Oklahoma RB Rhamondre Stevenson headed to the NFL

Instead of returning to OU for another senior year, Stevenson will fulfill a lifelong dream

John E. Hoover | Jan 7, 2021

Oklahoma running back Rhamondre Stevenson declared for the NFL Draft on Thursday night.

Stevenson, a senior from Las Vegas, announced his decision on Twitter.

Stevenson had the option to return due to the NCAA’s blanket eligibility waiver for 2020. But he chose instead to take his talents to the professional ranks.

“Since I was 7 years old, I knew my aspiration, and that was to play at the highest level of football possible … the NFL,” Stevenson wrote. “Now I get a chance to reach my lifelong goal.”

READ STEVENSON'S PERSONAL PROFILE at SI SOONERS

The 6-foot, 246-pound Stevenson was a junior college All-American at Cerritos (CA) College, where he rushed for more than 2,000 yards as a sophomore.

At OU, he rushed for 515 yards and six touchdowns as a junior in 2019, and 665 yards and seven touchdowns — in just six games — as a senior. He averaged 8.0 yards per carry in ’19 and 6.6 yards per carry in 20.

Stevenson only played seven game this season after being hit with an NCAA suspension prior to last year’s Peach Bowl. The suspension, for a failed drug test, cost him six games — one last year and five this year.

In his OU career, Stevenson rushed for 1,180 yards and 13 touchdowns on just 165 carries, an average of 7.2 yards per attempt.

He returned to action on Halloween for the Sooners game at Texas Tech and rushed for 87 yards and three touchdowns. The following week against Kansas, he rushed for 104 yards and two TDs on just 11 carries and added 60 yards receiving. He then punished Oklahoma State with 141 rushing yards and 54 receiving yards.

Against Baylor he compiled 50 yards rushing and 49 yards receiving and scored once, and in the Big 12 Championship Game victory over Iowa State, he added 97 rushing yards and 36 receiving yards.

Then in a 55-20 victory over Florida in the Cotton Bowl, Stevenson was named Offensive MVP after rushing for a career-high 186 yards and a touchdown on just 18 carries.

Published Jan 7, 2021

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.