Rhamondre Stevenson was an outstanding high school football player at Centennial High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. In fact, he was the Las Vegas Sun’s High School Player of the Year as a junior.
But, things didn’t go his way as a senior.
Stevenson suffered a foot injury and wasn’t able to play much at all, so he received zero scholarship offers. And even if a school wanted him at the last minute, he was a non-qualifier academically, so he was left without a team for the following season.
This was a tough year for him, especially given the talent he knew he had.
“Of course, I had doubts in my head if I would ever play again,” he said in an interview with the Las Vegas Sun. “But it’s my love of football. I couldn’t imagine my life without it.”
Stevenson enrolled part-time at the College of Southern Nevada to get his academics straightened out and then go after a college roster spot. Many athletes have this plan, but then ultimately get frustrated and pursue other opportunities.
That wasn’t going to happen to Stevenson.
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One of Stevenson’s family friends was playing basketball at Cerritos College, a junior college in California, at the time and alerted offensive coordinator/recruiting coordinator Dean Grosfeld.
All it took was a few plays to get on his radar.
“Honest to God, he was playing one of the best teams [on the West Coast] and I watched like two clips and I was like, ‘Good, God,’” Grosfeld, who is now the head coach at Cerritos, said in a recent phone interview. “He just does things you can’t coach. His talent is obvious.”
In addition, two of his former teammates at Centennial were already on the team at Cerritos and they ultimately convinced Stevenson to join the program after taking one fall off.
“I think he got discouraged because he got hurt his senior year of high school,” Grosfeld said. “That’s where the discouragement came from. It wasn’t his lack of love for football. It was just a lot of things went wrong and a little depression set in. When he came to us he was ready to go.”
Stevenson got to the school late in the spring, so football season was over, but he still was able to make a big first impression on Grosfeld and the rest of the Cerritos College program.
“The first couple days we met him were in the weight room and just watching him work in the weight room, we were like, ‘If this matches what we see on the field, this guy is going to be scary,’” he said.
The following fall, 2017, was Stevenson's first season playing at the school, but despite being the most talented player in the running backs room, he took a back seat to a few players a year ahead of him. Cerritos puts tremendous value in setting players up for future success and Grosfeld knew Stevenson had another year.
As a freshman, he had just one game where he finished with more than 10 carries and finished the year with 501 yards on 68 carries to go along with three touchdowns.
Grosfeld knew things would be different the following season.
“When he came back his sophomore year, I made a conscious effort to say, ‘Any time we can get this guy the ball, we need to get him the ball,’” he said. “The thing that people don’t understand about him, he’s an excellent blocker. He’s a complete football player. He wants to do it all. Obviously, he’s a tailback and he wants to carry the football, but he can do everything. The obvious was running the ball, but him being able to pass protect like he could, and the willingness to and the way he did it was what really impressed us as a well-rounded player.”
Stevenson's sophomore campaign saw him really make a name for himself.
In 11 games, Stevenson finished with 2,111 yards on 222 carries for 19 touchdowns. Averaging almost 10 yards a carry is extremely impressive at any level.
“I played with what many people say was the best running back to play at Cerritos and we knew within a couple of weeks that Rhamondre was right there, if not better,” Grosfeld said. “I think he’s the second-leading rusher in the history of junior college football, I am talking nationwide, and with the least number of carries. He averaged almost 10 yards a carry, which is absolutely incredible. Our conference is the top conference in the nation.”
Clearly, playing at Cerritos was a great decision.
“I think he [had a chip on his shoulder], for sure,” Grosfeld said. “But, I also think he wanted to prove it to himself too, as crazy as that sounds. I think he took it that he wanted to prove it to himself, that he really could [have success]. That is really what it comes down to. Anyone that saw the talent, minus the injury, would have known, but Nevada is a small state with small high school football. They don’t get noticed.”
Stevenson had now been noticed and in a big way.
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With the numbers Stevenson put up, a number of schools were after him, which was much different than two years prior when he had no scholarship offers.
Some of the offers included USC and Texas, but those couldn’t compare to Oklahoma.
“Oklahoma did a phenomenal job,” Grosfeld said. “I mean they did — because he’s that kind of kid. He’s a loyal kid and just wants to be wanted. He can see right though a lot of the BS, and like I said, Oklahoma did as good of a job — me being in junior college for 27 years, they did as good of a job as I have ever seen anyone do recruiting. Just from building that relationship and staying with him. Once they built that relationship for him, I really think it was over.”
Lincoln Riley likes to get a number of his players involved in the offense, so Stevenson was part of a running back committee at the school.
As a freshman in 2019, he finished with 515 yards on 64 carries and six touchdowns, but after serving a five-game suspension in 2020 from the year prior after failing a drug test before a Bowl game, Stevenson was really able to showcase his talents.
In six games during the 2020 season, he finished with 665 yards and seven touchdowns, while hauling in 18 passes for 211 yards out of the backfield. All this is even more impressive coming from a back who weighed in at close to 230 pounds.
It was enough to draw the attention of the Patriots, who selected Stevenson in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
“He was really excited,” Grosfeld said. “I think he was surprised. He was really excited about going to New England because of the kind of organization it is. I think he was surprised. He didn’t have a lot of contact with New England before, but he was like a kid in a candy store. He knows what it’s like.
“I am not bragging about us, he would tell you himself, Cerriots does a really good job program-wise. Obviously Oklahoma does a really good job program-wise, so he is used to being in very good, well-rounded organizations and when he got drafted in New England, he knew it was perfect.”
It’s unclear what Stevenson’s role will be with the Patriots this coming season, but he’s still playing the sport he loves, which wasn’t the case just four years ago.
