Jadyn Davis has "that factor" to be Michigan’s starting quarterback
It may or may not happen in 2024, but Jadyn Davis is the future of Michigan Football.
It seems so long ago that fans were growing impatient, waiting for the long pursuit of Davis to come to an end. Would he ultimately choose the Wolverines? A year after Michigan seemingly put all their recruiting eggs into the Dante Moore basket only to lose him to Oregon and then eventually UCLA, Michigan was again all in with Jadyn Davis.
New quarterback coach Kirk Campbell took over the recruitment of Davis and ultimately landed their top prize. Davis became a recruiter of his own for Michigan, helping bring in other top prospects and becoming the leader of one of the more unified recruiting classes under Jim Harbaugh.
Davis enrolled early this past winter and joined Michigan during their Rose Bowl practices. In a recent In the Trenches with Jon Jansen appearance, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore talked about Davis' early impressions.
"Cool thing about him," Moore told Jansen. "We played the Rose Bowl, came back from the Rose Bowl and he was in here studying film."
A couple of weeks later, Michigan reached his ultimate goal, and Davis, still got back to work.
"Won a national championship, came back and he was studying film. He really gets it and what it means to be a quarterback here."
Throughout the recruiting process, it was the intangibles that Davis possessed that were too hard to ignore. His dedication to working on his football craft. His leadership, whether leading his high school team to a State Championship or the recruiting class joining him in Ann Arbor. The comparisons J.J. McCarthy, the legendary quarterback Michigan is now trying to replace, were there, and Moore agrees.
"He kind of has that factor to him, he has a little bit of that J.J. He's a young guy and guys gravitate toward him, he's a leader but he's always here. Always in here."
Davis is one of the five quarterbacks at Michigan competing for the starting job in 2024, the incredible opportunity and near-impossible challenge of replacing McCarthy. Davis saw limited action in Michigan's annual Maize vs Blue Spring Game. Enough to flash his talent, escaping the pocket and making a difficult sideline throw to Peyton O'Leary that was positioned perfectly for the receiver and only incomplete, thanks to an incredible play by J'yaire Hill.
Only a true freshman, Davis appears to be lagging behind Alex Orji and Davis Warren in the battle to start this season. But the final decision on that likely won't come until the week of game prep before Michigan faces Fresno State in the season opener.
"Excited to see what happens in the summertime and then in fall camp. We won't know until fall camp, probably, until game one. A week or so before that game. Those guys are competing at a high level. It's a healthy competition so it's been really good."
The odds are against Davis to win the starting job this season, but it won't be because of a lack of effort. No doubt, he will do everything he can this summer to improve and make up ground. So it might not be this season, but Davis is already showing he has what it takes to be the starting quarterback at Michigan. The leader, with the it factor, however you quantify that. McCarthy had it, and Moore thinks Davis has a little bit of it too.
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