(08-13-2014 10:46 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  

(08-13-2014 10:00 PM)owlatheart Wrote:  Didn't we originally recruit and were in the running for him until he signed with Northwestern?

Yes.

He would be an instant home run threat on offense and special teams. He's been Northwestern's most explosive player for the past couple of seasons, when healthy. He was offered by both Rice and Houston out of high school. I'm hoping that by finishing his Northwestern degree, he will be able to do what Nwosu did, enroll in graduate school and play without sitting out a year. If that's his plan, I like our chances.

...but do we have an incremental scholarship available at this late juncture?

(08-13-2014 10:46 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  I'm hoping that by finishing his Northwestern degree, he will be able to do what Nwosu did, enroll in graduate school and play without sitting out a year. If that's his plan, I like our chances.

In the ESPN article linked earlier, Mark said he was one class shy of graduating.

Another ESPN article said he was out most of the 2013 season with leg injuries, but the NCAA gave him another year eligibility.

(08-13-2014 10:53 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(08-13-2014 10:46 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  

(08-13-2014 10:00 PM)owlatheart Wrote:  Didn't we originally recruit and were in the running for him until he signed with Northwestern?

Yes.

He would be an instant home run threat on offense and special teams. He's been Northwestern's most explosive player for the past couple of seasons, when healthy. He was offered by both Rice and Houston out of high school. I'm hoping that by finishing his Northwestern degree, he will be able to do what Nwosu did, enroll in graduate school and play without sitting out a year. If that's his plan, I like our chances.

...but do we have an incremental scholarship available at this late juncture?

Drew Carroll's scholarship is now open since his career is over.

(08-14-2014 12:07 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(08-13-2014 10:53 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(08-13-2014 10:46 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  

(08-13-2014 10:00 PM)owlatheart Wrote:  Didn't we originally recruit and were in the running for him until he signed with Northwestern?

Yes.

He would be an instant home run threat on offense and special teams. He's been Northwestern's most explosive player for the past couple of seasons, when healthy. He was offered by both Rice and Houston out of high school. I'm hoping that by finishing his Northwestern degree, he will be able to do what Nwosu did, enroll in graduate school and play without sitting out a year. If that's his plan, I like our chances.

...but do we have an incremental scholarship available at this late juncture?

Drew Carroll's scholarship is now open since his career is over.

Are you sure it is free? Bailiff is the type of coach to honor scholarships regardless of a player's ability to perform. I hadn't heard about the scholarship opening, and I wouldn't be surprised if Drew was able to keep his, since there is a chance it is the only way he would be able to afford to stay in school.

(08-14-2014 06:57 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(08-14-2014 12:07 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(08-13-2014 10:53 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(08-13-2014 10:46 PM)Buho00 Wrote:  

(08-13-2014 10:00 PM)owlatheart Wrote:  Didn't we originally recruit and were in the running for him until he signed with Northwestern?

Yes.

He would be an instant home run threat on offense and special teams. He's been Northwestern's most explosive player for the past couple of seasons, when healthy. He was offered by both Rice and Houston out of high school. I'm hoping that by finishing his Northwestern degree, he will be able to do what Nwosu did, enroll in graduate school and play without sitting out a year. If that's his plan, I like our chances.

...but do we have an incremental scholarship available at this late juncture?

Drew Carroll's scholarship is now open since his career is over.

Are you sure it is free? Bailiff is the type of coach to honor scholarships regardless of a player's ability to perform. I hadn't heard about the scholarship opening, and I wouldn't be surprised if Drew was able to keep his, since there is a chance it is the only way he would be able to afford to stay in school.

Don't think medical hardship schollys count toward the 85 max.

And if he's on medical, his school is paid for. I just don't know if there is an NCAA-mandated or Rice-mandated limit of how many medicals we can have. It doesn't seem like we've been too snakebit in that category the last year or two as I can recall past years when we've probably had at least 3 or 4 football players alone in that type of situation (plus invariably there are some in other sports too). In the past though, Rice admins have limited how many medicals we can have I believe.

Anyone at scrimmage #2 today? JP had a few tweets but I haven't seen any other coverage. Good grief do I miss the days where MK was at most of the practices tweeting up a storm!

The first video shows highlights from today's scrimmage and the second video shows The Rice Owls accepting the Ice Bucket Challenge from the Brigance family.

https://twitter.com/riceowlsdotcom

Went to the scrimmage this morning. But I must preface my observations with the fact that this scrimmage followed a two-a-day session on Friday. Guys weren't as fresh, but overall there weren't a lot of procedural issues. Also, a lot of starters were held out.

