HOOVER, Ala. -- He drove by Bank of America Stadium almost every day back in high school. Back home in Charlotte the past couple of weekends, Jordan Davis found himself driving by it again.
He made a point to, in fact.
“I’m like, ‘wow, in a month I’ll be playing in there,’” Georgia’s senior nose guard shared during an appearance at SEC Football Media Days this week. “I used to drive by that stadium as a kid, and I was like, ‘One day I want to play in that stadium.’ So, that’s part one of that dream, and I’m really excited about having my team with me when I go there. I know they’re definitely excited, I’m definitely excited. I’m getting riled up right now talking about it.”
There’s much about which to be excited. The Bulldogs will take on Clemson in the Duke’s Mayo Classic kickoff game Sept. 4 in said stadium. It’s expected to be a top-5 matchup. ESPN’s “College GameDay” has announced plans to be there. Neither school nor the game’s organizers have a ticket remaining.
“The interest in this game is off the charts,” Charlotte Sports Foundation executive director Danny Morrison said. “The secondary ticket market will tell you just how much interest there is in it.”
Lower-level seats inside the 75,000-seat stadium were getting $1,000 and more on Ticketmaster as of Tuesday.
Davis felt that buzz when he was back home. He attended Charlotte’s Mallard Creek High and lived about 10 minutes from Bank of America Stadium, home of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. His mother moved recently, and now they live about 15 minutes away.
Davis always figured he’d had to achieve his dream of making an NFL team to be able to play on his hometown’s home field. He’ll likely get that opportunity in the not-too-distant future. The 6-foot-6, 340-pound defensive lineman projects as a surefire selection in the 2022 NFL draft.
Davis almost certainly would’ve been drafted had he entered the draft as a junior as many expected this past spring. But Davis chose instead to return for his senior season at Georgia. He insists that the opening date with Clemson didn’t factor into that decision.
But now that he’s back with Bulldogs, it certainly has served as motivation for preseason preparation.
“It was moreso about the team,” Davis said of deciding to return to UGA. “But playing (at Bank of America Stadium) is definitely exciting, especially being a Charlotte native. I just want to be able to show the city what I can do. I want to be somebody they can brag about in the city. ‘This kid’s from Charlotte. He went to Georgia. He can do it.’ So, I want to be an inspiration for the kids not only at my high school, but the high schools around the Charlotte area.”
Davis has given Charlotte plenty to be proud of already. He left the city as a consensus 3-star prospect but returns not only as a preseason All-SEC, but also on many All-American lists.
That he decided to give UGA another year did wonders for its prospects on defense. The Bulldogs lost a boatload of talent from their secondary. While they did an exceptional job of accessing the transfer portal for replacements, the presence of Davis and several other upperclassman teammates on the defensive will do even more to see that group is not overwhelmed.
Those down linemen, led by Davis, Devonte Wyatt, Julian Rochester and Travon Walker, are a tight-knit group. That they all chose to come back for another year is not a coincidence.
“It’s a different type of love with this team; I couldn’t leave them,” Davis said with a grin. “I wanted to maximize my value and do everything I can (to prepare for NFL). But I felt like I left a lot on the table at Georgia, and I feel like a lot of my teammates left a lot on the table. That’s the reason Devonte and I came back. We are like peanut butter and jelly.”
They’re all exceptional in their own ways, but there truly is nobody else like Davis. He’s thought to be a nose guard from a bygone era because of his unmatched size. But Kirby Scott and line coach Tray Scott emphasized early on to Davis that quickness and mobility were going to be paramount to his development if he hoped to play with any regularity.
That meant keeping his weight down. While he has weighed as much as 370 and as little as 320, with the Bulldogs, he enters his senior season at a reproportioned 340. After arriving at UGA with some questionable eating habits, Davis finally has learned to love his vegetables as a 22-year-old. He’s figured out they taste great in smoothies.
“We encourage him to be closer to 330,” Smart said in Hoover. “But he has been a big part of our defense. One of the No. 1 reasons we’ve been able to stop the run and be one of the top defenses in the country at stopping the run is because of Jordan Davis. But he’s a lot better person than he is a player. Y’all please be sure to interview him.”
Indeed, Davis left SEC Media Days as one of the week’s more popular guests. Reporters and broadcasters marveled at his size. Jordan Rodgers asked to switch sport coats on the SEC Network set, and it made for hilarity as Davis could barely get one sleeve past his elbow while Rodgers’ entire body disappeared into Davis’ black blazer.
Earlier in the day, he shared with reporters a parable about trying to be a more versatile player. He said that anybody can cook a fish in a 6-inch frying pan, but one needs a much bigger pan “so you can cook that big fish.”
For Davis and Georgia, that big fish is a national championship. The pursuit of that begins against a Clemson team that has played in six College Football Playoffs and is projected for this one, too.
Davis feels like it’s providential that this journey is starting in his hometown.
“Coming from Charlotte, I only saw the ceiling as this high,” Davis said, holding his hand three feet from the floor. “I didn’t expect myself to get this far. But when I got here, they were, like, ‘You can really go far if you put the work in and really achieve what you want to achieve.’ So, even now I still have something to prove. Just having that hunger and that drive, it keeps me pushing.”
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