Rice has made the decision to fire head coach Mike Bloomgren, sources shared with FootballScoop this afternoon.
The school has since announced the decision.
Rice was off to a 2-6 record this fall, and were 24-52 under Bloomgren in his seventh season leading the team.
In 2022 and 2023 he led the Owls to back-to-back bowl games and also led them in their transition to the AAC.
A former small college tight end at Culver-Stockton (NAIA - MO), Bloomgren is best known for his time at Stanford as the run game coordinator / offensive line coach and then offensive coordinator for the Cardinal under David Shaw from 2011-17.
He landed his first head coaching job and took over a significant rebuild at Rice heading into the 2018 season, and led the team to their first bowl game of his tenure in year five (2022) after a 5-7 finish. They would finish 6-6 the next year and get a bid to play in the First Responder Bowl.
Bloomgren's Owls went 0-2 in those postseason appearances.
Their 2-6 record this season included wins over Texas Southern and a struggling UTSA team. They lost one-score games to Charlotte (20-21) and this past weekend to UConn (10-17).
Multiple reports share that associate head coach / special teams coordinator Pete Alamar will step in as interim head coach.
The move is the third head coaching change at the FBS level so far this season, joining Southern Miss and East Carolina.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.