Nate Davis
From NCAA College Football Information & Resource
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Nate Davis (born Nate Charles Davis on May 25, 1987, in Bellaire, Ohio) plays quarterback for the Ball State Cardinals in the NCAA college football tournament. After a breakthrough season as a "co-starter" for Ball State during his freshman year, Davis earned a full-time starting status as a sophomore and rightfully led the Cardinals to its first winning record and its first postseason appearance since finishing 8-4 in 1996 and bowing out to Nevada in the Las Vegas Bowl that same year. He also broke some records in the process, establishing a new passing yards mark while also setting school records in attempts, completions, and TD passes.
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Personal Life
Nate is one of Charles and Linda Davis' two football-playing-signal calling sons, the other being Jose who formerly suited up for Kent State in the late 90's (holds records in career yards with 6,722, career touchdowns with 57 and total offense with 7,331 yards at KSU) and later with the Kansas City Brigade and the Colorado Crush in the Arena Football League.
High School
Davis attended Bellaire High, the same school that produced National Football League veteran Joey Galloway. He was a two-sport athlete at Bellaire, starring in both the school's football and basketball teams. On the hardwood, Davis was a four-year letterman and helped lead his team to a 15-0 start as a senior. He also broke Bellaire's 50-year-old career scoring record after scoring over 1,800 points. But he was equally successful on the football field as a three-year letterman under coach John Magistro, leading the Big Reds to a total of 21 wins in 29 outings for his career. As a senior, he led the school to a 10-0 conference record, a state semifinal appearance, and a 13-1 overall standing after going 125-for-207 for 2,932 yards and 42 touchdowns, earning for himself an all-state and all-conference selection. He ended his high school career throwing for a Bellaire career record 7,348 yards and 81 touchdowns with a total of 113 touchdowns which also stood as a school career record.
College
Davis, ranked by Scouts Inc. as the 29th-best quarterback in the nation, drew interest from several schools, but chose to join Ball State over Cincinnati and Indiana among others.
2006
At the start of his career at Ball State, Davis split the starting quarterback's role with Joey Lynch, son of Indiana coach Bill Lynch. Although Davis had some problems readjusting from a mostly exclusive "shotgun-fueled" offense in high school, coach Brady Hoke still gave his youthful signal-caller ample playing time as he started 7 of the team's 12 games. He made his collegiate debut against Eastern Michigan, going 7 of 8 for 108 yards and three TDs in Ball State's season opening win. He also saw action as back-up for the next three games where he went 18 of 31 for 264 yards and 2 TDs in losses to Indiana, Purdue, and North Dakota State. He made his first career start against Northern Illinois, where he established career highs in completions (27, 5th in single game school history), attempts (38), passing yards (298), and touchdowns (4, 5th-most in BSU history). He also tossed 3 TDs (with his first interception) and 247 yards against Buffalo but was limited to 0 TDs and 4 INTs in the next two games. He rebounded against Miami with 2 TD passes on an 11-of-24 passing and got to show his wares against Michigan in front of 110,000 fans the following week. During that game, the Cardinals fell 12-31 in the third but Davis and the rest of BSU managed to make the game interesting with two touchdown drives of 73 and 64 yards. The Cards however came short, losing 26-34 with Davis going 18 of 34 for 250 yards and 1 TD. He then went on to lead the team to two straight wins to end the season, with two 200+ yard games and three touchdowns in that stretch.
Davis ended the year setting single-season record in touchdowns (18) while placing fourth in passing yards (1,975) and eighth in completions (150). He also received the team's John Hodge Award as the team’s most outstanding freshman.
2007
As a sophomore, Davis had already locked on the starting spot, making his season debut against Miami in a close 13-14 defeat where he threw for 198 yards and 1 TD. He followed it up with a solid performance in BSU's first win of the season, completing 19 of 38 passes for 306 yards and matching his career high of 4 TD passes in a win over Eastern Michigan. In his next three outings, he threw an average of 3 TDs a game and passed for atleast 233 yards including a new career high of 422 @ Nebraska. Throughout the season, he also set new career highs in attempts (48, twice against Western Michigan and Indiana) and ran for a personal best 2 scores against Toledo. He also made his postseason debut against Rutgers in the International Bowl, completing 25 of 49 passes for 291 yards and 3 TDs in the 30-52 loss.
He ended his second playing year throwing for a school record 3,376 yards, breaking the previous record of 2,377 set by Neil Britt in 1983. He also had a school record in attempts (429) and TD passes (27), with a school all-time best in completions (245).
Highlights
| Nate Davis went 19-for-38 for 306 yards and a season and career high-tying 4 TDs in Ball State's first victory of 2007 against Eastern Michigan. |
Achievements
2007
- CollegeFootballNews.com's #2 QB in the MAC
- CollegeFootballNews.com's #4 Player in the MAC
- CollegeFootballNews.com's #4 Player in the MAC (Preseason)
- CollegeFootballNews.com All-MAC Second Team (Preseason)
- Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award Watch List
- John Magnabosco Award (BSU MVP)
- MAC All-Conference Second Team Offense
- Manning Award Watch List
- Mid-American Conference West Division Offensive Player of the Week (vs. Nebraska)
- Phil Steele's MAC All-Conference Second Team
2006
- CollegeFootballNews.com's #3 QB in the MAC
- CollegeFootballNews.com's #29 Player in the MAC
- John Hodge Award (BSU's most outstanding freshman)
- The Sporting News Freshman All-America Honorable Mention
References
- Nate Davis Ball State Profile
- Nate Davis Stats @ ESPN.com
- Nate Davis Wikipedia
- Performance at Michigan built confidence for Cardinals' QB Davis
