The Cardinal Countdown: 85 Days Until Kickoff

#85 Jordan Davis

Class: RS Senior

Ht/Wt: 6-4/254

Position: Tight End

Hometown: Clear Lake, TX

Twitter: @UKnowJD

Thoughts: The story on Jordan Davis is pretty straightforward. Jordan, a four star tight end out of high school, as a sign of respect for his family and his hometown decided to stay in state and play for The Aggies of Texas A&M. His freshman season he appeared in 10 games and seemed to be on a solid trajectory with the program BUT Texas A&M was dealt the unfortunate hand of taking on a young player named Lamar Jackson and his fellow Cardinals in the 2015 Music City Bowl. After getting run, thrown, and danced all over Texas A&M not only got handed a loss but in a crazy twist was forced to hand over a stage coach full of ass-less chaps and one player off their current roster. I know, sounds crazy, but dems the rules. Jordan had to hop on the bus back to Louisville and the rest is history. Little known story. Tell your friends.

The real story on Davis is that many Cards fans are still waiting for him to break out into the tight end we expected to see his first season here. I think we got a little spoiled with Hikituni who was a pass catching machine for multiple seasons, but Davis has never really panned out into that receiving role many envisioned. The good news? If you read my post back on Day 88 you know that the TE position for Satterfield is not a heavy target in the offense, but a big body with some speed and the ability to block downfield will excel. Davis without question has the size and has shown us can set the edge with consistency. Even the last couple years when Davis wasn’t a big target he was getting reps because of his blocking. During the Spring Coach Ledford told ‘The Ath$etic’ he liked what Davis was showing them and thought he would be a great fit in their system playing all three spots (receiver split out, up on the line, H-back). When I went back and looked through some Appalachian State film they had a real solid player in that same spot for many seasons named Barrett Burns. The folks over at MVA Sports were kind enough to put together a compilation of Burns career and I think it’s a great five minute overview of the various things the offense tries to do with that position. The beginning of the video is using him as a receiver and around the 3:23 mark they highlight some of the blocking schemes.

Burns was hovering around 6-4/245 most of his career so very similar in size to Davis currently. Even though this may be his final season of eligibility I think this scheme may be the best fit for Davis since he has arrived on campus. Look for him to improve on his two catch 2018 season but to also be a big piece of the running game this year.

Sweet Tweet:

No lie, you click on that photo and it looks like the Davis family is about to drop a fire Gospel album on you this beautiful Sunday morning.