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‘Shorty’ Davis in big role for Bears

By: Ward Gossett
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Deonte Lindsey
Damon Floyd

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — When it comes to his quarterback, Bradley Central coach Damon Floyd is going to try to prove that the short end of the stick isn’t such a bad thing.

When he began looking around last spring for a quarterback, Floyd peered over his backfield and around his offensive line and plucked an unlikely candidate in Johnny Davis, who can stretch on a good day while wearing his cleats to fractions more than 5-foot-8. Even his dad, 5-foot-10 Gary Davis, a former Bradley basketball player, kids him about his stature.

“My dad calls me Midget and Shorty, but then he says I just have something to prove to everybody,” Johnny said.

Floyd believes Davis, a junior, can be an NCAA Division I kicker, but the kicking will be less important than running the offense, handing off to Dynamite Dozen member Deonte Lindsey, running himself or passing.

It was something Davis never truly envisioned.

“I thought I’d be a quarterback but never a starting quarterback,” he said. “When I first started playing, I thought I’d be a receiver, and then we were goofing around in middle school kicking the ball and I could kick farther than anybody else.”

And now he is the man.

“I can see over the center to make my pre-snap reads, but after the ball is snapped — all those guys are 6-2,” he said.

But what he won’t be able to see means also that those chasing him will have a hard time finding one of the state’s smallest starting quarterbacks. And Floyd noted that Davis doesn’t have to put his teammates on his shoulders and carry them.

“Johnny runs really well, and he’s a smart kid and a hard worker,” the coach said. “As long as he does what we ask him to do, he’ll be fine. He doesn’t have to win ballgames for us. We want him to put the team in a position to win. We’re going to use his feet more than his arm, but he has to understand when to throw the ball and when to tuck it and run and when to get out of bounds.”

Floyd has broken with tradition and continually harped at Davis to get out of harm’s way.

“I have never encouraged a kid to get out of bounds, but we will encourage him to do so,” he said. “His size is a concern in Region 2-5A, where you have 220-pound linebackers who run 4.7 40s. It’s a concern to me, to him and probably to his parents.”

Davis’s lack of size is Floyd’s only concern.

“He has worked with our quarterbacks all along,” Floyd said. “He never could throw that well, but last year he stayed in the weight room and he’s now throwing the ball 45 yards with both zip and accuracy. We’re going to roll him out and play-action. He’s smart enough to pick up coverages. And we’re going to run a lot of option (mid-line and veer).

“With Johnny we feel he can check at the line of scrimmage, depending on what he sees at the line. He’s quick physically — not flat-out fast but a 4.7 guy who is an option quarterback. You see him in the weight room and in the offseason and you realize that he is the kind you want in the huddle running your offense.”

There could be a nice fit with Lindsey, a Division I prospect who is being recruited by the University of Tennessee and others as a running back, a defensive back or as an athlete.

“I like our team and the season will be a challenge, especially for us,” Davis said. “We have been down the past few years, but we’re learning a new offense and having Deonte’s speed is going to help, and the defense looks a lot better.”

Said Floyd: “We have a good mixture. We have a little bit of speed, and we have some guys up front that are big and strong. This year I think we’ll be able to two-platoon on the offensive and defensive lines. We have built up some depth.”

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