(02-05-2020 11:04 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  The one guy I don't exactly understand why he hasn't signed yet is Brian Hibbard.

He's following all Rice people on twitter, has been committed since April, and didn't sign in December. Maybe waiting on a test score...? But I find that hard to believe as usually those people "drop" sooner.

His HS tweeted he signed today.

(02-05-2020 11:09 AM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(02-05-2020 11:04 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  The one guy I don't exactly understand why he hasn't signed yet is Brian Hibbard.

He's following all Rice people on twitter, has been committed since April, and didn't sign in December. Maybe waiting on a test score...? But I find that hard to believe as usually those people "drop" sooner.

His HS tweeted he signed today.

Odd that the Rice Football account hasn't tweeted anything.

The only other thing I can think of is perhaps he's a PWO, not a scholarship player, but 247 doesn't have him categorized correctly.

(02-05-2020 07:30 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  He’s also the brother of the late Sean Taylor per The Roost.

The Roost also claims he’s the highest rated recruit in “program history” but I don’t see much evidence of that. I would take what the Roost said more seriously if they ever said ONE negative thing about a Rice program.

His 247sports rating is obviously great. But his listed offers are not nearly as impressive as some past recruits like Abercrumbia, Carl Thompson, Covington, Sam Stewart, or Gaines. Glad to have him though!

(02-05-2020 11:18 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(02-05-2020 11:09 AM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(02-05-2020 11:04 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  The one guy I don't exactly understand why he hasn't signed yet is Brian Hibbard.

He's following all Rice people on twitter, has been committed since April, and didn't sign in December. Maybe waiting on a test score...? But I find that hard to believe as usually those people "drop" sooner.

His HS tweeted he signed today.

Odd that the Rice Football account hasn't tweeted anything.

The only other thing I can think of is perhaps he's a PWO, not a scholarship player, but 247 doesn't have him categorized correctly.

I think he might be a PWO/"Rice Investment" player

(02-05-2020 12:28 PM)RiceFootball2K5 Wrote:  

(02-05-2020 11:18 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(02-05-2020 11:09 AM)cr11owl Wrote:  

(02-05-2020 11:04 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  The one guy I don't exactly understand why he hasn't signed yet is Brian Hibbard.

He's following all Rice people on twitter, has been committed since April, and didn't sign in December. Maybe waiting on a test score...? But I find that hard to believe as usually those people "drop" sooner.

His HS tweeted he signed today.

Odd that the Rice Football account hasn't tweeted anything.

The only other thing I can think of is perhaps he's a PWO, not a scholarship player, but 247 doesn't have him categorized correctly.

I think he might be a PWO/"Rice Investment" player

I think so too. I think these are the scholarship guys: https://twitter.com/ricefootball/status/...26786?s=21

Per 247, we finished 9th in CUSA and 92nd in the country. It's an improvement over last year. I'm trying to remind myself that our recruits typically fly under the radar, and that this class is probably a little better than pundits think.

These are mostly 2-star athletes on paper.

Rankings when it comes to football are pretty useless. The key is to keep developing the players, and then get some luck in keeping them healthy. In all my years following Rice football, the highest ranked recruit I can recall us signing was a DL named Adam Zylman out of Stratford I believe? That was in the early Fred Goldsmith era and I want to say he was ranked like the 31st best player in the state of Texas (although some transfers were higher than that). Zylman never did much at Rice.

Bloomgren has shown to be a pretty decent judge of talent when it comes to recruiting IMO - except for a few key positions (QB, RB and maybe PK). Some of the grad transfers have been fine too, and it would have been nice to have them for more than just one year. We're a QB and RB away from being a decent team (right now I'm not sure if our OL next year is going to be as good as it was in 2019, although it may be if the two new transfers are okay). I'm very confident our defense will be the best it's been in years and years.

(02-05-2020 09:55 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Rankings when it comes to football are pretty useless.

Certainly an inexact science but i think there is some correlation between recruiting rankings and eventual individual and team success.

(02-05-2020 11:09 PM)DFW Owl Wrote:  

(02-05-2020 09:55 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Rankings when it comes to football are pretty useless.

Certainly an inexact science but i think there is some correlation between recruiting rankings and eventual individual and team success.

Agree. The schools that grab the 4 and 5- star talent are usually the schools winning the most games. We recruit the 2-star "unknowns," and hope for the best.

No one in our conference is grabbing many 4 or 5 stars. We offered Patrick Mahomes out of high school, who was a 3-star recruit and the 22nd rated pro-style QB in the country in 2014. Most of the guys that were 4 and 5 stars above him didn't do much in college (or even made it to the NFL). A few exceptions (Kyle Allen and Will Grier were #1 and 2) have done okay, but even Allen for example was a bust at both A&M and UH, losing his starting job at both places.

