Short in stature, Rice standing tall in Seahawks’ offense

Elijah Rice made one of those cut-backs that drive offensive coaches nuts.

The Myrtle Beach receiver took a second-quarter pass from Drayton Arnold, cut backward in an attempt to find running room and ended up behind the line of scrimmage. From start to finish, Rice’s reach ended up costing his team roughly nine yards in what was still a relatively close game against St. James.

The Seahawks coaches barely blinked.

The shifty freestyler had already caught two touchdowns, would add a third later on and added an interception in which he flirted with an 81-yard return before he was stopped short. Basically, the coaching staff was willing to take the little bit of the bad that comes along with all the good.

“He’s one of those kids who when he’s got the ball in his hands, he’s able to score,” coach Mickey Wilson said. “He just opens things for us offensively. He’s kind of really evolved in our system.”

That’s selling Rice’s acclimation short.

After moving here in August from Virginia, the former two-way standout at Denbigh High in Newport News (and attending Bruton in nearby Williamsburg before that), Rice was pretty much an afterthought until a month ago. Through the team’s first four games, he had put up just nine receptions for 125 yards. In the four games since, he’s averaged eight receptions for 154 yards per game.

All eight of his touchdowns have come in the last three games, the team’s first three region contests.

But for Rice, his connection with Arnold was building from the moment he got here.

“When I first got down here, me and Drayton would go on Sundays to throw the ball with each other to get comfortable,” he said. “He gets the ball out quick most of the time. I thought ‘We’re going to have a good season.’ It started off kind of slow, but I knew eventually we would start putting up good numbers.”

Now, Rice has transformed into the second-best receiver in the area in terms of yards (742) and touchdowns (eight) behind only Conway’s Bryan Edwards. He’s also third in receptions, behind only Edwards and St. James’ Jackson Hurston.

It’s also eliciting comparisons to what Kyle Belack did at Myrtle Beach last year in his only season with the Seahawks. Although it’s a somewhat unfair analogy given the fact Belack played on the outside and Rice is typically playing the slot, the two one-year standouts have each provided a much-needed target for Arnold.

Actually, Rice is now ahead of where Belack was at this point of the season in 2014. Through eight games last year, Belack, now at the University of Ohio, had 36 receptions for 693 yards and eight touchdowns before finishing with 1,214 yards and 18 scores.

In addition to the differing receiver positions, Rice also doesn’t really look like one. He’s just 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds.

“He’s short. I don’t know a better way to put it,” Wilson said. “He’s difficult to find because of his height.”

That elusiveness and his ability to disappear showed in the St. James game. Those first two touchdown catches came on broken plays, and although he wasn’t open enough to earn the early target on either, he continued moving until that changed.

They were microcosms of his season so far.

“Me and Drayton weren’t clicking yet. I guess I just kept doing what I was doing,” he said. “I knew a breakout game was coming, but I didn’t know when. So I stuck with it and trusted Drayton.”

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 10:31 PM with the headline "Short in stature, Rice standing tall in Seahawks’ offense."