(08-18-2019 01:40 PM)rice1931 Wrote:  

(08-18-2019 01:14 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  They'll be on target to graduate and will do so. Some will just finish playing, and some will transfer elsewhere to play another year. We've lost about 4 or 5 that way the last couple of years, and that's the new norm in college athletics.

But do the math. We have 12 seniors on the team (and I'm not even sure if all are on scholarship). You have 85 scholarships total and we're pretty much at that number. We have 13 commits already for the 2020 class, and we're still actively offering scholarships. There will be some natural attrition but I'm pretty sure the staff already knows that some of the 4th year juniors are playing their final season in 2019 (and the kids probably know that too).

A review of the 2019 football roster is shocking in the amount of turnover in under two years. I trust the new coaching staff and will assume that there is an improvement in overall playing ability even though it will be a young group. I just hope we will see signs this year of becoming more competitive with at least conference opponents.
I have followed Rice football for many decades and an area where they have struggled in recruitment and retention is interior defensive linemen. Even in the current world of passing offenses the first priority of a defense is to stop the run. On the current roster I find only four defensive linemen with two being freshmen.
Also, on the roster I do not find either Jake Syptak or Brendan Harmon. I wonder what happened to them? I recall Syptak was one of our more highly recruited players of the 2018 class.

Syptak decided he'd rather go to Arkansas as a regular student and give up football...

Harmon left Rice and is now on the Abilene Christian roster.