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Tennessee Vols’ Stephens, Dogs’ Stafford in a top QB crop

By: Wes Rucker
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Nick Stephens

Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell UT's quarterback, Nick Stephens, waits to catch the ball in the fourth quarter against Northern Illinois.

KNOXVILLE — The Tennessee-Georgia game could be called the Dallas Metroplex Bowl.

But so could several other college football games.

The Dallas area produced no fewer than six major NCAA Division I quarterback prospects in 2005, including UT’s Nick Stephens and Georgia’s Matthew Stafford, who square off Saturday in Sanford Stadium.

“People that keep up with that kind of stuff are definitely going to be watching this game,” Stephens said.

Just how many Texans pay attention to those types of situations?

“A lot, probably,” Stephens said. “There’s 16,000 or 17,000 people at a lot of high school games down there.”

High school football fanatics were treated to an especially splendid aerial show three years ago. Texas signee and current Ole Miss starter Jevan Sneed played two hours away in Stephenville, and Florida State starter Christian Ponder was much closer in nearby Colleyville. Alabama backup Greg McElroy was racking up records in Southlake, while Texas backup Sherrod Harris was slicing defenses with his arm and legs in Arlington.

“It was a fun time,” said Cody Vanderford, Stephens’ coach at Flower Mound High School. “That as probably one of the top years I can ever remember. There were a whole lot of special quarterbacks within just a few miles from each other.”

Stafford was the top-ranked pro-style quarterback in the nation by Rivals.com, and Sneed was rated the country’s No. 3 dual-threat quarterback prospect.

Ponder and Stephens were slotted as the No. 14 and 15 pro-style passers, and McElroy was ranked just above them at No. 11. Harris was named the No. 8 dual-threat QB.

No star shone brighter than Stafford, though.

“I’m not going to say I didn’t hear about him,” Stephens said with a grin. “He was from about 20 minutes away from me, and he was a big deal. But there were a lot of guys from my area that were big deals.”

Stephens catapulted himself into those discussions with a banner senior season — his first at the varsity level. He transferred from nearby Marcus High after his sophomore year, but he lost a court case for immediate eligibility and was relegated to junior varsity as a junior.

“He was definitely dealt a short hand with that situation,” Vanderford said. “I’ve coached quarterbacks for years, and the day I saw him I knew we had somebody special.

“It was clear that he was a man among boys at the JV level.”

Vanderford exhausted every recruiting source he knew trying to get colleges interested in Stephens during the spring after his junior season, but “they were all skeptical,” he said.

“They wanted to see him first,” Vanderford added. “I just said, ‘You’ll see it.’”

Stephens worried that he wouldn’t get the chance to play major college football. He watched one of Stafford’s playoff games their junior season. Earlier that season, he watched his varsity classmates play Allen High, led by Arkansas starting quarterback Casey Dick.

“Those things inspired me,” Stephens said. “I thought I could play like them.”

Vanderford got Stephens invited to several showcase events that spring, including the prestigious Elite Eleven quarterback camp’s area stop.

“Many of those great quarterbacks from our area were there, and I had two or three coaches come up and tell me that he was the best kid in that camp,” Vanderford said.

Stephens received some scholarship offers before he took a varsity snap, and they poured in after he opened his senior season with a six-touchdown performance.

“In Dallas, some of our high schools get covered like colleges, but Nick was still a guy who snuck up on everybody,” Vanderford said. “The media here saw him play and saw his numbers and said, ‘Who is this kid? Where did he come from?’”

To this day, Stephens remains mostly a mystery to Stafford.

“I remember one newspaper cover with all the quarterbacks in the Dallas area who were going to play D-I, and I remember seeing him on there,” Stafford said. “That’s really all I know about him.”

Stephens was firmly committed to Ole Miss until it fired offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, but that split opened his recruitment to Tennessee and Michigan. The son of an Ohio State graduate and brother of a Michigan fan ultimately chose UT because of former offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe and “the best overall atmosphere I experienced.”

Ironically, Stephens’ opportunity never came under Cutcliffe, who left UT in January for the head coaching position at Duke. Stephens overtook struggling junior Jonathan Crompton on the depth chart last week and solidified his spot in the win over Northern Illinois.

The Vols’ mistake-prone offense scored just 13 points against the Huskies, but coaches didn’t cite Stephens as a problem. He completed 10 of 17 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown despite three drops, and he put the offense in position to score many more points.

“I think the important thing as a quarterback is that you’ve just got to go out there and play sound football,” UT senior tailback Arian Foster said. “Don’t make any mistakes. Don’t try to be Superman. Nick did a good job of that.”

Vanderford said he expects more from Stephens. He expects him to emerge on the national level the way he arrived in Dallas — suddenly and forcefully.

“I’ve got my money on him,” Vanderford said. “I know what he’s made of, and I know what kind of a player and person he is.

“When they give him the full playbook, they’re just going to take off. All he needed was an opportunity.”

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