Negatives.
1. Special teams. James Hairston (who has a strong grip, but more on that later) did not participate in PATs or field goals. Price and Knopf did the kicking. At least one extra point was missed and there weren't many long Boswell type tries. Punting should be solid, but Hairston may be a gift from above if he can step in and provide accuracy and reliability. Welcome to Special teams post Chris Boswell.
2. Secondary. Specifically 2nd Team corners. It's hard to evaluate a unit when its a scrimmage unless the unit plays really well or really poor. With that said, the unit got torched on several plays. Bryce Callahan didn't play.
3. Run defense. Kind of hard to be negative on this unit when Winship, Covington, Luvendar, Jones, Patt, or Nordstrom didn't play. This was about getting film on some younger guys like Peterson, Gordon, Womac, and Klinger. Yes, Cory Klinger is now on defense.


Mixed bag.
1. DJ and Nate German. It's a scrimmage so QB's are down on touch. Nate didn't throw well initially, but got better towards the end. DJ had a few throws into double coverage, but it seems that the QBs really have confidence in the WR's ability to make plays. With that said, if it were a game, both DJ and Nate would scored on runs. Nate really has good speed in the open field. If QB doesn't work out...

Positives.
1. Offensive Line. These dudes are big, strong, and mean. They opened some great holes.
2. Jowan Davis...wow. He was electric. I read somewhere that he was not as explosive. He looked good today...really good.
3. Hamilton and Dillard. Both of these guys showed great burst and speed. I like what we have at running back especially with our offensive line.
4. Stehling. Lord almighty. In my opinion, he needs to see the field. First play in, he threw a bomb to Jared Mayden for a td. In a later series, he threw a beautiful ball to Hamiliton on wheel route for a td. He is not the most fleet of foot, but that arm makes up for it. He is a great change of pace from DJ and he should see the field, but not on predictable 3 and long situations.
5. Pass rush. Speed, lots of speed. This could be interpreted as a negative on pass protection, but I thought the effort was very good. There were a few sacks, none more impressive than the sack on 3rd and long with Tabari McGaskey getting a sack on a three man rush.

Other stuff...

There are a lot of great things about this scrimmage. First, there was good student turnout (O Week coordinators) at the scrimmage. Second, at the end of practice, Matt Simmonette walks over to the stands and loudly thanks everyone for coming out. Then the players came up into the stands to meet everyone. That's where James Hairston demonstrated his amazing grip strength. LOL. And by the way, the guys are confident that Top 25 rankings will come to South Main very soon. Last, the entire team participated in the ALS ice water bucket challenge. Good stuff.

As an aside, Derek Brown has yet to report. And I didn't see Venric Mark...but I wouldn't really recognize him. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Cory Klinger (#56) is now playing defense. 6-4 300 lbs. Not bad. He played DL at Manvel and he is a good athlete.

Thanks for the report

(08-16-2014 07:01 PM)Pan95 Wrote:  Went to the scrimmage this morning. But I must preface my observations with the fact that this scrimmage followed a two-a-day session on Friday. Guys weren't as fresh, but overall there weren't a lot of procedural issues. Also, a lot of starters were held out.

Negatives.
1. Special teams. James Hairston (who has a strong grip, but more on that later) did not participate in PATs or field goals. Price and Knopf did the kicking. At least one extra point was missed and there weren't many long Boswell type tries. Punting should be solid, but Hairston may be a gift from above if he can step in and provide accuracy and reliability. Welcome to Special teams post Chris Boswell.
2. Secondary. Specifically 2nd Team corners. It's hard to evaluate a unit when its a scrimmage unless the unit plays really well or really poor. With that said, the unit got torched on several plays. Bryce Callahan didn't play.
3. Run defense. Kind of hard to be negative on this unit when Winship, Covington, Luvendar, Jones, Patt, or Nordstrom didn't play. This was about getting film on some younger guys like Peterson, Gordon, Womac, and Klinger. Yes, Cory Klinger is now on defense.


Mixed bag.
1. DJ and Nate German. It's a scrimmage so QB's are down on touch. Nate didn't throw well initially, but got better towards the end. DJ had a few throws into double coverage, but it seems that the QBs really have confidence in the WR's ability to make plays. With that said, if it were a game, both DJ and Nate would scored on runs. Nate really has good speed in the open field. If QB doesn't work out...

