Catching up with Matt Rice

Second in a series of stories by Larry Watts on the players of the 1995 Northwestern Wildcats on this, the 20th anniversary of their Rose Bowl season.

There certainly wasn't any evidence from the football program to convince Matt Rice to come to Northwestern. The Wildcats had gone 3-8 in both 1991 and '92.

"To be honest, it was the school itself,'' says the former defensive tackle who played his high school ball in Middleton, Wis., just outside of Madison. "When I got that scholarship offer from Northwestern, it was like winning the lottery. I came down here to visit in the last game (in '92), when they knocked Wisconsin out of a bowl bid, and committed.

"It wasn't until after I committed to Northwestern that I finally got interest from Wisconsin. The only other offers had come from Northern Illinois and the military schools, while Iowa and Michigan State showed some interest. Back then, if you were from Wisconsin and Wisconsin didn't want you, then other schools didn't want you.''

A 225-pound linebacker at the time, Rice had the Big Ten bloodlines. His father had played defensive end for the Badgers and his maternal grandfather played halfback and linebacker at Ohio State. His paternal grandfather had played football at Marquette.

"At first I was hesitant about playing football at Northwestern,'' he says. "No one likes to get their brains beat in for four years. However, once I met (head coach) Gary Barnett and his staff, I realized they had the right stuff and I bought into it. I saw other guys being recruited and realized things were changing. It was becoming a very different atmosphere.

"(Coach) Barnett was very confident and articulate. He was really good at expressing his vision, how things were going to be and how we were going to get there. He had natural leadership skills combined with salesmanship. He was a great tactician who knew how to recruit and develop players.''

Rice chuckles when he talks about his recruiter, Vince Okruch, who also was the Wildcats' defensive line coach.

"A tough guy,'' Rice says fondly. "When he recruited me, it was all puppy dogs and ice cream. But it certainly turned out a lot different in my second practice; he really knew how to push my buttons.

"I thought I was going to play linebacker, but right away he told me to go put my hand on the ground. One practice I broke off to join the linebackers and the next day Barnett called me over to tell me they were going to need me on the defensive line in a couple of weeks when we played Notre Dame. He made it seem like it was my choice to return to the defensive line, but the writing was on the wall.''

The first trip to Kenosha for training camp is one Rice will never forget.

"I weighed 240 pounds coming into camp and 220 when I left. Kenosha is a cupcake for the players today compared to what we went through. Back then we were doing three-a-days and practicing seven hours a day.

"We were so thin on the defensive line that one day, I was taking reps against the 1s, 2s and 3s without coming off the field. At one point, (defensive coordinator) Ron Vanderlinden came over, tapped me on the shoulder, and said, 'Don't worry, you'll pass out before you die.'''

Rice played in eight games, making three starts, as a true freshman in 1993. He only had one play in the season opener, a 27-12 loss at Notre Dame.

"I got in there for one snap and their All-American center drove me back seven or eight yards, but I reached out and made the tackle,'' he says. "However, the idea of the game isn't for the defensive lineman to make the tackle seven or eight yards downfield.''

By the end of the '94 season, Rice admits "the morale on the team was low.'' The Wildcats had lost their last four games to finish 3-7-1 and Northwestern was dealing with the Dennis Lundy gambling scandal.

"But we had some great leadership and the seeds for the '95 season were quickly planted. Fortunately, a few of the guys who were problems moved on. It doesn't matter how many good guys you have, it only takes a few to screw a team up. And we did have some who looked at our record and became more concerned about themselves than the team.

"We took a huge leap forward in the spring. The defensive linemen and linebackers were now bigger and stronger. We had always been confident in our secondary, but now we had some playmakers on the defensive line who were finally pushing (center) Rob Johnson and the rest of the offensive line back a little.

"And on the offensive side of the ball, guys like (quarterback) Steve Schnur and (quarterback turned wide receiver) D'Wayne Bates, who had been torching us on the scout team, were stepping up big time.''

The offseason momentum carried over to the summer. Nearly the entire team stayed in Evanston and the workouts were grueling, especially Mount Trashmore and the Indian runs -- 10 players ran in a circle with the guy in the rear having to sprint to the front.

"I remember being in the back and (kicker) Sam Valenzisi was at the front, supposedly leading a steady jog,'' Rice says. "I took off, moved to the front and then Sam started speeding up, forcing me to out-run him. I just remember cursing away at him every step of the way.''

Rice was listed at 270 pounds for the '95 season, but after the thrilling victory at Notre Dame, he stepped on the scale, only to check in at 255.

"For the next week or so, I had to get up at 5 a.m. for breakfast with Coach Okruch and then I was eating pizza every night,'' he says with a laugh. "I finally got up to 290 for my senior year.''

After the upset of Notre Dame in the opener, Northwestern hit its low point the following week when it returned to host Miami (Ohio), which was led by future Wildcat coach Randy Walker. After cruising to a 28-7 lead through three quarters, Barnett became conservative and, assisted by a couple of bad special teams snaps, Miami rallied for a 30-28 victory, winning the game on a last-second field goal.

