SASKATOON — Jon Kitna’s career NFL passing yardage (29,745) is much easier to quantify than the number of people he has met and influenced during most of a lifetime spent in football.
He excelled as a quarterback and, since 2012, has developed players as an accomplished and highly respected coach.
Over that expanse of time, taking into account several decades of interactions and appraisals, Jerreth Sterns is in a class by himself in one respect.
“What stands out is how hard he worked to be in the greatest shape of anyone I have ever witnessed at any level of football,” marvels Kitna, who coached Sterns — now a second-year receiver with the Saskatchewan Roughriders — at Waxahachie High School in Texas.
“I witnessed him take every rep of a seven-on-seven tournament on offence and defence on back-to-back days in 105-degree (Fahrenheit) heat with a heat index of 115. We played seven total games and he was the most dominant player on the field both days.
“We tried to take him out and get him rest but he would respectfully refuse. His statement was, ‘If you take me out, why do I work so hard to be in this kind of shape?’ ”
Sterns remembers it well.
“That was actually my first time playing both sides in high school football,” he says following a workout at Coors Light Training Camp. “I just wanted to get ready for the game and the best way to do that is by practising.”
Sterns received a letter — recognizing excellence in school activities — in each of his four years at Waxahachie.
As a senior, he scored 18 touchdowns on offence and added eight interceptions.
“I didn’t play any receiver in high school,” Sterns notes. “We ran the triple option and I played quarterback. In my senior year, I transferred and I was playing a little bit of running back and safety.”
His first year as a “true receiver,” as he puts it, was his freshman season at Houston Baptist (now Houston Christian) University.
“I was always playing as an athlete and I always had real good hands and I was always really quick,” Sterns recalls. “I wasn’t quite stocky enough to play running back and I wasn’t going to be tall enough to play quarterback, so I said, ‘Why not?’
“I was looking at Wes Welker and Cole Beasley and I was watching all these dudes eat (up defences) in the NFL at my size. They were real quick with good hands so I said, ‘Let me give it a try.’ ”
He proved to be a quick study in Year 1 of university, catching 68 passes (a school record) for 684 yards and four TDs in 11 games.
As a sophomore, he amassed 105 catches for 833 yards and nine TDs. He then produced 47 catches for 454 yards and five scores over just four games during the COVID-shortened 2020 season while working closely with inside receivers coach Cedric Cormier.
“Jerreth is a coach’s dream,” says Cormier, who is now the wide receivers coach and passing game co-ordinator at New Mexico State University.
“He was one of the hardest-working and most detail-oriented players I have ever been around. He was very focused and always worked on his craft. He practised every day like he was a backup, and he took nothing for granted.
“What everyone is seeing him do today is due to hard work and detailed preparation.”
After three seasons in Houston, Sterns transferred to Western Kentucky University and erupted for NCAA-leading totals of 150 catches and 1,902 receiving yards in 14 games. With 17 TDs, he was tied for first in the nation.
“When we got Jerreth, we knew we were getting a productive player, but we didn’t know exactly what we were truly getting,” says Tyson Helton, who has been the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers’ head coach since 2019.
“Did we think Jerreth was going to be the nation’s leading receiver in receptions that year? No, but we knew we were getting a solid player. We felt like he served a need and helped us.
“The fact that he was Bailey Zappe’s teammate and they had a connection was a big plus for us.”
Zappe, now of the New England Patriots, has started in eight games over the past two NFL seasons.
“(Sterns) thinks like a quarterback and understands coverages and can find the voids in the defence,” Helton says. “He’s on the same page with the quarterback, which is hard.
“A lot of times, receivers struggle with getting on the same page with the quarterback, but he’s a very smart guy.”
For example, Sterns earned All-Academic honours in all four years of high school. He also made the Southland Conference’s Commissioner’s Academic Honour Roll in his first two years of college.
As a senior, he registered the third-best receptions total in NCAA history. He was eight catches behind East Carolina’s Zay Jones (who had 158 receptions in 2016) and five back of Bowling Green State’s Freddie Barnes (155 in 2009).
Barnes, by the way, played in one game with the 2011 Roughriders.
Sterns and Barnes are among a handful of NCAA single-season receptions leaders to have worn green and white.
The list begins with Roughriders legend Hugh Campbell, who caught 66 passes for Washington State in 1961 and repeated as the pace-setter with 53 receptions in 1962.
Dave Quehl, whose 53 receptions for Holy Cross led the nation in 1975, played in three games with Saskatchewan in 1979.
In 1978, Dave Petzke of Northern Illinois recorded an NCAA-best 91 receptions. He tried out for the Roughriders two years later.
And then there is Tim Kearse, whose 71 catches for San Jose State led the NCAA in 1981. He played in 20 games for Saskatchewan over the 1983, 1984 and 1988 seasons.
Moreover, Sterns is only the third NCAA receiving-yardage leader to spend time with the Roughriders, following Campbell (881 yards in 1960) and Petzke (1,215 in 1978).
The credentials are impressive, but you won’t hear that from the modest Sterns.
“He was a quiet leader,” Helton says. “He led by example.
“His work ethic was outstanding. He was a great competitor. He did a great job of taking care of his body. He was just a true professional and he had a pro mentality about him.”
Sterns’ first professional opportunity was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with whom he signed as an undrafted free agent on May 13, 2022. He was among the team’s final cuts on Aug. 30 of that year.
He joined the Los Angeles Rams’ practice squad on Dec. 22, 2022 and signed a reserve-futures contract 2½ weeks later, only to be waived on March 10, 2023.
In early July, he signed with Saskatchewan and ended up playing in 11 games, registering 44 catches for 449 yards and one touchdown.
“Last year, they signed me early in the season and I didn’t get to build the camaraderie and kind of see what the quarterbacks want on certain plays and go through the grind with these guys,” Sterns says.
“That really builds a certain level of trust, so I’m excited this year to go through it all and be here from the start.”
From the start of his football career, the 5-foot-9, 175-pounder has heard from people who feel he is too small. Time after time, he has emphatically rebutted the critics.
“Here, size isn’t a big issue,” Sterns says. “There are a lot of great receivers in this league who have been undersized by NFL terms, but they’re still dogs. Hopefully I make the most of my opportunity up here and I plan to do that.”
The numbers demonstrate that Sterns is an inviting target, even though size isn’t in his favour. How does he so consistently overcome a lack of height?
“Get open … create more separation,” Roughriders Receivers Coach Marquay McDaniel says.
“A guy like that, he’s hard to guard. He’s hard to get his hands on. He does a good job one-on-one of using his hands. He’s so low to the ground.
“When you see him break down, he’s a good drop-hip guy and he’s explosive out of his breaks. He’s hard to guard one-on-one. I don’t know what DBs can do to guard him.”
Especially when you consider that Sterns has a 40-yard vertical leap and can dunk a basketball.
“I’m shorter, but I’m not really skinny,” he points out. “I’ve got a little muscle to me and I can jump, so I wouldn’t consider myself too undersized.”
His statistics certainly don’t fit that description.
“Being undersized, you kind of have to do a little more,” continues Sterns, who had a 12-yard reception and a 60-yard kickoff return in Monday’s 25-12 pre-season victory over the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“I can’t get away with things that 6-4 guys can get away with. It has kind of got me to where I’m at and it has kind of developed me into the player I am, so I’m grateful for my size. I wouldn’t change anything about it.”
McDaniel envisions a change, though. He expects Sterns to become even more productive as he spends more time in the CFL.
“He can be as good as he wants to be,” says McDaniel, who was himself a productive inside receiver in the CFL. “The good thing is that he’s a worker. You can tell he put in work with the playbook.
“The spot I played is one of the tougher spots to learn, but he has been good so far. He’s a smart guy and he sees defences well and knows how to run routes.
“This league is perfect for a guy like him.”
