Rice Owls Roster 2019 Owls Roster

Head Coach: Mike Boomgren        2017 Salary: N/A        Offensive Coordinator: Jerry Mack       Defensive Coordinator: Brian Smith         

Stadium: Rice Stadium       Surface: Turf        City: Houston        State: Texas

After winning one solitary game in 2017, the Rice Owls made a necessary coaching change as the Owls lost ground under David Bailiff. In comes Mike Bloomgren who, at 34 years of age, has coached practically everywhere. His last stop was as the coordinator of a very successful Stanford offense.

Bloomgren’s style at Stanford was power football, and he is trying to recreate Rice in the image of the Cardinal. He eschews the growing fad of the spread offense in favor of a traditional straight-ahead offense. The open question is whether Rice has the personnel to run Bloomgren’s favored system. Certainly, he will not have the horses at first. Miklo Smalls will run the Owls’ offense after assuming the starting job late in his freshman season. Rice does return all of its top four running backs from last year so there are some holdovers to begin to execute Bloomgren’s offense.

The Owls’ defense ranked towards the bottom of the FBS last season, and improvement does not seem to be on the horizon this season. Rice is still reeling from the tragic death in March of defensive end Blain Padgett. His passing will have an impact on the defense both as a loss of a key player and as a devastating emotional blow. The Owls’ weakness will be in the rebuilt secondary which will be vulnerable to the big play. The schedule for Rice is brutal this season. This would be tough for any team, let alone one coming off of a 1-11 season.