Rice Football

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.