Rice had navigated the transfer portal window relatively unscathed to this point. But head Mike Bloomgren received his first serious defection Thursday morning when redshirt junior defensive tackle De'Braylon Carroll announced his intention to transfer. 

Carroll, a former unanimous District 8-6A defensive MVP at Duncanville, came to Rice in 2019 as part of Bloomgren's second recruiting class and immediately morphed into an impact player. He earned the team's top freshman honor and started every game as a sophomore in 2020. His second year in 2021 was supposed to be the breakout campaign. Instead, he missed the entirety of the season with an injury, worked his way back in 2022, then broke out in 2023.

Carroll tied with graduate senior defensive end Coleman Coco for the team lead with nine tackles for loss, and registered 3.5 sacks from his interior line spot. He blossomed into one of the better linemen in the group of five. Now, he'll test his value on the market.