Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM SEPT. 12, 2026 35 GAME PREVIEW: RICE BY JACK SOBLE RICE RUNNING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE More option football? More option football. Second-year Rice head coach Scott Abell runs the "gun option," which he brought to the Owls from his stint at Davidson of the Football Championship Subdivision. You'll see a lot of the same concepts you see from Navy's flexbone scheme, but the key difference is that Rice runs almost everything out of a shotgun or pistol backfield formation. The Owls' base tenets are, again, very familiar. A slot, either tight to the formation like you'll see from a Navy slot back or out wide like a typical slot receiver, will motion behind the quarterback. At the snap, the quarterback has three choices: Hand it to the running back, keep it himself or pitch it to the slot. Rice will also run speed-options, outside zones and pin-and-pull sweeps, which are often what the Owls will show when there's no pre-snap motion. In pretty much everything they run, there's usually a keeper element that the Irish have to watch out for. Another wrinkle the Owls like: Running what looks like the normal triple option, but with a pitch to the non-motioning slot on a reverse the other way. Where Rice differs from Navy is both the shot- gun element (the Midshipmen are more shotgun- oriented than they've been in the past, but not to the same extent) and in its personnel. Last year, the Owls featured 5-foot-7, 175-pound fifth-year Quinton Jackson at running back. Despite his diminutive stature, he absorbed 180 carries for 889 yards and 6 touchdowns en route to team MVP honors in 2025. Jackson, however, has been moved to the slot, so sophomores Tyvonn Byars (5-10, 217) and D'Andre Hardeman Jr. (5-8, 197) will now serve as the Owls' top two running backs. Unlike Jackson, fifth-year quarterback Jacurri Brown (6-4, 227) is fooling no one with his frame (for reference, Riley Leonard played at 6-4, 216). In Brown's two seasons with Miami and two more with UCF, the four-star recruit in the 2022 class compiled 138 carries for 823 yards (6.0 per at- tempt) and 8 touchdowns. Lindy's Sports wrote the following after spring practice: "If Abell could have designed his dream quarterback in a lab, the result probably would have looked a lot like Brown." It's easy to see why. He's big, he's fast and he can make people miss, both in space and in traffic. The Owls hope Year 2 of implementing their new offense brings better results, and that Brown is an upgrade over 2025 starter Chase Jenkins (who transferred to Kansas). Jenkins knew how to oper- ate Abell's system, but Rice finished 86th nationally with just 4.11 yards per carry. For reference, Navy On PaPer Fifth-year running back turned slot receiver Quinton Jackson was named Rice's MVP in 2025 after leading the team in rushing (889), all-purpose (1,225), and kickoff return (262) yards, and tying for the team lead with 7 touchdowns. PHOTO COURTESY RICE ATHLETICS