TrojanSports - USC WR Brenden Rice seeking more consistency to go with his big catches
Brenden Rice has been a mix of inconsistency and highly-impressive plays this fall for USC.
USC.rivals.com
Wide receiver Brenden Rice has battled inconsistency this season in his first year with the Trojans -- he's also made some spectacular catches that make it clear why the coaches have remained patient with him through the ups and downs.
The first half last Friday night vs. Colorado encapsulated all of that.
On the Trojans' second offensive play, quarterback Caleb Williams fired a screen pass to Rice on the left side, and although it was a little high and away from Rice's body the ball went right off his hands.
Midway through that quarter, Williams dialed up Rice again, this time on a deep shot down the middle of the field. The ball was a little underthrown but again catchable, though Rice wasn't able to come back to the ball well enough as Colorado cornerback Nikko Reed swooped in to seemingly rip the ball away from Rice's grasp for just the second interception on Williams all season.
"That first [pass] if I would have just jumped higher, gotten to the point by reacting in time, I would have been able to make that catch a little sooner. He expects me to come down with those -- even if it's a bad ball he expects me to come down with those, and I've got to come down with that," Rice would say afterward, recounting his start to the game. " ... And especially after that post ball got through, beat him over the top and then trying to come back for that ball I got to make it so my quarterback doesn't take the INT. I've got to be better on that part, I've got to be better all around honestly."
As has happened in other games this season, he was indeed better the rest of the way -- much better, while finishing that half with 3 catches for 70 yards and a touchdown (and a fourth catch for 13 yards that was negated by a holding penalty).
The final minutes of the second quarter against the Buffs became a spotlight of why the Trojans continue to feed Rice despite 4 drops and 26 overall receptions on 43 passing targets for a pedestrian 60.5 percent completion rate this season, per PFF. (Mario Williams actually has a team-high 5 drops and a 57.8 percent completion rate on his targets while Tahj Washington also has 4 drops.)
On the first play after running back Travis Dye went down with a season-ending leg injury late in the second quarter, Rice gave the Trojans a jolt with an incredible sideline catch, planting his left foot in bounds and then lunging down to corral the low pass before tumbling to the sideline for a 9-yard gain.
On the very next play, Williams hit Rice again, for a 32-yard touchdown strike that the big receiver caught in the air in front of cornerback Kaylin Moore and then protected while Moore and another DB tried to rip the ball away as Rice used his momentum to fall into the end zone.
And just 1:27 later, it was Rice again, breaking free across the middle and catching the ball away from his body in motion before shaking off the first tackler and taking it for a 29-yard gain.
"He's been a really good practice player, and he's a guy that continues to really work at his craft," coach Lincoln Riley said Thursday when asked about continuing to feed Rice even after some slow starts. "He's been an excellent blocker for us, he's really been a difference-maker in the blocking game, and he's made a number of big plays. I know he's got a couple that he'd love to have back from the year, but that's part of it. The key is he's been able to respond."
Rice admitted he and Williams got "chirpy" on the sideline after the interception, but Williams couldn't have asked for much more from his X receiver the rest of that first half.
Rice was rather revealing in the postgame interview that night, suggesting that he's struggled with his confidence at times this season -- if that is indeed what he intended to say (watch the video above) -- so that acrobatic sideline grab helped give himself a jolt, for that matter.
"It definitely made something -- it clicked, it started to click for me because obviously the confidence is key," Rice said. "I needed confidence this whole year, and you can see like I lack confidence, and for me to go out there and make that catch it definitely increased what I already had [to] go out there and make the rest of the catches."
The PFF stats note the number of passes Rice's way that have gone incomplete, but they also note the other side to his game that is the reason the Trojans keep throwing toward him. Rice has the best contested catch rate on the team, hauling in a leading 8 contested catches on 12 targets. Kyle Ford is next with 4 and no other Trojan has more than 2, per PFF.
"I think the one-two punch of him and Ford out there at X has been, especially here in the back half of the season, has been important for us to get those guys going, for them to make some plays and they certainly have," Riley said. "You see what [Rice] does on the practice field, the way he works at it -- it's been cool to see the improvement, and again, a lot more production out of that the last several weeks, which has been trending in a great direction."
Rice is tied for third on the team with his 26 receptions and fourth with 336 receiving yards (and 2 touchdowns).
He knows, though, that he's left some other plays out on the field this fall and what his potential is if he can improve his consistency.
"I have to go ahead and capitalize on those opportunities. As you see tonight, I capitalized on some of the opportunities. If I capitalized on all of them I would have been over 100," Rice said Friday night. "So I've got to go back to the drawing board, go back to working, get some of the minor errors out and focus on next week with UCLA -- and I can't wait for UCLA."
