-Webb had five three-and-out-series and turned the ball over on downs twice.