The Rice job is open. The school on Sunday fired seventh-year head coach Mike Bloomgren amid a 2-6 start to the season.
Bloomgren was given plenty of time but could not get the Owls to the next level. He was 24-52 overall, and although Rice went to bowl games in each of the last two years, Bloomgren never posted a winning record. The Owls moved up in the conference hierarchy from Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference, but resources and fan support remained limited, even in football-mad Texas.
So how good is the Rice job? What names could get in the mix? Based on conversations with industry sources, here is a report card for the job and the potential candidates to keep an eye on.
Recent history/tradition: D
The Owls rank 123rd in all-time winning percentage among the current 134 FBS teams, according to Winsipedia, and they went 45 years between bowl appearances until a 2006 New Orleans Bowl berth ended that drought. The Jess Neely era, from 1940 to 1966, was the program’s most fruitful: He won four Southwest Conference titles in his 27 years there and is the school’s all-time wins leader (144-124-10).
David Bailiff, the school’s second-winningest coach (57-80 in 11 years), led Rice to its most recent conference championship, the CUSA title in 2013. He’s the only coach to take the school to three consecutive bowls, doing so from 2012 to ’14, but he was fired in 2017 after the Owls’ win totals declined over his final three years in charge.
Bloomgren increased Rice’s win total each of the last three years but never quite brought Rice back to conference title contention in CUSA nor the AAC. The Owls’ last season with a winning record was 2014.
On-field outlook: D+
This is an older roster in terms of its major contributors: Of the 25 Owls who have played at least 200 snaps this season, 15 are seniors or graduate students. That group includes the leading rusher (Dean Connors), the top two receivers, the top three tight ends and the top four offensive linemen.
Starting quarterback E.J. Warner is a junior, but he hasn’t met preseason expectations and missed Rice’s last game with an injury. The next coach will have a lot of roster work to do.
Money matters: C
Rice doesn’t lack for resources — its endowment ranks in the top 20 nationally among private schools, according to U.S. News and World Report — but historically the university has been reluctant to invest heavily into athletics. Rice Stadium is old, oversized and in need of a major facelift. Rice is a small private school (fall 2023 undergraduate enrollment was less than 5,000) and thus has a small alumni base. And the lack of on-field success makes it harder to attract casual fans. Bloomgren’s salary, which was $981,781 in 2023 according to USA Today, was the lowest known head coaching salary in the AAC.
But Rice did spend money to help football during its transition to the AAC. Bloomgren significantly grew the support staff, particularly the recruiting department, to keep up with in-state competition. A practice bubble was erected outside of Rice Stadium. And toward the end of the Bailiff era, Rice opened the Patterson Center, a 60,000-square-foot operations building for the team. The move from CUSA to the AAC also meant a more lucrative media rights deal and a larger influx of cash into athletics via the league’s annual distributions. But Rice must continue to invest if it wants to be competitive with the more ambitious programs in the conference.
University stability: B
Rice president Reginald DesRoches has been in his position since 2022, but the school enjoyed stability at the top under his predecessor, David Leebron, who was the school president for 18 years. DesRoches has been at Rice since 2017, serving as the dean of engineering and later the school’s provost before taking over as president.
Athletic director Tommy McClelland arrived at Rice in July 2023 from Vanderbilt and also succeeded a longtime administrator: Previous AD Joe Karlgaard had led the department for a decade. McClelland was hired under DesRoches, so they should be in sync as the school makes its next coaching hire.
The timing of Bloomgren’s firing — with a month left in the season — suggests a sense of urgency from the administration to get the football program turned around. DesRoches and McClelland want to win and be competitive in the AAC.
Coach pool: B
Based on conversations with industry sources, there will be a lot of interest in the Rice job because it’s in Texas and because it’s in the AAC. But there is uncertainty about the limits created by the school’s high academic standards, the program’s financial situation and the ambition of McClelland. Here are some names to keep an eye on.
Sam Houston head coach KC Keeler is just up the road, and he’s 94-38 with the Bearkats with an FCS national championship, including a 6-2 record in the program’s second FBS season. Keeler’s $625,000 salary is among the lowest in the FBS, and Rice should be able to offer more resources, if he’s interested.
Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein coached in Texas from 2015 to ‘22 at Texas, Lake Travis High School and UTSA, before Dan Lanning brought him up to Eugene. The 35-year-old has been one of the best assistants in the country and can probably hold out for bigger jobs, but he’s worth a call.
Oregon tight ends coach Drew Mehringer is a Rice alum as a former player and student assistant. The 36-year-old also coached at Houston in 2015 and Texas after that, and he’s got deep connections to the state. Oregon is No. 1 in the AP poll right now and looks poised to make a run in the College Football Playoff.
UFL Birmingham Stallions coach Skip Holtz wants to take another run at college coaching, having spent 2023 as an assistant to David Braun at Northwestern. Holtz is 26-4 in three seasons in the USFL/UFL, winning the spring league championship three consecutive times. Holtz went 64-50 at Louisiana Tech from 2013 to 2021 with just two losing seasons. His athletic director for most of that run? Current Rice AD Tommy McClelland.
Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson coached at Houston from 2019 to ‘22, and he’s now directing one of the best offenses in the country. The Hurricanes lead the nation with 46.8 points per game, led by quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Cam Ward.
Kansas State co-offensive coordinator Matt Wells has head coaching experience at Utah State and Texas Tech and nearly got the New Mexico job last cycle. Wells went 44-34 at Utah State, including two 10-win seasons, but he was fired midway through his third season at Texas Tech, exiting with a 13-17 record. He spent the past two years at Oklahoma in an off-field role before getting the co-OC job at K-State.
Former UAB head coach Bill Clark retired in summer 2022 due to back issues, but industry sources believe he’s ready to get back onto the sidelines. Clark went 49-26 at UAB with two conference championships, most of that success coming after the program was rebuilt from nothing after being shut down following his first season. But Clark doesn’t have ties to Texas.
Alabama co-defensive coordinator Mo Linguist just left the Buffalo head coaching job last offseason to go to Alabama, but Linguist is a Dallas native with deep Texas connections. He coached at Texas A&M from 2018 to ‘19 and has pulled some key recruits out of Texas at various coaching stops. He went 14-23 in three seasons at Buffalo, including a 7-6 record in 2022.
LSU co-offensive coordinator coach Cortez Hankton has been in the mix for some G5 head jobs in recent years. A graduate of Texas Southern in Houston, Hankton joined LSU in 2022 after helping Georgia win a national championship and has already developed multiple NFL Draft picks like Malik Nabers, and he recruits Texas.
SMU defensive coordinator Scott Symons was a finalist for the Troy job last year. The Mustangs finished 11th nationally in scoring defense in 2023 and are 7-1 overall and undefeated in ACC play entering November.
SMU offensive coordinator Casey Woods helps direct an offense that is 15th in scoring this year. Woods has also coached at Missouri, UAB and Auburn.
Texas Tech offensive coordinator Zach Kittley leads an offense that ranks 16th nationally in scoring this year. The 33-year-old Texas native directed the most prolific passing offense in NCAA history at Western Kentucky in 2021.
Incarnate Word head coach Clint Killough is 14-4 with the Cardinals and has a top-10 FCS team in San Antonio. The previous two UIW head coaches have had success at North Texas (Eric Morris) and Texas State (GJ Kinne). Could the trend continue?
Old Dominion head coach Ricky Rahne is just 19-27 in four seasons, but he’s 15-13 in conference play and may make his third bowl game in four years at a school limited in resources. ODU currently leads the Sun Belt East. Rahne doesn’t have Texas connections, but he played at Cornell and coached at Vanderbilt before following James Franklin to Penn State.
USC running backs coach Anthony Jones Jr. is rising quickly in the profession and has developed several NFL running backs across his time at TCU and Memphis, including Keandre Miller, Kenneth Gainwell, Darrell Henderson and Tony Pollard. He helped take TCU to the national championship game two years ago and developed Texas ties while with the Horned Frogs.
Overall job grade: C
The lack of historical success, high academic standards and small fan base make this a tough job, but it’s not impossible. Rice’s location — in the heart of one of the most talent-rich cities and states in the country — and membership in the AAC give this gig some upside.
(Photo: Daniel Dunn / USA Today)
