The Curious Case of Curtis Rice

posted by Scott Hood, Tuesday, August 07, 2007

I’ve heard a lot about “misleading” recruits lately.

If you review the transcript of Steve Spurrier’s Media Days press conference, he used that word or something similar about a half dozen times in his opening 3-1/2 minute diatribe against the admissions process at South Carolina.

Most of you have heard about it so I’ll spare you the details.

Spurrier was, of course, talking about the situations involving signees Arkee Smith and Michael Bowman, both of whom had their applications for admission denied recently.

The final determination in Smith’s appeal was, in fact, rendered just a couple of days before the start of fall camp. As a result, both players will enroll elsewhere. Bowman has already been accepted into East Carolina. Smith will play somewhere, possibly Minnesota.

But there’s another situation out there involving POTENTIAL “misrepresentation” in the recruiting wars that few people have considered.

I say “potential” because I have only suspicions.

Remember, this is a commentary, not a news article.

By all accounts, Curtis Rice was a very good high school player at Union High School in Union, S.C. His school won the Class 3-A state title in 2002.

Rice was a major contributor to Union’s title with 99 tackles and 14 sacks as a senior.

But Union also had an all-world offensive lineman named Eric Young. Lots and lots of schools across the country wanted Young to play football for them.

Among the schools in the hunt for Young’s services were USC and Tennessee. If the recruiting analysts were correct, the battle came down to those two institutions.

Now comes the tricky part.

If I recall, there were reports floating around at the time that Young and Rice were a “package deal.” In other words, if a team wanted Young, it had to sign Rice too.

I know from USC’s perspective that they were confident that if they offered Rice, Young would follow. In fact, I remember the excitement heading into signing day that Young had committed to the Gamecocks.

In fact, I was so caught up in it I listened to the local radio broadcast of the press conference at Union High School. Rice entered the gym first and the USC fight song played.

So far, so good.

Young was next. Many people expected him to follow suit and come to Columbia.

Young signed with Tennessee.

While Young rode off to Knoxville, Rice came to Columbia. After redshirting in 2003, he appeared in two games in 2004. His best season came in 2005 when he appeared in 10 of 12 games and accumulated eight tackles.

Last year, he played in nine games before a sprained foot injury sidelined him for the rest of the season.

Entering this season, Rice had appeared in 21 career games with 16 total tackles and one interception. I’ll say those are fairly average numbers for a player who never could establish himself as a starter at linebacker.

Here’s my concern: did USC truly believes Rice was a legitimate major Division I prospect or was their interest in the young man simply a charade in order to entice Young to sign with the Gamecocks?

I don’t have the answer to that question, and without painstaking research and conducting countless interviews, I never will.

I just hope Rice wasn’t used as a bargaining chip in USC’s attempts to secure Young. If he was, shame on Lou Holtz and his coaching staff for "midleading" Rice and allowing it to happen.

If he wasn’t, pretend this blog never happened.

How is all of this relevant? Rice, a fifth-year senior, has applied for a medical hardship from the NCAA. If the request is granted, his college football career is over.

I think it’s fair to say Rice made a minor contribution to the USC football program in his three years as an active player.

Of course, I have no doubt Rice tried his hardest. But it's possible that from the outset he was simply not going to be anything more than a fringe player on the Division I-A level.

I hope Rice is able to finish his academic work and get his bachelor’s degree in retailing. If he does, good for him. That’s what college is for. Life is about taking advantage of opportunities.

I’m not accusing the Holtz staff of any wrongdoing here. As I said, I have my suspicions but few facts. Hopefully, they did the right thing when it came to Curtis Rice.

All recruits, no matter how many stars they have next to their name, deserve nothing less. It's called respect.

In my opinion, that’s the main point Spurrier’s tirade was trying to make Sunday.

I hope people listened.

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