The fact that Mike Bloomgren is 6-15 in conference games speaks directly on his failure as Rice head football coach.

You can draw your own conclusions as to why he still is employed at Rice University, particularly since his salary is being subsidized by an alumnus's endowment of that position.

I agree. The only solace is that the team has looked slightly improved each year and Coach Bailiff left him with a pretty bare cupboard. The defense has been better than the Bailiff defenses and I can squint at the offensive players and imagine a better offense with a more creative offensive system.

Next year will make or break for Bloom

(12-26-2020 07:51 PM)mrbig Wrote:  I agree. The only solace is that the team has looked slightly improved each year and Coach Bailiff left him with a pretty bare cupboard. The defense has been better than the Bailiff defenses and I can squint at the offensive players and imagine a better offense with a more creative offensive system.

3 recruiting classes should have filled that cupboard. 3 years and the Owls are still below .500 in the worst conference in FBS. That would seem to trump any of the slight gains you mention.

Rice and Houston have had losing records the last two seasons. That's the first time both teams have had losing records since 1994 and 1995, although to be fair the 1994 Rice football season was a pretty decent one with wins over Texas, Texas Tech and Iowa State (and a 7-0 loss to A&M).

(12-26-2020 08:22 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 07:51 PM)mrbig Wrote:  I agree. The only solace is that the team has looked slightly improved each year and Coach Bailiff left him with a pretty bare cupboard. The defense has been better than the Bailiff defenses and I can squint at the offensive players and imagine a better offense with a more creative offensive system.

3 recruiting classes should have filled that cupboard. 3 years and the Owls are still below .500 in the worst conference in FBS. That would seem to trump any of the slight gains you mention.

Three recruiting classes and a veritable plethora of grad transfers.

(12-26-2020 08:22 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 07:51 PM)mrbig Wrote:  I agree. The only solace is that the team has looked slightly improved each year and Coach Bailiff left him with a pretty bare cupboard. The defense has been better than the Bailiff defenses and I can squint at the offensive players and imagine a better offense with a more creative offensive system.

3 recruiting classes should have filled that cupboard. 3 years and the Owls are still below .500 in the worst conference in FBS. That would seem to trump any of the slight gains you mention.

I still think the problem is that we are trying to run an offense that we can't recruit to fit. We can't get the dominant offensive linemen to pound the rock, and we can't get the drop back passer to run the passing attack that goes with it. Those guys are in demand by places with a lot more to offer than we have, and they are going to go elsewhere. I think we need to figure out what we can recruit with our self-imposed limitations (with which I generally agree, although I think we could streamline the process a bit), and then build offensive and defensive schemes around the kinds of athletes that we can recruit.

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

Isn't that what we said last year?

He survived only because of the Marshall game. Losing to bottom ten teams Middle Tenn and North Texas says a lot. It's not the players, it's his offense that has never looked good for an entire game. Our worst post-SWC offense has been his, by a mile.

(12-27-2020 09:54 AM)Buho00 Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

Isn't that what we said last year?
He survived only because of the Marshall game. Losing to bottom ten teams Middle Tenn and North Texas says a lot. It's not the players, it's his offense that has never looked good for an entire game. Our worst post-SWC offense has been his, by a mile.

No, he survived because the only guy that Joe seems able to fire is Wayne Graham, the one guy without whom Joe doesn't have a job.

(12-26-2020 08:22 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 07:51 PM)mrbig Wrote:  I agree. The only solace is that the team has looked slightly improved each year and Coach Bailiff left him with a pretty bare cupboard. The defense has been better than the Bailiff defenses and I can squint at the offensive players and imagine a better offense with a more creative offensive system.

3 recruiting classes should have filled that cupboard. 3 years and the Owls are still below .500 in the worst conference in FBS. That would seem to trump any of the slight gains you mention.

I give Rice a slight mulligan for the MTSU loss. Tough to play our 1st game of the season against a team playing its 6th game of the season. That doesn’t excuse the North Texas and UAB results. Scoring 33 combined points in those games shows the weaknesses in Bloomgren’s system and coaching.

Let him dig his own grave.

(12-27-2020 09:54 AM)Buho00 Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

Isn't that what we said last year?

He survived only because of the Marshall game. Losing to bottom ten teams Middle Tenn and North Texas says a lot. It's not the players, it's his offense that has never looked good for an entire game. Our worst post-SWC offense has been his, by a mile.

Rice had the ball for 36:26 in that game, but accumulated just 213 yards of total offense and 13 points. That's almost impossible, even if you tried.

(12-28-2020 10:32 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(12-27-2020 09:54 AM)Buho00 Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

Isn't that what we said last year?

He survived only because of the Marshall game. Losing to bottom ten teams Middle Tenn and North Texas says a lot. It's not the players, it's his offense that has never looked good for an entire game. Our worst post-SWC offense has been his, by a mile.

Rice had the ball for 36:26 in that game, but accumulated just 213 yards of total offense and 13 points. That's almost impossible, even if you tried.

what was it we liked about Bloom? Oh, yeah, he wasn't Bailiff. I bet if we looked we could find somebody else who isn't Bailiff. There must be dozens out there.

I am losing my optimism. But I have a faint hope that next year, maybe he can put things together. In any case, not my call. whoever is coaching the Owls next year, I will be rooting for them to win.

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

The phrase "next year" reminds me of this classic Bugs Bunny / Daffy Duck exchange:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bugs_B...r_the_show

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

Decent Chronicle article about the Rice season. No hint that Bloom is under pressure.


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-s...830627.php

(12-28-2020 04:52 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

Decent Chronicle article about the Rice season. No hint that Bloom is under pressure.


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-s...830627.php

Decent Chronicle article? That's an oxymoron.

No real reporting here, just regurgitation of the Bloom's press releases.

In 2018, the Owls "pound-the-rock" Stanford-style rushing attack averaged 3.8 ypc; in 2019, 3.6 ypc; in 2020, 2.8 ypc. That's some hope inspiring progress all right. At this rate of progress, how many years will it take Rice to be competitive in even CUSA?

(12-28-2020 05:50 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(12-28-2020 04:52 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

Decent Chronicle article about the Rice season. No hint that Bloom is under pressure.


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-s...830627.php

Decent Chronicle article? That's an oxymoron.

No real reporting here, just regurgitation of the Bloom's press releases.

In 2018, the Owls "pound-the-rock" Stanford-style rushing attack averaged 3.8 ypc; in 2019, 3.6 ypc; in 2020, 2.8 ypc. That's some hope inspiring progress all right. At this rate of progress, how many years will it take Rice to be competitive in even CUSA?

Every year is make or break for Bloom, until he breaks.

I don't know about you folks, but I think we actually have quite a bit more talent on defense than offense. On offense (and special teams), whenever I look at our conference foes I see more talent at nearly every school. Even depleted UAB had a few studs, like a pro-sized WR with speed who killed us and a huge OL. The recruiting rankings certainly tell us as much: we've been bottom 3 or so in conference in recruiting for a few years. Of course it doesn't help that our main offensive weapon from last year, the 6'5 WR, decided to sit out, and others all got injured.

Bloom's system on offense is definitely not great, but man, I don't see our team as, say, top 5 or maybe top 8 in the conference talent-wise, especially on offense, so it's a little hard to see how we reliably play 0.500+ ball with this squad. And our special teams is below average too, we can't even reliably make FGs outside of 40 yrds. We'd need an above average coach to maximize this talent, and we clearly don't have that in Bloom. But I'll (reluctantly) accept above-average defense with average offense and ST, and I really hope that with the incoming class, we'll get some talent infusion and quickly hit 0.500 in conference, and hopefully upward and onward from there

(12-28-2020 05:50 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(12-28-2020 04:52 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

Decent Chronicle article about the Rice season. No hint that Bloom is under pressure.


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-s...830627.php

Decent Chronicle article? That's an oxymoron.

No real reporting here, just regurgitation of the Bloom's press releases.

In 2018, the Owls "pound-the-rock" Stanford-style rushing attack averaged 3.8 ypc; in 2019, 3.6 ypc; in 2020, 2.8 ypc. That's some hope inspiring progress all right. At this rate of progress, how many years will it take Rice to be competitive in even CUSA?

And just for reference, in DB’s final season, the 2017 1-11 debacle that finally got him fired, the Owls average 4.6 yards per carry.

(12-29-2020 09:19 AM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(12-28-2020 05:50 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(12-28-2020 04:52 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(12-26-2020 08:16 PM)Texasowl Wrote:  Next year will make or break for Bloom

Decent Chronicle article about the Rice season. No hint that Bloom is under pressure.


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-s...830627.php

Decent Chronicle article? That's an oxymoron.

No real reporting here, just regurgitation of the Bloom's press releases.

In 2018, the Owls "pound-the-rock" Stanford-style rushing attack averaged 3.8 ypc; in 2019, 3.6 ypc; in 2020, 2.8 ypc. That's some hope inspiring progress all right. At this rate of progress, how many years will it take Rice to be competitive in even CUSA?

And just for reference, in DB’s final season, the 2017 1-11 debacle that finally got him fired, the Owls average 4.6 yards per carry.

McGuffie up the middle?