Bearded and built alike, the two starting centers in today’s Rocky Mountain Showdown also have had similar football career paths at their schools. It is even a bit eerie: In his first three seasons at CU, Buffs center Keenan Stevens got into exactly one game. In his first three seasons at CSU, Rams center Tyler McDermott got into exactly the same.
Stevens, a fifth-year senior from Lewis-Palmer High School in Monument, was a walk-on, nonscholarship player at CU for four seasons. He started the final nine games in 2009, his redshirt junior year, but he still wasn’t on a football scholarship. He finally got the news that he would be getting one after the season ended.
“I was told in my postseason evaluation with Coach Hawk, and all the other coaches were there,” Stevens, listed at 6-feet-2 and 290, recalled in Boulder this week. “I was pretty happy. I was hoping for one and working for one, and I’m glad they finally gave me one.”
In Fort Collins, meanwhile, McDermott (6-2, 286) now is a redshirt junior. He was a highly touted recruit, at least in the sense he came in from his native Florida on a full scholarship. But for his first three seasons at CSU, he was listed behind Tim Walter, who was at the Chicago Bears’ camp this summer. McDermott got on the field only against California in 2008.
This week, CSU named McDermott as the starter, at least for today, and he’ll be snapping the ball to a true freshman, Pete Thomas.
“He knows all the calls, he’s a real smart kid, and he’s a competitor,” said Pat Meyer, who doubles as CSU’s offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
Meyer said McDermott got a lot of practice reps the past three years, often with the second or third units.
“Seeing how I haven’t played a game in three-and-a-half years, I think it’s natural to be a bit nervous going in,” McDermott said after coming off the practice field at CSU this week. “But I’m very confident in what our coaches have done, what they’ve taught us and what I’ve been able to learn since I’ve been here. So I’ll carry that into the game and, hopefully, I’ll be able to show everybody what I can do.”
Leader in the middle
Centers locate the huddle and they’re supposed to exert more than organizational leadership, making the blocking calls as they assess the defense in front of them.There’s no substitute for on-field, in-game experience at the college level, but all those meetings, all the video, all those practice snaps can amount to a prep school.
Stevens’ father, Ed, played at Air Force and is an Air Force pilot. Keenan turned down a scholarship offer to Portland State and decided to accept an offer from the CU staff to be an invited walk-on for Dan Hawkins’ first season as head coach in 2006.
“You only go to college once,” he said. “I wanted to go to the highest competition, which was the Big 12.”
Finally, in his fourth season, Stevens took over as the starter in Week 4 against West Virginia. “I knew if I kept putting in the work, putting in the time, that my time would come,” he said.
Now he’s part of an offensive line that because of injuries and other issues was considered to have underachieved last season, but seems potentially formidable this season, with guard Ryan Miller and tackle Nate Solder — also Colorado prep products — as the pro prospects.
Hawkins said Stevens “exemplifies what that offensive line should be about. He’s kind of their leader. . . . Nate is very quiet and Ryan is, to some degree, as well. (Stevens) is just a dirt dog, he really is. The other guys kind of gravitate toward him that way and he exudes that whole blue-collar type of mentality.”
The “dirt” reference comes with a secondary meaning, too, since Stevens is an anthropology major who wants to be part of archeological digs in Mayan ruins. “I’m hoping to get into that after football,” he said.
Humbling times
CSU’s McDermott played at Palm Beach Central in Florida. His parents were both athletes at Ohio University, his father, Randy, in baseball; his mother, Johnnie, in basketball.
“My dad tells me the story,” McDermott said. “They graduated on a Saturday, they were married on a Monday, and they were in Florida by Wednesday. My dad lived in Fort Lauderdale when he was 15 and loved it. . . . They both got jobs right before the end of college and went down to Florida.”
McDermott made a handful of unofficial family visits to colleges but came to Fort Collins on an official visit in December 2006.
“I fell in love with the place,” he said. “There was snow on the ground and I hadn’t seen snow in, like, 10 years. I loved the campus and the atmosphere.”
Sitting behind Walter for three years, he said, “was very hard. I started every game from freshman through senior year in high school, and I came here and was behind this future NFL player. It’s difficult, but it’s a very humbling experience.
“You still learn a tremendous amount as a football player in college if you’re not playing. But now that I’m getting the reps in practice against our ‘ones’, I realize there are things you need experience for, such as handling the speed of the game and reading blitzes on the fly, stuff like that.”
It might seem a safe bet that neither McDermott nor Stevens will snap the ball early today.
They’ve shown how patient they can be.
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
