The Athletic Story on Jamin Davis (Subscription required)

[YaketySax]

Kentucky's Jamin Davis is a legitimate 'whoa, where did this guy come from?!' NFL Draft prospect

Davis has skyrocketed up NFL Draft boards in just a few weeks. Why?

theathletic.com

Excerpt:

But before that buzz, in late February NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah was going through the list of underclassmen who had declared for the draft, checking into a bunch of “randoms” he didn’t know much about. The former NFL scout popped on the tape of Davis, watched four or five plays, and thought, “Holy crap — this is a real dude.”

He immediately called his editor to make a late addition to his Top 50 players story he’d just filed to insert the Kentucky kid up at No. 35.

“I thought, I’ll be conservative because I didn’t know anything about him,” Jeremiah said.

All of this is even more remarkable considering that when Davis heard back from the NFL advisory committee about whether he should enter this year’s NFL Draft, he got back a “fourth or fifth round” draft grade, he says.

He decided he was going to jump into the draft anyway.

“Honestly, it came down to the simple fact of me taking a bet on myself,” Davis told The Athletic this week.

 

[YaketySax]

Other excerpts from the Bruce Feldman story that will go on all the recruiting flyers:

Davis is just the latest in a long line of gifted front seven players who developed into stars at Kentucky, including Allen, Danny Trevathan, Wesley Woodyard, Za’Darius Smith, Bud Dupree and Avery Williamson. Only Smith had come to Lexington as a highly-touted recruit. Knowing those examples and having witnessed it in Allen, Davis said inspired him and gave him the added confidence that if he just kept working hard, that whenever he got his opportunity, he would flourish.

...

“Jamin was a lot like a lot of our other guys, where we had to find ‘em,” said Stoops. “He’s from southeastern Georgia and it was little out of the way. We just liked his frame; he had the length and thought he had a lot of athleticism, and was like a lot of the guys that I have to get. Some schools that we compete against, get guys that look like (Davis does now) right out of high school. We got to get guys that have the frame and have the confidence that they could put on the weight and the strength. Our strength conditioning team here does a great job. He’s worked extremely hard to get to where he’s at.”

 

[Kampus Korner]

Great story here. The Athletic has become what Sports Illustrated used to be. Best sports writers on the planet This piece is very flattering to the UK coaches and rightfully so.

 

[SosaUK87]

Great story here. The Athletic has become what Sports Illustrated used to be. Best sports writers on the planet This piece is very flattering to the UK coaches and rightfully so.

Sucks you have to pay for it. Not even sure how much it is. Just a hassle I guess but I guess you get what you pay for.

I’ve liked a lot of the articles I’ve seen from them though.

 

[CB3UK]

I actually quit subscribing to them because the UK football coverage was practically nonexistant. Hope that changed

 

[YaketySax]

Great story here. The Athletic has become what Sports Illustrated used to be. Best sports writers on the planet This piece is very flattering to the UK coaches and rightfully so.

i agree. it depends on what one prioritizes, but for me (cfb, mma, nba, and cbb) its the golden ticket.