A ‘nobody’ still proving them wrong
Gators’ Davis powered by chip on his shoulder
GAINESVILLE — Jarrad Davis carried the black, three-ring binder with him everywhere he went.
Davis was just 7 years old and playing his first season in pads, but he already knew he loved football. He wanted to keep the plays he drew up close to him at all times.
Davis’ passion, commitment and talent eventually would take him a long way. These days, the Florida Gators’ inside linebacker is the unquestioned leader of one of the nation’s top defenses and among the top NFL prospects at his position.
But along the way, the 21-year-old’s love of the game has been tested.
Growing up in Kingsland, Ga., just 90 miles northeast of Gainesville, Davis was a two-way player who fancied himself a running back. One day his coaches at Camden County High School moved him exclusively to linebacker.
“I remember the day he came home,” his mother, Amy, recalled. “He didn’t want to play that position. I told him either you can make a choice to play [it] or you can come home and do your chores every day. It didn’t really make a difference to me. “He chose to play linebacker.” Once he made the choice, Davis put his heart and soul into it. Yet at first, Davis’ efforts were not enough.
Davis was a part-time starter as a junior, but he would blossom his senior season into one of the surest tacklers and hardest hitters in talent-rich Georgia.
Recruiting services were slow to warm to the late-blooming Davis, but Florida coach Will Muschamp noticed the transformation.
“I’ll never forget what Muschamp told me when I came in,” Davis said. “He was just saying my tape from my junior year to my senior year was almost like night and day from the way I was playing, the way I getting to the ball and what I was doing when I got to the ball.
“I guess that piqued his interest and he took a chance.”
Originally committed to Auburn, at his mother’s urging, Davis decided to sign with the Gators. Few even noticed. Davis was a three-star recruit and an afterthought in a 2013 class at Florida featuring three highly rated linebackers — Alex Anzalone, Daniel McMillan and Matt Rolin — and 22 of 27 position players ranked higher than Davis by recruiting service 247Sports.com.
Davis swallowed his pride deeply and used it as fuel.
“For me to come in as the last linebacker, as a three-star, nobody knowing who I am, people just overlooking me it definitely put a chip on my shoulder,” Davis said. “That’s something I still carry today. I came from a good high school, but just as far as the attention everybody had coming out of high school, I had none.
“I was just another kid coming to play football.”
But Davis soon would stand out in practice and earn his teammates’ respect.
Davis was selected as specialteams captain at Missouri, even though he had recorded just one tackle during the season’s first six games. Amy was as surprised as anyone and had not made plans to attend the game due to the travel demands.
“I said after that I won’t miss another game — I need to be there,” she said.
Since then, Amy Davis has watched her son burst on the scene late in his freshman season, endure a season-ending knee injury during the final month of his sophomore year and then return to emerge as one of the Gators’ top players in 2015.
Jarrad Davis’ breakout, 98-tackle season included a one-sided loss to Alabama in the SEC title game that led him to put off his NFL dreams and return to school. During the offseason, the 6-foot-2 Davis packed on 10 pounds of muscle, to weigh in at 240, and assumed an even stronger leadership role.
“He’s the guy. He just stands out in everything that he does,” sophomore defensive lineman CeCe Jefferson said. “Even with all the success that he has you can still go up to him and he’ll take time out of his busy schedule to hear your problem, talk to you. That’s just Jarrad, man.
“He’s a genuinely good guy, he works hard, he’s the leader of this team. I can’t praise that guy enough.”
Davis has been a natural-born leader since he was in grade school. If there was a team bake sale, a field trip or a class project, Amy unknowingly would be called into service.
“In elementary school, it was, ‘Mom, I signed us up to do this,’ … without even consulting Mom,” she said, with a laugh.
These days, Davis is involved in good works in the Gainesville community, be it working with Habitat for Humanity or reading to children at Williams Elementary School.
But nowhere does Davis inspire others more than on the football field, where to he breathes energy and excitement into the Gators’ defense with his ball-hawking, hardhitting style.
“He plays such a physical style of football,” All-SEC cornerback Jalen Tabor marveled. “It kind of reminds me like he plays in the ’80s — he just wants to knock your head off. That’s what being a Mike linebacker and playing defense is all about.”
Davis’ commitment to the Gators has not always been absolute, he admits.
As a sophomore, he experienced the pitfalls and temptations facing most college students until his knee injury made him realize the cost.
“I had video games, I had all kinds of snacks, I really wasn’t taking care of my body,” he said. “I was staying up late at night, hanging out. It’s cool to go out and have fun with your friends. But there’s a time to have fun and there’s a time to work.”
Since then, Davis has been all business — and it has rubbed off on his teammates.
“We feed off people like that,” cornerback Quincy Wilson said. “He’s in there going hard, giving it his all, so we want to give it our all, too.”
Like most mothers, Amy Davis always believed her son was special. Even so, his teammates’ high praise is nice to hear.
“Wow, that’s cool,” she said. “It’s all a part of giving back. Somebody took the time with Jarrad besides me, besides his dad, besides his grandparents. Why can’t you give back what somebody forwarded to you?”
Jarrad Davis’ most faithful and fervent fan proudly has worn her son’s No. 40 jersey to games the past three seasons, but she plans to retire it this season so she can blend in with the crowd. He has become that popular.
Amy did not begin to understand why until last October during the Gators’ rout of Ole Miss. One of Davis’ cousins, a Clemson alum, finally enlightened her.
“She told me, ‘Amy, this is not high school football anymore. This is SEC football,’” Amy said. “All you see is your child. All you see is a 7-year-old. All you see is your child out there doing what he’s passionate about.”
Davis’ passion burns as bright as the 7-year-old with the three-ring binder in tow. The chip on the shoulder of an overlooked, undervalued high school senior remains. Every time he steps on the field, Davis channels those emotions and looks to make his mark.
“I’m trying go out and create something here,” he said. “I’m trying to go out and let everybody know who Jarrad Davis is. No matter what you already know, you still don’t know me.
“I still have a lot to prove.”