When the ball is snapped, Davis sprints downfield and Vick tries to overthrow him.
Lucky for the Hokies, even the cannon-armed Vick rarely succeeds. With 4.29 speed in the 40 and soft hands, the sophomore Davis averaged 27.5 yards for his 35 catches this season. Nine went for touchdowns, including plays that covered 60, 74, 65, 69 and 59 yards. He also scored twice on reverses. The nicest part, Hokies offensive coordinator Rickey Bustle said Thursday, is that Davis is still learning the game and improving almost as fast as he runs. "He thinks he can run by anybody," Bustle said. "I told Michael, if you get it close, he's going to have a great chance of catching it because he's got that kind of confidence. He's just matured. He understands what football is all about." Davis played soccer until his sophomore year in high school, had a falling out with his coach and then had to convince his mother to let him play football. He presented it to his parents as a bridge to keep him in shape between track seasons, but decided last spring after several meetings with coach Frank Beamer to still run track, but concentrate on football with an eye to the future. "I decided the Lord put me at Virginia Tech for a reason," he said. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Davis isn't shy about going after the ball, and actually earned his chance with the Hokies in part because his cousin, walk-on lineman Rich Bowen, dropped off a video of Davis' highlights with Beamer. "I sat down and looked at it and the guy looked fast, he looked like he had height and he caught the ball over the middle," Beamer said this week. "I didn't watch 10 plays. I said if you do that one time, you can do it every time." Seminoles star wide receiver Peter Warrick said Thursday he had never heard of Davis, but the Florida State coaches have, and he gives them cause for concern."The kid just can fly. He's a deep shoes, deep ball threat," Seminoles receivers coach Jeff Bowden said. "They don't throw it (the deep ball) as much as you would think, but when they go deep to him, he gets to the ball."
Davis knows how wideouts like Peerless Price of Tennessee, Tory Holt of North Carolina State and Ike Hilliard of Florida have played huge roles in their teams' victories against the Seminoles. He also knows it won't be easy. "They're going to try to get away with as much as possible," he said of the Seminoles defensive backs. "A lot of times that's what DBs do, so I'm trying to come up with different ways to defeat those techniques and get downfield." Like most everyone else on both sides of the ball for the Hokies, Davis said the key is Vick, whose ability to get loose when pressured, throw the deep pass from the pocket or on the run and otherwise improvise makes everyone dangerous. Sometimes, that turns back into the game: Davis' speed against Vick's arm. "I threw a pass against Boston College and I definitely thought I overthrew him," Vick said. "He speeds up when the ball's in the air. It's kind of crazy. "I don't think I can overthrow him even when he's tired."