Positives.
1. Offensive Line. These dudes are big, strong, and mean. They opened some great holes.
2. Jowan Davis...wow. He was electric. I read somewhere that he was not as explosive. He looked good today...really good.
3. Hamilton and Dillard. Both of these guys showed great burst and speed. I like what we have at running back especially with our offensive line.
4. Stehling. Lord almighty. In my opinion, he needs to see the field. First play in, he threw a bomb to Jared Mayden for a td. In a later series, he threw a beautiful ball to Hamiliton on wheel route for a td. He is not the most fleet of foot, but that arm makes up for it. He is a great change of pace from DJ and he should see the field, but not on predictable 3 and long situations.
5. Pass rush. Speed, lots of speed. This could be interpreted as a negative on pass protection, but I thought the effort was very good. There were a few sacks, none more impressive than the sack on 3rd and long with Tabari McGaskey getting a sack on a three man rush.

Other stuff...

There are a lot of great things about this scrimmage. First, there was good student turnout (O Week coordinators) at the scrimmage. Second, at the end of practice, Matt Simmonette walks over to the stands and loudly thanks everyone for coming out. Then the players came up into the stands to meet everyone. That's where James Hairston demonstrated his amazing grip strength. LOL. And by the way, the guys are confident that Top 25 rankings will come to South Main very soon. Last, the entire team participated in the ALS ice water bucket challenge. Good stuff.

As an aside, Derek Brown has yet to report. And I didn't see Venric Mark...but I wouldn't really recognize him. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Cory Klinger (#56) is now playing defense. 6-4 300 lbs. Not bad. He played DL at Manvel and he is a good athlete.

Good report agree with some of the assessment.
Offense looked better than the defense. Huge concerns on cornerback, any deep throw is trouble. First deep pass should have been a pick but young corner misplayed it and TD. DJ and German were inconsistent at the beginning but looked better as the game went on. German speed is better than DJ. Stehling looked good on second series, first was a deep pass that was a pick that became a td, inconsistent and sloppy second half, fumbles. Billups got in but did not see the offense move well. Davis looked really good, explosive. So did the young running backs #24 Stewart and #27 Walter. Receivers and running backs had too many drops. Parks played limited and JT was taking pictures. Defense looked good in spots. Womac had a cou0ple of sacks; young linebacker looked good as well #43. Did not see D. Brown. Team needs him. Pass defense looked suspect biggest takeaway.

Thanks for the notes, guys.

Looks like losing Canady is coming back to bite us.

Who were the second team corners? If Calahan was out and Hill is still at safety then even the first team guys would have been guys with very limited game experience. 2nd teamers probably included walk-ons/true frosh.

(08-16-2014 08:32 PM)talon owl Wrote:  Thanks for the notes, guys.

Looks like losing Canady is coming back to bite us.

Who were the second team corners? If Calahan was out and Hill is still at safety then even the first team guys would have been guys with very limited game experience. 2nd teamers probably included walk-ons/true frosh.

On the first Stehling touchdown, Jorian Clark was the defender making him a second team player. VJ Banks didn't suit up and I don't remember either Ibe or Destri White at corner.

As for 1st team, I don't quite remember, but I think that Warren and Ryan Pollard got 1st team reps.

I thought that Blasingame could be a player for us especially considering that he had a good freshman year.

One correction, Pan, Jared Mayden isn't an Owl yet, that's his older brother James coming in as a freshman this fall. (With long TDs in each of the two scrimmages, btw) I had figured he'd redshirt but now I'm not so sure we won't want to get him on the field this year.

Jared is a HS junior this year and has Rice on his list of top ten offers he's considering, along with 9 P5 schools.

I think ya'll can probably quit wondering about Derek Brown at this point. He missed all summer, all Fall Camp, and is nowhere to be seen. I don't really think its as big a deal as everyone is making it, he's never really done anything to date. We can overcome that absence. Our defense didn't look good, but like was earlier stated, everybody was sitting. Connor Cella was hurt on the first play from scrimmage, he is out indefinitely.
The QB position REALLY scares me. I've heard that Dryphus has been playing well in Fall Camp, but every time I see him he looks terrible. I actually feel sorry for the receivers, the balls he throws are more often then not, uncatchable. Huge, huge question mark going into Notre Dame, please please prove me wrong Dryphus!

On the bright side, we've seen very little of Covington, Callahan, Taylor and many starters. Having these guys in will change the whole fabric of the team, so I'm not too terribly worried at this point.
This is my Eeyore perspective for now.

(08-19-2014 12:23 PM)tramile12 Wrote:  I think ya'll can probably quit wondering about Derek Brown at this point. He missed all summer, all Fall Camp, and is nowhere to be seen. I don't really think its as big a deal as everyone is making it, he's never really done anything to date. We can overcome that absence. Our defense didn't look good, but like was earlier stated, everybody was sitting. Connor Cella was hurt on the first play from scrimmage, he is out indefinitely.
The QB position REALLY scares me. I've heard that Dryphus has been playing well in Fall Camp, but every time I see him he looks terrible. I actually feel sorry for the receivers, the balls he throws are more often then not, uncatchable. Huge, huge question mark going into Notre Dame, please please prove me wrong Dryphus!

