Owls Break in New Turf with OwlFest Scrimmage
8/21/2021 8:29:00 PM | Football
Season kicks off in two weeks
Rice Stadium's new Astroturf made its debut on Saturday as the Rice Owls scrimmaged for over 100 plays as part of the annual OwlFest fan event at the stadium on Saturday.
Wiley Green connected with Bradley Rozner on a 30-yard completion on the first play on the new surface, but the Owls defense stiffened and held the offense off the scoreboard for the first five posessions.
The offense broke through on their sixth possession with an 11-play drive that culminated with a one-yard plunge by Juma Otoviano, the first of his two touchdowns on the day. The offense followed with scores on four of the next six possessions before the scrimmage switched to situational work.
Green completed 11 of 20 passes for 157 yards and tossed a 12-yard TD pass to Jack Bradley. Luke McCaffrey hit on six of 11 passes for 108 yards and connected with Cedric Patterson on a 25-yard touchdown. He added a second touchdown on the ground.
Patterson was one of 16 receivers with a catch on the day, leading the Owls with four receptions for 78 yards.
Khalan Griffin rushed for 57 yards on 13 carries in addition to a touchdown during the goal line period. Otoviano finished the day with 47 yards. Ari Broussard picked up 45 yards on just four carries, including a 15-yard scoring scamper and saw a 22-yard TD called back by penalty. Cam Montgomery added 37 yards on three carries.
Dunlevie Family Head Coach Mike Bloomgren:
"It was great for us to be outside on this great new field. We got all the work we needed and all of the empirical evidence we needed for the depth chart to get set at almost every position. I'd be surprised if there will be too many battles coming out of today. At quarterback, we're going to take a hard look at this film. There are going to be some examples where each of them left some things on the field, some meat on the bone that they wish they could have hit—and we wish they could have hit. The cool thing is both of them are doing some really cool things on the field, some plays that are championship type plays that are keeping the sticks moving. I hope we come away with a clear-cut quarterback. If not, we'll set roles and move forward because we are going to start Arkansas prep this week."
Wiley Green connected with Bradley Rozner on a 30-yard completion on the first play on the new surface, but the Owls defense stiffened and held the offense off the scoreboard for the first five posessions.
The offense broke through on their sixth possession with an 11-play drive that culminated with a one-yard plunge by Juma Otoviano, the first of his two touchdowns on the day. The offense followed with scores on four of the next six possessions before the scrimmage switched to situational work.
Green completed 11 of 20 passes for 157 yards and tossed a 12-yard TD pass to Jack Bradley. Luke McCaffrey hit on six of 11 passes for 108 yards and connected with Cedric Patterson on a 25-yard touchdown. He added a second touchdown on the ground.
Patterson was one of 16 receivers with a catch on the day, leading the Owls with four receptions for 78 yards.
Khalan Griffin rushed for 57 yards on 13 carries in addition to a touchdown during the goal line period. Otoviano finished the day with 47 yards. Ari Broussard picked up 45 yards on just four carries, including a 15-yard scoring scamper and saw a 22-yard TD called back by penalty. Cam Montgomery added 37 yards on three carries.
Dunlevie Family Head Coach Mike Bloomgren:
"It was great for us to be outside on this great new field. We got all the work we needed and all of the empirical evidence we needed for the depth chart to get set at almost every position. I'd be surprised if there will be too many battles coming out of today. At quarterback, we're going to take a hard look at this film. There are going to be some examples where each of them left some things on the field, some meat on the bone that they wish they could have hit—and we wish they could have hit. The cool thing is both of them are doing some really cool things on the field, some plays that are championship type plays that are keeping the sticks moving. I hope we come away with a clear-cut quarterback. If not, we'll set roles and move forward because we are going to start Arkansas prep this week."
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