| FTBL Ben Davis's Confidence About Starting This Year

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Two freshmen started over him last year, and Moses is returning. Uhm...Well, I'd love to see him in the regular rotation.


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He has encountered a lot of obstacles in his football career, but there have been supporters of the University of Alabama that have not given up on him.

Ben Davis arrived in the Crimson Tide’s 2016 signing class with much promise and under high expectations as a five-star linebacker prospect from Gordo (Ala.) High School. His father, Wayne Davis, was the program’s all-time leader for total tackles (327), and fans believed the young Davis would immediately pick up where his dad left off.

The tackling machine redshirted his freshman season and played in just three games combined in the next two years. After seeing him dominate in high school, people wondered what was happening to him at Alabama.

Regardless of what the issue might have been, Davis got action on special teams but saw little time at linebacker. As more recruiting classes piled on top of him, the concern was on if he would ever get a full chance to showcase his talents. Since his arrival, Davis witnessed seven defensive players in the 2016 and 2017 classes get drafted – including linebackers Lyndell “Mack” Wilson and Terrell Lewis. The 6-foot-4, 243-pounder started to see some of his work pay off last year, as he played in 11 games.

Alabama moved to outside linebacker and the tough coaching from Sal Sunseri produced Davis’s first career sack against Mississippi State.

According to Jared Mayden, former Tide safety, he said it was one of those moments where you could hear the pads pop. When he found out it was Davis who sacked the quarterback, the native Texan was more than proud.

With all the athletes ahead of him gone, Davis finally sees a clean slate and a chance for him to start at outside linebacker.

Per respectable sources, the redshirt senior has been telling those close to him that he believes he will start this season. Davis enters his fifth year in the program this fall and he has the most experience in the room. Despite the playmaking abilities that King Mwikuta, Kevin Harris II, Jarez Parks, Christopher Allen, William Anderson, Drew Sanders, Chris Braswell and Quandarrius Robinson may have, Davis views this as his crowning moment.

Throughout the craziness, there are still those who want to see him succeed.

While a few have written him off as a five-star bust, others look at the situation as him needing more time to find himself as a player and a person. It appears as though he has placed things in order to be an impact performer on defense and this year will be exciting to see in fruition.

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Sometimes it just takes game time to get a guy going. I was good in practice in high school and would hit anyone, but it took game time reps for me to actually calm down and focus on technique and being in the right place. That costed me a lot of playing time because coaches weren't sure if I was ready, but once they put me in and saw my upward trajectory after a few games they wish they had started that with me sooner. I'm still pulling for the guy and hoping he can gain some satisfaction this season for all of those other years he was falling behind.
 
Awesome that he's working with some confidence! Sometimes that can go a long way.

On the other hand, not a very big fan of the article itself. Just the idea of it... And the title... Like, who are the "respectable sources" blabbing about a little private convo with this kid. It just seems kind of janky. Not to mention, what's he supposed to say? Of course he thinks he's going to start! :cool:


RTR
 
He kinda reminds me of Jerrell Harris in that both were high talent guys but could never translate that to a structured defense . To be where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there .

Fingers crossed though .

Harris had really good speed, I think he improved enough to get some time in the NFL, correct? That would be a huge improvement for Davis.
 
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Awesome that he's working with some confidence! Sometimes that can go a long way.

On the other hand, not a very big fan of the article itself. Just the idea of it... And the title... Like, who are the "respectable sources" blabbing about a little private convo with this kid. It just seems kind of janky. Not to mention, what's he supposed to say? Of course he thinks he's going to start! :cool:


RTR

That site has the worst written articles I've ever seen.
 
He kinda reminds me of Jerrell Harris in that both were high talent guys but could never translate that to a structured defense . To be where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there .

Fingers crossed though .
Keep in mind that Jerrell's position is the least "starting role" there is in Saban's defense. While the team did play a lot of regular in '11, he still didn't see half the snaps of some of the others on defense. (It was less than 300 snaps on the season.)

Uhm...Well, I'd love to see him in the regular rotation.

There's the thing; regular. His position, in regular, doesn't see the field that often UNLESS the team in in Rabbit. With the depth available for the line this fall I don't believe we'll see as many two OLB sets as we did last season.
 
You guys remember when Bama signed Tyler Love, 5* offensive lineman? A lot have called him a bust even within our own fan base all the while knowing his entire career was plagued by injury after injury. If you recall, his frosh year ended up being a hardship year to a stress fracture. From '09-'11 he played sparingly due to damage to his back (L4.)

I bring that up to say this. While Ben has never been a weight room warrior his first few years there's word that he's started to turn the corner, so to speak. He's been a good kid and a good team mate.

But, just like Tyler, Ben hasn't been healthy his entire time in Tuscaloosa.

*BTW, you guys recall his game against MSU last season? I think it was the Bulldogs...a sack by Ben and it was one of the better ones all season.
 
You guys remember when Bama signed Tyler Love, 5* offensive lineman? A lot have called him a bust even within our own fan base all the while knowing his entire career was plagued by injury after injury. If you recall, his frosh year ended up being a hardship year to a stress fracture. From '09-'11 he played sparingly due to damage to his back (L4.)

I bring that up to say this. While Ben has never been a weight room warrior his first few years there's word that he's started to turn the corner, so to speak. He's been a good kid and a good team mate.

But, just like Tyler, Ben hasn't been healthy his entire time in Tuscaloosa.

*BTW, you guys recall his game against MSU last season? I think it was the Bulldogs...a sack by Ben and it was one of the better ones all season.

MSU game was a blur for some reason. I was spending the day with my wife shopping in Cullman - downtown revitalization has really taken hold - and I was enjoying lunch at 412 Public House.
 
You guys remember when Bama signed Tyler Love, 5* offensive lineman? A lot have called him a bust even within our own fan base all the while knowing his entire career was plagued by injury after injury. If you recall, his frosh year ended up being a hardship year to a stress fracture. From '09-'11 he played sparingly due to damage to his back (L4.)

I bring that up to say this. While Ben has never been a weight room warrior his first few years there's word that he's started to turn the corner, so to speak. He's been a good kid and a good team mate.

But, just like Tyler, Ben hasn't been healthy his entire time in Tuscaloosa.

*BTW, you guys recall his game against MSU last season? I think it was the Bulldogs...a sack by Ben and it was one of the better ones all season.

The margin for error at a place like Alabama can be so slim. It's easy to think a 5 star "elite" talent is a shoe in to play... But the way Alabama has built itself, we are looking at 3-5 4 or 5 star guys competing at every position. And believe me, those low 4 star dudes aren't exactly slouches either. These are hungry cats with all the physical tools to be All-Americans! You can go ahead and have good practices... But you may run into some cat that has great ones. And that's the beauty of College Football, especially at UA... Once you get on the field, those stars don't mean much. Find a way or someone else will! RTR
 
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