Some type of controversy emerging on Twitter with UL players claiming Brandon Nutter was using racial slurs on the field and touching them where the sun don’t shine. Hopefully just sour grapes.

(09-18-2022 12:32 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Some type of controversy emerging on Twitter with UL players claiming Brandon Nutter was using racial slurs on the field and touching them where the sun don’t shine. Hopefully just sour grapes.

There’s actual video of him sticking fingers up a players rear end. Happy to share if you need further proof, but it’s widely available. I’ll take the L, but the player that claimed the racial stuff is not a guy who would make baseless claims.

(09-18-2022 01:08 AM)Cajuns1 Wrote:  

(09-18-2022 12:32 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Some type of controversy emerging on Twitter with UL players claiming Brandon Nutter was using racial slurs on the field and touching them where the sun don’t shine. Hopefully just sour grapes.

There’s actual video of him sticking fingers up a players rear end. Happy to share if you need further proof, but it’s widely available. I’ll take the L, but the player that claimed the racial stuff is not a guy who would make baseless claims.

Would be really interested in seeing whatever this is based upon.

Is that a winning streek I see?

I'm glad to get the win. There were times I wanted to turn off the game entirely, but I persisted and was rewarded with an exciting game resulting in a W. I'll take that every week!

Good job, Owls!

A couple of random notes from the game. First off, that's easily Mike Bloomgren's best non-conference win at Rice. In fact, his only other two NC wins were over SWAC teams (PVA&M and TSU), so that's the first NC win over a FBS team. It's also only the second time he's had a winning record (the only other time was his first game at Rice - that win over Prairie View).

It's probably the best NC win period in quite some time. I don't recall how good Army was in 2015, but that was Rice's last win in non-conference play over a FBS team. If it wasn't Army, you'd probably have to go back to the Fresno State bowl win?

It was a really good effort from start to finish, minus the interceptions (and a few too many penalties). But if we weren't throwing the interceptions (and as often as we are), you'd probably have people complaining non-stop about running the ball too much. I think Rice has a chance to compete for a bowl if we can stay healthy at key positions.

We bought tickets at the last minute and attended a game in person for maybe the first time since 2018. The 2022 Owls have good team chemistry, picking each other up after the handful of big Louisiana plays. I think if the AD came out this week with a C-USA conference game ticket plan for the UAB, Charlotte, UTEP and UTSA games he might sell some tickets.

(09-17-2022 10:56 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  Defense with a gem. McMahon made some strong throws all night with the 3 INT's, a gunslinger, great in the second half. There are plenty of weapons for him to spread it around and the o-line has looked good. Offense is aggressive and dangerous for the first time in a while, I wonder if that would be the case had Green not gotten hurt. This Brain Smith defense may be the deepest and most talented. Special teams have been very solid. This is the best team of the Bloomgren era. Let's keep it going.

I know it sounds crazy to say that the QB looked good despite throwing 3 interceptions, but… McMahon looked really good despite the 3 interceptions.

Seriously, it was the first time in a long time where I watched a Rice QB throw intermediate and deep passes that were accurate, had some zip, and were placed well. To me, if McMahon can keep making good decisions, there is a chance we have a legitimately dangerous QB.

(09-17-2022 11:11 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  Funny, I thought the pick 6 was the INT for which McMahon was least blameworthy. It was a WR screen where two receivers completely whiffed on a block. That's out of the QB's control. His job is to get the snap and throw it immediately.

This is an excellent explanation on "fault" on this play; the instictive "blame the QB" just doesn't get it, here.

(09-15-2022 07:27 AM)greyowl72 Wrote:  Rice wins a game that is tight from start to finish. 23-21.

Greyowl hit one side of the score on the button. Well done, sir.

Any predictions for the UH game?

(09-18-2022 07:27 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  It's probably the best NC win period in quite some time. I don't recall how good Army was in 2015, but that was Rice's last win in non-conference play over a FBS team. If it wasn't Army, you'd probably have to go back to the Fresno State bowl win?

That Army team was 2-10, so not very good. It was Monken's second year, and he had not had enough time to turn things around yet. The following year was 8-5 and hammered Rice at the Point, 31-14.

So it took Monken 3 years to get it turned around. Bloomgren is now on year 5. Yesterday gives some reason for optimism that this year will be a turnaround year, but if not then I think he has had way more than enough chances.

Speaking of turnaround progress, Mickey Joseph's first game at Nebraska ended a string of close losses under Scott Frost with a blowout loss to OU. The problem with Nebraska is a lack of talent. The state has only about 1.9 million people, so they don't have much of a recruiting base. They got around the issue for years with their academic scholarship "walk-on" deals where they turned a lot of those big farm boys into stout o-linemen so they could spend their scholarships on skill players from California and elsewhere. But the NCAA cracked down on that around 2000, and the Huskers haven't really been very good since.

Well did they like it?

(09-18-2022 01:08 AM)Cajuns1 Wrote:  

(09-18-2022 12:32 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Some type of controversy emerging on Twitter with UL players claiming Brandon Nutter was using racial slurs on the field and touching them where the sun don’t shine. Hopefully just sour grapes.

There’s actual video of him sticking fingers up a players rear end. Happy to share if you need further proof, but it’s widely available. I’ll take the L, but the player that claimed the racial stuff is not a guy who would make baseless claims.

I did see the video that Cajuns is referencing. Agree that it's probably wrong to be "probing" during a game, though I don't know where the line is between gamesmanship to draw a penalty and something more serious (you could probably do a Seinfeld or Curb skit on this). If they have clean video of it happening multiple times, wouldn't be opposed to him being suspended for a game. As for the racial slurs, without field mics it's always going to be a he said, he said. The issue is that it's harder to believe somebody would be able to use a slur around a bunch of players without getting some sort of reaction (from both teams). And that leaves saying it to a player while nobody else is around, which makes it impossible to prove. Kind of just have to wait and see if anything else materializes, unfortunately or fortunately depending on perspective.

(09-18-2022 07:45 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(09-17-2022 10:56 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  Defense with a gem. McMahon made some strong throws all night with the 3 INT's, a gunslinger, great in the second half. There are plenty of weapons for him to spread it around and the o-line has looked good. Offense is aggressive and dangerous for the first time in a while, I wonder if that would be the case had Green not gotten hurt. This Brain Smith defense may be the deepest and most talented. Special teams have been very solid. This is the best team of the Bloomgren era. Let's keep it going.

I know it sounds crazy to say that the QB looked good despite throwing 3 interceptions, but… McMahon looked really good despite the 3 interceptions.

Seriously, it was the first time in a long time where I watched a Rice QB throw intermediate and deep passes that were accurate, had some zip, and were placed well. To me, if McMahon can keep making good decisions, there is a chance we have a legitimately dangerous QB.

What I saw from McMahon was a young QB suffering jitters who gradually calmed down and began to trust his line and his receivers.

Early a few of his throws were so wild that no one from either team was going to catch them. As he settled in, the throws were much more on target with a lot of success, except when under pressure, when a string of poor decisions led to the string of INTs. By late 2Q and 2H he gained enough confidence to make the tough throws he was able to make, while tucking the ball and avoid launching it in to traffic (with a couple exceptions that didn’t hurt us).

Just phenomenal on the 3rd down conversions, nearly the same insane conversion percentage as against McNeese. And lots of them were 3rd and long or very long.

Even if this turns out to be the best game of the season (and we did catch a LOT of breaks, so it might be) this looks like a bowl bound team. The upside… well my thoughts on that are in another thread. But I expected us to win and we exceeded that expectation so… yay RICE!

This game is a huge turn in fortune for this team. They dominated on offensive production (449 yds to 175 yds) and first downs (26 to 9) against a team that should be roughly equivalent to our conference schedule. Kudos to whoever changed our offensive scheme.

You have to think that the pick-6 plays will wane. If they can avoid these disastrous turnovers, this is kind of looking like a bowl team. Was also nice to see them close the game out in style after dominating the first 3 quarters.

The biggest play I saw was the McMahon pass that threaded the needle to Kobie Campbell over the middle after our lead had shrunk to six. After Campbell caught it he looked like he was shot out of a cannon - tremendous acceleration that we will hopefully continue to see from him going forward.

McMahon might have completed his final 7 passes? I thought several were very tough throws in addition to that Campbell play mentioned above. Two were to Esdale, and then there was a sideline pass to Bradley as well that required a deft touch.

(09-18-2022 07:27 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  It was a really good effort from start to finish, minus the interceptions (and a few too many penalties). But if we weren't throwing the interceptions (and as often as we are), you'd probably have people complaining non-stop about running the ball too much. I think Rice has a chance to compete for a bowl if we can stay healthy at key positions.

I don’t think anyone would complain if instead of throwing interceptions the Owls were throwing completions downfield. I would complain if the coaches thought the only option to throwing interceptions was the toss back or McGuffie up the middle.

Agree it was a good win for the team. Now they need to build on it and keep improving. The players and Tui may save Bloom’s job yet. It’s good to see him grow as a coach and move away from PTR.

A good start is still just a start.

Eagerly awaiting next Saturday.

(09-18-2022 01:12 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(09-18-2022 01:08 AM)Cajuns1 Wrote:  

(09-18-2022 12:32 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Some type of controversy emerging on Twitter with UL players claiming Brandon Nutter was using racial slurs on the field and touching them where the sun don’t shine. Hopefully just sour grapes.

There’s actual video of him sticking fingers up a players rear end. Happy to share if you need further proof, but it’s widely available. I’ll take the L, but the player that claimed the racial stuff is not a guy who would make baseless claims.

Would be really interested in seeing whatever this is based upon.

From watching the game, this is exactly what I imagined was going on, from the actions and behaviors of the players involved --- before reading any of this today.
I might not believe it if it was anyone other than Nutter.
Though racial slurring would seem to be extremely unlikely, this could completely destroy a team from the inside, and needs to be crushed immediately by the coaching staff -- suspension if confirmed.

(09-18-2022 01:18 PM)Barney Wrote:  

(09-18-2022 01:12 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(09-18-2022 01:08 AM)Cajuns1 Wrote:  

(09-18-2022 12:32 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Some type of controversy emerging on Twitter with UL players claiming Brandon Nutter was using racial slurs on the field and touching them where the sun don’t shine. Hopefully just sour grapes.

There’s actual video of him sticking fingers up a players rear end. Happy to share if you need further proof, but it’s widely available. I’ll take the L, but the player that claimed the racial stuff is not a guy who would make baseless claims.

Would be really interested in seeing whatever this is based upon.

From watching the game, this is exactly what I imagined was going on, from the actions and behaviors of the players involved --- before reading any of this today.
I might not believe it if it was anyone other than Nutter.
Though racial slurring would seem to be extremely unlikely, this could completely destroy a team from the inside, and needs to be crushed immediately by the coaching staff -- suspension if confirmed.

Why believable about Nutter?

I agree this needs to be dealt with swiftly, but I would like tangible evidence rather than he said/she said.