FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — As Tommy Stevens stood on the sidelines at Texas A&M last Saturday, the one-time Penn State signal caller bounced up and down.
Jumping to the tune of the techno music overhead, Stevens stood with a few isolated teammates toward the back of the MSU bench while the late October wind whipped through Kyle Field.
On that day, he was no more than a backup doing his best to stay engaged. But that was a week ago.
With freshman starter Garrett Shrader forced from the lineup with an undisclosed health issue, it was a productive and accurate Stevens that led the Bulldogs to Saturday’s 54-24 romp of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
“Not the most explosive day I’ve had,” Stevens said of his performance. “But all in all, 54 points — definitely the most we’ve scored all year — I’ve got no problem with that.”
Using a mix of designed quarterback runs and his ability to progress through his reads, Stevens was sharp from the get-go.
Seeking a fast start, Stevens rushed for 45 yards between MSU’s first two drives of the day. After a 62-yard run and an ensuing 4-yard plunge from junior running back Kylin Hill gave MSU its first opening drive score since Sept. 7 against Southern Miss, it was Stevens who capped the second effort.
Taking a shotgun snap, he faked a handoff to senior running back Nick Gibson and scanned the field. Looking toward the back right pylon, Stevens lofted a ball toward junior wide receiver Osirus Mitchell. Doing his best Randy Moss impression as he skied over an Arkansas defender, Mitchell corralled Stevens’ toss for a 33-yard score. The rout was on.
In all, Stevens finished the day 12 of 18 for 172 yards and two touchdowns while adding another 74 yards on 15 rush attempts.
“There were a few designed runs that we had reading the linebacker, and, I don’t want to say it made it easy to make decisions, but when we swung a guy out they wanted to take that away, and that had me in between the tackles running the ball,” he said.
With Saturday’s win behind him, Stevens stood behind the podium in the underbelly of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium and reflected on the past few weeks.
He’ll be the first to admit sitting on the bench has been hard. After transferring into a system and program run by his former offensive coordinator (Moorhead), a string of upper- and lower-body injuries coupled with Shrader’s emergence left Stevens out of the fold.
“It was definitely tough — I’m not going to act like it wasn’t hard for me to accept,” he conceded. “But I’ve always taken pride in being a team-first guy, and whatever we think is best for the team I’m all on board with. And I guess today it was my turn again, and I just tried to make the most of my opportunities.”
With Shrader’s illness not expected to be a long-term issue and two weeks between Saturday and MSU’s next game against No. 2 Alabama, it’s safe to assume he’ll regain the job under center when healthy — though Moorhead said a decision would be made after watching film and digesting the Arkansas win.
But even if Stevens is again relegated to the bench when the Crimson Tide rolls into Starkville, Saturday was a confirmation of sorts for he and his former offensive coordinator turned head coach.
Neither Stevens nor Moorhead expected the transfer experiment to play out the way it has. Yet in the former’s standout day, it offered a positive moment for a quarterback who has been plagued by moments of sorrow and disappointment all too often this season.
“It’s not coachspeak — I view Tommy like a son,” Moorhead said. “When we made the decision (to change quarterbacks) it hurt him, but it was in the best interest of the offense and the team to move ahead with Garrett. But to his credit he didn’t pout; he didn’t complain. He understood, kept his head down and kept working.
“The past two weeks I think he’s been as healthy as he’s been since the beginning of the season,” Moorhead continued. “It’s always nice to see the good guys get rewarded, and Tommy Stevens is one of the good guys in college football.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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