D.J. Davidson bouncing back from injury-shortened 2018 with confidence

There’s nothing in college football that will test a player’s mettle like a season-ending injury. Unfortunately, just part of the nature of the sport, such circumstances can sometimes derail a player’s career.

But more often than not, it gives a player the chance to step back and learn a lot about himself through the long, adverse road to recovery, and come back a better player for it. Such was the case with sophomore defensive lineman D.J. Davidson.

“It was a little disappointing just because I found myself getting better every day, and then I started making progress and it kind of just got cut off,” Davidson said. “But I knew I’d be back, I knew I could get back where I was, and when I did come back I was actually in better shape than I was before.”

Davidson really started to flash his potential as the 2018 season progressed, rotating in as a redshirt freshman behind then-senior nose tackle Renell Wren.

He had a pass defended against Oregon State, a half tackle-for-loss against Colorado and then a solo one against Stanford. That’s not to mention the things which can’t be counted in the box score, as he proved disruptive on numerous run plays.

However, a nice three-game stretch was all that was meant to be, as he suffered a season-ending ankle injury the following matchup against USC. Davidson finished the season with 3.5 sacks, 2 TFL’s and a pass defended through limited action over eight games.

The 6’4’’, 305-lb. lineman had earned future playing time, but it would have to come on the other side of a long and treacherous rehabilitation. Davidson credits faith, family and his football support system for helping him get through the recovery.

“Just praying to god and asking him to watch over me,” Davidson said about what helped him the most, “and my wife just taking care of me, from eating-wise and just making sure that I don’t get overweight and make sure I stay active and positive around the church, and around positive people like my grandma taking me to the doctor’s appointments.”

“Plus the coaches; (head coach of sports performance) coach (Joe) Connolly, (trainer) Gerry (Garcia), the d-line coach, all them, so kind of everybody that got me through it.”

He admits there’s a certain element of caution he took upon returning to the field but reiterates that he’s come out of the recovery with high self-confidence.

“Yeah it was a little process, just make sure when I plant my foot to just get my feet back underneath myself so I’m not worried about rolling it, or stepping on someone’s foot and then thinking I’m going to get it hurt again or stuff like that, so that took maybe like a week or so (into camp),” Davidson said.

“(The injury) makes me appreciate the doctors fixing me up, and now I’m able to go out there and perform, and I just feel confident about myself.”

The Desert Ridge high school alum has plenty of reasons to feel confident, especially going into this season with valuable playing experience under his belt.

“When it comes to playing-wise in a game, I never played college football until last year, so I was trying to figure out the speed of the game,” Davidson commented. “I know it’s faster than high school, but I didn’t play my whole redshirt year, and then coming into my redshirt freshman year, I was coming in like ‘ok, I need to get used to this, this and this.’

“(Playing) was really valuable because now I know the speed of the game, I know how strong people are, I know what I have to do to keep my leverage, my feet, and things I have to do just so I don’t get injured, so I think it was very valuable.”

Arguably just as valuable was getting to play behind Wren, a fourth-round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals in this year’s NFL draft. Of course, Davidson also got to see him throughout the 2017 season as well, Wren’s junior season while he redshirted.

“Just get off the ball really, and just make sure that I never keep my head down,” Davidson said about what he learned from Wren, “just keep my head up and just keep pushing forward, because everything’s in the past, you want to focus on that next play that’s coming up.

“Also, how to be a leader to the other guys, not necessarily vocally but just by example, just by pushing through, running to the ball or fighting through that next play.”

Several of those other guys are returning players, even though the defensive line is one of the younger units on the team. This includes the likes of sophomore Shannon Forman, senior George Lea, sophomore Jermayne Lole, and redshirt freshman Michael Matus.

Davidson explained the value of having numerous returning players- most of which will likely see the field with him- in having a successful season.

“Just the people that stayed here, the chemistry outside of football, just the bond in the locker room, going over to each other’s houses, just communicating and getting along better, understanding the defense more. When we’re on the field it’s a lot smoother because we know the calls already, we have a better understanding of the defense, so it makes it a lot easier to play,” Davidson said.

These are all legitimate reasons for him to be confident going into his comeback and potential breakout season. But perhaps none of those reasons compare to having hometown support. After all, he cited his family and mentors when asked what led him to ASU in the first place.

“It’s meant a lot because I can go call my parents, or just go to their house,” Davidson commented. “I can go to my grandma’s house, even people on campus or people around the building here that are all just from here, so I can go and talk about things other than football. I can talk about school, I can talk about how I’m doing personally, and it’s awesome just the support in those aspects.

“Then people I meet on the team spiritually, people from here that introduced me to their families, like (freshman linebacker) Case (Hatch), he went on a (religious) mission (trip) and now he’s back home- meeting people like that is just an inspiration to just do better.”

As great as the support’s been off the field, Davidson emphasized the importance of having coaches that are holding him to a high standard on the field. In defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales’s second season, he says expectations are high for all returning players.

“The expectation of our footwork, our hands, our assignments and alignment, I think (Gonzales) just expects a lot from us,” Davidson said. “He’s already established himself, and he expects us to be established- people that were here last year- so I think that’s what I kind of see.”

That’s in addition to having a defensive line coach in Jamar Cain who has kept players on their toes, with a combination of preaching non-complacency and by emphasizing how much he likes to rotate players. Davidson himself agrees that having a good rotation will lead to success for the defensive line.

“If he sees something wrong with us he’s going to take us out and correct us and make sure when we go back in we get it right,” Davidson said. “Sometimes he just takes us out to get a rotation in because he loves to rotate people, that’s what he told us in the (film) room.

“It keeps everybody fresh because if you get tired or whatever, and you get a new pair of legs out there, there’s no drop-off between linemen, so it’s like if you’re out there, starter regardless, it helps out a lot.”

Cain has also keyed their focus to specifics during drills in practice, as seen in the example video below. Davidson explained what the goal of this drill was, and how it’s helped him and his teammates get ready for game action.

“He’s working on cut-blocks when we’re doing that, when we go through the bags and we get down low and hit the ball to make sure we don’t get cut by the o-linemen and then jump in the air to bat the ball down,” Davidson explained. “Just little things like that, like (pass break-ups), those are really big in football because you never know, it could be a third-and-long and you bat the ball down, now it’s fourth-and-long, so those little things in the game, just keeping your hands up, jumping for the ball, making sure you don’t get cut-blocked so you can get around the block to go make the tackle, little things like those just improve us.”

If Davidson can implement these little things into his game consistently, he could very well start popping up on NFL draft radars- for future years if not this one.

He understands that he’s no longer playing for himself anymore, not only with hometown support but a wife to support himself, he’s hoping football can provide for him and his future family for a long time.

“My wife just comes before anyone,” Davidson said, “even before football, or myself, before really just anything in this world. Just like as a man, I can’t be selfish, I can’t just think of myself in situations. This could be like a way out for me to help support my wife and my future family, that’s kind of how I look at it.”

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