DALLAS — Before the Sugar Bowl had even ended and Ohio State had upset Alabama, Buckeyes defensive tackle Adolphus Washington received a text message from one of his childhood friends.
It wasn't about how well he had played or congratulating him for taking down the No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide. This text was a friendly form of trash talk from one of Washington's former teammates.
“See you in Dallas,” the text read.
The sender? Oregon wide receiver Dwayne Stanford.
Washington and Stanford go back a ways. The two were teammates during their playing days at Cincinnati Taft High School. They were two-sport standouts for Senators, starring on the football field and the basketball court.
And it was actually basketball, not football, where the two of them thought their future might be.
"Honestly, when we were that young we thought we were going to go to the NBA, to be honest with you," Washington said. "We played football for three or four months. The rest of the time we were playing AAU. Even when we were playing little league football, we were still playing AAU basketball. In all honestly, neither of us thought we'd be here."
They had pretty good reason to believe they might have been destined for NBA careers, too.
As juniors, both Stanford and Washington were members of Taft's state-championship winning team which finished with a 26-1 record. In the state title game — a 95-52 win over Cleveland Central Catholic — Washington scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Stanford finished with six points and and five boards.
Washington said he and Stanford started playing AAU ball together in the fourth grade and Stanford said winning that state title together in high school was probably his best memory of the two of them.
"DD, he can shoot, but he’s not really a shooter," Stanford recalled of the game, "but once he came out and hit those two 3s from the top of the key, I knew it was going to be a good night for him and for the team.”
But shortly after that state title win, both realized their future was on the gridiron and not the hardwood.
Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost, who was the Ducks' wide receivers coach back then, made several trips to Taft to visit Stanford. Apparently, he made quite the impression.
"If it wasn't for the Oregon coach coming to that practice, he would have been (at Ohio State), I'm telling you that," Washington said. "When we came on our visit, we both loved it. We both said we wanted to come here. Once that Oregon coach came, it was pretty much (over)."
So Washington wound up in Columbus and Stanford traveled across the country to Eugene. But both teams are thankful they have the services of the former Taft superstars.
Washington has turned into a dominant force on the defensive line over the second-half of Ohio State's season. He's totaled 45 tackles on the season, 9.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks for the Buckeyes. Stanford, meanwhile, has 39 catches for 578 yards and six touchdowns on the year for the Ducks. He will play an even more prominent role Monday night as Oregon will play without wide receiver Darren Carrington.
“Throughout the year, I was always watching him, seeing plays that he did," Stanford said. "Once he moved to defensive tackle I text him all the time about that and text him about the difference between that and defensive end."
The two haven't seen each other since arriving in Dallas yet, but they'll see plenty of one another when they line up on the field inside AT&T Stadium on Monday night.
The player on the winning team — whether it be Washington or Stanford — will have some new material to text the other for quite some time.
"This would put the icing on the cake. Throughout growing up and playing sports when we were not playing AAU together, I have always beaten him," Washington said. "In junior high in the city championship, I beat him. It was just like every little thing we did — if we did a pick-up game, I would always beat him at everything. Winning this would last a lifetime. I'm going to talk about this one forever."
