MAKING A STATEMENT
Rhamondre Stevenson brings “Las Vegas flair” to the Sooners' backfield
NORMAN — Rhamondre Stevenson couldn't keep the thoughts away.
Coming off a broken foot in October 2015, Stevenson returned only to have just eight yards on eight carries, losing three fumbles in a 17-14 loss to his team's biggest league rivals, Arbor View.
It was the last time Stevenson would play for Las Vegas' Centennial High and wound up being the last time Stevenson would play football for nearly two years.
“I honestly thought my football career was over,” the OU running back said this week.
Stevenson drew on that experience over the past 11 months after being suspended for what sources have said was for testing positive for marijuana in an NCAA-administered test.
“I feel like that's a big step in my life that helped me get through this experience, because I was very discouraged,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson returned last week with 87 yards and three touchdowns in the Sooners'
62- 28 victory at Texas Tech.
After his third touchdown against the Red Raiders, Stevenson raised his shirt to reveal “I'm back” printed on the bottom front of his undershirt.
Leon Evans howled with laughter before bringing up the shirt.
“That's how we do it in Las Vegas,” said Evans, Stevenson's coach at Centennial. “With a little flair.”
Stevenson had the idea for the shirt last Thursday, two days before the Sooners played the Red Raiders.
“I was like, ` I need to make a statement when I get back,'” Stevenson said. “So that's what I decided to do.”
Stevenson had hoped to reveal the garment after a long touchdown run but his touchdowns wound up coming on short runs, and once his 1-yard score not long past the midpoint of the second quarter but the Sooners on the cusp of going ahead 42- 7, Stevenson decided to make his move.
“This has to be the last touchdown,” Stevenson remembers thinking. “So I just pulled it out.”
Evans isn't surprised at all with Stevenson's success.
He's been coaching for about 25 years and calls Stevenson one of the three best players he's ever coached.
“I used to tell people all the time, Rhamondre could play on Sundays,” Evans said.
Stevenson might even get another year to prove himself. Though he's a senior, this season won't count against any players for eligibility purposes, giving him the opportunity to return in 2021.
And though he only got 64 carries a year ago, it's no real surprise that Stevenson started this season with a bang.
He averaged just more than 8.0 yards per carry a year ago, best in the country among players with 50 or more carries.
Before Stevenson suffered the broken foot early in his senior season, he was on pace for another monster year after rushing for 1,457 yards and 17 touchdowns as a junior, averaging 8.1 yards per carry.
But he was also working off the field to try to get his grades in position to qualify academically.
The injury made that even more difficult and after waiting until fall holding out hope that he'd qualify — he had offers that included Kansas State and Middle Tennessee State — Stevenson wound up taking a year off. From football. From school.
“I did nothing,” Stevenson said.
He eventually resurfaced at Cerritos College in the Los Angeles area and quickly looked like the player he was before the injury, rushing for more than 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2018.
That's when OU found Stevenson.
Lincoln Riley and his offensive staff decided that not only did they need a junior college running back in the class, but wanted someone with a body type like Stevenson's.
“Not that we were small, but at that time, we were starting to look for those (bigger) guys,” Riley said.
Sooners coaches loved what they saw from Stevenson on film and not long after OU offered, Stevenson visited and committed a couple days before signing day in December 2018.
Several programs tried to talk Stevenson into waiting to sign until February.
“Lucky for us, he was pretty locked in with us at that point,” Riley said.
And now, a player who once thought his football career might be over before he ever reached the college level has people buzzing. He's overcome. He's back — and he didn't need a T- shirt to announce it.