The Rice Owls moved on from head football coach Mike Bloomgren eight games into his seventh season on South Main. Rice is on a two-game losing streak and 2-6 on the season after a Week 9 loss to UConn. The offense only scored 10 points in each of the last two games. Bloomgren leaves his post with a 24-52 record, two bowl trips, and zero winning records. The closest he got was a 6-7 finish in 2023. 

The Owls now look forward as athletic director Tommy McClelland is tasked with making his first big hire since taking the job in 2023. He was at Vanderbilt since 2020 before that. Rice is one of the more unique jobs in college football because of its academic standards. The university plays ball, pun intended, with prospective athletes more so now than in the past, which helps talent acquisition. More money from television revenue as AAC members also helps. 

Here are some early names to monitor in the head coaching search. The names will be updated as more news is available. 

BIG SWING 

K.C. Keeler – Rice received a firsthand account of what Keeler is capable of as a head coach when Sam Houston trounced the Owls in Week 1 of the 2024 season. He’s won FCS championships at two different schools and knows the area with Huntsville an hour from Rice. He’s older at age 65, but that didn’t stop Houston from hiring Willie Fritz. Keeler has over 260 career wins as a head football coach. 

REALISTIC 

Tim Beck – He’s the first-year offensive coordinator at Vanderbilt who served in the same role at New Mexico State under head coach Jerry Kill in the two years before that. NMSU made a magical run in Conference USA in 2023 and Vanderbilt entered Week 9 ranked. Beck was a head coach at the Division II level for a decade, leading Pittsburg State to the national title in 2011. He was an analyst on Gary Patterson’s TCU staff in 2021. While they didn’t overlap in Nashville, the Vanderbilt connection between Beck and McClelland can’t hurt. 

Skip Holtz – If Rice wants experience, Holtz is a great option. He received his first head coaching job back in 1994 at UConn. He’s also been the head man at East Carolina, South Florida, and La Tech. He’s spent the last three years in the USFL as the head coach of Birmingham. 

Derek Mason – Another coach with Vanderbilt ties who won’t be surprised by any limitations in recruiting due to academic standards. He’s a defensive coach who is currently the head coach at Middle Tennessee State. Mason is close with Bloomgren and spent time with Rice as a consultant in the past. 

Zach Kittley – He experienced great success at nearby Houston Baptist (now Houston Christian) as a prolific offensive coordinator before breaking records as the play caller at Western Kentucky. His current Texas Tech offense ranks 19th in passing with 288.1 yards per game and 16th in scoring at 38.1 points per game. He was a finalist for the UTEP head coaching job last cycle. 

Tyler Santucci – A former co-defensive coordinator at Texas A&M who is currently leading the defense at Georgia Tech, another FBS program with high academic standards. He’s young. A good recruiter. Has experience at the G5 level in Texas after coaching at Texas State in 2016. He’s a Mike Elko disciple who played at Stony Brook from 2006-09. 

Keith Patterson – A former defensive coordinator at Texas Tech and current head coach at Abilene Christian. He was a high school coach in the 1990s and has FBS experience at Tech, Pitt, Arizona State, and West Virginia.   

Casey Woods – A Gus Malzahn disciple who is currently the offensive coordinator at SMU for head coach Rhett Lashlee. The Mustangs won the AAC last year, so he knows the conference. He was also close to landing a head coaching job in the 2023 cycle. 

DCTF PICK 

Drew Svoboda – The SFA grad is the current associate head coach, special teams coordinator, and tight ends coach at North Texas. He’s a great blend of college experience and high school bona fides. He also has experience in Houston, and more specifically, at Rice. Svoboda began his coaching career in the Greater Houston area as an OC at Caney Creek, Klein Collins, and Oak Ridge. He was 93-24 with five district titles and three undefeated seasons in 10 years as head coach at Klein Collins. He joined the Rice staff as a running back coach in 2018 before spending time at Memphis and Alabama before joining Eric Morris in Denton. 

WILDCARD 

Jon Kay – The Owls brass doesn’t need to look far away to find the next head coach at Rice. Kay arrived on South Main in 2023 as an assistant coach in charge of linebackers. Before that, he went 117-18 in nine seasons at nearby Galena Park North Shore, winning four Class 6A Division I state championships along the way. He’s only coached at the college level for two years, but he’s one of the most well-respected coaches in the Texas high school football community. We’ve seen UTSA use that recipe to create two conference championships with Jeff Traylor. Joey McGuire at Texas Tech was also a high school head coach.