Rice has his best game with 174 receiving yards and a pair of touchdown catches from Caleb Williams in the 46-45 loss to Tulane.
ARLINGTON, Texas — If you did not expect much from Caleb Williams’ Heisman Trophy encore, it would have been understood. The USC quarterback was coming off a hamstring pull in his last game and was without leading receiver Jordan Addison, who sat out of the Cotton Bowl against Tulane with an ankle injury.. Part of it was due to Williams moving better than expected following the injury. But a bigger part of it was the play of junior receiver Brenden Rice.
The Colorado transfer, who entered the game as USC’s fourth-leading receiver after a year plagued by drops, was the Trojans’ offensive MVP on Monday. He set a career-high with 174 receiving yards on six receptions. And he matched his previous season total with two touchdowns.It was difficult to judge which was Rice’s most impressive reception. He made a finger-tip catch for a 74-yard gain in the third quarter.
His first touchdown came on a crossing route in which he ran the length of the end zone as Williams rolled right and bought time before finding his receiver. But the strongest candidate came in the first quarter with USC facing a third-and-22. No receivers initially came open so Williams rolled left to buy time, 11 seconds in total as guard Gino Quinones made a nice secondary block to keep the quarterback on his feet. He finally found Rice at the goal line, facing double coverage.Related Articles
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