After Oregon’s 38-31 road victory over Washington State, wide receiver Dwayne Stanford was upset.

The redshirt sophomore from Cincinnati, Ohio was held without a catch for the first time this season. After reflecting on the game, Stanford decided he needed to make a change in his practice preparation.

“I wasn’t playing as much, so I kind of came with the attitude that they’re going to have to play me,” Stanford said. “I’m going to work so hard that they’re going to have to. I may not get the ball, but I’m going to be there on the field. That’s just how I attacked every rep, just trying to be the best I can be, whether it was in the blocking game or just running good routes.”

The switch to a harder practice ethic has paid immediate dividends for Stanford. He’s caught 18 passes in his last four games for 260 yards and three touchdowns,  a dramatic increase from his first four game totals of five catches, 107 yards and one touchdown.

These days, there’s no sign of any dismay on the face of Stanford. He’s quick to flash a smile and a laugh now that he seems to have found his place in the Ducks’ air attack.

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It didn’t take long for Stanford to earn the nickname “Too Tall”.

As a 4-year-old growing up in southwest Ohio, Stanford got involved with sports. He towered over the rest of the kids and when he played Little League Football, his coach couldn’t remember his name. He resorted to calling him by his most distinct feature.

“Everyone back in Cincinnati started calling me that (Too Tall),” Stanford said. “It just stuck with me.”

Now, Stanford remains as one of the taller receivers in the country. During his days at Taft High School, however, Stanford saw basketball as his main focus. He helped lead the Taft Senators to a 26-1 record and a Division III Ohio State Championship in 2011.

Even though he played football his entire life, Stanford never looked at it as something he wanted to focus on and pursue in college. He viewed the game as something he could share with his friends.

Before his junior football season, that changed. In high school, Stanford was teammates with Adolphus Washington, a highly sought after defensive tackle recruit.

In the fall of 2011, Stanford accompanied Washington on a recruiting trip to Ohio State and was blown away. Fans were screaming Washington’s name all throughout the town of Columbus. Stanford was blown away.

“I was like ‘Dang that’s crazy,’ fans already know his name,” Stanford said. “That kind of made me amp up my work ethic. This could be me if I take this seriously.”

Soon after, when college scouts would come to visit Washington at Taft, they would ask to talk with Stanford also. Whenever a college scout talked with Stanford, it was alongside Washington. But as his junior season progressed, Stanford started making a name for himself.

The University of Cincinnati was the first school to pull Stanford aside and talk to him on his own. They made the conversation solely about him. Eventually, the Bearcats were the first school to offer Stanford a full-time scholarship.

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Stanford transferred to Taft High School his sophomore year. Before he made the decision to move, one of the coaches asked him where he wanted to go to college. Mistakenly, Stanford thought the coach asked for his name. He responded by saying Dwayne Stanford. The coach, shocked, told Stanford that Palo Alto, California was far away.

When his recruiting started picking up, Stanford told himself that if he was going to go to a school on the west coast, more than 2,000 miles away from his home in Cincinnati, that it had to be a perfect fit. His visit to the University of Oregon accomplished exactly that.

“When I came out here I was just impressed with everything as far as the tradition, the facilities, how they maximize what they get out of players,” Stanford said. “I also wanted the chance to play early and I could do that here.”

Stanford played as a true freshman, catching 11 passes and showing a promising glimpse into what his future in Eugene held. However, a preseason injury in 2013 forced him to miss the entire year. When this season rolled around, frustration was eminent. And his zero catch performance against Washington State earlier this year sparked his decision to change his practice mentality.

Wide receiver coach Matt Lubick thinks that there are six to seven guys that he could trust in his talented wideout corps to play the position. He believes that this naturally creates a healthy brand of competition between the teammates.

“When you’ve got a whole bunch of guys, and your teammates are pushing you in a healthy way, it makes you better,” Lubick said.

Stanford concurs with Lubick’s thinking. It’s the little things he sees from his teammates that motivates him to be better.

“I see them making plays in practice and I want to do the same thing,” Stanford said. “I see them run a 60-yard route then sprint back to the line for the next play. It’s little stuff like that where I see the work and it raises the level for me. It’s that competition within our receiver group that raises each and every one of our games.”

Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Forst has witnessed the hard working competitiveness from the receivers group. In his opinion, it starts at the top with senior Keanon Lowe.

“There’s no position group in the country that runs as much as our receivers here at Oregon,” Frost said. “Those guys all do a great job and they have a great example. All they have to do is watch Keanon Lowe practice to figure out the standard. A lot of those guys have kind of adopted that strategy.”

The element of Lowe’s personality that sticks out to Stanford is Lowe’s ability to stay even keel and hardworking. He notices when Lowe sits in front of the room during film sessions and he’s hard pressed to find a time where Lowe doesn’t have a smile on his face.

The past two weeks, Lowe has been sidelined with an injury. In his place, Stanford has shown up. He has 158 yards and three touchdowns over that span, becoming a staple of the offensive production.

“He’s made big play after big play,” Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota said after Oregon’s 59-41 win over California.

Despite his recent success, Stanford is trying to stray away from being complacent. He wants to build off each game to continue improving. He wants to make the upcoming game on the schedule the best one ever.

“To go from not playing, to being in the position I’m in, I just want to keep maintaining what I’m doing and stay out there on the field and keep getting better,” Stanford said.
Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt