Rice fires football head coach Mike Bloomgren

By Andersen Pickard     10/29/24 11:39pm

Rice Athletics announced the firing of football head coach Mike Bloomgren on Sunday, less than 24 hours after a 17-10 loss at the University of Connecticut.

“As I evaluated our program and compared our current and desired trajectory, I determined new leadership is necessary to guide us into the future,” said athletic director Tommy McClelland in a statement.

Bloomgren, 47, was in the middle of his seventh season as the Owls’ head coach at the time of his firing. Through six full seasons, he had never led the program to a winning record. His best finish came in 2023 when Rice went 6-6 and lost their bowl game to Texas State University.

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Entering the 2024 season, DraftKings projected Rice to finish fifth among 14 teams in the American Athletic Conference. However, at the time of Bloomgren’s firing, Rice was tied for ninth in the conference, going 2-6 overall and 1-3 against AAC opponents. 

Rice was Bloomgren’s third stop in Division I FBS, but his first as head coach. He had previously been a graduate assistant at the University of Alabama and offensive coordinator at Stanford University. He also spent four years at the NFL level in various roles with the New York Jets.

Bloomgren was credited with recruiting talent to Rice, including quarterback JT Daniels, whom he had attempted to recruit while Daniels was in high school, and wide receiver Luke McCaffrey, whose brother, Christian, played for him at Stanford. Daniels helped lead the Owls to their second consecutive bowl-game berth in 2023 before declaring his medical retirement near the end of the season. McCaffrey parlayed an impressive junior season at Rice into becoming a third-round pick in the NFL Draft for the Washington Commanders.

Bloomgren’s firing is the second major dismissal made by McClelland since joining Rice in August 2023. Last March, he dismissed men’s basketball head coach Scott Pera after the program finished 11-21 in the AAC.

McClelland conducted a nationwide search for Pera’s replacement before settling on former Southern Methodist University head coach Rob Lanier, and he will now lead a similar search for the university’s next football coach starting immediately.

In the meantime, Pete Alamar will serve as the Owls’ interim head coach. He joined Rice football as the program’s associate head coach and special teams coordinator in 2023.

Alamar said that he’s not focused on auditioning for the head coaching job.

“I’ve been entrusted to lead this program for the next five weeks,” he said. “All I’m concerned about is putting our guys in the best position to play fast, play free and have an opportunity to win games. Period.”

Alamar’s previous experience includes coaching at the University of Arizona, the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University. He has also helped lead teams to a bowl game 19 times in his career.

Rice still has four games remaining on its 2024 schedule. The Owls, who are one loss away from being eliminated from bowl contention, will face the United States Naval Academy this Saturday, Nov. 2 at home. Navy is 6-1 this season and 4-0 in games against AAC opponents.

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