UW's Davis and Davis: They're Not Related, But They Have a Connection
The Davises, Taj and Cam, could be brothers but they're not.
They share a lot in common.
Classmates. Teammates. High school. College.
Oh yeah, they both know where the end zone is.
For Upland High School in Southern California, the Davises combined for 69 touchdowns in their schoolboy careers.
One ran the ball in for scores, the other did it by hauling in passes and running back punts.
They both can fly.
Are you sure you guys aren't related?
In this video below, the Upland quarterback fakes a handoff to Cameron Davis, who wears No. 23, and lobs a screen pass to his left.
Taj Davis, in jersey No. 3, snatches the ball, follows two huge guys up the field and jets 78 yards for a playoff touchdown against Calabasas.
"I want to make big plays out of small catches," Taj Davis said in a postgame interview.
They're teammates now at the University of Washington, both redshirt freshmen after going through college football initiation in 2019.
Cam Davis appeared in two games of the Huskies and ran the ball twice. Taj Davis did the complete redshirt process and watched. They were No. 22 and 17 in purple and gold, respectively, with Taj shown during pre-game at the Las Vegas Bowl in the accompanying video.
"Taj Davis, we're going to see what he can do," said Junior Adams, UW wide-receivers coach.
This is the 57th profile of a returning Washington football player, each of which can be found on the site by scrolling back. While the pandemic has interrupted and delayed team activities, Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated offers continuous coverage of the team.
Meet Taj Davis and chances are he'll be wearing a shirt that says "Maya and Makayla" on it. Those are his cousins. In 2018, they were 17-month twins when they became a tragic story in the Los Angeles area. They pushed out a window screen in the house and ended up in a swimming pool. One sibling drowned and the other was left fighting for her life.
Taj honors the girls and does what he can to help his family members get through tough times.
In football, he emerged as a 3-star recruit with a whopping 21 scholarship offers, among them Missouri, Iowa State, Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt and two-thirds of the Pac-12.
As the next video shows, he's serious about his craft. At the base of the Angeles Mountains, he's solitary figure running through tree-lined neighborhood streets. He's worked with trainers on his strength and agility. He talks about improving his speed and route-running.
The sure-handed Taj Davis left Upland with 110 catches for 2,239 yards and 23 touchdowns over three seasons. The Huskies like him as a punt returner, too — he scored three more times on runbacks.
These athletes with the same last name hope to make it the Davis and Davis show in Seattle. Whenever they're around each other, good things happen.
"We've played together since eighth grade," Cam Davis said. "We want to carry that on and make more memories."
SUMMARY: Taj Davis went through his college indoctrination in 2019 and used it to add 10 pounds to his 6-foot-1, 201-poundframe. Now it's time to compete for minutes. The UW has a lot of young receiver talent now.
GRADE (1 to 5): He gets a 2.5, strictly based on the fact that he hasn't played for real yet. It will be interesting to see which Davis pulls extended minutes first. Or will they do it at the same time?
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