One year ago this week, Lance Rice was hurting.
It wasn't a sprained knee or a dislocated shoulder or any other physical ailment that had the University of Utah quarterback in pain. He was suffering from a bruised ego.
Rice had started 20 straight games for the Utes — a dozen of them wins. He had even quarterbacked Utah to a Las Vegas Bowl victory over USC and future Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer the previous Christmas.
But consecutive narrow losses to Arizona, Michigan and Air Force placed mounting pressure on coach Ron McBride to do something — anything — to right the sinking U. ship.
So Lance Rice became a very visible deck chair on McBride's version of "Titanic."
Rice was benched after the Utes blew a 20-point halftime lead to Air Force on Sept. 28, 2002.
And he didn't just become the backup to Brett Elliott, either. Instead, Rice was unceremoniously dropped all the way to third string. Third string. Alex Smith, a skinny kid just a couple of months removed from high school and more than six years Rice's junior, was promoted to the backup position the remainder of last season.
"It was tough," Rice understates. "It was hard for me to deal with, but others in my family took it even harder than I did."
Mindy Rice, Lance's wife of 3 1/2 years, has seen up close the pressures her husband has had to deal with throughout his college football career. When Lance was benched, Mindy was pregnant with the couple's first child. Peyton Rice was born six months ago. Mindy Rice says she will have no problem letting her child play football when he gets older.
But she absolutely won't let him play quarterback.
Family ties
To say Rice comes from a family of Ute fans is like saying George W. Bush comes from a family interested in politics.
In 1972 — six years before Lance Rice was born — Robert L. (Bob) Rice donated $1 million for the renovation of Ute Stadium. It was then renamed Rice Stadium and it stayed that way for 26 years until it was torn down and rebuilt prior to the 1998 season and rechristened Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Lance, the son of U. graduates Jay and Anita Rice, grew up in the shadow of the stadium that bears his grandfather's name.
"I've gone to Ute games ever since I can remember," Lance said. "Growing up it was always a dream of mine to play here."
Meeting Ute players — like record-setting QB Scott Mitchell — was a thrill for the youngster. Rice, in fact, still has a Polaroid of him with Mitchell safely stored in a scrapbook.
Rice started playing football as an eight-year-old Little Leaguer in Sandy. He was always a quarterback — except for one year when he weighed too much by league rules to be anything but a lineman. "I wasn't fat," he explains, "I'd just had a growth spurt and was big for my age."
Rice also enjoyed playing baseball and basketball, but it was on the football field where he really made his mark at Olympus High. His two favorite receivers also happened to be his cousins, Zach Green and Nick Rice. The trio helped the Titans put up big offensive numbers — including a state-record 471-yard passing game in 1995.
College recruiters started to notice. Ivy League schools liked him because he was a good student in addition to being a fine high school QB. Tulane, almost out of the blue, was the first Division IA school to offer Rice a scholarship.
Going to Tulane where he would play home games in the New Orleans Superdome was tempting, but when the school that he had grown up cheering for his entire life offered him a scholarship, he couldn't refuse.
A dream was being fulfilled. Rice was going to be a Ute.
Rice name: Blessing or curse
Before signing with the U., Rice remembers asking McBride whether his grandfather's contributions to the Utah athletic program had anything to do with him getting a scholarship offer.
"I get paid to win games and bring in good players," McBride said. "You're a good player. Your family has nothing to do with this."
That was good enough for Lance and he signed his name to a letter of intent in 1996.
After "white shirting" for two years as an LDS missionary in Mexico and a redshirt season in 1999, Rice was a 22-year-old freshman in 2000. Most of his teammates didn't even realize during his first year or two that he was related to the man the stadium was named after.
When they found out, it was the source of a great deal of mostly good-natured ribbing.
"Can your granddaddy give me some money?" he'd hear.
"He doesn't give me any money, why would he give it to you," Rice would respond.
Once he became the starter, the fact that he was Bob Rice's grandson became an interesting media story. As long as the Utes were winning and Rice was performing, it wasn't seen as a negative. But when things didn't go well, it became a burden — much more than he ever anticipated.
"It has been hard when people say that the only reason you are on the team is because of your family or that I was starting because the coaches were doing my grandfather a favor," he said.
"It made me feel like I had to prove myself every time I went out there. I tried to use it as a motivating factor to prove everybody wrong."
On the field
As a third-stringer behind two battle-tested seniors in T.D. Croshaw and Darnell Arceneaux, Rice knew playing time would be scare or, more likely, non-existent during his freshman year in 2000.
But the Utes, a preseason conference favorite, struggled. Rice, after coming off the bench to throw for 185-yards in his college debut against New Mexico in the eighth game of the year, started the final three that season. The Utes downed UNLV and Wyoming and just missed beating BYU in LaVell Edwards' final game.
A 2-1 record as a freshman starter. The future looked bright.
Even so, Rice had to win the starting job back entering the 2001 season with Elliott, then a freshman, and Purdue transfer Ryan Breska as the competition.
But Rice regained his starting role and the Utes, picked to finish in the bottom half of the MWC, did better than anticipated. The sophomore QB guided the Utes to a 7-2 record through the first nine games and the losses were respectably narrow and on the road to nationally-ranked Oregon and Colorado State.
Next up was unbeaten BYU in Provo. In a defensive struggle, the Utes were in outstanding shape with a 21-10 lead in the fourth quarter. Two quick touchdowns, however, gave the Cougars a 24-21 advantage.