On the bright side, we've seen very little of Covington, Callahan, Taylor and many starters. Having these guys in will change the whole fabric of the team, so I'm not too terribly worried at this point.
This is my Eeyore perspective for now.

Were you at the scrimmage on Saturday? I have heard a couple of other accounts from people that were there that DJ looked good- and that the offense in general, even without Taylor, looked really good. The defense not so much, but Covington did not play.

(08-19-2014 02:18 PM)Middle Ages Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 12:23 PM)tramile12 Wrote:  I think ya'll can probably quit wondering about Derek Brown at this point. He missed all summer, all Fall Camp, and is nowhere to be seen. I don't really think its as big a deal as everyone is making it, he's never really done anything to date. We can overcome that absence. Our defense didn't look good, but like was earlier stated, everybody was sitting. Connor Cella was hurt on the first play from scrimmage, he is out indefinitely.
The QB position REALLY scares me. I've heard that Dryphus has been playing well in Fall Camp, but every time I see him he looks terrible. I actually feel sorry for the receivers, the balls he throws are more often then not, uncatchable. Huge, huge question mark going into Notre Dame, please please prove me wrong Dryphus!

On the bright side, we've seen very little of Covington, Callahan, Taylor and many starters. Having these guys in will change the whole fabric of the team, so I'm not too terribly worried at this point.
This is my Eeyore perspective for now.

Were you at the scrimmage on Saturday? I have heard a couple of other accounts from people that were there that DJ looked good- and that the offense in general, even without Taylor, looked really good. The defense not so much, but Covington did not play.

Yes I was. Not sure what they thought looked good about his play. He completed screens to the RBs, and thats about it. He tucks and runs too fast, as always. Stehling looked good, really good. Jowan looked good. Nobody else really stood out, like in past scrimmages.

(08-20-2014 12:58 AM)tramile12 Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 02:18 PM)Middle Ages Wrote:  

(08-19-2014 12:23 PM)tramile12 Wrote:  I think ya'll can probably quit wondering about Derek Brown at this point. He missed all summer, all Fall Camp, and is nowhere to be seen. I don't really think its as big a deal as everyone is making it, he's never really done anything to date. We can overcome that absence. Our defense didn't look good, but like was earlier stated, everybody was sitting. Connor Cella was hurt on the first play from scrimmage, he is out indefinitely.
The QB position REALLY scares me. I've heard that Dryphus has been playing well in Fall Camp, but every time I see him he looks terrible. I actually feel sorry for the receivers, the balls he throws are more often then not, uncatchable. Huge, huge question mark going into Notre Dame, please please prove me wrong Dryphus!

On the bright side, we've seen very little of Covington, Callahan, Taylor and many starters. Having these guys in will change the whole fabric of the team, so I'm not too terribly worried at this point.
This is my Eeyore perspective for now.

Were you at the scrimmage on Saturday? I have heard a couple of other accounts from people that were there that DJ looked good- and that the offense in general, even without Taylor, looked really good. The defense not so much, but Covington did not play.

Yes I was. Not sure what they thought looked good about his play. He completed screens to the RBs, and thats about it. He tucks and runs too fast, as always. Stehling looked good, really good. Jowan looked good. Nobody else really stood out, like in past scrimmages.

I thought Jowan and the freshman running back Stewart looked good. Stehling looked good on second drive. One long pass that was not played correctly by the cornerback is not consider looking good. We were talking and thought the pass was going to be intercepted. His third series was awful. Fumble, two incomplete passes...DJ and German started rough but got better. I see those two guys playing. Stehling will be a sitting duck back there, no speed to escape the rush. D Brown played with attitude which I think is needed on the defense, we will see if he's missed or not. Canady is missed dearly. Hope Cella is doing well, it was a freak accident.

I challenge anyone to find a less covered or commented on fall camp for a major D1 school. Really amazing. Other teams have 2-3 blogs plus beat writers, with position by position analysis and debate. We remain mysterious until game one.[/i]

(08-20-2014 10:22 PM)Middle Ages Wrote:  I challenge anyone to find a less covered or commented on fall camp for a major D1 school that just won their conference. Really amazing. Other teams have 2-3 blogs plus beat writers, with position by position analysis and debate. We remain mysterious until game one.[/i]

Fixed it for you.
And I agree. It's absurd. UTSA fans complain about a lack of respect. But they cannot even begin to comprehend the level of frustration we endure.