re: Spring Practice Thread

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So meta, you are seeing “insiders” and fans hyping up Davis? Where may I ask without sounding rustled?

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I'm not seeing anything concrete or anything past just outright "wishful thinking" because as you just said: the kid hasn't even been here long enough nor have we had enough practice time for anyone to actually determine that outcome. Now if we're deep into summer/fall and we see Davis on the field in scrimmages with the 1's and outperforming Nix, THAT would be your "cue" that this is a real possibility, but not after a handful of practices in spring when they're literally still working on outright installing the offense. I'd argue the fact that they've signalled out Nix already for his work in S&C to even further imply that it's obviously his job to lose (which it is).

The people talking about this are more or less operating under this framework: Bo Nix has not been good (I agree with this) and needs a lot of work (I agree with this), and Davis has had a lot of success in HS so they "expect" this to translate to college. The reality however is that:

1) No college coach wants to start a true Freshman in the SEC, the experience/leg-up that Nix has IS a big deal and will be hard to overcome.

2) HS to the SEC is a massive jump - again, Bo would have to be really bad and/or Davis be really really good (like extremely advanced) to make this a real possibility.

3) I don't even see Davis as being a "natural fit" for the type of offense they foresee (note: this doesn't imply he can't do it). A true Freshman supplanting an established starter would be possible if the new staff's offense completely played to the strengths of the incoming freshman while being the opposite of what the established starter excels at, and this really isn't the case here. This offense is going to be more complex in its terminology and sets. Harsin's offense does go under center and utilizes multiple TE sets. This is NOT a "spread offense". So I'm really not sure why anyone thinks a 5'10 "scrambler" has some sort of leg-up on an established SEC starter, even if that starter has struggled. Its a massive stretch, and its also a massive stretch to expect Davis to pick this offense up that quickly such that he would actually bench Nix. Like I said, Nix will have to suck a lot to lose his job. That isn't an impossibility, but I also don't even see how anyone would conclude that Davis would just be the next man up. I don't foresee Harsin changing his offense.