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The Huddle
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Huddle where today we are talking about the Rice Raiders football team.
Last season around this time I wrote another column talking about the Rice Raiders and how they were going to make the playoffs in 2024.
Turns out, I was right because the Raiders are heading back to the postseason for the first time in four years. They were led by a defensive front that shifted the momentum in a lot of games this season.
They were led by Deveron Bennett who is an absolute game wrecker. You’d be hard pressed to find an offensive lineman that could hold off Bennett because he is that good.
He plays defensive tackle and is a very large human but is so deceptively quick and slippery. The ball is snapped, and the offensive lineman gets hands on Bennett and in the blink of an eye he’s sliding his blocker out of the way and bringing the quarterback down for a sack.
With his speed and talent being at the point of contact being of note what else separates him is how strong he is. So not only can he slip passed blockers at the line of scrimmage he can also bulldoze them out of the way if he feels it is necessary.
The defense followed his lead all year long and were able to lead the Raiders to a 4-0 start to the season with all four wins being shutouts for the defense.
Offensively Kor’Dae Johnson took a major step in his development. He has completed around 60% of his passes and had a positive touchdown to interception ratio.
He was a huge piece to the team’s success and like I said last season he still has more to offer. Being only a sophomore Johnson has two full more seasons to develop.
Part of that development is by gaining experience and there is no better experience than playoff experience. Johnson in just his sophomore season will be soaking this next game against Lexington up because going forward his talent, experience and most importantly his leadership are going to be crucial to the Raiders success on the gridiron in the years to come.
Thank you all so much for reading the Huddle, and I will see you all next time.
