By RICHIE HALL
If a football player is good at what he does, recognition will eventually come to him.
Consider the collegiate football career of Sterling Weatherford. The Hamilton Heights graduate just completed his redshirt sophomore year at Miami of Ohio, a season where he started in all 14 games and helped the RedHawks to a Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship, plus an appearance in a bowl game.
Weatherford also had impressive statistics during the year as well. Since he’s coming back for his redshirt junior season this fall, many tagged him as a player to watch. But even Weatherford was surprised when ESPN placed him on its list of top 10 returning safeties for the 2020 season.
“My initial reaction was shock, really,” said Weatherford. “Just feeling blessed to even get my name out there. With that said, it is a pre-season ranking and what I’m concerned with is trying to win another championship with my team. However exciting that is individually, where I’m really focused at right now is trying to maintain a good future for our team.”
ESPN placed Weatherford sixth on its list. The Miami RedHawks Twitter account posted a quote from the article’s author, Anthony Treash, who had this to say about Weatherford: “His success in coverage continued into 2019, when he was given a starting role, and he recorded an 85.2 coverage grade and forced more incompletions than first downs allowed. Wherever he lined up, Weatherford thrived in coverage. He posted coverage grades above 70.0 when he lined up in the box, in the lost and at deep safety.”
Treash wrote roughly the same thing when he wrote an article on pff.com, a football analysis website, naming Weatherford the No. 4 overall player returning in the MAC for 2020. It’s easy to see why if one looks at Weatherford’s stats: He made 98 tackles for the RedHawks, 5.5 of them for a loss. Weatherford also had two sacks, one interception, 10 pass breakups and two forced fumbles. He reached the 10-tackle mark in Miami’s games with Iowa and Akron.
“Going into my redshirt sophomore year, we had a big senior class that graduated out,” said Weatherford. “I never knew that I was going to have a starting spot, but I had an opportunity to fight for it.”
The coaching staff wanted to see how the team competed. Weatherford proved by the end of the RedHawks’ fall camp that he had earned a starting spot, and he did. As the season progressed, he continued to get more comfortable in that starting role.
“That was never my biggest concern, I was just mostly concerned about our game plan and being prepared,” said Weatherford. He noted that it’s easy for a player to “get caught up in a lot of extracurriculars,” and then lose focus on what it takes to win a game.
Weatherford redshirted during his freshman year (2017), but still contributed to the team. In fact, he was named the Defensive Scout Team Player of the Year.
“Physically I was ready, but mentally I had a lot more room to grow,” said Weatherford.
In the 2018 season, Weatherford saw the field for the first time as a redshirt freshman. He played in all 12 of Miami’s game, making one start. Weatherford totaled 27 tackles for the season, including nine against Army West Point. He also recorded his first interception during the RedHawks’ win over Kent State.
Miami finished the 2018 season 6-6, and were 6-2 in MAC play, but did not qualify for the championship game that season. In 2019, the RedHawks were again 6-2 in the conference, but swept through the MAC’s East Division with a 5-0 record to earn a spot in the conference championship game.
In the championship game, Miami beat Central Michigan 26-21. After a back and forth first half that finished with the Chippewas leading 14-10, the RedHawks scored 13 straight points on a touchdown and two field goals, and didn’t allow Central Michigan any score until there was 1:24 left in the fourth quarter.
Weatherford had seven tackles and three pass breakups in that game. It was the RedHawks’ first MAC title since 2010.
“That was an awesome experience, winning the conference,” said Weatherford. “That’s not something that is a given.”
Miami also qualified for a bowl game, playing the LendingTree Bowl against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns. The game took place Jan. 6 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala. and was televised by ESPN. Weatherford called the experience “awesome,” especially coming off the conference championship win.
“It’s a lot more laid back, especially compared to the conference championship game you played before,” said Weatherford. “We had a lot more time to take some pressure off and just soak in how fun it is to play the game we love.”
Louisiana was the runner-up in the Sun Belt Conference, and would win the game 27-17. But it was still a chance to play in a bowl game, something Weatherford and his team didn’t take for granted.
“That was my first time ever going to a bowl game, and it’s definitely something that your team has a lot of pride in,” said Weatherford, who made five tackles in the game. “We’ve sat through the off-season where we come back early and we’re grinding because we didn’t make it to a bowl game. It’s awesome for that to pay off and for us to have those opportunities both in the same year.”
The RedHawks finished the 2019 season 8-6, but that includes a difficult non-conference portion of the schedule. Miami played ranked opponents Iowa and Ohio State within the first four weeks of the season.
Meanwhile, the 2020 season looks like it could be just as successful. The RedHawks are returning all but three starting positions, in addition to sophomore quarterback Brett Gabbert, who the previous season was the MAC Freshman of the Year.
Miami also has many wide receivers returning as well as a young offensive line crew. Weatherford said “a lot of our leaders are all coming back, which is so exciting.”
Off the field, Weatherford is majoring in mechanical engineering. He’s following in the family footsteps, as his brother Austin and father Tim are both engineers, and the company his parents own is engineering-based.
“I feel like when you have a passion for something, it becomes a little bit easier,” said Weatherford. He said he is on track to graduate in four years with a degree, then after that might focus on starting graduate school.
But before that, there’s still more football to play. And while there will be likely be more big numbers and accolades for him, Weatherford said he just wants “to go out and play for my teammates and focus on the season and not my personal goals, because I’m a firm believer that if you invest in your team and you’re doing your things right, you don’t have to focus on yourself.”