Defense looked good in the first half. Saw some booming punts! Offense gat rolling in the second half. Warner played and looked good in the second half. Padgett also moved the ball and scored. Jackson was fun to watch when he had the ball. Good vibes all around. I think we will be ok, and take that next step to 7-5.
worried bout same old same old. Offense managed (in a Spring game????!!!!!) to get two delay of game penalties in a row then get lost yards on a 3rd and long run.
A RB and WR looked solid, but they're pretty small....
(04-13-2024 07:58 PM)ESE84 Wrote: Defense looked good in the first half. Saw some booming punts! Offense gat rolling in the second half. Warner played and looked good in the second half. Padgett also moved the ball and scored. Jackson was fun to watch when he had the ball. Good vibes all around. I think we will be ok, and take that next step to 7-5.
Agree with this assessment. Warner settled in during the second half and made some pin point accurate throws that caused those around me, and including me, make an exclamation of Ohhhh or Wow. It was actually a pretty good crowd, more than I expected. Dean Connor is something special, as we all know from watching him run this past year. Sean Fresch is a beast at cornerback. I predict he will also take at least one to the house on a punt return next season as he is due and very capable of that. Goodness he is quick. Agree also on Jackson - yes, very fun to watch him run. As in the practices I went to, these players are extremely competitive. These guys really do want to win, even in practice, whether it is defense over offense or offense over defense. They let each other know about it when they get the best of the other, and man, they get pissed when they don't succeed. The practices I saw were intense.
(04-13-2024 09:54 PM)texowl2 Wrote: worried bout same old same old. Offense managed (in a Spring game????!!!!!) to get two delay of game penalties in a row then get lost yards on a 3rd and long run.
A RB and WR looked solid, but they're pretty small....
Yes, I saw the two consecutive delay of game penalties. I don't remember who was at QB at that time.
(04-13-2024 09:54 PM)texowl2 Wrote: worried bout same old same old. Offense managed (in a Spring game????!!!!!) to get two delay of game penalties in a row then get lost yards on a 3rd and long run.
A RB and WR looked solid, but they're pretty small....
Yes, I saw the two consecutive delay of game penalties. I don't remember who was at QB at that time.
All in all, the write up from The Roost painted a pretty optimistic picture of the team at this stage. I especially liked the comments about our increased team speed.
Every team in the country gets giddy after Spring ball. However, with this kind of report and a bit better schedule than last year, I think we’ve got a real chance to achieve an actual winning season this year.
With all our returnees this will be a huge season for Rice and, I believe, the last season that Bloom will coach us. Unless Warner turns out to be a transcendent player 2025 will be a huge rebuilding year. If we don't have a winning record next year Bloom will be fired, and if we do have a big year Bloom will find new employment so he doesn't have to experience the expected 2025 drop-off.
Our defense returns almost the entire 2-deep this year, and should be our stoutest defense since maybe '94 or the early '70s Cornelius Walker years. As for the offense we have question marks all over the place (especially wide receiver), but we should be just good enough if Warner is healthy and as-advertised.
(04-14-2024 07:41 PM)wrysal Wrote: With all our returnees this will be a huge season for Rice and, I believe, the last season that Bloom will coach us. Unless Warner turns out to be a transcendent player 2025 will be a huge rebuilding year. If we don't have a winning record next year Bloom will be fired, and if we do have a big year Bloom will find new employment so he doesn't have to experience the expected 2025 drop-off.
Our defense returns almost the entire 2-deep this year, and should be our stoutest defense since maybe '94 or the early '70s Cornelius Walker years. As for the offense we have question marks all over the place (especially wide receiver), but we should be just good enough if Warner is healthy and as-advertised.
Even if we don't have a big year, I agree with the bolded. After accounting for the coaches that were fired or left after this article was published, Bloomgren ranks behind only Pittman, Wilcox, Napier, Aranda and Ferentz (sort of) in this article on hot seat coaches. If Rice goes 7-5/7-6 next year and still decides to keep him (not debating the merits of that for this particular scenario), I would guess that Bloom would at least consider jumping for an NFL OC/position coach or high P5 OC job just to get out while the getting is relatively good. If his best season win total after 7 years is 7 wins, I just can't imagine a higher ranking college job would be all that interested in him as an HC, but much stranger things have happened.
(04-17-2024 08:34 AM)Ourland Wrote: Wouldn't it be something if we actually had an offensive line this year? Warner could pass for 300 and Connor could run for 80 every game.
Or if we had a scheme where somebody could throw for 3000 a year and somenody could rush for 1000 a year, every year.
(This post was last modified: 04-17-2024 04:42 PM by Owl 69/70/75.)
