10 things to know about UH transfer Dean Connors, former Rice University running back

By Kathleen Ortiz     9/2/25 7:06pm

After last year’s tumultuous 4-8 football season — in which former head coach Mike Bloomgren was fired eight games into the season — running back Dean Connors left Rice, opting to go across town to the University of Houston’s team.

On Saturday, when UH comes back to Rice for what might be the final Bayou Bucket Classic, Connors will play at Rice Stadium for the first time since transferring. Here are 10 things to know about the senior:

Connors played three years (2022-24) at Rice before transferring to Houston in 2025.

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Connors was in Will Rice College and majored in Sports Medicine and Exercise Physiology, according to the 2023 Rice football roster.

Connors had 1,679 rushing yards in his three seasons at Rice with 16 rushing touchdowns.

In 2024, when Rice lost to UH 33-7, Connors scored the lone touchdown for Rice.

In 2024, Connors set Rice career running back records for both receptions and receiving yards, 113 and 912 respectively. He also led the team in touchdowns with 11 last season.

Connors led the Owls in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and all-purpose yards in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

Connors played at Riverside Community College in 2021 before coming to Rice. There, he rushed for 516 yards on 107 carries.

Connors’ 62 receptions last season were the most by an NCAA running back in the regular season.

Connors is in his fifth year of eligibility, which he was allowed through an NCAA waiver that granted an additional year of eligibility to former junior college transfers. The waiver specifically allows an extra year of eligibility in 2025-26 for athletes who “competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years” and would otherwise have run out of NCAA eligibility following the 2024-25 season. 

In UH’s first game of 2025 against Stephen F. Austin State University, Connors led the rushers with 50 rushing yards.

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