I don't think we 'hope for the best'. I've been impressed with the majority of guys we've signed under Bloomgren. I just don't think we've developed them well at certain positions. His ability to bring in grad transfers and JUCOs has far surpassed what we've done in those areas in the last 20 years.

I was also happy to see that FB from SF score a TD in the Super Bowl (which by the way was the first TD ever scored by an Ivy League player in the Super Bowl). Couple him with the Tennessee TE from Harvard (Firkser), and perhaps there is a trend developing where some non P5 schools will start developing more pro players.

https://247sports.com/Season/2014-Footba...sition=PRO

(02-03-2020 11:29 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(02-03-2020 11:07 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(02-02-2020 04:41 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(02-02-2020 03:50 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Collin Riccitelli - only played in one year at Stanford (8 of 10 in XP, 1 of 1 in FG). His twitter feed lists Rice '22 but that may just be because he's going into a 2-year graduate program at Rice? He's a 4th-year senior at Stanford so I don't see how he could get 2 years of eligibility at Rice unless he was granted a 6th year hardship somehow.

He has just one year of eligibility remaining.

His Stanford bio says he "did not see action" in his freshman, sophomore & senior years. If he didn't play in those years, why wouldn't he have more than 1 year of eligibility left now?

He presumably used his redshirt one year and the other three years count towards his eligibility, hence he has one year left. Doesn't matter if you don't play at all, each year still counts against you, unless that year is your redshirt year.

According to the Roost, he's applying for, and expected to receive, a medical hardship waiver so that he will have 2 years of eligibility remaining.

Last night Coach Bloom said he would have 2 years of eligibility.

Did you guys see where Bloomgren has decided to move Iseya Floyd to the offensive line? I hope this isn't done out of desperation. Now there's a gaping hole on the DL. I don't like it.

(02-06-2020 04:01 PM)Ourland Wrote:  Did you guys see where Bloomgren has decided to move Iseya Floyd to the offensive line? I hope this isn't done out of desperation. Now there's a gaping hole on the DL. I don't like it.

Yeah, not a huge fan of this move either.

We don't have much on the interior DL at this point besides Garcia (senior), Hubbard (senior), and Carroll... Plus a few walk-ons.

Latos doesn't really appear to be an interior player (maybe you could move him inside in a pinch like Bailiff did with Grant Peterson, for example).

The only thing I think *might* help this situation is that I believe we're still recruiting Stanford grad transfer DT Mike Williams.

Yeah I was surprised to see that as well. Schumann is back, correct? I wonder if either he or Valentine can be moved inside? Enechukwu, Carroll and either Garcia or Hubbard are your probable starters on the DL entering the season (barring any transfers). There's also a chance we could move someone on the OL to defense. Klarkowski would be my best guess if that were to happen.

He's cutting off his nose to spite his face. As far as I know, Floyd has never even played OL. I can't imagine him stepping in and being effective. We need more players. Maybe a couple of his 2017 recruits are ready to step in. Good grief.

(02-06-2020 04:18 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Yeah I was surprised to see that as well. Schumann is back, correct? I wonder if either he or Valentine can be moved inside? Enechukwu, Carroll and either Garcia or Hubbard are your probable starters on the DL entering the season (barring any transfers). There's also a chance we could move someone on the OL to defense. Klarkowski would be my best guess if that were to happen.

Schumann is pretty bulky so, yeah, he could probably move inside in a pinch.

Not sure about Valentine but maybe.

I think this is more a reflection of how poor the OL recruiting has been... Doesn't show much confidence in Reagan Riddle, Hunter Jones, Derek Ferraro (not to mention the guy that just decided to go to Arkansas and be a regular student-that was a headscratcher) to have to move one of the future anchors on the DL over to OG.

Agree

We'll probably need to start a new 2021 Football Recruiting thread soon. We are starting to offer a lot of Class of 2021 kids. One offer today was to John Paul Richardson of Ridge Point (my kids high school). I've watched JP play for years and he's a really, really good slot receiver. Definitely would be a good replacement for Austin Trammell (he's about the same size)

That said, I'm guessing he's waiting on the offer from A&M since his dad is an Aggie legend (Bucky Richardson).

(02-06-2020 04:57 PM)Ourland Wrote:  He's cutting off his nose to spite his face. As far as I know, Floyd has never even played OL. I can't imagine him stepping in and being effective. We need more players. Maybe a couple of his 2017 recruits are ready to step in. Good grief.

Floyd did play OL in High School. Still, I too am concerned about the DL depth...and just when I was really about to be extremely bullish about the 2020 Defense. Now, I am just optimistic that this defense has a chance to be one of the best defenses Rice has had in a very long time.

Now if only we could get the offense up to the same level...

One more thing. It seems that Floyd likes this move, so that's a positive.