Raiders open season with Bulldogs

The Rice Raiders are back in action for the 2025 season as they took on the Flatonia Bulldogs in a scrimmage.

As with the Cardinals the Raiders greatly benefitted from the scrimmages just in a different way.

The Cards more or less have players established in roles on the team and just needed to iron out the kinks in their game. The Raiders, however, lost a ton of seniors last year and have a lot of new faces.

So, the scrimmages allow the Raiders to slow the game down and help teach these new varsity players as much as they can. That’s why coaches put a lot of stock into scrimmages because they get to be way more hands on while their team takes on live reps.

During a game a coach cannot just stop a play and explain to his quarterback, running backs, receivers, tight ends, linemen, linebackers and defensive backs are all in the right spot doing the right things. But, in a scrimmage they can.

This is not every play they are slowing things down either, they are on a schedule, and they do have a timer to make it feel as close to a game as possible. They do, however, stop the clock if needed explain what needs to be explained and they get right back to work.

It helps the kids in two ways, first it helps them understand what they need to be doing in certain plays and expresses the urgency to understand these sorts of things. Varsity is a different animal compared to junior varsity, so it is very vital these underclassmen and new faces get some work in scrimmages.

The Raiders’ coaching staff has a great road map set for this team and will continue to work with their players to get back to the playoffs in 2025.