BY DON WILLIAMS l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Steven Sheffield was somewhere between Kingsville and Pflugerville when coaches from quarterback-ville called to alter the arc of his football career. Actually, Sheffield had been asleep, on his way home from a recruiting visit to Texas A&M-Kingsville, when Texas Tech coach Mike Leach and assistant Lincoln Riley rang his cell phone.

Less than two weeks remained until the 2006 national signing day, and the Tech coaches were interested in Sheffield, who had led his Class 4A Pflugerville Connally team to the state semifinals two years in a row. They were interested, but they didn’t have a scholarship.

That part’s still the same. That’s part of what motivates Sheffield, to get his parents off the hook for his tuition.

Texas Tech quarterback Steven Sheffield looks for wide receiver Detron Lewis, bottom, during the Tech spring game Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium. Coach Mike Leach has named Sheffield, a 6-foot-4 junior who is not on scholarship, the Red Raiders' No. 2 quarterback behind Taylor Potts. (Geoffrey Mcallister / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

“It drives me every single day when I’m lifting weights, going and watching film after class, stuff like that — just to try to get on scholarship and eventually get on the field here and play,’’ Sheffield said.

His chances are getting better. At the end of last week, Leach said Sheffield, a wiry 6-foot-4 junior, is the Red Raiders’ No. 2 quarterback behind Taylor Potts. In something of a coincidence, Alabama newspapers wrote last week that Texan Greg McElroy will almost certainly be a first-time starter at quarterback next season for the Crimson Tide.

If McElroy had not backed out of a commitment to Tech three years ago, Tech coaches would not have been on Sheffield’s trail to begin with.

His dad had been driving that night, and when Sheffield checked his cell phone he noticed several missed calls from the 806 area code.

“It was like 11 (o’clock) or maybe even later,’’ Sheffield said. “It was just Lincoln and Leach on the phone. It was just question-and-answer basically. They told me they wanted to fly me up here, so I canceled my visit (the next weekend) with Texas State and did that.’’

Leach didn’t have to do much of a hard sell. Even as Sheffield checked out schools such as A&M-Kingsville, he longed for a shot at Division I. There’s still no guarantee he’ll see time in a pressure-packed game — Taylor Potts is the Red Raiders’ starter, and no quarterback in Leach’s nine years at Tech has missed a start because of injury.

Still, on Friday, Leach adjusted the quarterbacks’ snaps in practice to give Sheffield more than fellow backups Seth Doege and Stefan Loucks, and then Saturday he had a solid spring game, completing 11 of 18 passes for 99 yards. He threw a nice fade-pattern pass to Detron Lewis for a touchdown and threw an interception.

“I thought he really did a good job of creating a level of tempo out there and then, if he made a bad play, I thought he did a good job of bouncing back and playing the next play,’’ Leach said.

Although Sheffield has scarcely seen the field during his three years in the program, he has an identity. A former assistant strength coach, Dinky Williams, who could bench press three Sheffields, took a look at the quarterback’s bony frame and nicknamed him “Sticks,’’ which stuck.

“I don’t think it’s ever going to die,’’ said Sheffield, who admitted to being “160-something’’ when he arrived and about 187 today. “I mean, my best friends call me that, which, I don’t really care.’’

Sheffield also is fairly unique in that he plays with gloves on both hands, no matter the weather. In that regard, he’s in a small circle of quarterbacks that includes NFL stars Kurt Warner and Ben Roethlisberger.

Not that he’s trying to emulate anyone. He’s just found the gloves to be practical.

“The footballs we use here, for some reason, feel really slick to me,’’ Sheffield said. “That, accompanied with the dry weather and the dust and everything, I never could get a good grip of the ball. I was always licking my hand and getting dust in my mouth.

“I just started messing around, putting some receivers’ gloves on and throwing the ball, and sure enough it kind of caught on where I never had to lick my fingers and I always had a good grip. If I keep a fresh pair of gloves, I can throw the ball a lot better. Even catching snaps, it helps out a lot.’’

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