The portal closed yesterday. Unless there was a late entry not reported yet, Rice had just one player enter the portal (Jordan Dunbar).

Rice signed five incoming transfers last month, and has another reportedly committed. That’s a pretty significant net gain.

The big issue now in terms of the 2024 team is seeing how many current juniors and seniors decide to come back for another season despite graduating as there are a lot of significant players who could return if they want to. The only player we are pretty sure who has declared for the draft is Luke McCaffrey.

We are probably waiting on definitive updates from a few OL and quite a few defensive starters.

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or add any updates you’ve heard.

Good thread topic. We may not be recruiting well on paper, but at least players aren't leaving the program like they did during the PTR days.

I hope the transfers are better than advertised. Any chance McCaffrey returns since we brought in the Temple QB, or is he gone for good? Points.

(01-03-2024 10:40 AM)Ourland Wrote:  Good thread topic. We may not be recruiting well on paper, but at least players aren't leaving the program like they did during the PTR days.

I hope the transfers are better than advertised. Any chance McCaffrey returns since we brought in the Temple QB, or is he gone for good? Points.

1. We didn't have any mass exodus during the PTR days.
2. Not a prayer Luke returns as he will very likely be a Top 5 round draft pick.

Several ifs, but...
If we can replace Servin and get a general upgrade in our o-line performance and...
If Warner is 'as-advertised' and doesn't pull a Collins or Daniels and actually survives 13-14 games upright and...
If a vast majority of the juniors that still have eligibility return (not expecting McCaffrey but we have a boatload of other guys with eligibility that are good players, like Morrison, Connors, Fresch, Coco, Piercy (probably gone), Carroll, etc.)...
With our schedule we would only have one fairly sure loss (Memphis on the road).
Could be a great season, but since this is Rice I won't expect a lot of great luck.

(01-03-2024 11:19 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote:  

(01-03-2024 10:40 AM)Ourland Wrote:  Good thread topic. We may not be recruiting well on paper, but at least players aren't leaving the program like they did during the PTR days.

I hope the transfers are better than advertised. Any chance McCaffrey returns since we brought in the Temple QB, or is he gone for good? Points.

1. We didn't have any mass exodus during the PTR days.
2. Not a prayer Luke returns as he will very likely be a Top 5 round draft pick.

Just did a brief search and this source dated Dec. 30 (4 days ago) has him going in the 6th round at #188 to Detroit:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/7-r...r-AA1mePeW

I didn’t have time to look for other sources.

I spoke to Luke recently and he is not returning. Wants to try his hand in the NFL.

(01-03-2024 11:25 AM)wrysal Wrote:  Several ifs, but...
If we can replace Servin and get a general upgrade in our o-line performance and...
If Warner is 'as-advertised' and doesn't pull a Collins or Daniels and actually survives 13-14 games upright and...
If a vast majority of the juniors that still have eligibility return (not expecting McCaffrey but we have a boatload of other guys with eligibility that are good players, like Morrison, Connors, Fresch, Coco, Piercy (probably gone), Carroll, etc.)...
With our schedule we would only have one fairly sure loss (Memphis on the road).
Could be a great season, but since this is Rice I won't expect a lot of great luck.

I agree, totally.
QB, of course, is the rate limiting step. Even if the Temple transfer pans out, we’ve got to have more than a decent couple of back- up quarterbacks waiting in the wings. Our track record for quarterbacks starting…and then finishing a season is dismal.

(01-03-2024 12:39 PM)greyowl72 Wrote:  

(01-03-2024 11:25 AM)wrysal Wrote:  Several ifs, but...
If we can replace Servin and get a general upgrade in our o-line performance and...
If Warner is 'as-advertised' and doesn't pull a Collins or Daniels and actually survives 13-14 games upright and...
If a vast majority of the juniors that still have eligibility return (not expecting McCaffrey but we have a boatload of other guys with eligibility that are good players, like Morrison, Connors, Fresch, Coco, Piercy (probably gone), Carroll, etc.)...
With our schedule we would only have one fairly sure loss (Memphis on the road).
Could be a great season, but since this is Rice I won't expect a lot of great luck.

I agree, totally.
QB, of course, is the rate limiting step. Even if the Temple transfer pans out, we’ve got to have more than a decent couple of back- up quarterbacks waiting in the wings. Our track record for quarterbacks starting…and then finishing a season is dismal.

Speaking of backup QBs, does anyone know why Chase Jenkins was pulled in favor of Istraish? Was it due to injury or something else?

I remember once when Rice had an exceptionally high number of starters returning, some pundit said that was not a strength since the starters were not very good. Turned out he was right.

There could be several reasons why our low number of transfers (out) may or may not be a sign of returning talent.

1. Possibly many of our guys do not see a possibility of more PT by transferring.
2. Maybe they like the coach(es)/atmosphere/teammates here.
3. Maybe they are more interested in a degree than many players from other schools and want to finish the program they have embarked upon.

In the special case of RS juniors who have a year (or two) of eligibility left, I can see them wanting to test other programs if they have completed their degree.

We had a massive number of returnees in 2013 - that turned out pretty well.

(01-03-2024 02:31 PM)wrysal Wrote:  We had a massive number of returnees in 2013 - that turned out pretty well.

I think the year I am thinking of was in the Great Drought between Neely and Goldsmith.

(01-03-2024 02:31 PM)wrysal Wrote:  We had a massive number of returnees in 2013 - that turned out pretty well.

Don’t get our hopes too high … the 2013 team had 5 future NFL players on it (Gaines, Callahan, Covington, Boswell, Jordan Taylor) plus a handful of extremely experienced college starters who were well-regarded heading into the season (McHargue, Ross, Porras, etc). Not sure we can identify quite the same level of returning talent for 2024…