Miami Hurricanes CB Tyrique Stevenson blog: Frustrated to miss game; I'll be back this week and like what I'm seeing on both sides of ball

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CB Tyrique Stevenson will have a weekly blog all season at CaneSport.com. In this edition, Stevenson talks about missing the Virginia Tech game to injury and several other topics.

FRUSTRATING I WASN’T HEALTHY ENOUGH TO PLAY, BUT I’LL BE BACK FOR DUKE

This week was definitely frustrating. I took the time to be with the guys, do a little more meetings with them, little more stuff so they could understand the routes and the concepts Virginia Tech was going to try and come out and run. And just regarding the fact that I was frustrated, that I was kind of hurt that I’m not out there playing, I was just trying to add positive energy into them.

I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t be able to play until Thursday night, Friday morning with the groin injury and then a concussion. Me and the trainers had a deep conversation and I agreed that I wasn’t comfortable enough playing and they agreed with me. It was just the fact that I wasn’t prepared mentally for the game from not being able to practice and wasn’t prepared football-wise for the game. I’d be going out there blindly and not 100 percent. So we both agreed that it would be best to just go out there and give the team energy as far as me being on the sideline as an extra coach kind of thing. Coach Addae told me they’re not leaving family behind and I told him I appreciate that.

During the week I showed up to every meeting, showed up to every walkthrough like I was still there, one of the guys. Just because I’m going through this certain situation, have this little problem, I couldn’t neglect them.

I came out on the field early for a little bit, but I just couldn’t bear the fact that I wasn’t playing so I kept going into the locker room to kind of run out with the team. I was with the team, it was about us. This was about my family and my brothers going out there and preparing to win the battle. The only thing I was doing was going around the locker room and giving them all the pointers that coach was giving them all week, hyping them up, making sure they were locked in. I was asking them questions and having them answer it. It helped them build up their confidence.

It hurt a lot for me to not be playing, actually watching the guys go through and compete. They went out and did their thing. But being on the sideline felt good. For me it was definitely weird not playing. Just feeling the atmosphere, feeling the energy, just having them come back to the sideline and they’re juiced up and I know how I feel, it was definitely weird. But it was a great experience and I’m just grateful for it, how everything played out.

The experience was like being a coach. I enjoyed just having the viewpoint from a different angle, just being out there and making sure the guys felt me one way if I wasn’t out there on the field. Being out there even gave me some thoughts of being a coach one day, but I don’t think I could deal with the frustration. A lot of frustration. I told coach Addae yesterday, `Coach, actually seeing from the sideline and listening to you and seeing stuff, how stuff played out and different calls, I can see why you’d be frustrated.’ Once I grow my patience I may become a coach.

It gives you a different perspective. The energy coaches come at you with, I can see where it comes from. Because there were a couple of times I wanted to run up to those guys, `Hey, what are you doing?!?’ So yeah, just when  I take coaching from my own, I understand it from a different viewpoint.

The perspective I got from the sideline, it was a great experience, a great learning lesson for me. And it just showed me that everybody has to be locked in, whether you are playing or not, a coach or not. Everyone is locked in. Come gameday, everyone has the one goal.

And this week I’ll be back. I was at practice with the guys yesterday, I’m just happy to be back and just continue adding and seeing for myself how I can be a better player and better leader for this team.

DEFENSE DID ITS JOB SATURDAY, AND HAD FUN DOING IT

I’m happy those boys went out there and enjoyed themselves, you know? It kind of got sloppy at the end. The game of football is never going to have a perfect game. I’m just glad those boys went out there and did what they had to do, played with a ton of confidence and actually had fun out there. It showed on the scoreboard and pretty much everyone’s seen it.

Everyone’s kept a great attitude. Despite what we’ve been through we know we’re the only people that can dig ourselves out. So no point in getting down on yourself when we have a whole lot of football left.

OUR DBS TOOK AWAY THEIR DEEP THREATS

We spent a lot of time on what they do, what they like to do in certain situations, what route they like to run, who the quarterback is looking at the most and they went out there with their confidence knowing they went over it all week and knew what was coming with the edge to be on top.

