Stevenson took the long road from Homestead to Miami, but he and UM are glad he made it
Tyrique Stevenson reached his arm around Corey Sutton, batted Chase Brice’s pass to the ground and sprinted down the Miami Hurricanes’ sideline, darting for the corner of the end zone where the players’ families sit. He wagged his finger and looked into the crowd. He knew just where his mother and sister were sitting — he had scoped out their location before kickoff — and he wanted to make them part of the celebration.
They were to jump up and celebrate the decisive play in Miami’s 25-23 win against the Appalachian State Mountaineers on Saturday, then Stevenson lost track of them when the rest of the 45,877 at Hard Rock Stadium rose to their feet to celebrate — and exhale after — the Hurricanes’ first win of the season.
As his teammates mobbed him, Stevenson held his hand up to his ear. It wasn’t so long ago he made the trip up to Miami Gardens every weekend as one of the Hurricanes’ top recruiting targets in the Class of 2019. Three years later, he was finally playing in front of friends, family and the fans he grew up surrounded by, and giving them a reason to cheer after an evening of unease.
“It just meant a lot to me,” Stevenson said Tuesday. “Running down to where the family section was and just looking toward my family meant a whole lot to me.”
In a game with no margin for error, Stevenson’s coverage of Sutton was one of the biggest reasons Miami (1-1) survived Appalachian State’s upset bid in South Florida. Stevenson held the Mountaineers’ top wide receiver, who averages 15.5 yards per catch in his career, to seven catches for 60 yards — an average of 8.6 yards per reception — and broke up three passes, including Brice’s final attempt of the game on fourth down in the final minute.
He also recorded five tackles, including three solo tackles, to help the Hurricanes hold Appalachian State to 3.3 yards per carry. “You feel Tyrique’s presence on the field,” coach Manny Diaz said Monday, and it’s why No. 24 Miami has wanted him since he was a high school star in southern Miami-Dade County, and why Diaz was one of the first coaches to call when Stevenson put his name into the transfer portal in January after he decided to leave the Georgia Bulldogs.
In one game, Stevenson can lock down a team’s No. 1 receiver, like he did against the Mountaineers. In the next, the Hurricanes can trust on him to make tackles on the perimeter, like he probably will have to Saturday when Miami hosts the run-heavy Michigan State Spartans at noon.
The 6-foot, 214-pound cornerback is uniquely equipped for the challenge Michigan State (2-0) will present. In high school, college football teams pitched Stevenson on playing anywhere from linebacker to cornerback. At Georgia, the Bulldogs had Stevenson play their STAR position — a hybrid between a linebacker and a safety — and he started all 10 games there in 2020 while finishing fifth on the team in tackles.
‘You feel Tyrique’s presence’
Stevenson has always been this type of player. Philip Simpson, who’s now the coach at Homestead and was the defensive coordinator at Southridge when Stevenson played there as a senior, first took notice of the defensive back in 2017, when Stevenson was a junior safety at South Dade. Simpson made the trip up to Tropical Park to watch the Buccaneers face Columbus in the second round of the playoffs and Stevenson popped off the field.
“I didn’t know nothing about the kid at that time, but I remember going home saying, ‘Who the hell is this safety for South Dade?’” Simpson said. “That kid might’ve had like 18 tackles that game.”
A few months later, he transferred and Simpson got to take on the challenge of figuring out how best to use Stevenson. Sometimes, the Spartans would turn him loose as a ballhawking safety. Other times, he would play up near the line of scrimmage to counter run-heavy opponents. If a team ran a lot of trips formations and liked to throw slants to the lone receiver on the backside, Simpson would plant him right in the zone where throws would usually go. He was even Southridge’s best punter and long snapper, and a dangerous wide receiver.
Stevenson’s best game as a senior, Simpson said, was against the Buccaneers when he spent the entire game shadowing Frank Ladson, who’s now a wide receiver for the Clemson Tigers.
“That was always the game plan going in,” Simpson said. “How do we keep him around the ball?”
Tyrique Stevenson’s homecoming at Miami
Georgia sold him on playing safety. Miami tried to lure him as a corner. He picked the Bulldogs mostly to get out of Miami-Dade County.
Early on, Stevenson wanted to stay home. He was on campus basically every week and often wore Hurricanes gear to school, but his mom, “sounded worried,” Stevenson said last month in a blog for Rivals.com. She’s a single mother — Stevenson has never met his father — and Stevenson was the oldest of five, with four sisters. Many of his friends, he said, “took the wrong path.” His mom wanted him to get out.
He was homesick, though, and had disagreements with Georgia coach Kirby Smart. When he finally put his name into the portal, Stevenson got about 40 calls in 10 minutes. He told Diaz right away he was coming to Miami.
“He was one of them kids that he enjoyed playing at Harris Field because he wanted to play for his community,” Simpson said. “He would love to play for Miami because he wants to play for his backyard.”
Moments like the one he had Saturday are why.
Stevenson always pictured himself playing games at Hard Rock. His first game lived up to the fantasy.
“Playing in front of the fans and playing in front of my family for the first time, and actually being a starter,” Stevenson said, “it meant a whole lot.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2021 at 11:55 AM.
