Rice Football: Can Owls continue building under Mike Bloomgren in 2020?

Rice football has won five games in two years under Mike Bloomgren. Can the Owls take the next step and win five games in one season?

Mike Bloomgren is trying to do something that is difficult in today’s college football environment. He’s trying to build a program. Not only is he trying to build a program, but it’s also Rice football. No shade on the Owls, but they do not have a shining football reputation.

That’s what makes Bloomgren the perfect man for the job.

He was on the staff at Stanford for seven seasons before coming to Rice. The Tallahassee-native knows how to build a program at a private university with high academic standards.

Despite this looking like an ideal marriage for both Bloomgren and Rice, the Owls have won only five games in the last two seasons. In his defense, he needs time to build the program in the image of what they built at Stanford.

This season the Owls look to take another step toward relevance and respectability in Conference USA. Despite winning only three games last season, the Owls did show some improvement from 2018. Though the offense scored one fewer point per game, the defense was 10 points per outing stingier from 2018.

What does that mean for this season?

Bloomgren and his staff want to see offensive improvement. The would also like to see a few more wins. One thing that helps is their schedule. The Owls miss the top of Conference USA East: Florida Atlantic, Florida International and Charlotte.

Will that translate into more wins?