"There were a couple of key developments,'' Rice says. "Our long snapper (Paul Janus) was out with a bad shoulder and his backup (Larry Curry) was taped up with two bad wrists. Then we stopped throwing the ball, so Miami was loading up eight or nine guys in the box. After dealing with Randy Walker, I knew their team had developed that same never-give-up attitude.

"It got to the point where Miami had no timeouts, so our defense started slowly getting up off the piles. The refs got wise to that and started stopping the clock. I've played a lot of football and that was the only time I cried after a game.

"Gary Barnett really helped us flush that loss,'' Rice added. "We played a good Air Force team the following week and demolished them (30-6) and then beat up Indiana (31-7).

"We had our mojo back. By the time we went to Michigan we were back to the team that beat Notre Dame. And in all honesty, we didn't play a very good game at Notre Dame. After looking at the tape, we realized we had so many guys out of position and so many missed tackles that we should have won that game by four touchdowns.''

After reeling off nine straight wins, Northwestern claimed a share of the Big Ten title with a 23-8 victory at Purdue. The Wildcat defense held Heisman Trophy candidate Mike Alstott to 71 yards.

"I remember Alstott needed something like 30 yards to break the all-time rushing record at Purdue,'' Rice says. "When he reached that mark, they stopped the game and held a brief ceremony, which I thought was kind of strange. We then knocked him back for a loss on the next play and I thought, 'Does he have to give those awards back?'''

For Rice, the one game that sticks out in his mind during the '95 season was the 35-0 dismantling of Wisconsin in Evanston. The Cats also beat the Badgers 34-30 in Madison during his senior year.

"Those first couple of years at Northwestern (93-94), I was getting a lot of ribbing from the people in Wisconsin about my choice and it was very frustrating,'' he says. "But those last couple of years, I felt like I exorcised those demons.

"Beating Wisconsin in '95 was a dream. You can put the tape on and use it as a defensive clinic.''

When Michigan defeated Ohio State to give Northwestern the outright Big Ten title, Rice was back home on Thanksgiving break and was at the Illinois-Wisconsin game.

"I started seeing updates on the Ohio State-Michigan game and I had to find a TV somewhere,'' he says. "Since my dad played football at Wisconsin, I ran into the W Club and everyone in there was cheering for Michigan because they knew what it meant for Northwestern.''

With no indoor facility in Evanston, the Wildcats left for Pasadena two weeks prior to the Rose Bowl. One of the highlights during the trip was beating USC in the Lawry's Beef Bowl.

"There was a quota on the amount of food you could eat because a Penn State player got sick the previous year, so the guys kept passing me food under the table,'' Rice says.

As for the 41-32 loss to the Trojans, Rice blames it on preparation mistakes.

"If there was one thing we didn't do right in Pasadena it was not enough film study,'' he says. "We studied as individuals, but rarely did it as groups so we could take notes off each other.

"At the game, Gary Barnett thought USC would hit us with a heavy rushing attack. They didn't run at all and we lacked the explosiveness on the pass rush. We weren't used to giving up that many points.''

A second team All-Big Ten selection his last two years, Rice concluded his Northwestern career with 197 tackles, which included 42 for lost yardage. Nearly all of his 38 starts came playing in front of two-time All-American Pat Fitzgerald.

"Highest football IQ of any player I've ever been around,'' Rice says of the current Wildcats coach. "He was another coach on the field. He knew the system inside and out. My job was to make sure he stayed clean.

"For some reason, a lot of teams started double-teaming me and I kept thinking, 'Why don't one of you guys go after our All-American linebacker?' I could trust him and I knew if I got blocked he would be there to make the tackle.''

Undrafted in 1997, Rice decided to sign with the Arizona Cardinals for three years at $150,000, with a $1,000 signing bonus. He picked the Cardinals because he knew they were thin on the defensive line.

"I went to mini camp with the Cardinals and then training camp,'' he says. "Joe Greene was the defensive line coach. But about 10 days into training camp, I started having second thoughts. They (the Cardinals) were so bad. I thought our offensive line at Northwestern was more physical than Arizona's line.

"My knees, my back and ankles were all hurting. I had had the best experience on all levels of football, but the NFL was just competing for a paycheck. I did a cost analysis, crunched the numbers and decided to go home. My signing bonus paid for my way home and another undrafted free agent wound up making the team at my position.

"When I got home, the Cardinals sent me this nasty letter telling me I was bound to them for the next three years,'' he added. "I framed it and hung it up in my office, but for the next few years I received royalties from the Players Association thanks to the Madden game. It became pretty clear that using your brain rather than your body was the right way to go.''

Rice has been with DiMeo Schneider & Associates LLC since 2001 and is now the firm's chief investment officer. He and his wife, Jennifer, who he married in 2002, have two children, Michael (4) and Olivia, who will celebrate her first birthday this month. Making his home in Chicago, he remains active with Northwestern by helping out with the mentoring program and the Northwestern Gridiron Network.