WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — Coming into the 2019 PlayStation Fiesta Bowl, the University of Central Florida Knights were riding a 25-game winning streak, the NCAA’s fourth longest of the millennium. The Knights were facing LSU, but there was no sense of a mismatch here. The Knights expected to pull off the win against one of college football’s most storied programs, and if a few things had gone their way in the 40-32 loss, it just might have happened.
Nobody felt this more than receiver Gabriel Davis, who caught three passes for 59 yards and a touchdown, but could have been on the receiving end of two more scores were it not for pass interference and a dropped pass. In the 2019 season, Davis increased his catches from 53 to 72, his receiving yards from 815 to 1.241, and his touchdowns from seven to 12. Now, preparing for the draft at Travelle Gaines’ Athletic Gaines facility, Davis took a few minutes to look back at that game, and what it said about him as a player.
Doug Farrar: So, I’m watching your tape, and two guys come to mind — D.K. Metcalf, and Anquan Boldin. Who were the receivers who had the biggest impact on you?
Gabriel Davis: The biggest influence for me has been Larry Fitzgerald. I love Larry. He’s a baller. Known for the on-field and off field things that he does. Watching him, I feel like he’s a perfectionist, and he really knows the mental side of the game. Big, physical, not the fastest guy, but he knows how to find separation.
DF: I want to start with this block, because you have a clear alpha personality when it’s time to block and get physical in any sense. When you’re engaged, you don’t quit. Where does that come from?
GD: Here, I’m turning my eyes, and I’m looking for the ball, but I’m really looking at [running back] Greg [McCrae] to see what he’s doing. When I saw him coming my way, I’m like, yeah, I’m making this block.
DF: Your job is to look back for the ball, and to switch to blocking when you need to. What’s that transition in your head?
GD: My grandpa always taught me, and in college, Coach [Troy] Walters and Coach [Darrell] Wyatt, they always taught me — no block, no rock. But my grandpa, when I was nine years old, told me to be more than a receiver — be a blocking receiver, as well. You need to. I took that to heart, and I took that with me the whole time. I’ve learned how to block since I was young, and I’ve had great mentor figures who’ve taught me. Learning to put your hands inside the shoulder pads and things like that, get a secure block, and I’ve used that my whole time playing football.
DF: And as a receiver, you’re fast, fast, fast downfield, but then, you flip a switch and you become a different guy.
GD: We were a brotherhood. I wanted to see everybody succeed as much as I did. And I knew that being a great player isn’t just about making plays with the ball in your hands. That’s the biggest thing I try to do.
DF: Now on this play, Mr. Davis, it appears that the defender is getting a bit handsy with you here. Tell us about it.
GD: Coming into this game, I knew that… this is LSU. At the end of the day, I knew that they were going to play one-high [safety], man [coverage]. That’s what they did the whole game. I knew it was going to be physical, and just because they’re in the SEC and we’re not, doesn’t mean that I can’t be a great physical receiver against them. They were really handsy this whole game, and I could tell that… sometimes, you’ve got to do that so bigger plays don’t happen. It’s all good.
DF: So, you run your route, and you’ve got him beat.
GD: Mm-hmm.
DF: He’s just trying to save a touchdown at this point? Because then, you’re up, 21-10.
GD: Yeah, he’s just trying to play the DB position, and that’s one of the hardest positions to play. And not knowing where the ball’s at is really difficult.
DF: You had scouted them, and you knew what coverage they were going to play all the way through. That was no surprise?
GD: Oh, yeah. Even if they didn’t play it against other teams, I knew they were going to do it against us. We’re UCF, you know? We’re not a Power 5 school.
DF: They thought they could simplify things against you?
GD: Yeah, exactly.
DF: Is this a double slant here?
GD: What this was, we were running a bunch of option routes — here, it’s a deep slant with a post kind of look, and I’m the outside receiver. Because we found the opening again. They’re blitzing, but they’ve got the MIKE linebacker sitting back, and it’s wide open. It’s man across the board.
DF: Pre-snap, you see this, and what happens? Is the quarterback telling you anything?
GD: He’s not telling me anything. What’s telling me is the defense. I know it’s one-high. I see this guy coming in to blitz, and I see the post. The middle of the field is wide open, I take the inside release, and I know I can take that post option, for sure.
DF: Did you run a lot of option routes?
GD: Yeah, our game was based on a lot of option stuff.
DF: Here’s the deep touchdown, and walk me through this. The DB is coming over to you late. Do you know, at first step, that you’ve got this?
GD: Here’s what I knew. It’s the second quarter, we’ve got 11 seconds left, it’s third-and-14. He calls fade, throw Gabe the ball. That’s what the play was.
DF: That’s the play call? Throw Gabe the ball?
GD: Yeah. And I knew, if I wanted to be the guy people could look for in these big-game situations, I knew I needed to make that play. And I was able to do that here. But the best part about this, if you roll the play back to the beginning, look at [running back] Otis [Anderson] taking out the rusher. And that’s the biggest thing when it comes to football. D.J. had an extra split second to make that throw to me. If it wasn’t for Otis, that play would never have happened. That guy rushing off the end, he picks him up and pops him down, and D.J. is able to make a nice play. Tight throw in the back of the end zone, but that’s the nicest part of this play.
DF: What coverage are they in on this play?
GD: I couldn’t really tell.
DF: You’ve got to be fast enough to beat your defender here, but you also have to have the awareness and control to pull up and make the catch in bounds. You’re coming up on the end of the real estate there.
GD: Exactly. You have to learn how to slow down, and to know where your body’s at.
DF: So, here’s the drop, and I appreciate you being open to discussing it. You had talked about the drop when we discussed your general mindset earlier, and how the bad plays stick with you much longer than the good ones. What are you feeling in this moment?
GD: On this drop, I knew I had the guy beat. He dives at my feet, and the thing I practice the most is looking at the ball, no matter what. But I looked down for a split second, looked back up, and the ball’s in a completely different area. It’s one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had in football, because we’re playing against a great team, they’re looking for me to make the play, and when he dove, I didn’t move my whole head down, because… I was running, and I looked, and I looked back up. The ball was on my left shoulder, I think, more towards my left, and I thought it was coming down on my inside.
Nobody remembers the touchdown. They’re gonna talk about that drop. At least, that’s how I feel. I’m a perfectionist. I train really hard and I work really hard to be the best. At the same time, you have to understand that mistakes are going to happen
DF: The team that drafts you — what are they getting?
GD: They’re getting a guy who’s a hard worker. They won’t have to worry about anything off the field. They’re getting a guy who wants to be a Hall-of-Famer. Anything to become that. I’ve had a big chip on my shoulder because people say I’m not the fastest guy out there, but I can get separation. I know the game of football. I just know that they’re going to get a true football player — a guy who’s passionate about the game. I want to become great. I want to win Super Bowls. Someone who wants to be a receiver everybody talks about.
I’ve got a lot of people in my city that were better than me, or could have been just as good as me, but they’re not here now. So, my biggest thing is to motivate all those people from Sanford, Florida and let them know that you can do more than just be in the streets. There are a lot of people I look up to who showed me the way, and that’s what I’m trying to be.