JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Ryan Stamper is no stranger to the people here on our First Coast: He was a baller at First Coast High School, he helped the Florida Gators win a national championship, and now he's back home.
Stamper loves his hometown of Jacksonville, and he loves the Jacksonville Jaguars. Stamper said he has been a Jaguars fan since the city was awarded the NFL franchise.
A prep football standout during the early 2000s at First Coast High School, Stamper said his decision to become the Jaguars director of player assessment was not made as quickly as you might think.
"The more I thought about it. The more I prayed about it. The more I asked people. The more I talked to coach Meyer, got here and seen the things we got in place, I said you know what, we will win," Stamper said.
Stamper was thriving in his role as assistant athletic director at Ohio State, a place he had worked the past nine years, but the Buckeyes could not offer Stamper something that the Jaguars could.
"It's not just about me coming here working for the Jags, it’s about these young kids that's from Jacksonville thinking they might have the same opportunity," Stamper said. "It's about my mom who is getting older. It's about my daughter who lives here. It's about my friends. It's an opportunity I couldn't pass up the more I thought about it."
And it's an opportunity made possible by Jaguars’ head coach Urban Meyer, who gave Stamper his first college job while Stamper was a police officer in Titusville, Florida.
"I knew that I still had some football in me, whether it was coaching or player development. so, when he called me, I was gone," Stamper said.
The experience he gained in Columbus put him in a position for his current job.
However, Stamper says the key to his success was how he conducted himself as a student-athlete while playing at the University of Florida.
"So, that's what I tell young people, no matter where you're at or what you're doing, just work hard and be good to everybody. Literally how I conducted myself as player at Florida is how I got the job at Ohio State, and once you get the opportunity you've got to run with it," Stamper said.
His work ethic and character are now allowing Stamper to do what he says is his most important job, being a dad to his daughter Ryiahh.
"She's 10 years old now and I think I did as best as I could when I was living in Ohio, seeing her and trying to take care of her. But when you get to a certain age, especially young girls, they need dad around. They need dad involved in their life. Now I can do what I love, in the city I grew up in and was raised in around family. And that's why this opportunity was just still kind of like unbelievable. I thank God every day," Stamper said.