Rice Football

Rice quarterback JT Daniels is retiring from football on the advice of doctors, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.

Daniels' history of concussions was cited as the need for him to step away from the sport for good. He hadn't suited up for the Owls since a 36-31 loss to. SMU on Nov. 4, a game that saw him exit with a concussion.

The sixth-year senior threw for 2,443 yards, 21 touchdowns and seven interceptions in nine games with Rice.

Daniels had quite the collegiate journey.

The California native was the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in 247Sports' composite rankings, trailing only Trevor Lawrence.

After a promising freshman season at USC, he suffered a torn ACL in 2019, which opened the door for Kedon Slovis to take over as the Trojans' starter.

Daniels transferred to Georgia ahead of the 2020 season, with the Bulldogs looking to replace three-year starter Jake Fromm. He had 1,231 passing yards and 10 touchdowns to two interceptions in four games, seemingly setting the stage for a big 2021 campaign.

Instead, injuries once again got in the way for Daniels, who watched on as Stetson Bennett guided Georgia to a national title.

From there, the 23-year-old transferred to West Virginia, where he was the starter to open 2022 before getting benched for Garrett Greene midway through the year.

The high-water mark of Daniels' Rice tenure came in a 43-41 double-overtime victory over Houston, the Owls' first win against the Cougars since 2010. He went 28-of-42 for 401 yards, three touchdowns and an interception.

With his playing career now over, Thamel reported Daniels is looking to transition into coaching.

Former West Virginia quarterback JT Daniels is transferring to Rice, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.

The Owls will be the fourth school of Daniels' college career. He began his journey at USC before moving to Georgia after two years. He was a member of the Bulldogs in 2021 when they won the College Football Playoff national title.

The 6'3" signal-caller then joined the Mountaineers for 2022 and threw for 2,107 yards, 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

Rice is coming off its fifth straight losing season under head coach Mike Bloomgren, though the school did earn its first bowl berth since 2014. The Owls fell 38-24 to Southern Miss in the LendingTree Bowl.

Bloomgren is clearly counting on Daniels to inject some life into a passing game that averaged 232.9 yards per game. The unit will be losing leading receiver Bradley Rozner and Isaiah Esdale, who combined for 1,420 yards, but retain Luke McCaffrey. The Nebraska transfer had 58 catches for 723 yards and six touchdowns in his first full year as a wideout.

Thamel noted Bloomgren and Daniels have some history. Bloomgren tried to recruit Daniels out of high school was he was Stanford's offensive coordinator and then again when Daniels entered the transfer portal.

You'd expect Daniels to open the 2023 season as the starting quarterback. TJ McMahon, the incumbent, finished with 2,102 yards, 18 touchdowns and 14 interceptions in 10 appearances in 2022.

Assuming Daniels gets the nod, he'll have a stiff test right out of the gate. Rice opens next year on the road against Texas.

The American Athletic Conference announced Thursday it has accepted six new member schools: UAB, Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, North Texas, Rice and UTSA.

The conference did not confirm when the institutions will leave Conference USA and formally join the nine programs already in the AAC.

Commissioner Mike Aresco said in a statement:

I am extremely pleased to welcome these six outstanding universities to the American Athletic Conference. This is a strategic expansion that accomplishes a number of goals as we take the conference into its second decade. We are adding excellent institutions that are established in major cities and have invested in competing at the highest level. We have enhanced geographical concentration which will especially help the conference's men's and women's basketball and Olympic sports teams.

The realignment dominoes began falling in July when the SEC confirmed it will add Oklahoma and Texas on July 1, 2025, at the latest.

That left the Big 12 in need of a countermove lest it lose ground to its Power Five rivals. The conference snagged BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston to fill out its ranks, which dealt a major blow to the AAC since the latter three were member schools.

The next dominoes to fall could be in Conference USA. The AAC's move could be its death knell because its membership has been nearly halved, so other conferences may smell blood in the water.

For the six C-USA defectors, money talks.

Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel reported that Conference USA schools were collecting less than $1 million in annual television revenue. By going to the AAC, that money will at least double and "rise significantly from there," per Thamel.

UCF, Cincinnati and Houston are set to leave the AAC on July 1, 2024, and each pay a $10 million buyout fee. Aresco told ESPN's Heather Dinich in September the timeline could be accelerated pending negotiations about the buyout.

An expedited exit might pave the way for UAB, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice and UTSA to make their AAC arrivals earlier than expected.

That may benefit Conference USA too since Thamel reported each school has to pay an exit fee of around $3 million.

Rice Owls quarterback Wiley Green was stretchered off the field late in the first quarter of Friday's game against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Rice Stadium after being injured while attempting to score a rushing touchdown.

Green stayed on the ground after being tackled by multiple Wake Forest defenders. One of the tackles appeared to be to his upper body. It was a scary scene, according to the reports:

Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports noted Green was able to give a thumbs-up to the crowd as he exited the field.

Green made four appearances as for Rice last year, though it wound up serving as a redshirt season. The redshirt freshman entered 2019 as the Owls' starting quarterback.

He went 7-of-14 for 62 yards, zero touchdowns and zero interceptions in a season-opening loss to Army on Aug. 30. Prior to his injury Friday, he was 3-of-5 for 69 yards in two drives.

Rice trailed 14-0 at the time of the injury, though Green had led the team to the 2-yard line.

