Jarrad Davis leaves legacy with Florida Gators

Jarrad Davis, emotional after a 2015 SEC Championship loss to Alabama, made a declaration. He was coming back for his senior season. It wasn’t the raw emotion of a difficult loss talking, Davis wanted to come back, earn a degree and get back to Atlanta.

“I love this place man. I think if I can take anything positive from this I know what it feels like to be in this situation. Now I know what it feels like, the magnitude of this game,” Davis said in 2015. “I know in the off season I’m going to do whatever I gotta do, me and my teammates are going to do whatever we gotta do to get back here. It’s something that’s like nothing else. Nothing else is like this.”

He did just that. Davis has evolved from a special teams player to the heartbeat of the Florida Gators in 2016 — not just the defense either, the whole team.

Sitting in a chair on a makeshift stage in the bowels of the Georgia Dome in 2015 Davis had a clear vision for what he wanted to accomplish in his senior year. Unfortunately, it hasn’t played out that way. For the first time in his career, Davis had to battle back from an injury. Davis hurt his ankle and missed three games.

“It’s embarrassing for me, doing what I do to go down with an injury,” he said in the locker room after losing a second straight SEC Championship game. “That’s part of the game and I have to learn to accept that.”

When asked if Davis was the heart and soul of the defense, Jim McElwain was quick to correct, saying Davis was the heart and soul of the team. McElwain marveled when Davis was able to return from his ankle injury to play against Georgia, a game where he finished with five tackles, including one on Georgia’s final offensive play of the game. Davis re injured his ankle the following week on the road at Arkansas but he refused to let that injury end his days in Orange and Blue.

“Just continue to fight . That’s what I’ve been my whole life, a fighter. I was going to come out and show that today,” Davis said after the SEC Championship game.
“No matter what the score was, no matter what anything was, if I could be out there and I could play, give my all to the team that’s’ what I was going to do and what I did today.”

“I thought what Jarrad Davis did today was fantastic,” head coach Jim McElwain said. “That speaks a lot about a guy who was willing to lay it all out there for his team and for his family.

That love of the game shined through, as Davis was able to return for the SEC Championship game. He finished the game with four tackles and a considerable amount of pain. Davis’ contributions to the team on the field are tangible. He’s been one of the best players in the conference, recognized by his Second Team All-SEC distinction, but his biggest impact may be with the next generation of Gators. Davis took freshman David Reese under his wing this season. In Davis’ absence Reese tallied 34 tackles while barking out the defensive calls to the rest of the team.

“I think it’s huge just because these guys have a lot of talent and a lot of great potential. I just don’t want to see those young guys waste it,” Davis said of taking on a leadership role as a senior. “I want to make sure that they know what it takes. That they see the opportunities that they have to be a very successful team later on down the road. There’s a lot of guys on this team coming back next year and they’re really going to be able to make a pretty big splash in the world. I just want to make sure that they continue to push themselves.”

As Davis sat slumped over in his locker, peeling sweat stained tape off of his fingers and wrists he was faced with reality. He came back to Florida to do many things, one of them had just eluded him. He allowed himself to slip into nostalgia. it wasn’t the first time. Every inch of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium holds a different memory. Even the Georgia Dome holds memories from 2015 and from when he played there as a freshman in high school for the state championship game. They all came flooding back in the moment when he was asked if had put any thought into the fact that he had just one final game left in the jersey he had just taken off.

“I get these little flashbacks and just think of the times we had out there,” Davis said, looking around the locker room at his teammates. “It makes me realize I only have a month left or so much time left here as a Gator. I can say that I left this university with no regrets. I gave everything I had. Everything.”

The University of Florida, not just the football team, is better off for having Jarrad Davis on campus the last four years. He returned for his senior season and while a SEC Championship may have eluded him he is on track to graduate with a degree from the University of Florida. He’s cemented his legacy as a football player at the University of Florida and, most importantly, he left the program better off than when he arrived.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC