In UVa, 6-foot-6 WR Davis finds a fit that he says goes both ways
There was a lot that went into the decision, as is the case with just about every commitment. But for South Carolina native Lavel Davis, the fact that UVa housed the Gamecocks in the Belk Bowl sure didn’t hurt.
Ultimately, the 6-foot-6, 205-pound wide receiver chose the Wahoos for a host of reasons, most especially the connection he felt with his future position coach Marques Hagans as well as with his future head coach Bronco Mendenhall.
But that 28-0 blowout of South Carolina certainly got his attention well before the Cavaliers came calling.
“I felt like they needed real ballers,” Davis told CavsCorner this weekend. “Do you know what I mean? Guys who just go get it. They needed dudes to go up and get it. When Coach Hagans had first called me, he really just wanted to see the type of person I was. He already knew I was a good football player but he really wanted to see about me as a person. And ever since, he was just telling me how much he wanted me to come up and whenever I talked to any of the coaches, that’s what I heard. They really wanted me to come up and see it for myself. They wanted me to meet everybody and see how tight everything is.
“They’ve got unity, real togetherness,” he added. “Everybody is on the same page. Everybody has the same goal. It’s a program full of nice people who all want the same thing and they’re going to get it. It’s a family up there and I loved that. All of it.”
Davis and his parents left around 1 a.m. to get up to Charlottesville for the trip on Saturday.
“Mom didn’t want to fly,” he said with a laugh. “She just wanted to drive up there…My dad only drove like an hour. She really did it. She did her thing.”
The Dorchester (SC) Woodland standout, who picked UVa over offers from Georgia Tech, Appalachian State, Western Kentucky, and Coastal Carolina, admitted that he went into the visit with the mindset that if it felt right he was ready to commit.
“I was just thinking like if this is real, I’m in,” he said. “I wanted to play in the ACC or SEC. Always, always. I wanted to play in the ACC or the SEC. Georgia Tech, I loved how they were and all but it just didn’t seem like a real fit to me. One thing was, the coach who was recruiting me, Coach (Marco) Coleman, he coaches the defensive line and I knew I wasn’t going to be with him. So then, when UVa hit me up I was like ‘Oh man. This might be a fit.’
“After I got done talking to Coach Hagans, I knew I didn’t want to make a rash decision, ya know? I wanted to see it for myself so we’ve been planning this,” Davis added. “I don’t want to be one of those guys who rushes into something over the phone. I think they offered me like beginning of April and so we set up the visit and all the weeks leading up to it, I was just thinking about how it might go and if it looks right, I’m in. I knew if it really felt like family and stuff, I was going to go ahead and commit.”
From the jump, Davis got the vibe he had been looking for.
“When I got there, it was really beyond what I thought it was going to be,” he sad. “It was way beyond that. It was really surprising. It was like a real family and I really felt that love there.”
And then there’s that bowl game win.
"Yeah, that played a factor too,” Davis said with a laugh. “South Carolina, they were recruiting me. Coach Pat Washington, he went to App State and that’s when App State offered me. And then after that happened, I wasn’t really fond of the Gamecocks and I wasn’t really feeling them. And then when UVa beat ‘em, I was like, ‘Maaannn.’ They didn’t just beat ‘em, either. They beat ‘em bad. They beat them like Clemson did Alabama. And so, yeah, that was a big plus. They beat an SEC team and that was a big plus for me.”
While that result showed Davis that UVa could do big things on the field, it was what he found in Mendenhall and the Virginia football family that sealed it.
“That first time when he texted me,” Davis recalled, “I had Googled him and just looking at pictures and everything I was like ‘This dude is probably hardcore, cares just about football.’ So when I was in there talking to all of the other coaches and stuff in the meeting and I went up to talk to Coach Mendenhall, as soon as I opened the door and he got up—he had glasses on, reading—I was like ‘He looks like a professor type dude.’ And then he gets up and he shakes my hand and I knew I had him totally wrong. Just by how he got up and shook my hand and stuff. He started talking to me and I was thinking about how he’s the total opposite of what I expected: He cares about the stuff you really want to care about but most coaches, most programs, they don’t really give it to you like that. That’s how it is at UVa.”
Hagans, meanwhile, provided the same vibe as Mendenhall and his experiences as a player serve as a blueprint of sorts for Davis.
“I feel like Coach Hagans, I can really relate to him a lot and he’s done things I want to do,” he said. “Coach Hagans has been there, he’s done that. I’m trying to do all of that and everything, follow in those footsteps and just try to be better, ya know? He’s done what I’m trying to do. And he’s someone who talks from the heart and I felt everything he was saying. He was keeping it real with me, explaining what I’d be stepping into and signing up for if I did commit there. He just always kept it real with me from the jump and that’s what I really love about him.”
Committing to Virginia was already something he was ready to do. Davus just had one more green light to get.
“I was going to tell them,” Davis said, “because I already had that feeling like middle of the day, after we got done with lunch and stuff. I was already thinking it was where I wanted to be. But by then, I hadn’t met with Coach Mendenhall yet so I wanted to do that and make sure that was right because he’s the head coach, I’m stepping into it with him ya know? I just wanted to see what he was like. After that meeting with Coach Mendenhall and Coach Hagans, I had to talk to my parents. But see, my mom? She didn’t want me to just go in and make a rash decision or whatever. I was feeling like for the last two weeks or whatever that this was what it was. I was talking to the coaches all the way to this point and I just knew. But mom, she was the one holding it back, making sure I didn’t pull the trigger just yet.
“So, after we talked to Coach Mendenhall my mom wanted to talk to me privately,” he added. “My dad, he was already on board because we had gotten a chance to talk earlier. So we talked and I mean, five minutes later? We came back into Coach Mendenhall’s office and talked to him and Coach Hagans and we told him that I was all in and Coach Mendenhall, he started tearing up. He shed a few tears and stuff and told me how happy he was.”
For anyone that wonders what happens next, Davis isn’t afraid to make it clear.
“This decision, I’m not going back,” he said. “I’m not going to be one of these dudes, these D-1 athletes who commit and then decommit or go visit other schools. If I’m committing, I’m a hard commit. I’m not about to go visit other schools. This recruiting mess is done. It’s done.”
In Mendenhall and Co., Davis feels like he’s found the best combination.
“Coach Mendenhall was trying to express, I think, that this was both ways,” Davis concluded. “This is both ways: UVa and me. Some recruiters, they make it out like ‘Oh you need me, I don’t really need you but I want you’ but he was trying to express that it’s both. They want me and I want them. So, it’s like a meeting in the middle. Half and half. So that really made me feel good. I’m not going all by myself. They're meeting in the middle with me.”
As he works this offseason, Davis plans to get himself prepared academically to enroll early. Right now, he’s not 100 percent sure he will but he at least wants to make sure he does the work so he has the option to decide
“I’m going into the summer acting like I am,” he said. “I want to at least give myself the option. I keep thinking about it and I go back and forth with it but I’m going to plan on the summer like I’m doing it. I don’t want to get December and wish I could’ve done it. I’m going to take my classes this summer and get it lined up just to make sure I have the opportunity.”
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