Derrick Davis Sr. opens up about son's recruitment & much more
There aren’t too many Pennsylvania prospects in this year's class that have been involved in the recruiting scene as long as Gateway prospect Derrick Davis Jr.
A 6-foot, 190-pound safety, Davis earned his first scholarship offer from Pitt before his freshman season was even over. Within a matter of months, the other top regional schools, Penn State, Ohio State and West Virginia, had all followed. By the time camp season rolled around in June 2018 - which is when most rising-sophomores with his talent really begin to blossom - Davis already held a dozen scholarship offers. Fast-forward to now and the count is over 30.
But if there’s one thing about Davis’ recruitment that’s stood out the most, it’s his patience throughout the process and his understanding that there’s no going back after he decides. Unlike so many other prospects that commit, only to open it back up again, Davis was never going to go that route. When you add in the COVID-19 pandemic and all the changes that have come with that, it’s only given him and his family more reason to be patient.
“There’s no rush at all with us,” his father, Derrick Davis Sr., said. “Honestly, what we believe we’re going to start seeing is players backing out and decommitting, switching it up. We never wanted to be in that position, so even with this pandemic, it never really impacted us. The only thing the pandemic did for us was push back his decision even more.”
Davis may not be in a rush, but he has already narrowed his list down to a handful of schools: Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Penn State, Pitt and USC. Out of those schools, Ohio State, Penn State and Pitt have all hosted him multiple times. He also visited Clemson in June 2019. With that said, none of those schools have hosted Davis as much as Penn State. By our count, he's taken nine visits since Oct. 2017.
“We’ve done it all there. We’ve been there more than anywhere. It’s like a second home,” Davis said, referring to Penn State. “We’re actually planning to do another drive by up there soon…But we’ve already done the meetings with academic advisors, strength staff, everything. That’s why we haven’t had to do all the Zoom calls with them like some other schools. We’ve been going up there for basically the past five years. I think this is the first year that we haven’t gone to Penn State’s spring game in the past four years. He was going to the junior day weekends his freshman and sophomore years, so we’ve been fortunate enough to do all of that with Penn State in person.”
Over that time, Penn State has seen plenty of turnover in its coaching staff, but that hasn’t been the case in the secondary. His familiarity with both Terry Smith and Tim Banks should help the Lions down the stretch.
“We’re close with those guys there. They’re good guys," Davis said. "Coach Terry, Coach Banks, Coach [James] Franklin. We’ve gotten to know V’Angelo [Bentley], too. He’s a Glenville guy. We’ve enjoyed talking with him and all of them. They put in the time with us. I think that’s what stands out about them. They’ve been interested in Derrick since he was just coming into high school. It’s all love with them and they know that there’s no rush. They’re OK with that, too, because at the end of the day, they know that they’re one of the players. They’ve done their due diligence. They’ve done their part.”
For the time being, however, recruiting really isn’t the top priority for Davis, who currently ranks No. 81 in the country and second overall at safety. Rather, it’s his upcoming season at Gateway, which is expected to be given a thumbs up from the PIAA and Governor Tom Wolfe tomorrow.
“Right now, he’s focused more on his season than anything. It’s still a go and that’s very important to him,” Davis said. “His first game is set for September 10th. That was supposed to be a regular season game originally, but then it got changed to a scrimmage. I believe they lost their first couple non-league games. I know they lost the Penn Hills game and then the Thomas Jefferson game was changed to a scrimmage. But the WPIAL is still planning to have a championship and all of that, so as of right now, that’s got most of his focus.”
His senior season may be at the top of the list, but when you’re this deep into a nearly four-year long recruiting process, you can never just step away from it entirely. By now, Davis had hoped to have used all five of his official visits. He’s still hoping he’ll be able to use them at some point, but in the meantime, he and his family are looking into taking some personal trips to at least see a few of the campuses he hasn’t already.
“We’re planning to drive down to Baton Rouge in hopefully the next four weeks or so. We may do Athens, too. I’m not sure about that yet, but we do plan on doing Baton Rouge,” Davis said. “We already know we can’t meet with any coaches or anything like that. We just want to go down for a weekend, tour the campus, hit a couple restaurants and then come back. Just being able to see the place helps a lot. It’s hard to make a decision without being able to say I looked here. One thing I will say is that Penn State knows we’re making this trip. We’ve already told them that we’re planning to make this trip, so they know about it already.”
Davis will be an early enrollee at whichever school he ultimately picks. In fact, he was even looking into enrolling at the school of his choice during the fall semester - similar to what cornerback Tony Grimes did at North Carolina - if Pennsylvania elected to not play football this fall. He’s since decided against doing that, but does still hope to play in the Under Armour All-America Game if the game isn’t cancelled. It’s currently scheduled for Jan. 2, 2020.
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