The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/201975
where are they now? way around. You could see what was going on." That moment might have marked the nadir of his Michigan memories, but Stevens smiles, laughs and tosses out fond recollections nonstop when recalling his time (2000-03) in Ann Arbor. He can't express strongly enough his affection for U-M head coach Brady Hoke, his recruiter and position coach when he came out of Tacoma. Stevens' firstborn carries "Brady" as a middle name, and that's no coinci‑ dence. "There was just a whole different aura about him," Stevens said. "It was a passion. He's like me. We wear emo‑ tion on our sleeves. We can't hide it. Coach Hoke was real. He was relat‑ able, in any kind of situation. "When he came to see me, I was in one of the most messed-up neighbor‑ hoods in town. I had gang members all around the house, and Coach Hoke comes up, 'What's up, guys? How you doin'?' "All the boys were like, 'Hey, what's up?' He's cool. He could do that." Hoke, Stevens insisted, related to individual struggles, showing the sort of concern that draws players in — not just during recruiting, but throughout a college career. Of course, there were struggles along the way. The first involved that initial ad‑ justment to Michigan, and Stevens balancing his brashness against head coach Lloyd Carr's more buttoneddown nature. He's never been a robot, Stevens proclaimed, and although he knew Carr was boss, there had to be a certain earned flamboyance. "When I talk trash, I have to live up to it and I'm going to show up," Ste‑ vens explained. "Just because I said it, I'm going to do it. It's that kind of mentality, like 'I'm better than you, and you know it, and I know it, and I'm going to keep putting it down your throat until you realize it.' "That's how I played. That's how I grew up. I always talked, because I had to show up. After all I said, I had to show up, right?" He laughed, recalling the proving process. That involved another strug‑ gle, since he'd come to Michigan as a top prep wide receiver, one ready to light up the scoreboard at The Big House. Instead, he found himself on the other side of the football. It proved a jolt, at first. "All I did was score touchdowns," Stevens recalled. "I played defense, but I just wanted to score touch‑ downs. I just happened to play free safety, and just happened to knock people's helmets off that were coming across the middle." He was asked to keep on knocking. The request proved both humbling and hard, taking him to rush line‑ backer then defensive end. "That hurt me … my ego and my pride," Stevens admitted. "I knew how good I was on the other side of the ball, and I almost felt like I wasn't good at defense. I didn't have any technique. I was just a wild athlete. "I'd never put my hand down in my life. My freshman year, it was speed — speed getting around the