The Oregon football team lost a lot of experience this offseason, and they return a lot, if not more, talent in 2011. Among the most glaring concerns on the offensive side, as I wrote a few weeks back, was the inexperience at wide receiver and along the offensive line.
On Sunday, however, the latter got a helpful boost — in numbers, if nothing else — with Hamani Stevens’ decision to return to the program after serving a two-year religious mission in the Philippines as a Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church member.
Stevens, who was listed at 6-foot-4 and 290 pounds during his redshirt freshman year back in 2008, was ranked the No. 2 center in the country coming out of high school and would have competed for the starting job with Jordan Holmes in summer 2009.@@http://special.registerguard.com/web/sports/26248416-41/stevens-ducks-mission-center-football.html.csp@@
Instead, Stevens left for two calendar years, and Holmes (6-foot-5, 300 pounds for comparison) held down the starting job for the next 26 straight games and thrived as Oregon’s physical and emotional leader. He helped lead the team to back-to-back Pac-10 titles, and he started in the 2010 Rose Bowl and last year’s BSC National Championship Game.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=3378&SPID=233&DB_OEM_ID=500&Q_SEASON=2010@@
Yet, when Holmes clocked in his first start after the departure of Max Unger — say, Sept. 3, 2009, in little slice of heaven called Boise, Idaho — there were numerous questions surrounding the depth and experience of the core group up front, including Holmes.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=3377&SPID=233&DB_OEM_ID=500&Q_SEASON=2009@@
Though Stevens won’t likely be gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated alongside Darron Thomas this summer, he will have an opportunity to be inserted into a similar role, barring a few things.
First is the question of whether the Hemet, Calif., native will be physically ready to return to Division I football after a two-year hiatus. We’ve seen plenty of Oregon players make that same transition over the years, but I’ve got to believe each case has specific intangibles.
From reports I’ve seen, it sounds like Stevens was able to stay near playing weight during his time away from the game, and he has even added on 15 extra pounds during his limited workout time. But now that he has returned to the U.S., time is not exactly on Stevens’ side.
With intentions of re-enrolling for summer courses and workouts with the team, Stevens essentially has a little over two months before summer camp starts in early August. Will that be enough time? That’s tough to say, as I have never seen Stevens in person, but something tells me it will.
Stevens’ older brother, Tevita, played in all 13 games as a right guard for the University of Utah football team, and he has recently started helping his younger brother get back to where he needs to be. Though he’ll be a 21-year-old freshman in the fall, Stevens will also have another leader to turn to in Mark Asper, who also went on a religious mission during his time at Oregon.
Assuming Stevens is able to get back to full strength during the remaining months before August hits, the playbook and complicated offensive schemes will undoubtedly test a player who has been away from the game for such an extended period of time. Holmes eventually had it down pat, but he also spent nearly three years in reserve action, including a redshirt season in 2006 where he was a four-time scout team player of the week.
Those kinds of repetitions cannot be mimicked outside of the Moshofsky Center, and certainly not while in a third-world country where football, among other things, is far from your everyday thoughts.
Only time will tell how, or when, Stevens will be able to make an impact up front. He has four years of eligibility to complete, with four years to do so. Some people have even suggested immediately moving him to the defensive side of the ball, but I would rather see him stay and grow into the center he was projected to be two years ago.
It’s obviously not going to be a seamless transition from the first snap, but I’ve got Hamani Stevens as one of my breakout players to watch in 2011.