BC tight end Stevens flying under the radar
| Friday, Nov 27 2009 11:52 PM
Last Updated Friday, Nov 27 2009 11:56 PM
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BC at Mt. SAC
When: Today, 1 p.m.
Where: Walnut (Los Angeles County)
Records: Both teams 10-1
At stake: Berth in SoCal title game next Saturday vs. Fullerton-Palomar winner
Radio: 1180 AM
Last week: BC beat Hancock 24-21 on a last-second field goal; Mount SAC routed L.A. Pierce 69-31
Directions: Highway 99 south to I-5 south over the Grapevine. Take I-210 east for 41 miles to Exit 42, Grand Avenue. Take the Grand Avenue South ramp and merge onto S. Grand Avenue for 6 miles. College is 1100 N. Grand Ave.
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Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Nathan Stevens is the starting tight end on the Bakersfield College football team.
It's easy for tight end Nathan Stevens to be the forgotten man when opposing teams prepare to play Bakersfield College.
Stevens, a sophomore from Highland High School, has six receptions in BC's 11 games this season. But four of those are touchdown catches.
"In certain formations, people forget about him," said Carl Dean, BC's offensive coordinator. "We've been able to find place where we can get him open."
The Renegades (10-1), the No. 4 seed in the Southern California playoffs, travel to top-seeded Mount San Antonio College (10-1) in Walnut today for a 1 p.m. game.
Stevens has benefitted from BC's talented wide receivers. Rishard Matthews, Vince Van Horne and Will Randle have combined for 90 catches and 16 touchdown receptions.
But in last week's playoff opener vs. Allan Hancock in the Golden Empire Bowl, it was Stevens that was tightly defended all over the field.
That's because when the teams met earlier this season, Stevens was all alone in the end zone on a 24-yard TD catch on the first score of the game in what would be a 31-24 Renegade victory. At the time, it was only the second catch of the season for Stevens.
"Yeah, they were keeping their eyes on me this time," Stevens said of last Saturday's game, a 24-21 BC victory. "Hancock made a lot of adjustments from the first time we played them and took away most of the routes I ran against them the first game."
At 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, Stevens is a big target when quarterback Logan Kilgore is searching for a receiver.
"It seems like we throw to the tight ends more when we're in the red zone," Stevens said. "Coach Dean is putting more emphasis on it."
Stevens is relatively new to the tight end position. At Highland, he played tight end, wide receiver and safety. But he was strictly a wide receiver upon arriving at BC for the 2007 season.
He used that season as a redshirt year, then switched to tight end before last season. Stevens played sparingly in 2008 and didn't move into the starting tight end spot until this season was under way.
"Last year was an experience year for me," Stevens said. "Blocking on the college level is so much harder than anything I've done before. It took me a year to learn how to block and play at this level. ... Everything has come easier for me this year."
Stevens is an engineering major who has a 3.65 grade point average at BC. At Highland, he had straight A's every semester except for a B in world history his sophomore year.
His older brother, Seth, is a civil engineer in Portland, Ore. Stevens said he hopes to enter the engineering program at Cal Poly after finishing BC this spring.
"It's almost unheard of to have a kid in engineering classes and being involved in extra-curricular activities," BC coach Jeff Chudy said. "Those classes are so demanding."
