Ray Davis dazzles in Kentucky debut, "blessed" to be a Wildcat
Ray Davis really likes Kroger Field. Last year as a Vanderbilt Commodore, he ran all over the Cats, racking up 129 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries to push the ‘Dores to the 24-21 upset. In his debut in Kentucky Blue, Davis totaled 112 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries in the 44-14 victory over Ball State, an average of 8.0 yards per carry. It’s the tenth 100-yard rushing game of his career and the fourth in his last five games.
Davis is the first Kentucky player with 100 rushing yards and two touchdowns in a debut since Braylon Heard vs. UT Martin on August 30, 2014. He’s the first with those numbers in a season opener since Benny Snell vs. Central Michigan in 2018. In his postgame interview with the SEC Network’s Taylor Davis, Davis simply expressed gratitude for his new start in Lexington.
“I’m just blessed to be here. I’m blessed to have the opportunity for Coach Stoops to bring me along and the team to accept me,” Davis said. “Shoutout goes to my [offensive] line. Jager [Burton], [Eli] Cox, [Jeremy] Flax, [Kenneth] Horsey, Court[land Ford]. I could name a lot of those guys. The whole game goes to them. I’m just happy. I’m blessed to be here.”
Davis’ first big play came early, a 26-yard run on Kentucky’s second series. He scored Kentucky’s first touchdown of the day, a 2-yard run to put the Cats up 10-7 with 11:31 to go in the second quarter. Afterward, he bowed to the Kroger Field crowd.
“I’m coming out here with a chip on my shoulder”
Davis’ second touchdown came with six seconds left in the game, a 30-yard rush to push the final score to 44-14. It was his longest run of the game. Although he’s already had a successful college career, totaling almost 3,000 all-purpose yards over two seasons at Temple and two at Vandy, Davis made it clear in his postgame interview he’s not done yet.
“They just gained a hardworking player,” Davis said of his message to Kentucky fans. “Again, I’m coming out here with a chip on my shoulder, I’m trying to get one percent better every day.”
Davis said the team watched a video of Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp talking about how he always tries to do better than the year before; he’s adopting that mentality for his final year of college football.
“That’s the way I approach it. Last year was great but I’m worried about this season, where we can go as a team, and what I can do for the team. Just trying to come out here and be the best person I can be on and off the field.”
Kentucky’s blue-collar mentality showed in season opener
Kentucky trailed Ball State at the end of the first quarter 7-3. Davis’ touchdown put the Cats on top for good. He said the team’s ability to bounce back from the slow start is a testament to their blue-collar mentality.
“A hard-working team,” Davis said of his biggest takeaway from the 44-14 win. “A team that’s not going to quit, not going to give up. It kind of showed out there.
“Slow start in the first half, the first quarter to be exact. We were able to get it rolling. Our defense gave us some really good stops. Coach White is a phenomenal [defensive] coordinator, preaching to those guys to keep fighting, keep working. Same thing with Coach Coen.”
The season-opening win wasn’t one to write home about, with lots of areas for improvement, but Kentucky still won by 30 points (shoutout to Davis for that cover, by the way). Davis said the Cats will be hard at work on Monday to clean up those mistakes ahead of next week’s game vs. Eastern Kentucky.
“You’re going to see a very disciplined team. We’re going to come out here and we’re going to try to limit the mistakes but we’re going to be who we are. It’s a blue-collar team. Having a chip on your shoulder, coming out here and doing it for the BBN.”
I had a feeling Davis would be a fan favorite after Media Day. Today only confirmed that.
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