Thanks to a Hall of Fame quarterback, Rice has become the Vikings' go-to guy

As the new quarterback surveyed his teammates in the late-summer huddle, a pair of wide eyes greeted him.

Those eyes belonged to Sidney Rice. The Minnesota third-year receiver was having a bit of trouble adjusting to Brett Favre wearing purple.

OK, more than a bit. Rice was star-struck, admittedly. It's not every day an NFL Hall of Famer walks into your camp.

"That first week, I'd just watch him in the huddle," said Rice, the Gaffney native who starred at South Carolina from 2005-06. "I was like, 'Wow, I'm playing with one of the best quarterbacks in the game.' I was nervous and excited at the same time."

Now look at 'em.

Rice has gone from fan to friend. From tongue-tied to target.

On one of the more explosive offenses in the league, Rice has evolved into the go-to receiver for Favre -- who's having one of sport's more dramatically prolonged career twilights.

"I guess it's just the way things are working out," Rice said this week, via telephone.

Yeah, life is good in Minnesota. The Vikings, who host Seattle today, are 8-1.

They're 4-0 in NFC Central games, including a sweep of the rival Packers.

Coach Brad Childress got an extension this week. Favre is healthy. And Rice is catching just about everything thrown to him.

The 6-4 specimen has 27 catches for 553 yards -- in the past four games.

Last week, in a 27-10 victory against Detroit, Rice caught seven passes for 201 yards.He was 9 yards shy of the Vikings' franchise record.

Four of his seven catches against the Lions were for more than 20 yards (21, 43, 43 and 56). "As far as deep threats go," Favre told ESPN, "Sidney ranks right up there with the best."

Rice suddenly finds himself on track for a Pro Bowl season.

Through nine games, Rice has 44 catches for 786 yards (17.9 yards a catch) and two touchdowns.

After dealing with injuries and a hit-or-miss offense in his first two seasons, the 2007 second-round pick is coming into his own.

Since he's been in Minnesota, he's only seen the team's progress gradually trend upward .

"It's great. I'm proud of this team," Rice said. "There's not a lot of boasting or bragging. We know we can depend on. We know what we can do."

Rice said he didn't get too caught up in the will-he, won't-he come out of retirement stuff over the summer regarding Favre.

"I really didn't think he was coming," he said. "I really didn't pay too much attention to it. I was trying to focus on the people who were at camp, not someone who wasn't."

When Favre signed, news of resentment was spread by national media. Rice said if that was present, he didn't see it.

"Everyone welcomed him, open arms," Rice said. "They try to make something big of it on TV. There was no schism or whatever they called it. We wanted him on our team."

In addition to health -- and Favre's arrival -- Rice said he learned something from January to September. As much as he was doing to prepare in the off-season, he could do more.

"It's not going to hurt you to work even harder," he said. "I started staying after practices, doing the little things I wasn't doing before."

Someone not surprised by Rice taking off? His college receivers coach, Steve Spurrier Jr.

"A big, tall, skinny kid," according to Spurrier Jr., hurt his knee his freshman year and redshirted. Rice got going the following season, with 1,143 yards and a school-record 13 TDs as a redshirt freshman.

He followed with 1,090 yards and 10 TDs the next year.

Just like that, he was gone.

"I knew he was good. But I never knew he was that good until he almost had left," the Gamecocks' Spurrier Jr. said. "You didn't know he was uncoverable. I didn't realize how special he was until those last four or five games."

Spurrier Jr. said South Carolina is similarly trying to discern right now just how good freshman Alshon Jeffery is.

Spurrier Jr.'s description of Rice -- always made a tackler or two miss on short passes, deceptive speed -- sounds an awful lot like Jeffery, who has 670 yards and six TDsfor USC.

"We want to see what Alshon does next," Spurrier Jr. "He'll get bigger and faster. He has a chance to be a good one."

Interestingly enough, Rice almost wasn't a Viking at all.

On draft day, even with all the meticulous research done by NFL teams, Minnesota placed a last-minute call to Spurrier Jr.

The team was down to Rice and another player for that 44th overall pick.

Childress asked for Spurrier Jr.'s thoughts about Rice.

"I had nothing but good things to say about him," Spurrier Jr. said.

Perhaps Childress, Favre, et al, owe Spurrier Jr. a call or a card or something. Now the Vikings are the ones with the good things to say about Rice.

"If Brett Favre talks about you," Spurrier Jr. said, "that's a sign you're doing some good things."

Reach Travis Haney at thaney@postandcourier.com and check out the South Carolina blog at www.postandcourier.com/blogs/gamecocks.