Quinton Hammonds Turned a Walk-On Opportunity Into a Starting Role at Oklahoma State
STILLWATER – One of the main stories going into spring football was presumed starting safety Quinton Hammonds. Hammonds, a junior transfer from North Texas and Allen, TX, had a stellar sophomore season for the Mean Green, leading many people to believe he’s set to play a massive role in the secondary in Stillwater. He played in 12 games this past season, recording 53 total tackles, five tackles for loss and a sack, three pass break ups and a forced fumble.
That tackle number was up from 52 total stops as a true freshman walk-on in 2024.
Then some panic set in a bit as he suffered an injury in spring leading some to believe he wouldn’t play near as much, or near as well. But he was able to get healthy over the summer to give Skyler Cassity some much-needed depth, leadership and talent in the secondary.
But let’s go back up a few sentences: that’s right, Hammonds was a walk-on at North Texas. A walk-on who played in all 13 games as a true freshman walk-on, recording 52 total tackles, including 35 solo stops, a pass break up and an interception. A walk-on performance which was undoubtedly overshadowed by fellow former walk-on, Drew Mestemaker. A walk-on who played wide receiver at Allen HS.
“Really cool story. I think Drew kinds of overshadows his story a little bit, because he came in also as a walk-on and played another position,” said Eric Morris. “So, Drew Svoboda, our special teams coordinator, played college football with [Hammonds’] dad. His dad’s a coach as well. That’s where the connection kind of started. He had injuries throughout high school that prohibited him from playing a ton of football. So, when he got to our place, it was something that I think special teams, as he kind of grew in that role and our defensive staff saw him run down on kickoff and tackle the football. Because that’s your thing, he never played it, so will he tackle, will he do this, will he do that? We saw it in live football games, early on in his career as a freshman, on punt teams, running down making tackles. All of a sudden, he’s running down, making his way up the depth chart, because we trusted him more. As these rosters, as you put ‘em all together, guys are looking for guys they can trust, on all three sides of the ball. And those are usually the guys that get the opportunity. Game 4 or 5, we have an injury, all of a sudden, he’s out there playing a game, took the most of the opportunity, has just grown since then. But Q works extremely hard, he’s smart, he grasps what we’re asking him to do on the defensive side of the ball. He’s tough. He’s really worked on his body, he’s gained weight, really good weight, this offseason. So, he has all the physical tools, we knew that, but until we really saw it on special teams is really what opened our eyes, OK, this kid can handle more.”
As a senior at Allen, Hammonds caught 40 passes for 449 yards and had 31 carries for 130 yards and seven scores. He finished the season with right around 700 all-purpose yards. Nothing super special, but it was his work ethic in Denton, TX on special teams which earned him a starting role and a scholarship with Morris and Co.. ultimately turning that into a season-long team captain role in Stillwater.
