Editor’s note: This is part 11 of a 13-part series previewing each of Western Kentucky’s opponents for the 2021 football season. Part 11 features a look at Rice. Part 12 will preview FAU.
Western Kentucky’s second meeting with a Conference USA West Division opponent will take the team to Houston.
The Hilltoppers are scheduled to travel to Rice to face the Owls on Nov. 13.
The Owls haven’t had a winning season since they went 8-5 and beat Fresno State in the Hawaii Bowl in 2014. The program played only five games last year – each of which were against a fellow C-USA opponent. Rice had one of the top defenses in the country last season and is hoping for progress from the offense with new coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo.
“Continued growth,” Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren said in July during the C-USA virtual media days. “I think we can take a big step forward.”
Rice was unable to play until Oct. 24 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it opened the season with a 40-34 double-overtime loss against Middle Tennessee. It had a chance to win in the first overtime after the Blue Raiders missed a field goal, but a 45-yard field-goal attempt from Collin Riccitelli hit both uprights and the crossbar twice – a quadruple doink – before bouncing back into play.
After that game, Rice beat Southern Miss, lost to North Texas and upset then-No. 15 Marshall – which won the East Division title – before closing the season with a loss to eventual C-USA champion UAB. Rice’s three losses were by an average of seven points.
Despite seeing limited action, it was a sign of progress in the third season under Bloomgren. The Owls went just 3-9 in 2019 and had the second-worst scoring offense in C-USA at 17.9 points per game.
Expectations still aren’t through the roof for Rice – it was picked fifth in the West Division, ahead of North Texas and UTEP – but returning talent, as well as incoming players, gives the program hope.
Rice returns nine starters on offense and 10 on a defense that posted the third-best points allowed average in C-USA and 12th-best nationally last year at 18.8 per game. It loses its best defender statistically with linebacker Blaze Alldredge, who transferred to Missouri. He led the Owls with 47 tackles last year, including three for loss and a sack, and also had an interception and two pass breakups.
“Certainly bringing back 10 starters we have even higher hopes for that defense and higher beliefs, I guess I should say,” Bloomgren said. “We’re thrilled with how that group is working together and can’t wait to turn them loose on first our offense and then the rest of the world as we start games.”
Rice has seven quarterbacks on its roster, including JoVoni Johnson, who saw action in multiple games last season, and Wiley Green, who started seven games in 2019, but most of the attention in the offseason has gone to redshirt freshman Luke McCaffrey – a Nebraska transfer and the younger brother of NFL Pro Bowler Christian McCaffrey.
Luke McCaffrey played in seven games and had two starts for the Huskers last season, and completed 48 of 76 passes for 466 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 364 yards and three scores on 65 attempts. Before joining Rice, he had transferred to Louisville, but elected not to stay and instead will play for Bloomgren, who was offensive coordinator at Stanford while his older brother played there and won AP Player of the Year.
Rice also will have graduate transfer QB Jake Constantine, who sat out last season after starting two seasons at FCS Weber State.
The Owls lost their top receiver from last year in Austin Trammell but return Jake Bailey and Jordan Myers, who each caught more than 20 passes in 2020. Rice will also have back Bradley Rozner, who elected to sit out last season after an injury when the team’s practices began in October after leading the team with 770 yards and five touchdowns receiving and finished second with 55 catches. His yards and receptions in 2019 were the most for a first-year Rice player since stats entered the program’s media guides in 1951.
Rice also returns Khalan Griffin and Juma Otoviano, its two leading rushers last year.
“There’s been a lot of changes this offseason,” Bloomgren said. “The things that maybe I’m not normally very comfortable with change, but I’m excited about these changes, and that starts with our new offensive coordinator Marques Tuiasosopo, who I had a chance to coach when he was a player with the New York Jets and then I’ve watched his career throughout.
“I love what he’s brought to our offense from a juice standpoint. Also from a knowledge of the passing game. Our backgrounds are very similar, but he’s still got some different ways to get to Chicago, if you will.”
The meeting with the Hilltoppers will be Rice’s sixth C-USA game after a tough nonconference schedule that features Arkansas, Houston, Texas and Texas Southern.
WKU has won both meetings between the two programs – a 46-14 victory in Bowling Green in 2016 and a 49-10 victory in Houston in 2015.
Kickoff for the Nov. 13 game is scheduled for 1 p.m.{&end}
