The Virality of Marcus Davis and His Subsequent Benching
By Ty Hodges
I’ll just leave this here…
I’m sure by now most of you have seen this video (especially if you’re already a fan of ours on Facebook). This video speaks to an issue that we’ve seen throughout the season – a lack of effort/execution.
Marcus Davis was asked about the video last night during Virginia Tech’s normal Monday night press session. Here’s what the senior wide receiver had to say.
"“I really don’t think too much of it. I think somebody was a little bored and had a little extra time on their hands and figured they can go out and make a video. But like I said earlier, they don’t know the half of what actually went on.”“You can’t block in the back. That’s obvious.”‘We can’t have those mistakes in this game. We was playing a great team. At the same time, learn from it. It was one time in the game. It really wasn’t a big deal. We corrected it this morning on film. So we’re not going to let it happen again.”“From the first game to now, I’ve made great improvements in my blocking. It’s not always perfect. It’s not always pretty. But at the same time, I can say that I’ve gotten better from it, which is a plus.”“I’ve still got things that I need to work on being a receiver in general. That’s just one thing that I want to continue to work on.”–Marcus Davis, Virginia Tech wide receiver"
As you can guess, the backlash against Davis has been brutal. The video has more than 45,000 views on YouTube in less than 24 hours despite being a private video, was featured on Deadspin, and has even garnered responses from ESPN personalities such as Trent Dilfer.
Let’s be honest for a second; Marcus Davis isn’t the only Virginia Tech player that should be facing criticism. We’ve seen poor effort at times tackling, blocking, and passing with this team. This type of effort/execution isn’t limited solely to Davis. In fact, on a key 3rd down and 3 against Florida State, right guard Brent Benedict completely ignored his blocking assignment while pulling which could have sprung Logan Thomas to the first down. Instead, the Hokies had to settle for a field goal. And…well…you know the rest.
Davis isn’t the only one messing up, but he’s at a glamor position and if you’re going to play at one of those positions you better be prepared for the plethora of criticism. And the criticism is warranted in this situation because this hasn’t been an isolated incident with Davis. Poor blocking has been a staple of his during his tenure at Virginia Tech.
Well that effort, or lack thereof, has been noticed by the coaching staff. This video may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, who knows? But what is known is this – Marcus Davis will not be starting against Boston College this weekend.
Davis has been inconsistent with his hands, and hasn’t used his size to his advantage while being in position to block on the outside against smaller corners. Smaller wide receivers such as Danny Coale, Jarrett Boykin, and D.J. Coles all gave their all when blocking and it showed.
After all, as recent as last season we saw blocking efforts like this:
It would appear that Marcus Davis is in the doghouse now – at least temporarily. We’ll see how long it lasts, but I’ll never complain about getting players like Corey Fuller on the field more. Players like Fuller are the ones you wish had extra years of eligibility. Players like Davis are ones that you just shake your head in disappointment of what could have been.
You hate seeing players waste their natural physical abilities, but this seems to be the case of a wideout not doing everything they can with the tools given to them. Hopefully this message gets through to Davis, but you never know with the often diva-laced wide receiver position.