Rice then had his chance for a career-defining drive. If he could just lead the troops to a last-second touchdown, ending the unbeaten record of BYU in the process, his legacy would have been secure. Ute fans would have loved him and — perhaps, better yet — Cougar fans would have loathed him.
The drive started well for the Utes as they marched into BYU territory all the way to the 30. Instead of being the hero, however, Rice had a pass intercepted by Jerano Gilford and the Cougars had the victory.
"That," Rice said, "was a tough pill to swallow."
Despite the loss, the Utes were invited to the Las Vegas Bowl. First, however, Utah had to play at Air Force on Dec. 1 in a game that had been postponed the Saturday following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Unfortunately for Rice, the end of the Air Force game in 2001 — not the Vegas Bowl or any of the other victories — may be the one thing many Ute fans will remember most about his career.
Trailing 38-37, the Utes marched into Air Force territory in the final minute. A Dameon Hunter run put the ball at the 12-yard line in the final seconds for what should have been a game-winning field goal attempt.
After some confusion on the sidelines and with the clock stopping briefly due to an injury to Hunter, the Utes ran a pass play on third down. Rice couldn't find an open receiver and scrambled. As he did, the game clock expired.
He gained eight yards on the play — but was four yards short of the end zone. There was no time left for the field goal attempt.
It's a play that still haunts Rice.
"I should have just tried to throw the ball away, but I was just trying to make something happen," he said.
Rice and the Utes got some redemption with a Vegas Bowl present on Christmas, but their solid 8-4 season was just two or three plays from being one of the best in school history.
Support structure
Rice met his future wife through mutual friends when they were set up on a blind date. Mindy's family is from Logan and are avid Utah State fans, but that didn't stop her dating and, eventually, marrying a Ute QB.
When times got tough — like after the BYU and Air Force losses — Lance counted on Mindy for help.
"I have a great wife who has been very supportive through everything and has been very positive and has really helped me through the tough times," Lance said.
The rest of his family came through, too, including his grandfather. "He would stay out of it as far as what was happening on the field, but he was always there to say how proud he was of me. That meant a lot. My grandfather has been a great role model for me because he's a self-made man. He grew up in a poor family, but he had a dream and he built his own business into what it is today."
Helping others
Rice finished the 2001 season second in the MWC in pass efficiency and with 2,086 yards and 16 touchdowns. Still, he had to prove himself as the starter once again.
This time the Utes were expected to be one of the top two or three teams in the league and they looked the part for the first two games—beating Utah State and Indiana to open the season. Then star running back Marty Johnson got hurt.
It could easily be argued that Johnson's injury cost Rice his starting job as quarterback — and, to take it a step further, McBride his coaching job at Utah.
Current Ute star Brandon Warfield wasn't ready to take over for Johnson yet and the Utes had little success running the ball in back-to-back losses by narrow margins to BCS schools at Arizona and Michigan. It started a downward spiral that saw Utah lose six consecutive games — the first three with Rice at QB, the final three with Elliott.
Rice could have been bitter about his demotion. He could have sulked and been a divisive force in the locker room.
Instead, he's gone out of his way to help both Elliott and Smith become better football players.
And it's something he's still doing. Elliott and Smith, who have each started two games for the 3-1 Utes this season, both praise Rice and consider him a friend.
"I can't say enough about Lance," said Smith, who figured out recently that he was in the 6th grade the year Rice was graduating from high school. "He's been there and sees things and he gives me advice about what I can do better … Lance is an easy person to like because he's just a good person."
Helping his younger teammates — being like another QB coach on the field — is a cruel irony for Rice. He wants to play more than anything, but the chances of that happening are damaged each time his insight aids Smith or Elliott. Rice realizes that as long as those two are having success and are healthy, he won't see any more meaningful minutes on a football field.
"I still feel like I could help the team win if I was playing," said Rice. "But I can't sit there and bicker and complain. That would just make the situation worse. I just try to stay positive and help my teammates."
Not done yet
Rice is senior in eligibility this season, but not in the classroom. In fact, he was a senior two years ago. He earned his undergraduate degree in finance in the summer of 2002. Last year, during his junior season of football he began work on his MBA. He'll complete it in December.
It would have been easy for Rice to call it a career after last season. It almost made too much sense. That way he could have concentrated on his graduate studies and on being a husband and brand-new father and he wouldn't have to learn his third new offense in four years under a new coach only to sit the bench as the No. 3 quarterback.
"I seriously thought about not playing this year," Rice admits. "But Coach (Urban) Meyer and the other new coaches brought in so much new energy and an offense that is great for a quarterback. I decided to give it one more try."
And even though he may or may not need him to play in games this year, Meyer is glad Rice stuck around.
"He's in a very difficult situation, no doubt about it," Meyer said. "He could have easily packed it in and quit, but we needed him. We needed his leadership. He commands the respect of his teammates by the way he shows up to work every day."
No regrets
If he had to do it all over again, knowing what he knows now, would he still have signed with Utah?
Rice contemplates the question a moment.
"I have no regrets," he says. "I really didn't expect my family name to be made into such a big deal and there have been ups and downs, but it overall it's been a positive experience. I think it will help me throughout the rest of my life to be a better father, a better husband, a better businessman. It will help me to have success the rest of my life."
E-MAIL: lojo@desnews.com