Ray Davis (second from left) was back at UK earlier this season along with teammates, from left, Josh Hines-Allen, WanDale Robinson and Will Levis. (UK Athletics Photo)
It was just over a year ago that Ray Davis shredded Florida’s defense for 280 yards rushing and four touchdowns in a 33-19 win that put his name on the national radar.
Fast forward a year and Davis, a fourth-round pick by Buffalo in the 2024 NFL draft, is back on the national radar after rushing 20 times for 97 yards and catching three passes for 55 yards in Buffalo’s Monday night win over the host New York Jets.
The 5-8, 220-pound Davis was born in San Francisco but went to high schools in New York and New Jersey. He started his collegiate career at Temple (2019-20) before transferring to Vanderbilt (2021-22) and then Kentucky last season.
Before an injury gave him a chance to have his breakout NFL game, he had 26 carries for 75 yards and one touchdown and four catches for 18 yards for the Bills where his 152 total yards were the most by any NFL rookie this season.
Davis is one of just four first-year Bills to ever have 95 rushing yards and 55 receiving yards in the same game and the first since Travis Henry in 2001. He’s the first rookie to lead the Bills in receiving and rushing since 1986.
Davis was a productive player running for 1,129 yards — averaging 5.7 yards per carry — and 13 touchdowns. He also had 33 catches for another 323 yards and seven scores. He finished his collegiate career with 3,487 yards and 27 touchdowns rushing that included 1,000-yard seasons at both Vanderbilt and Kentucky.
But what makes Davis’ story so remarkable is that he was in foster care for eight years and homeless twice. However, rather than giving up, he found ways to succeed athletically and academically.
Now here was on ESPN SportsCenter after Monday night’s win talking with host Scott Van Pelt talking about being the next man up with starter James Cook out due to an injury.
“For me it was about making sure I did what I had to do,” Davis told Van Pelt before crediting his offensive line like he always did at UK. “It’s about preparation, keeping your head and spirits up, and just playing my game.”
Davis, who was at Kroger Field Saturday night when UK lost to Vanderbilt, knew it was a “great opportunity” for him to show what he could do.
“You never want an opportunity where another guy goes down but you have got to step up,” Davis said. “I do not want to be complacent. I want to get better so when the opportunity comes again I can show again what I can do.”
Van Pelt was obviously touched by what Davis did.
“Anyone that knows even a little bit about your story has to be thrilled (tonight),” Van Pelt told Davis and the national audience.
3 Responses
Great article, Larry!
I saw the stats for that game and thought it was quite good for any RB in the NFL where very few RB’s have much success against NFL defenses. Catching 3 passes also was impressive.
A real testimony of overcoming trials!
UK had had some skilled, strong, powerful RB’s but needs a balanced offense to win games.
