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On the verge of his most important season, Dyshawn Davis was named to the Butkus Award Watch List yesterday. The award is handed out to the best linebacker in college football at the end of the season.
Davis is beginning his fourth and final year for the Orange in what has been a great collegiate career. The linebacker has been the anchor in the middle of the Syracuse defense. He has shined ever since his freshman campaign, and is most remembered for his vicious hit on Rutgers running back Jawan Jamison in 2011.
However, the New Jersey native has life after college on his radar. Davis is an NFL prospect that scouts will be monitoring all season. His path was derailed slightly last season when a high ankle sprain affected his play and forced him to sit out the Georgia Tech bashing of the Orange, but Davis rebounded nicely to finish with 49 tackles and 2.5 sacks on the year.
The linebacker position is probably going to be, yet again, the biggest strength of the Orange defense. Davis will return with Cam Lynch, who is coming off of a tremendous year; his 69 tackles were three more than Marquis Spruill, who was drafted in May. Additionally, the Fizz wrote in June how this could be a opportune time for Zaire Franklin to get some minutes if Josh Kirkland or Luke Arciniega were unable to play or perform.
There is no denying that Davis is one of the fastest Syracuse linebackers we have seen in a while. His speed is what drives his big hits against opponents. However, he will need to bulk up if he wants to be used as a linebacker in the NFL. As an undersized prospect, a team could try to convert him to a safety where he could utilize his hard-hitting nature.
Davis is not the only Orange player to be named to watch lists. Sean Hickey found his way onto the Outland Trophy Watch List, while Riley Dixon was named to the Ray Guy Award Watch List.
Even if none of the three players win the actual awards, the presence on the watch lists is a good confidence booster for the Orange going into a season filled with talented veterans.
Posted by: Zephan Mayell
11 responses to “Dyshawn Davis, Linebacker Leader, Named to Butkus Award Watch List”
here’s another prime example of a player that was not heavily recruited, under the radar player out of new jersey i beleive. marrone recruiting him as a wr, didn’t qualify academically goes to milford prep and played linbacker there and the rest is history. the following year comes to syracuse and played immediately at linebacker. just goes to show you it doesn’t take a 4-5 star player to make it big.
Sackster is right. While we all want the higher regarded recruit, we have to realistically look at the status of the program and work with the talent we attract. Good coaching can turn raw talent into production. I believe there will be a time where better caliber recruits want to give Cuse a legit look. But for now 3 stars, occassional 4 stars, some 2 stars, and NR guys are the lot in life we have.
Davis or Lynch are the kind of players that can raise Syracuse to the level of play that could make the Orange relevant nationally We now have freshmen coming into the program that can possibly contribute on that same level of play.Davis is my favorite to win the award
Keep in mind it is these undervalued 2 stars that did not qualify or whatever that are helping to mentor the future of the program. Guys like Davis and Lynch are showing Franklin, Thomas, Moskal, etc. how it is to be done on a day to day basis. We owe some of the success of the younger classes to the mentoring of the older classes. This is one of the big reasons Marrone cleaned house once he took over.
I’ll take 19 ..3 stars…. Anytime. Let’s hope they all show up! Bigger, faster than we’ve gotten in years. I don’t put a lot of stock in rating high school kids but, as a class, this is the best we’ve seen in years. Got to give ACC some credit but hats off to Shafer.
We can have a real program with 19.. 3 stars every year. 19x 4 years of kids is a lot of talent. Shafer will coach em up on defense. Still worried about our staff on offense but that’s enough to compete.
I don’t want to sound like a homer but we are on the mend. To many years of Nancy and this a-hole Gross has put us in a deep hole.
The new Administration has to get on board. Please fire Gross..send him to Newark where he belongs!
Looks like the class of 2015 is full.
3* 6’2″ 220 lb OLB Troy Henderson out of St. Edward (Lakewood, Ohio)committed to the Orange on Tuesday. shafer and crew are starting to recruit for the class of 2016. I don’t think it’s over/done with yet for 2015. We shall see.
Now is the time for things to really get interesting for thre football program.
Welcome to the orangenation Troy Henderson,enjoy your stay here.
GO CUSE;
Ron he’s also listed at 6′ 205 lbs. I think that’s closer!!
2 low rated players is exactly what I have been saying for years. A diamond made from dust no doubt. But the other depth is not up to snuff record shows that!! Love DD and Lynch to pieces, but they are only what SU has as of now!!
DO NOT FORGET THE KIDS OF PSABUSEDU!! THE NCAA DID!!
I can’t remember when Syracuse University has had so many recruits verbal so early in the year. Coach Shafer has to be doing something right. WOW!!!
If you were to look at the class rankings and average them out,Syracuse is setting at the 32nd best team for 2015 and I know when the recruiting is finished and other classes fill up that they will probably fall to a lower ranking.
@Zephan Mayell; I do believe that more recruits will commit to the Orange for 2015 and I just finished reading some comments on another website and one of the people made a statement saying,bring more recruits in and put some of them in the class of 2014 and “REDSHIRT them”. Is that even a possibility? Can Shafer do a thing like that? If more recruits do commit to the Orange,I think he(Shafer)is going to have to make some decisions on who he want’s to keep on the team before it’s over with. Just my thoughts gentlemen,just my thoughts.
@Terry;
I learned a long time ago that articles on these recruits distort their size and weight. I made a mistake when I posted 6’2″ 220 lbs and should have went back and see what the article had him listed at. I looked again and they along with the recruiting websites have him listed as 6’1″ 215 lbs. Looking at the picture of him that accompanies the next fizz post,I’d say he’s bigger that what he’s currently listed at. But I agree,give or take a few pounds and an inch or two we’re at least in the ball park on his current size. The kid looks like a monster of a LB’r to me.
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