 RE: *** Official Rice (2-1) at South Florida (1-2) Game Thread***
I think I was happiest to see freshman QB AJ Padgett come in and, once he calmed down, drive down the field with the team and score on a great one-handed catch to Marietta, GA's Rawson MacNeill. Daniels does have a strong arm, which is something we haven't had here for a while. But as good as Daniels was when he was, he's just so immobile that there's no mystery and the defense can set up for his passes and blitz to fold the pocket for the quick sack. Plus, no matter what, he's gone after this year, the sixth for a head coach that insists on running plays which seem to be designed to consistently lose yardage nearly every time (I mean the running plays). Even the D-level announcers assigned to the game called that out it was so blatantly obvious. (Shades of Mcguffie-up the-middle, Oy vey!). Oh, wait, we DID have +1 yard TOTAL rushing for the game, and we won TOP. So what, rather be USF where the goal is to score as quickly as possible and lead the nation in that stat. Kudos to the Bulls coaching staff.
Rice needs, and can get, an undersized, but effective, scrambling QB in the Doug Flutie or QB Fran Tarkenton mold. That seems to be the best QB-type that can work here on S. Main. Liked what Mccaffery and Conners did today, but we need a new Head coach who understands he won't win here by playing the same type of football as the big boys at Rice, but he can if he is creative and works to his talent's strength and wins the kicking game (not too good today). This current head coach's tenure at Rice can't come to an end soon enough. I was impressed with what S. Fla is building, and their frosh QB was impressive. Both teams need to cut down the penalties. That said, at least this game was entertaining for the level of play it featured for most of it until the fourth where USF did what was needed to put away a game either could have won to that point. Lots of crossing routes and quick throws to wide open receivers for both teams. In the end, USF handled Rice.
This Rice team is better than any the past 6 years, but that bar has been pretty low. I'd like to be decent most years and great once every now and again. Still waiting and would hate for this coach to somehow finagle an extension the way things appear now. He was a good buddy of our now-former AD after all. We don't need any more Oberlin-types here, please. Just get us a regular southern USA Coach who thinks and is willing to call games a bit different. Keep letting AJ Padgett get reps, and use JT Daniels and his great arm but glass body and nearly invisible legs a but less, so you develop AJ for the future. Some rotation in QB might help both of them, help the running game (Padgett can scramble a bit, thank goodness) and mix things up for opposing defenses.
(This post was last modified: 09-23-2023 11:33 PM by GoodOwl.)
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*** Official Rice (2-1) at South Florida (1-2) Game Thread***
