He Keeps Cougars In Order Team Believes Davis Ready To Take Charge

Washington State’s Clay Reis has huddled around enough quarterbacks to appreciate the fine line between a self-assured team leader and an egotistical jerk.

And now that he’s huddling around Chad Davis, he’s convinced the Cougars’ new starting quarterback is standing on the right side of that fine line.

“He’s a little cocky,” Reis, a senior cocaptain and offensive tackle said of Davis, who won the starting job last spring, “but I think you need to be cocky to play quarterback.

“You don’t have to be obnoxious about it . . . but you need kind of a cocky guy to come into the huddle and say, `Hey, eyes up. I’m going to take charge and take you guys to the Promised Land.”’

Reis said Davis, a 21-year-old sophomore from San Diego, has the same confident swagger he saw in former Cougars quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who went on to become a No. 1 NFL draft pick.

At only 6-foot-2, Davis doesn’t possess the same inspiring physical presence as the 6-6 Bledsoe. And his arm is not as strong.

But he is every bit as confident, and his passing touch, mobility and knowledge of the spread passing game seem even more advanced.

“Chad Davis is a combination of (former WSU quarterbacks) Timm Rosenbach and Mike Pattinson,” said Cougars coach Mike Price, who recruited Davis out of high school but failed to sell him on even a campus visit at the time. “He has the aggressive style and leadership of Rosenbach and the accuracy and quick throwing ability of Pattinson.

“And another thing Chad brings to the table is he’s a very smart quarterback. He knows how to take advantage of what the defense gives you and he’s confident in his own ability.”

Price called Davis the most committed quarterback he has coached.

“He’s had 100-percent attendance in the weight room, he stayed here all summer to work out with the other players and he watches more film than any quarterback I’ve ever had,” Price said.

Davis, a much-traveled, record-breaking passer in high school, came to WSU last fall after transferring from Oklahoma, where he redshirted in 1992.

He was ineligible to compete immediately because of the NCAA’s transfer rule and started the 1993 season directing the Cougars’ scout team during practices. His “longest season” became even longer when he broke his collarbone three weeks into fall camp and was unable to practice until November.

The inactivity brought on by the injury seemed to strengthen Davis’ resolve to win the starting quarterback job, and when he came out last spring he clearly outperformed Chad DeGrenier, Shawn Deeds and Derek Chapman, who shared quarterbacking duties last fall after Pattinson was injured.

“In my estimation, he beat out the other three candidates in the spring - period,” said Price, who purposely waited until well after spring drills to make Davis’ promotion official.

Still, there were leaks, like the prized quarterback recruit who visited WSU last spring but told Price he had decided to go elsewhere because he didn’t want to sit behind Chad Davis for the next three seasons.

“I told him I hadn’t even decided who our starting quarterback would be,” Price said, “but he said he could tell from being around the other players and Chad, himself, that Chad Davis was going to be the man.”

Davis planned just such a scenario when he decided to transfer to WSU after Oklahoma changed offensive coordinators and went back to stressing the running game.

“I could have run it,” Davis said of the Sooners’ new offense, “but I don’t think I would have been as effective. This (the spread-passing game) is exactly what I did in high school. This is what I know. This is what I’m comfortable with. It’s a quarterback’s offense. The quarterback makes all the decisions and that’s the way I like it.”

Davis, who threw for a national prep record 9,332 yards and 82 touchdowns while playing at three different high schools in southern California, said he tries to spend at least an hour a day watching film of opponents.

As a coach’s son, he learned the importance of not just watching game film, but studying it as well.

“There’s a difference,” Davis explained, “like being able to see what defenses are trying to do against certain formations, what coverages they’re running for trips and those kinds of things.

“Being a quarterback, that’s probably the most important thing you can do is watch film. Because if you know what a defense is going to do before you go out on the field, then it’s that much easier to audible into this or that and win games.’`

Of course, Davis hasn’t overlooked the importance of winning his teammates’ confidence, either - which is where his cockiness becomes an asset.

“A quarterback has to have cockiness,” Davis said. “At least to the point of getting his team to believe he can get the job done, but not to the point where it becomes `Me, me, me,’ or `I, I, I.’

“I believe in myself, sure, but I realize that without Clay Reis and the O-linemen, Chad Davis wouldn’t be doing anything.

“He’d be flat on his back.”

And, in all likelihood, on the wrong side of that fine line.