Steve Irvine's UAB Vs Rice Preview
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - November 7, 2025
UAB (3-5) VS. RICE (4-5)
RICE STADIUM
SATURDAY, 1 P.M. CST, ESPN-PLUS
When Rice has the ball: For the third time this season, the Blazers will face an offensive scheme that relies heavily on the option. All three, however, have been a bit different. First-year Rice head Scott Abell runs the ‘Gun Triple Option’ scheme, which he used to become the nation’s top FCS rushing attack in his seven seasons at Davidson University. His teams led the FCS in rushing in five consecutive seasons and six times overall. In his first season at Rice, the Owls are 16th in the country in FBS with 213.3 yards rushing per game. The Owls have done that been a pair of dynamic players in running back Quinton Jackson and quarterback Chase Jenkins. Jackson, a 5-foot-7, 160-pound junior, rushed for 677 yards on 126 carries with six touchdowns thus far. Jenkins, a 6-foot, 191-pound redshirt sophomore is third on the team with 366 rushing yards with four touchdowns. Daelen Alexander, a physical 5-foot-10, 215-pound redshirt sophomore, has 392 yards on 74 carries with three touchdowns. Obviously, the first objective for any opposing defense is to stop the running game. The Owls run the ball on 75 percent of their snaps. The lack of a consistent passing attack is the primary reason that Rice is 122nd in the country in total offense. However, Jenkins can occasionally hurt a defense through the air. Jenkins was a high school quarterback and spent a couple of seasons at Rice there until moving to wide receiver in the spring of 2024. Abell moved him back to quarterback and he is 88-of-127 passing for 844 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions. Drayden Dickmann (32 catches for 305 yards, three touchdowns) and Aaron Turner (32 catches for 214 yards, one touchdown) are his favorite targets. No other Rice player has more than six catches. “I think we’ll be ready for what they are doing because they’re not as complicated as Navy or Army,” said UAB linebacker Tylon McNichols, who is fourth on the team with 30 tackles. “You know what they’re doing, you just got to be able to process it.”
When UAB has the ball: The official word on UAB’s quarterback starter will probably come just before game time. Ryder Burton got the start in the win over Memphis because of Jalen Kitna’s injury. Kitna got the start in the loss at UConn but it was Burton getting the bulk of the snaps. They split reps in practice this week but what happened in the past two games point toward Burton getting his second college start. Again, UAB interim head coach and offensive coordinator Alex Mortensen was in no hurry to unveil his plan. “We don’t want to really talk about it that much as to how we’re doing things,” Mortensen said after Wednesday’s practice. “But we’re trying to get everyone ready to play. Like we’ve talked about, we’ve played multiple guys in multiple games, so we’re going to do what we can to make sure that everyone is prepared to play their role in the game.” No matter what, expect Mortensen to be patient in relying on the running game. He didn’t get that opportunity against UConn because early game mistakes put the Blazers in a 24-point hole at halftime. UAB did have early success running the football against UConn but had to go away from that to chase points. Running backs Solomon Beebe, Jevon Jackson and Isaiah Jacobs should have a prominent role against the Owls. Rice has been solid against the run at times this season. The Owls allowed 283 yards rushing against Navy but that was nearly 35 yards less than the Midshipmen’s national best rushing average per game on the ground. Houston is the only other team to rush for more than 200 yards in a game against Rice this season. The Owls gave up an average of 276 passing yards per game over the past four games and opposing quarterbacks threw nine touchdown passes on that time. Defensive end Tony Ananywu has four of the team’s 17 sacks this season.
Special teams: Solomon Beebe has game-altering ability as a kickoff returner. However, if the football is sailing over his head into the end zone that game-changing ability is negated. Rice kicker Enock Gota has touchbacks on 31 of his 35 kickoffs this season. Beebe, who is one of two American Conference players with a kickoff return touchdown this season, has just one kickoff returns in his past three games. He did not get a return opportunity in the past two games. On the other side, Rice’s Quinton Jackson was one of the top kickoff returners in the conference in 2023 and 2024. Jackson was seventh in the country last year in kickoff return yards, including a 100-yard touchdown return against UConn. This year, though, Jackson’s opportunities have been limited. He has six returns for 102 yards with a long return of 23 yards. UAB gave up an average of 25.2 yards on 18 kickoff returns, including a 99-yard touchdown return by Memphis’ Sutton Smith.
Hello my name is: Calvin Pitcher. The UAB linebacker’s largest snap count totals this season came in games against Army and Navy. In those two games, Pitcher played 110 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. In the other six games, Pitcher played a combined 119 defensive snaps. Expect a busy afternoon on Saturday for Pitcher as the Blazers face their third and final test against an option attack. Pitcher had 10 tackles against Army and six tackles against Navy.
Trend to follow: This is not necessarily breaking news but limiting penalties will increase UAB’s chance to win the game. UAB had less penalty yards than its opponents four times this season. The Blazers won three of those games. The lone time that UAB was penalized less and lost the game came in a loss at Navy when the Midshipmen had eight penalties for 97 yards and the Blazers had four penalties for 29 yards. Rice is 29th in the country with 44 total penalties and UAB is 108th with 63 penalties. In four road games, UAB averages nine penalties for 80 yards.
How Rice wins: Control the clock with the running game, mix in some explosive plays and win the turnover battle.
How UAB wins: Get consistent quarterback play, control the clock with the running and short passing games and win the turnover battle.
Coach’s corner: Alex Mortensen’s tenure as an interim head coach is just two games old. But it’s been quite a rollercoaster already. Can he add a road victory to his resume?
One more thing: Let’s keep that theme going. Will the road streak end on Saturday in a venue that has very little home field advantage? UAB spent no time this week worrying about crowd noise or road game atmosphere. But those things haven’t necessarily been the biggest problems in the 16-game road losing streak. Avoiding self-built roadblocks to victory is more of an emphasis.