Stevens happy to be in a stable place
As the USU football team practices, a 14-year-old boy tosses a football with one of the team’s equipment managers. The boy is tall for his age and jokes with a one of the players after practice ends. They’re obviously friends.
The high school freshman isn’t the Aggies latest recruit. His name is Tyler Stevens, son of new interim offensive coordinator Greg Stevens.
Tyler has moved with his parents six times across the country – from Eastern Oregon where Greg played quarterback, the family moved to Colorado, Arizona, Utah (Snow College), Arkansas, Texas and now back to Utah, all in just 14 years.
“When people find out how many places we’ve lived, they ask if my husband is part of the military,” said Greg’s wife. Amy. “I always say, ‘Almost, but not quite.”
When head coaches lose too many games, they move on, Amy said. When they win, they will also often change jobs. Two years ago, all three Division I-A football programs in Utah brought in new coaches: Urban Meyer left the University of Utah, Gary Crowton was forced to resign at Brigham Young University and USU fired Mike Dennehy.
To replace Dennehy, USU brought in new Head Coach Brent Guy. With him came a new staff, including Stevens.
“My wife and I are both from Utah,” Stevens said. “It’s great to be back home.”
For the 37-year-old coach, the frequent moves are to be expected. Change comes with the territory.
And when a coach moves, he takes his whole family with him. In this case, along came his wife, Amy; sons, Tyler and 12-year-old Ryan; and daughter, Hannah, age 7.
“The kids don’t know of any other kind of life,” Amy said. “They’re used to all the moves. They are also used to not seeing their dad at home once football season rolls around.
“From August to February, he misses a lot of things the kids do,” Amy said. “Coach Guy is good to remember the families of the other coaches. We’ve been to some places where they don’t get home until midnight, and the next morning they’re back at it at 6 a.m.”
Even when Greg was a college player, Amy got used to not seeing much of her husband during football season. Back in 1991, Greg nearly missed Tyler’s birth because of a football game, she said.
“His bus left and three hours later, I had Tyler,” she said. Greg was there for the birth, but he couldn’t stay long. The starting quarterback had to get to the game.
Today, the family deals with other uncertainties that come with the territory of college coaching.
“Fans love you or they hate you,” Amy said. “But he’s really good to leave it at the door. He doesn’t let it affect the family.
“I let it show more than he does,” she said, laughing. “I probably get into the games just a little too much.”
All the same, Amy believes there are many perks to being married to a college coach.
“The kids hang out with the team whenever they can,” she said. “We get so attached to these players; it’s hard to see them go.”
But players graduate and coaches leave. Departure is inevitable.
Lowell Romney holds the longest tenure of any USU head football coach at 29 years. No other coach has stayed longer than seven years.
But even with all the uncertainty, the whole Stevens family loves the job.
“It’s our life,” Amy said. “When I married him, I knew what I was getting into.”