Marcus Davenport a reluctant pass rusher
Texas-San Antonio lineman had to develop the self-confidence to thrive
SAN ANTONIO – As Marcus Davenport strides across the football practice field at the University of Texas-San Antonio, a gallon jug of water in his right hand and a backpack slung over his shoulder, his figure is imposing — nearly 6-7, 265 pounds, broad shoulders and long arms, with a wingspan over 81 inches.
It’s unmistakable: This is a young man who looks the part of an NFL pass rusher.
Coaches and executives see it, especially after a senior year in which he had
81⁄ sacks and three forced fumbles,
2 when he flashed at the Senior Bowl in January in his first extended work against other elite draft prospects, and at the NFL scouting combine this month, when he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds.
The only person who doesn’t always look at Davenport and automatically see a first-round draft pick is Davenport himself.
The biggest challenge for Davenport in this exhausting pre-draft process, which includes his pro day at UTSA on Wednesday where representatives from all 32 teams are scheduled to attend, has been developing the self-confidence to see in himself what others see, that he’s no longer the teenager who arrived at UTSA, his hometown school, at 198 pounds after receiving just a smattering of scholarship offers.
“I had to develop more confidence, because this game will eat you up if you
don’t have it,” Davenport told USA TODAY. “I would usually think more about my negatives than my positives. About the things that I haven’t done instead of what I have done. So I decided to change my mind-set, and behind every ‘I am,’ I had to say something positive.”
Davenport is inherently an introvert — introspective and creative. He journals, writes poetry, watches anime and is excited to wear the T-shirt his girlfriend bought him that says “We should all be feminists.” He devours books on philosophy and scours the Internet for motivational speeches. And he graduated in 31⁄ years with a degree in multidis
2 ciplinary studies.
His focus on positive self-talk appears to be working, and he channels it into workouts and meetings with team executives.
When he recently admitted to Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead during a private meeting that he was nervous, Snead recommended to Davenport a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. Davenport purchased the book upon his return to San Antonio and texted Snead a picture of it as he started it.
“I use it in a sense that I know I’ve prepared for this. I’ve done things all my life that have prepared me for this moment,” Davenport said.
Davenport played football, basketball and competed in track and field while growing up on the north side of San Antonio. He and his father, Ron, dreamed he’d become a college basketball player. It wasn’t until Davenport’s high school coaches suggest he switch from wide receiver to defensive end as a junior — a move the Davenports were reluctant to make — that he started to consider a future in football. But he was green as a pass rusher, undersized and lightly recruited. He took visits to New Mexico and UNLV before choosing to start his college career at home for coach Larry Coker and a program that played its first game in 2011.
“We looked at it like, he was getting into a Division I program, he’d get to play in a dome where he wouldn’t have to deal with weather, he’d get exposure and he’d get to play against some good, big-time teams. I told him, ‘If you want to transfer after a year, we can talk about that,’ ” Ron Davenport said. “We never had to have that conversation.”
Coker resigned after Davenport’s sophomore season, and new coach Frank Wilson and his staff immediately put a plan into place to bulk up Davenport, who then weighed about 215. That included increasing his caloric intake and weightlifting habits. By that fall, he had gained about 20 pounds. He had a pair of sacks in the season opener against Alabama State and a breakout game in a November loss to Texas A&M when he recorded 11 tackles, had one sack and recovered a fumble while playing in front of a host of NFL scouts who were in College Station to watch Aggies defensive end Myles Garrett, who would be the No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft.
That game was a sign Davenport was starting to reach his potential as a pass rusher.
“I always saw the potential he had, and he did struggle with that confidence. I always would tell him, Marcus, you’re an incredible player, you’re a prototypical NFL player, you just don’t see it,” said former UTSA safety Nate Gaines, Davenport’s best friend. “Watching him play, you could see that he was going to be something special. His attitude was always one of being humble and being a servant to his teammates. It was never about him; it was always about his teammates before himself.”
Davenport ate and ate and ate — at least five meals a day, plus snacks, with frequent trips to the Panda Express near campus for an order of double orange chicken and fried rice — and spent hours in the weight room, and by the time he started his senior season, he weighed more than 260, about what he weighed at the combine this month.
“If those things don’t happen, he still plays at 219, 222 and he finishes his career as a decent career for a local kid. But instead, he changed it psychologically, physically and his mentality. Everything about him changed. It was an evolution into what he’s become,” Wilson said.
Wilson was a longtime assistant coach in the Southeastern Conference with Ed Orgeron at Mississippi and LSU and called Davenport “as complete” of a pass rusher as he had coached or recruited.
“From an evaluation standpoint, you can say lots of people missed on this guy. But from where he was, he had to be developed, he had to be receptive to that and then see himself as that,” Wilson said. “He exemplifies what you want in a student-athlete, what you want when he puts that logo on. When it comes to outreach, humility, playing hard, everything in every aspect — he checks all the boxes.”
Now Davenport is poised to become not only UTSA’s first first-round pick — possibly as the second edge rusher drafted, after North Carolina State’s Bradley Chubb — but also only the second player drafted in program history, following tight end David Morgan, a sixth-round pick by the Vikings in 2016.
He plans to attend the draft at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, with family members and former teammates joining him for what will surely be a surreal moment, one he finally convinced himself he deserves.
“At one point the idea of just getting drafted was like, oh my gosh. And then it was first round, oh my gosh. Top 20, oh my gosh, and then maybe Top 10? Oh my God,” Davenport said.
“It’s been a blessing so far, but I know it’s not the end. It doesn’t matter how you get in, it matters what you do when you get there.”