The curious case of Jimmy Stevens
Published: 12/29/2009 4:05 PM
Last Modified: 12/29/2009 4:05 PM
It is one of the great unsolved mysteries in college football:
What exactly happened to Jimmy Stevens once he set foot on Oklahoma's campus? What exactly happened to that foot?
ESPN recently put out an all-2000s national high school football team. Two Sooners made the first-team offense -- Adrian Peterson, chosen as player of the decade, and Stevens.
It is absolutely a valid selection. Stevens kicked 50 field goals to set a national prep record, 22 of which came during a junior year in which he tied the national single-season mark.
He showed up at OU as the heir to current New Orleans Saint Garrett Hartley, and then almost lost his job to walk-on Matt Moreland in 2008. Last August during two-a-days, I remember writing that Stevens looked like he had turned a corner, when his placekicks sounded a lot like Tress Way's punts. It was impressive.
Then the season rolled around, and while Stevens went a reasonable 11-of-13 on field goals, he also missed two extra points. Bob Stoops had lost his patience by the Oct. 24 Kansas game, and it was on to Way and, eventually, Patrick O'Hara, a guy who had never kicked in a football game before getting the call against Texas A&M Nov. 14.
O'Hara is one of the coolest stories to happen during the Stoops era, unless you consider how it must have felt to Stevens.
Strange how things turn out sometimes.
As an aside, the other Sooners recognized on ESPN's all-decade high school team were Jermaine Gresham, Tommie Harris, Gerald McCoy and Reggie Smith.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
