Lonnie Rice, former Bishop McDevitt star, makes Syracuse dream come true after brief JUCO stop

Nothing was going to prevent Lonnie Rice from playing football for Syracuse.

Since he was 16 years old, playing for the Orange weighed heavily on his mind. Even Mike Watkins, his former head coach at Bishop McDevitt High School in Wyncote who has since become his mentor, felt Rice and Syracuse were a perfect fit.

The initial recruiting process was an arduous time for Rice, the record holder in all-purpose yards at McDevitt because he was a two-way star for a program he helped put on the map.

“When I was getting recruited out of high school, I was a quarterback, safety, [defensive back], and a linebacker, so I think the biggest confusion [for prospective coaches during] the recruiting process for me [coming out of] high school was, ‘What position is he going to play?’” Rice said. “Where is he going to fit in our scheme? And what defense is he going to play in? Or is he going to end up an offensive guy?”

Three years after he signed his national letter of intent to join Buffalo, Rice can confidently answer those questions without hesitation, with the pieces of his recruitment falling into place the second time around.

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The journey started at age 4 for Rice as a member of the North Philadelphia Blackhawks, alongside his lifelong friend, Ke’Shawn Williams, now a Wake Forest standout.

After losing the national championship in eighth grade and suffering an ankle injury in the process, Rice recalls questioning whether he wanted to pursue the sport he had played his entire life, saying there was a “lot going on in my head.” He felt he was merely “going through the motions.”

This was until he received a career-changing call from Coach Watkins.

“He honestly changed my life with that call,” Rice said. “I felt like he was the person and coach that still had faith in me and believed in me and saw the good in the situation of me being injured.”

To Watkins, the memory is a mutual one.

“Lonnie took a chance on me, took a chance on McDevitt, and became the cornerstone to turn around a football program,” the former McDevitt coach said. “The leadership qualities that he showed were just off the charts, and I knew that kid was special from the moment I met him.”

Rice started at defensive back as a freshman for McDevitt before switching back to quarterback, a position he played since he was a child. The Rice-Watkins duo went deep into the playoffs in back-to-back seasons in 2018 and 2019, coinciding with Rice’s recruitment opportunities heating up.

The University of Buffalo, led by then-head coach Lance Leipold, became smitten with Rice after it got eyes on him at a camp. The Bulls came calling with a scholarship offer. Syracuse showed interest but never formally made an offer, leading to Rice signing with Buffalo.

The Philly native never played a down for the Bulls before entering the transfer portal during the 2021 season, following Leipold’s departure to Kansas. After interest from a few FCS programs, Watkins advised Rice to consider the junior college route as another path to get him to Syracuse.

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“Knowing when Lonnie went in the portal, I thought Lackawanna would be a perfect place to get him ready for a place like Syracuse, and it’s a credit to Coach [Dino] Babers,” Watkins said. “Coach [Chris] Achuff is the one that recruited Lonnie; we stayed in contact for a few years.”

The goal while at Lackawanna? Establish what position Rice would play long-term. Since he bounced between quarterback, defensive back, and linebacker in high school, he didn’t have any film at one true position.

Despite coming from a Division I program, Rice wasn’t an immediate starter that fall. After sitting out the first half of his first junior college game as a backup, the talented athlete needed just one half of football to prove just how dominant he could be.

Said Rice of his first JUCO game: “I feel like that was a big changing point of my JUCO story because I went from being a second-string guy at Lackawanna to coming in and dominating — getting three sacks right off the rip.”

The former McDevitt star finished the season with 39 tackles, 12½ tackles for loss and 4½ sacks in his lone junior college season. The one school that remained consistent throughout the process, calling and checking in on Rice constantly, was Syracuse. During an official visit at Georgia State on Dec. 11, Rice got the call he’d been waiting for over the last five years: a scholarship offer to join the Orange.

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“When I first went on that visit [in 2018], they gave me a keychain, and I still have that keychain to this day. I’ve just been walking around with it,” Rice said. “I just kept getting this feeling in my stomach because people were asking about the Syracuse keychain on me. And then it just happened. It just blew my mind.”

Shortly after, Rice went on his official visit to Syracuse, where he said it felt like “family” and completed his dream when he signed his letter of intent on Wednesday.

Eight players who started their careers at Bishop McDevitt, including Rice, put ink to paper during the early period of national signing day. Imhotep’s Semaj Bridgeman (Michigan); Archbishop Wood’s Markus Dixon (Clemson), Eric Gardner, and Cole Evans (Army); Northeast’s Tyrese Whitaker (Temple); and Roman Catholic’s Jordan Montgomery (Temple) and Jameial Lyons (Penn State) were coached by Watkins at McDevitt.

The school closed its doors following the 2020-21 school year, but Watkins still keeps track of all of his former players. Watkins credits the contributions Rice made during his time on the football field and in the McDevitt community as a reason these players were heavily recruited.

“It almost brings you to tears to think about his journey,” Watkins said of his relationship with Rice. “Lonnie is family to me. My wife looks at him as family, and my daughters idolize him. He’s just brought so much to the McDevitt community and how he opened up the doors. ... Lonnie’s recruitment really opened the doors for these guys to get the looks that they did.”