College Football News Preview 2021: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Rice season with what you need to know.
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– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Rice Owls Schedule Analysis
– Rice Owls Previews
2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2020 Record: 2-3 overall, 2-3 in C-USA
Head Coach: Mike Bloomgren, 4th year, 7-23
2020 CFN Final Ranking: 106
2020 CFN Preview Ranking: 116
2019 CFN Final Ranking: 115
Rice Owls College Football Preview 2021: Offense
– The offense started to turn a bit last year. It was only a five-game season, and the team didn’t have a chance to get into any sort of a groove, but after few years under Mike Bloomgren, the team was able to control the clock like it wanted to, the passing game was efficient, and …
– There wasn’t enough scoring. The running game has to be stronger, but the receivers are once again in place to at least push the ball downfield a bit. Leading passer Mike Collins is gone, but redshirt freshman Jovani Johnson is a 6-3, 215-pound more mobile option who was solid when he got his chances.
Leading receiver yardage-wise Austin Trammell is done, but leading pass catcher Jordan Meyers is back at tight end along with likely starter Jack Bradley, and sophomore Jake Bailey is a decent slot target. The big deal, though, is the return of star Bradley Rozner after he opted out last year.
– The biggest key to the offense that revolves around pounding away and controlling the clock – all five starting offensive linemen are expected to be back. There’s good size, solid depth, and enough time logged in to be a whole lot better after struggling at keeping defenses out of the backfield.
The top rushers are all back. Khalan Grifin, Juma Otoviano and Ari Broussard should combine to average at least four yards per carry, and again, JoVoni Johnson can run. However, the Owls only ran for one touchdown, and it came from a wide receiver.
– What You Need To Know: Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Rice Owls Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Rice Owls College Football Preview 2021: Defense
4. Rice Owls College Football Preview 2021: Defense
– The defense didn’t play a who’s who of killers, but it was able to pull off a shocker by holding Marshall to 245 yards in the 20-0 shutout and only allowed over 400 yards once in the five games. Leading tackler Blaze Alldredge left for Missouri, but eight of the nine top tacklers return.
– The run defense allowed more than 140 yards to North Texas, and that’s it. There isn’t a ton of bulk on the front three, but there’s experience and a decent rotation coming around 300-pound veteran Elijah Garcia on the nose, and if safety-sized Myron Morrison can step in for Alldredge and be okay, the linebacking corps should grow into a plus. But …
– There was next to no pass rush. It’s a smallish, quick defense that has to be more disruptive, but it’s decent at swarming around the ball. All of last year’s starters in the secondary return – sophomore Kirk Lockhart is a keeper at safety – and there are more than enough options to play around with the lineup.
– What You Need To Know: Offense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Rice Owls Schedule Analysis
NEXT: Rice Owls College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Rice Owls College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Best Rice Owls Offensive Player
WR Bradley Rozner, Jr.
The 6-5, 204-pounder opted out of the 2020 season after ripping it up for 770 yards and five touchdown on 55 catches in his first year coming over from the JUCO ranks. He’s got the size, deep speed, and hands to be a No. 1 target who can stretch the field. It’s a good group of Owl receivers returning, and he’ll be the one who makes it all go.
2. OT Clay Servin, Soph.
3. OT Jovaun Woolford, Sr.
4. WR/PR Jake Bailey, Soph.
5. QB JoVani Johnson, RFr.
Best Rice Owls Defensive Player
DT De’Braylon Carroll, Soph.
The man in the middle is one of the few Owls who bring the bulk into the interior. At 6-0 and 291 pounds, he’s just big enough to hold his own against the run, and he’s able to be a factor behind the line with 2.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss in two years from the nose.
2. S Kirk Lockhart, Soph.
3. LB Treshawn Chamberlain, Jr.
4. DT Elijah Garcia, Sr.
5. LB Antoni Montero, Jr.
Top Incoming Rice Owls Transfer
WR Cedric Patterson
The Owls aren’t bringing in a slew of transfers, but the more help for the receiving corps, the better. The 5-11, 180-pound Patterson comes in from New Mexico after averaging close to 19 yards per catch on his 16 grabs with three scores. If nothing else, he’s a field stretcher.
NEXT: Rice Owls College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Rice Owls College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Rice Owls Biggest Key: Offense
Run it better … run it better … run it better. If you’re a program with a coaching staff that wants to pound away and control the clock on the ground, the rushing attack has to work. The offense has the time of possession thing down, but the offensive line hasn’t been able to generate any sort of a consistent push.
There’s experience up front, there’s upside in the backfield, and there’s likely going to be a quarterback under center in JoVani Johnson who can move. The ground game has to do more than the 2.8 yards per carry last year with one touchdown.
Rice Owls Biggest Key: Defense
Get into the backfield. The defense wasn’t all that bad and it got stronger as the season went on, but there wasn’t nearly enough playmaking in the backfield for a team with so much quickness on the outside.
The Owls managed just 22 tackles for loss – just 4.4 per game – with just seven sacks in the five games. Even worse, six of those seven sacks came in two games. Basically, the D has to be far more disruptive.
Rice Owls Key Player To A Successful Season
QB JoVani Johnson, RFr.
Mike Collins threw ten touchdown passes and one pick, but even more than that, he brought the grad transfer-level maturity to the position as the offense was able to overcome a slew of issues with an efficient passing attack. Collins was good, but he wasn’t a runner. Johnson is.
Johnson hit 73% of his passes for 225 yards and a score – he was great late in the win over Marshall and the fight against UAB – and added 83 rushing yards. If he’s solid, the rest of the veteran team should quickly rise up.
Rice Owls Key Game To The 2021 Season
Southern Miss, Oct. 2
If things go according to form, Rice will likely start out the year 0-3 against Arkansas, Houston and Texas before beating Texas Southern. Then it’s Conference USA time with the opener against a Southern Miss team the Owls beat 30-6 last year.
Lose, and with the next two games on the road at UTSA and UAB, it’s going to be a rough first half of the season.
– Rice Owls Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2020 Rice Owls Fun Stats
– Time of Possession: Rice 36:00 – Opponents 24:00
– Sacks: Opponents 17 for 120 yards – Rice 7 for 46 yards
– Fumbles: Rice 10 (lost 6) – Opponents 4 (lost 3)
NEXT: Rice Owls College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
Rice Owls College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
The program has only won 11 games over the last five seasons and hasn’t had a winning campaign since 2014, but it appears to be on the verge of being a bit of a surprise.
Everyone has experience returning, but Rice should benefit from the continuity more than most. Talent will always be an issue for the Owls, and quality depth is even harder to build up, but they have both of that to go along with the experience.
Now they have to pull off more shockers like the win over Marshall last season.
Set The Rice Owls Regular Season Win Total At … 5
Step One will be to take care of home. Beat the teams like Southern Miss, North Texas and WKU in Houston, and then hope to pull off an upset or three to go along with winnable away games against Charlotte and UTEP, and this really could be a breakthrough season.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– Rice Owls Schedule Analysis
