North Carolina State University Athletics
Making The Switch
8/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
By Tim Peeler
Reggie Davis has always been willing to help, even if it means making sacrifices that aren’t in the best interest of his football career.
But in the case of the decision to move Davis to linebacker from running back, which he did in the waning days of spring practice at the suggestion of Wolfpack head coach Chuck Amato and defensive coordinator Steve Dunlap, he believes that even with only one year of eligibility remaining the move could help him realize his dream of playing in the National Football League.
And it should help the Wolfpack defense, which is thin at linebacker, as well.
“It’s a team sport, and I just see this as another way to help my team,” said the senior from Tallahassee, Fla. “Sometimes, a person has to be unselfish to help himself and the team out, instead of just saying, I don’t want to do it.’ We are trying to win. Our goal is to be ACC champions and hopefully get to the national championship.”
But Davis is also trying to get to “The League,” which was likely not an option if he spent his final season of college football playing behind sophomores Andre Brown and Toney Baker and redshirt freshman Jamelle Eugene.
That’s where Davis, the Wolfpack’s second-leading rusher in 2004 with 227 yards on 46 carries, found himself on the depth chart midway through spring practice.
Dunlap, whose linebacking corps lost a pair of starters in departed senior Oliver Hoyte and NFL Draft early entry Stephen Tulloch, coveted Davis for his size (6-0, 246) and his speed (4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash).
“He is one of the most athletic players on the team,” Dunlap said. “You can’t get enough of these kinds of guys. Plus, he is football smart. He understands the game, and there is a big difference between football-smart and book-smart. He really has a head for the game. He’s just too good a football player not to get on the field.”
Davis wasn’t exactly thrilled to move to another spot, but he grew to like the idea as he got more comfortable.
“It’s not something anybody really wants to do, but sometimes somebody has to in order to help the team,” Davis said. “I wasn’t happy about it at first, but now I am, because now I will get the chance to help my team where they really need me.
“And that is the overall goal get on the field. We are a little thin in numbers at linebacker, and I think by moving there I can help my team win.”
So with a week remaining in spring practice, he was moved to weakside linebacker. In his first scrimmage, he recorded more tackles than any linebacker had in any scrimmage in the spring. In the annual Red and White Game, Davis and safety J.C. Neal tied with a team-high seven tackles.
“That first scrimmage, he led the team in tackles and he had only been at linebacker for about three hours,” said senior cornerback A.J. Davis, who shares an apartment with Reggie Davis (no relation). “He is a natural at linebacker. He is probably a better linebacker than he is a running back.
“The thing that will help him the most is that he has played offense, which most linebackers have never done. He understands about blocking assignments, and coverages, and what a running back is thinking when he has to scrape off and pick up a blocker.”
But what Davis doesn’t have is a lot of experience playing defense. He played rover for a while at Tallahassee’s Godby High School as an underclassman. But most of his prep career was spent as an all-state tailback. He gained 1,597 yards and rushed for 15 touchdowns as a senior.
He’s been working hard in the summer to complete his transformation from back to backer, studying films, participating in skeleton drills and absorbing as much knowledge as he can get from those who know the position better than he does.
Overall, though, he’s not too concerned about playing the new position.
“To me, it’s just football,” Davis said. “I have played defense since I was in little league, and I know what you have to do is go out there and play.”
Davis enters preseason fall camp listed as the starter at weakside linebacker, ahead of redshirt freshman Ray Michel.
“We only had three days of work with him in the spring, and he showed us something,” Amato said. “He’s a very smart individual. I have been kidding him for years about going to another position and getting an opportunity to get on the field. He is big and he is fast and he is tough. He likes physical contact.”
Davis will be part of a totally revamped linebacker corps that is looking to replace Hoyte and Tulloch, both of whom were in NFL training camps in late July.
At the strongside position, juniors LeRue Rumph and James Martin are battling for the starting position. Rumph started the first nine games there before getting hurt at the end of last season, finishing seventh on the team with 61 tackles and first in the ACC with three fumble recoveries.
At middle linebacker, senior Pat Lowery returns after starting there twice last year. Martin could also see time in the middle, as could redshirt freshman Avery Vogt.
That leaves Davis to fend off Michel for the starting job on the weakside. According to Dunlap, there is still plenty of work for Davis to do.
“We put him in there and played just one defense for the most part in the spring,” the coordinator said. “Then we put a few more things in for the spring game. But what we still don’t know is how much of the entire package can he learn? He’s been working on his own and he has been studying the position.
“But we really won’t know until we get started in camp, to see what he can do. It’s an on-going, one-day-at-a-time process. I think he has a bright future.”
And, even if Davis doesn’t fulfill his dreams of playing football after college, the switch could also be beneficial in Davis’ post-football career. The criminology major, who served an internship this summer with North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation central office in Raleigh, hopes one day to become a police officer.
So knowing how to chase down and tackle someone from behind could come in handy in the future.
Tim Peeler is a features writer for www.GoPack.com and a frequent contributor to The Wolfpacker. You may contact him at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
"Reprinted with permission from "The Wolfpacker" and Coman Publishing Company."