He is amazing Little Baron
That’s exactly what we are missing this year from our football team: an elite, star, classic mold running-back to help carry the load for our offense—last year’s offense and QB play was so bad that team doesn’t even make a bowl game without Ray Davis–but going all the way back to Boom Williams, JoJo Kemp, Benny, Bowden, C-ROD–for about 8 straight years, we have had an established running back that we knew going into the season we could put the load on if & when we had to, and that we could put the ball in their hands when we needed the tough yards, and when the game is on the line. That, and the O-LINE, have been the two hallmark features of the offense under Mark Stoops, and the formula for winning games in his era. U take that away, and u see what a difference it makes. We sorely lack both of those from this year’s team, and those strengths have masked a highly ineffective passing game, and really shoddy QB play for YEARS. Our long string of running backs over about 8 years’ time has carried the bulk of the load for our offense and our scoring. We just have no answers in the passing game now for years and years–Stoops always talks about the "big play", the "big play", the "big play"—-how bout just MOVE THE BALL, PUT SOME DRIVES TOGETHER, MOVE THE DAMN CHAINS!!!! THATS the area where the passing game under Stoops has failed–except for Will Levis’s first year–we just cannot consistently put drives together and keep the ball moving through the air–we have only been able to consistently do that via the running game. The passing attack has just been consistently awful–and this has been under multiple OC’s, multiple QBs……the one exception to this was 2021, the one season with Levis and Liam Coen together. I thought last year’s offense might have been the most alarming sign of this yet–all we heard all summer of 2023 about Devin Leary was that he was the highest-ranked, most sought-after transfer portal player for that year, and he was maybe going to be even better than Levis. Like I said before, if they hadn’t gotten Davis last year, they would not have beaten LOU and they would not have beaten FLA. I thought Leary was honestly the worst QB we had had since Terry Wilson. For all the hype he got, he was just a total shit-show. Some of that had to do with the O-LINE, yes–but Leary wasn’t even in the same stratosphere as Will Levis, and he was too short, and he could never get the ball up, could never get any air under it……..this year, Brock has been a little better than Leary was, but again, for all the hype u hear: a HS All-American recruited by GA, passed over by them as starting QB, so he comes to KY as the starter, so that should solve the problem, right? And really, when u think about adding someone like that to two already-existing weapons at the receiver position in Brown and Key, that SHOULD be enough if u are KY—and therein lies the problem…….. another consistent issue over the years for the passing game under Stoops has been the inability of receivers to get open down field and create some separation from the defenders—we have two natural talents there with Brown and Key, and the fact that u cant even score ONE TOUCHDOWN against SCAR? 13 pts against Vandy? And let’s face it, they didn’t set the world on fire at Ole Miss either, not offensively!!! In some ways, I think this is the lowest point of the passing offense for the Stoops era at KY–we have gone back to the way it was in his second and third years–u are at year 12 now man, and unlike those first 3-4 yrs, u have better talent now than u did then, u aren’t stuck with a lot of guys left over from the previous coaching regime, so because of that, I think what we are seeing this year and what we saw last year too have been the worst yet. Because u have some weapons now! I have been saying all year that I cannot imagine Barion Brown can be very happy right now–and that unsportsmanlike penalty he got down at Ole Miss was because he was arguing with coaches or somebody on the team about his role or the plays that were being run–something like that…….and I can’t say I blame him for being pissed. U can’t get a penalty and cost your team–but I understand why he would be angry this year. How many times a game does he actually get the ball? How many times do u hear his name called? What level of involvement do u see him in each game? I was seeing this from the second game of the season, on fwd……..Barion Brown is one of those players I always say would be an All-American at any other DIV 1 school–because any other coaching staff & offensive system would be able to figure out a way to make Brown the focal point of the offense and find a way to get the ball in his hands, and to ALLOW him to have a major involvement in the offensive game plan. I mean hell, why not run a few reverses here and there utilizing Brown as the ball-carrier out of the backfield? Line him up as QB and let him run Wildcat a couple of times a game! I mentioned on another post this week: the only offense Stoops has shown capable of running consistently that has worked that doesn’t have Liam Coen’s name on it is the Lynn Bowden-at-QB offense with Eddie Gran. I would rather them bring back a system like that if it would actually work for us and win games for us, rather than watching all of the incomplete passes, nvr getting any first downs ON FIRST DOWN, always being in 2nd-and-long, the shitty play-calling, receivers not being able to get open and get separation, horrible pass protection, and also no tight ends ever getting any balls thrown their way either! Every summer we hear that too–how the tight ends are going to become a bigger part of the offense, that they’re going to be utilized in the passing game, then the season starts, and we are lucky if they get thrown to one time a game. Its the same ol problems offensively with Stoops–it has been a decade now with multiple players, multiple coordinators and coaches–and it’s never going to get any better or any different for as long as he is here. I actually think there is a strong possibility Stoops might step down after this season is over. And IDK in the long run that it would be the worst thing in the world–i just think the football program needs a re-set now too just like the bball programs got.
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