Brenden Rice believes Colorado secondary will be sound

Colorado may not have had their strongest showing last weekend, falling to Oregon 42-6 in their first Pac-12 Conference game under new head coach Deion Sanders. But USC is not underestimating the Buffaloes ahead of their Week 5 matchup this weekend.

Trojans wideout Brenden Rice will be pitted against Colorado’s secondary on Saturday, and on Wednesday after practice spoke about his expectations for the Buffaloes’ defensive backs and the entire defense as a whole.

“I mean Colorado’s DBs and their defensive unit is gonna be sound,” Rice said. “Coach Prime has gone ahead and made sure they’re up to par, they’re gonna come ready, they’re gonna come to dog fight, they’re gonna protect home.”

Rice is plenty familiar with the Colorado program, spending the first two seasons of his collegiate career in Boulder before transferring to USC ahead of the 2022 season. He was a three-star high school prospect out of Chandler, Arizona ranked the No. 75 wide receiver and the No. 406 overall player in the nation for his 2020 class according to On3’s Industry Ranking.

Colorado was Rice’s school of choice coming out of Hamilton High School, making an instant impact in the shorted 2020 season as a freshman with six catches, 120 yards, and two touchdowns along with an 81-yard punt return for a touchdown. He’d increase his production as a sophomore but decided to take his talents to Los Angeles to play under Lincoln Riley in his first season as USC’s head coach last year.

Last season was great for the Trojans and catastrophic for Colorado, but Rice knows that the place he once called home has transformed into a whole different animal since his departure.

“Going to somebody else’s house just to go ahead and get a dub is harder, no matter what on the road is gonna be hard. So we have to make sure we come in sound, come in with no mental errors, fix the corrections from last week and be ready to have a dog fight, and I can’t wait,” Rice said.

Rice is fresh off of his strongest showing of the season, hauling in a career-high seven catches for 133 yards and two touchdowns last weekend against Arizona State.

Colorado’s secondary on the other hand may have talent and the leadership of one of the greatest defensive backs in football history, but have struggled in coverage this season. The Buffaloes have allowed 269.3 yards through the air per game this year ranking only in front of Stanford in the Pac-12, and will definitely need to bring their A-game slow down Rice, Caleb Williams, and Lincoln Riley’s lethal passing attack.