Mike Bloomgren will be the next head coach at Rice, according to a report from Yahoo's Pete Thamel. FootballScoop was told the same this morning, but that the deal was not yet finalized.
Bloomgren has spent the past five seasons as Stanford's offensive coordinator. His offenses have been among the best pro-style attacks in college football, focused on a physical running game. Running back Christian McCaffrey was a Heisman runner-up in 2015 after breaking the FBS single-season record for all-purpose yardage, and on Monday Bryce Love was named a Heisman finalist after a season in which he carried for 1,973 yards on 8.32 yards per carry despite battling a high-ankle sprain for much of the year.
https://twitter.com/petethamel/status/938063217762463747
Update: Sources now tell FootballScoop that it's a done deal.
Bloomgren is set to take over a Rice program that went 1-11 this season. David Bailiff was let go late last month after an 11-year run that twice saw the Owls win 10 games with a Conference USA championship in 2013, though the club did not reach a bowl in the past three seasons.
Bailiff earned $772,000 in 2017, according to the USA Todaycoaching salary database.
Bloomgren has been on David Shaw's staff at Stanford since 2011, and the parallels between the Stanford program at the beginning of the Harbaugh-Shaw era and where Rice is now are obvious. If Stanford can embrace its academic identity and turn into a Pac-12 power, Rice AD Joe Karlgaard believes Bloomgren can replicate the formula in Houston.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.