EUGENE -- The truth is, Hamani Stevens didn't spend too much time thinking about football.
The native of Hemet, Calif., was so busy in the Philippines helping locals with projects and setting up games of American football for kids that he didn't have time to think of much else. A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Stevens was sent to the country in Southeast Asia for his two-year mission, missing out on the 2009 and 2010 seasons in Eugene. While away from home, Stevens had limited access to the Internet, allowed to call home only on Christmas and Mother's Day.
But each fall, Stevens started to feel that pang.
"Around September, October, November, that's the time you're starting to feel a pull," Stevens said. "I was sitting there thinking, 'Man, my team's playing right now and I'm sitting over here sweating, with 100 percent humidity every day, eating weird food.' It was tough at times, but it never got me too down."
Stevens had an inkling that the Ducks were doing, but he wasn't clear on the specifics. Stevens had no idea, for example, until months after the game that Oregon had lost to Auburn in the BCS National Championship.
"My parents would always tell me, 'Yeah, your team won this weekend but not much else,'" said Stevens, who is back in Eugene with four years of eligibility left and competing to start on the offensive line. "They know how much I love football and how much I would have loved to be playing in the Rose Bowl, playing in the national title game, but I think they were trying to keep me focused on my mission."
The former all-state player at Hemet High School committed to the Ducks in early 2008, with the caveat that he would take a two-year leave of absence when his mission came around. Offensive line coach Steve Greatwood, now in his 26th year of coaching, has seen his share of LDS athletes leave for missions and come back out of shape, under- or overweight, or not come back at all.
Hamani Stevens
"You never know what to expect when a young man comes back off a mission," Greatwood said. " A lot of it depends on where he goes -- you wonder if he'll be physically ready ... Fortunately Hamani came back in pretty good shape. If anything, he improved physically."
But it was far from easy.
People in the Philippines don't spend much time worrying about bodybuilding or football so Stevens had to make do with what he could find. In place of weights, Stevens would fill huge buckets with dirt and do curls. On the rare occasion he got the materials to mix cement, he would fill a bucket with cement, stick a pole in it and let it harden. Then he'd flip it over and do it to the other end, creating a homemade dumbbell. That he only had 30 minutes a day for physical activity made it more of a challenge.
"As soon as I got there I knew I've got to make the best of the situation and I did some things I'd never thought of before," Stevens said. "I know I can do push-ups, I can do sit-ups every day. I might not be getting bigger, but I'll maintain."
Stevens parents, Ron and Telekoki, pitched in, too: When Stevens weight dropped down to 270 -- he had left with the goal of never going under 260 -- he wrote asking them for help, and they responded by sending him care packages stocked with protein powder and protein bars, along with piles of junk food.
Now at 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds, Stevens looks the part of a normal college football lineman. But in the Philippines he towered over most of the locals, eliciting cries from little kids of "Look, it's Superman!"
"Walking down the street kids would grab onto me -- they wanted to touch you, wanted you to pick them up and show how strong you were," Stevens said. "Kids there love to see someone different -- being big and being from America, it made me a hit."
The fanfare is different in Eugene, where Stevens is competing with redshirt freshman Hroniss Grasu and sophomore Karrington Armstrong for the starting spot at center. Stevens didn't take a playbook with him or have access to a TV for the past two years, so catching up with the Ducks' pace has been trying.
"Everything is so intensified when you first get back," said Stevens, adding that the first time he smashed into a defensive lineman in fall camp he had a "What on earth is going on?" moment.
Coach Chip Kelly said Stevens has been impressive in camp given his two-year offseason, but declined to divulge anything about who has the edge for the starting position.
"He's one of 18 linemen competing for a starting job," Kelly said. "He's obviously had two years off and that's something, but he's doing a real nice job."
Wherever he lands on the depth chart, he gives the Ducks another valuable big body. Stevens said in regular contact with Greatwood while overseas, and had to squash rumors about him maybe leaving football for good.
The thought, said Stevens, never crossed his mind.
"Growing up, football is all I had," he said. "I want to play football as long as possible. There was never a question of if I would give it up."
If football doesn't work out though, Stevens said he is open to the possibility of going back to the Philippines. But first, there would need to be one change.
"The portions there are way too small," he laughed. "The first thing I did when I got home was go to In-and-Out. I needed a double-double burger and a chocolate milkshake. Everything in the Philippines is micro-sized. It was rough."
-- Lindsay Schnell