With me out, it was Daryl Porter replacing me, and he did a heck of a job. Him and DJ Ivey did a great job with their deep threats. Coming into this game we just knew that this quarterback, he loved his deep shots, you know? Despite if his guy is open or not, he’ll still give his guy a chance. And those guys went out there and didn’t give up deep balls, deep threats. That’s good on our ends. We had a couple of problems with that with other games, just having them go out there and shutting it down and try to make them one-dimensional is a great thing.

ON OTHER SIDE OF BALL GREAT TO SEE TYLER VAN DYKE AND COLBIE YOUNG STEPPING UP

I’m just happy Tyler has taken the role of the leader of the team and he’s getting better each week and it’s showing. That builds confidence for him, builds confidence for the offense and also builds confidence for our team. He’s doing what he has to do, getting extra film study and stuff to make sure he can put us on top.

And Colbie Young, we saw this coming. When he first got here I was thinking he was an older guy so I went out there with an older guy mentality and he reacted like a younger guy, which he is. But just each week Colbie came out there and got better. He kept his head down and he’s just working. We saw it coming, he makes catches like this in practice. He gives me a run for my money, I get him sometimes, it’s a back and forth thing. Just each week he continues to improve himself to be a dominant receiver. We all saw it coming, were just waiting on him getting his opportunity to show it to the world. In fall camp he wasn’t making as many plays but he’d have a play or two, `Oh, hold up! You know what you’re doing!’ We saw it coming and I’m happy he’s maturing the right way and taking that role and running with it. He’s got the ability to get vertical. He’s definitely fast. When the ball is in the air he has another gear, creates that two- or three-yard separation you need as a receiver to catch the ball. He’s kind of a shifty guy too, can run any route on the route tree. But probably his vertical threat, he tracks the ball really well, showed it twice with two one-handed grabs, you know? He showed all you have to do is put it in the area and he’ll come down with it.

WINNING MEANT A LOT OFF A TOUGH LOSING STREAK

To win the game, it meant a lot. We missed that feeling, that winning feeling of coming into the locker room and everybody enjoying themselves and being happy, everybody going home with a smile on their face. And that’s what we’re chasing at the end of the day, we’re chasing a win no matter how it goes, how much blood or sweat or tears it takes, we have to keep going to get there. So the win was just good, I feel it was good on the whole staff and on the whole team in general getting that little motivation we needed to remember that feeling, to keep striving to get back to work.

Looking back, that three-game losing streak was hard. This team is full of competitors from the head coach on down to the last guy to come on as a walkon. Everyone is a competitor, everyone wants to win, everybody has to go out there and do their best. Even the first loss hurt a lot knowing that we could have won. And just having two more devastated us. But the guys and the coaching staff never let up one second. And Mario Cristobal the whole time, same guy. Maybe a little bit more intensity as far as we have to pick stuff up, start doing the little things right. But same guy, same mentality, same messages. He was pretty much the same coach besides him amping up a little bit of his intensity in practice. And we expect that from him. If we were winning, we could have been undefeated right now, he’d be the same thing because everything counts in this game.

Through the losses we always kept our head up, kept knowing sometimes you have to go through stuff but at the end of the day stay consistent, stay to your job, stick to your keys and you come out smelling like a rose.

THIS ISN’T THE SAME DUKE TEAM WE ARE USED TO SEEING

I told them coming into this game `This isn’t the Duke you all are used to. This is no pushover team, isn’t a stat game, these guys are coming here to play.’ And we just have to prepare like we are playing the No. 1 team in the nation.

For me this weekend, I’ll just play my game. Go out there, I watch film, do the little things, every little thing I can to give myself the edge for the game. I just pass some notes onto the teammates and I’ll just go out there and play my game, don’t go out there and try to be a superhuman or anything like that. Go out there and do my job so our defense can go out and play at a high level.

As for what lies ahead big picture? The normal answer would be win out and have the season that we want to. But at the same time we’re really focused on each day. Go through all the stuff that they do so we have an idea of everything, a feel of the game. We’re looking forward to the rest of the season but at the same time just one day at a time and one game at a time. With that losing streak, we know how that tastes. We saw what we need to do different to give ourselves a better opportunity to win, what to do to not put ourselves in that loser’s bracket anymore. But you don’t want to look to far ahead because then you’ll miss the small details that are right under your nose that can hurt you in the long run. We understand that we control our destiny, what we have to do to finish out the season strong.