After losing a two-year starter in the center of their offensive line to graduation, Oregon had somewhat of a question mark at the position throughout spring practice. An old friend, however, is reportedly ready to return and help shore up the position.
If the Ducks will have him, of course. And if he/they decide that position is where he would best fit in 2011 and beyond.
According to Rivals.com by way of the Eugene Register-Guard, center Hamani Stevens “plan[s] on returning to Oregon and being a Duck!” If it were to come to fruition, Stevens’ return would be over two years in the making.
Stevens was the No. 2 center in the country according to Rivals in 2008 and a four-star member of Oregon’s recruiting class that year. After redshirting his true freshman season, Stevens announced in March of 2009 that he was leaving the school in order to take a two-year LDS mission. Stevens completed that church mission earlier this month, and is now ready to resume his college football career in Oregon.
“There really isn’t any other school I would want to go to,” Stevens said, adding, “I’m ready to play some ball. I’m really excited!”
While Stevens came to Oregon as a highly-ranked player at center, whether he would slide back into his old position remains to be seen. In fact, Stevens himself broached the subject of possibly seeing how the other side of the gridiron trenches lives.
“I will most likely be playing center when I come back, since I have been working on my snaps as one of my workouts,” Stevens said. “But I really like playing defensive line. I think I have more of that kind of mentality, kind of like ‘pin your ears back and go after it’ mentality so I want to carry over that same mentality to the offensive line, to an extent.”
Stevens’ likes aside, it’s more likely that he would enter summer camp and battle sophomore Karrington Armstrong and redshirt freshman Hroniss Grasu for the starting job on the interior of the offensive line.
