RE: Bloomgren's coaching staff
By Glynn A. Hill, Houston ChronicleDecember 6, 2017 Updated: December 6, 2017 8:13pm
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Rice University athletic director Joe Karlgaard, left, gives Mike Bloomgren, the university's new football coach, a jersey Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017 in Houston. ( Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle) Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle / Michael Ciaglo Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle Rice University athletic director Joe Karlgaard, left, gives Mike Bloomgren, the university's new football coach, a jersey Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017 in Houston. ( Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle)
Mike Bloomgren gets excited when he recalls watching his first Major League baseball game in the Astrodome when he was a student at Spring Shadow Elementary.
On Wednesday, after stops ranging from Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C. to the New York Jets of the NFL to Stanford, Bloomgren returned to Houston, perhaps even more excited than that day he witnessed his first baseball game.
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Bloomgren, a Florida native who lived in Houston from age 5 to 10, delivered an emotional address when he was officially unveiled as the new head coach of Rice football. He teared up describing his passions and choked on words of thanks to those who have helped get him to this point.
"At Stanford we did a good job talking about always raising the bar, and how the price increases year in and year out," said Bloomgren, who coached in Palo Alto for seven years under David Shaw. "I think that's one thing we need to do right now with this program, is we've got to raise that bar. We've got to raise that standard."
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Rice University athletic director Joe Karlgaard, left, gives Mike Bloomgren, the university's new football coach, a jersey Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017 in Houston. ( Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle) New Rice coach Mike Bloomgren excited about students and football UH forward Devin Davis, right, runs out of operating room while trying to drive on Fairfield's Jonathan Kasibabu during the first half Wednesday. UH decks Fairfield, improves to 7-1 Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver (10) goes through team warmups before an NCAA college football game at TDECU Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017, in Houston, Texas. (Joe Buvid / For the Houston Chronicle) UH lineman Ed Oliver draws top reviews before awards night Sam Ehlinger, who threw two late interceptions in UT's 27-23 loss to Texas Tech the day after Thanksgiving, will try to atone when the Longhorns play Missouri in the Texas Bowl. UT has genuine gunslinger in QB Sam Ehlinger Villanova guard Phil Booth (5) dunks the ball against Gonzaga during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) College basketball: No. 7 Texas A&M falls to Arizona
Bloomgren inherits a team that was 1-11, yet returns many key starters, especially on offense.
"I know the stories of when Coach Harbaugh first got (to Stanford) and they had just went 1-11. They were talking about dropping football or going non-scholarship. Stanford's certainly come a long way in those 10 years," he said.
Bloomgren met his future players early Wednesday. He joked that he was so excited he almost leapt into the crowd a couple times.
It's those players and the challenge of winning at a prestigious academic institution that lured Bloomgren to Rice. It's why he said he's had his eye on the job for the last two years.
"When you first get to a school that is really trying to get that unique student athlete who cares about both, you're having to really compete to find those guys," he said of his experience recruiting at Stanford, where several recruiting services recognized him as one of the conference's top recruiters.
"I've fallen in love with those kinds of student athletes. I think I relate to them very well, I know how to recruit them, I know that if I get mom on campus I can show her all the really good things a place like Rice University has," he said, echoing a line Stanford coach David Shaw has used to describe Bloomgren's attitude.
Bloomgren, 40, recently said he's received NFL assistant job offers every year since 2011, when he joined the Stanford staff as an offensive line coach after four years in various offensive roles for the Jets. He said Rice was one of five schools his family considered as favorable destinations because of the school's academic culture and the level of standards student-athletes are held to - Stanford, Northwestern, Duke and Vanderbilt are the others.
"There's some other jobs that just haven't been right for us because of the caliber of student-athlete," he said.
He was also drawn to the Owls recent success - the 2013 Conference USA championship - and the resilience players showed playing competitively after Hurricane Harvey in a losing season capped off by the dismissal of their former coach, David Bailiff.
"I think (a turnaround) starts with the process and I think you have to say that word because it has to be what you're doing in the offseason … and I think schematically we've got some ideas how to get there as well," he said.
"The way we're going to evaluate these guys for who gets on the field this fall is by what they do from this day forward. So everything is a clean slate."
A "clean slate" also puts current staff in a precarious position, including Brian Stewart, Rice's defensive coordinator and interim coach.
"We'll definitely talk to everybody on this staff. I want to do that because I've been on the other side of that coin as well," Bloomgren said.
"I've got some guys in mind and the problem with it is; even if there are great coaches here, they're not guys that I've worked with or guys that I've been in the trenches with and trust. With the first job, as important as it is to get this thing rolling the right way, I'm going to go with guys that I know and trust."
(This post was last modified: 12-06-2017 10:04 PM by ExcitedOwl18.)
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