Graduate transfer Tom Stewart replaced Green and helped the Owls finish the drive with a touchdown. He led Rice to the end zone on its next drive as well, using his legs for a 10-yard rushing score. That evened the contest at 14-all.

Rice University defensive end Blain Padgett was found dead in his apartment during a wellness check Friday after he failed to show up for an Owls practice. He was 21.

Ben Kercheval of CBS Sports received confirmation of the news from the school and passed along a statement from head football coach Mike Bloomgren.

"Our team is devastated by this news," Bloomgren said. "All of my thoughts right now are how best to help Blain's family and his teammates in this very difficult period."

Rice athletics director Joe Karlgaard also released a statement:

"Our entire athletic department is in mourning over the loss of Blain Padgett. Blain was a great friend and teammate and the sense of loss is overwhelming to his teammates, his friends, but most importantly to his family, who are in our thoughts and prayers. We will do everything in our power to provide assistance to our student-athletes in this incredibly difficult time."

No further information or a cause of death was immediately released.

Hardin-Jefferson High School in Texas, Padgett's alma mater, posted a message of condolence on Twitter:

As a junior in 2017, Padgett tallied 10 total tackles and 1.5 sacks across the first three games of the season but missed the rest of the year with an injury. In 11 starts and 12 games in 2016, he ranked sixth on the team with 41 tackles and added two sacks.

Rice University's football team has temporarily relocated to TCU's campus due to ongoing flooding and damage caused by Tropical Storm Harvey.

"I want to thank the staffs at TCU, SMU, Baylor and UTEP who all reached out to offer whatever help we needed," Rice coach David Bailiff stated, per Sam Khan Jr. of ESPN.com. "There is a strong brotherhood in the coaching world, and it is never more evident than at times like these. While we would love to be coming home today, our first responsibility is the safety of these players. We learned some lessons in 2008 [when the Owls were at Vanderbilt when Hurricane Ike struck Houston] about coming home too soon."

Rice spent the weekend in Australia, playing Stanford in the Sydney Cup. The team was unable to fly into Houston because of the flooding caused by the storm, which has left most of the city under a siege of water. Recovery efforts are ongoing throughout coastal Texas.

Rice athletic director Joe Karlgaard said he does not know when the team can return to campus.

"That's a good question. Even if the campus is fine, we're not sure about the main arteries into Houston," Karlgaard said, per Dennis Dodd and Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports.

Rice does not play again until Sept. 9 against UTEP. Its first home game is not until Sept. 23 against Florida Atlantic. 

The hardest hit during Friday night's Baylor vs. Rice contest may not have taken place between players.

In a halftime performance that somewhat strayed from conventional football game entertainment, the Marching Owl Band made reference to the rival Texas team's recent sexual assault scandal, forming an "IX" representing Title IX and a star symbolizing the university's former president, Ken Starr.

Among those in the visitors' section, where the band displayed the images, was former head coach Art Briles—fired in relation to the incident.

According to SB Nation's Jason Kirk, the Bears fans didn't receive the message well, booing in response.                 

[Twitter, h/t SB Nation]

When he's not shielding his quarterback's blind side, Rice left tackle Calvin Anderson is a Rubik's Cube expert.

CBS Sports' Jay Feely filmed the sophomore as he completed the puzzle in less than a minute—with the cube behind his back.

This isn't a new skill for Anderson, who performed the same feat last year in a Rice Athletics video:

Last November, he talked to Sean Keeler of American Sports Network about first picking it up in seventh grade. He now uses the Rubik's Cube as a pregame routine.

"I'll solve [one] a couple of times before the game, just because it helps me focus my mind toward the game," Anderson said. "Also, it's a brain-teaser. So it's all those things."

He still has a way to go before breaking the world record, which teenager Lucas Etter set at 4.90 seconds last November. Looking at it might help.

[Jay Feely]

The Rice University football program experienced an unexpected windfall Wednesday morning with the signing of 5-star recruit Fre’derick “Ziggy” Stovall-Redd. 

A seven-year-old playmaker battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Ziggy made his decision alongside Rice head coach David Bailiff at a packed press conference on the school's Houston campus. 

CollegeSpun.com’s Matt Hladik spotted video from the presser. Bailiff couldn’t say enough about the young man and what he brings to the team.

“This young man’s been wrestling with this decision, and he has finally made the choice. He’s chose Rice University,” Bailiff said. “We’re so excited and we want to welcome Ziggy to Rice University and the Rice football family. Thank you, Ziggy.”

Ever the one to let his play on the field do the talking, Ziggy kept his comments short and sweet. 

“Thank you for letting me be part of the team,” Ziggy said.

Ziggy comes as a rare import to Rice’s program. Bailiff told the Houston Chronicle that he doesn’t usually recruit outside of the state, but after seeing tape of Ziggy, a Mississippi native, he couldn’t help but reach out to the 5-star quarterback recruit:

We don’t normally [recruit] out of state but after looking at his academic transcripts and how he performs on the football field we thought it was just for us to go into the state and try and get him here. ...

... Ziggy will always be part of the Rice University football family. He has 100 brothers and 10 granddads that are always going to be here for him. We will be with him every step of the way.

Ziggy’s leukemia is currently in remission, and he appears ready to throw ropes at Rice’s Blue-Gray spring game on Friday. Just when the Owls quarterbacks were getting comfortable, Coach Bailiff brings in the grade school equivalent of Sunshine and no one’s job is safe.

Dan is on Twitter. Rice is bowl-bound, baby.