UW Fresh Start (No. 17): Taj Davis Has Opened Games, Remains Starting Material
Taj Davis often is the behind-the-scenes University of Washington wide receiver.
Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan remain front and center, the Husky headliners, highly recruited players who've started a lot and who finished 1-2 last season in the receiving stats.
Ja'Lynn Polk and Giles Jackson are the former transfers from Texas Tech and Michigan, respectively, newcomers last year known for their breakaway speed but who weren't able to fully establish themselves as UW pass-catchers yet.
Davis fits somewhere in between.
If the others went deep and short, he was the guy who ran to the middle of the field and started waving his arms.
Davis proved to be one of the few players from his position group who remained healthy and available throughout a majority of the schedule, until sitting out the Apple Cup.
Somewhat of an outlier, his running mate has been a UW running back and close friend also named Davis, rather than a fellow receiver.
Similar to his peers, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound sophomore from Upland, California, should greatly benefit from the installation of new Washington coach Kalen DeBoer's more wide-open offense and put up bigger numbers.
A month and a half until spring practice, we're offering intel and observations gathered on the UW football personnel in a series of stories on every scholarship player from No. 0 to 99. We'll review each Husky's previous starting experience, if applicable, and determine what comes next under DeBoer.
As is the case with any coaching change, it's a new college football beginning for everyone, including the Huskies' No. 17 on offense.
Davis redshirted his first season at the UW and opted out for medical reasons in 2020. A year ago, he returned for spring practice and showed he was finally ready to play. He played steady.
By necessity, Davis started the first four games on the schedule when Terrell Bynum, Odunze and McMillan were sidelined by injuries for varying lengths of time, and Polk headed to the hospital for immediate chest surgery after a fateful first play as a Husky.
Opening six games in all, Davis finished as the Huskies' fifth-leading receiver with 26 catches for 329 yards and a lone score against California.
In the first quarter against the Golden Bears, he lined up to the far left, cut over the middle and hauled in a 19-yard TD pass from Dylan Morris with a defender draped all over him.
Davis arrived at the UW with tailback Cam Davis, his teammate from Upland High in Southern California but no relation, still obviously somebody he treats as a brother.
They've known each other since the seventh grade. They're on the cusp of doing big things in Seattle. Both will attempt to simultaneously become full-time starters this upcoming season.
Husky Starter or Not: Davis has those six starts behind him, so logically he's a strong candidate to open games once more for a new Husky coach. Providing everyone stays healthy, he's realistically in competition with Polk, Jackson and others for the third wideout position behind Odunze and McMillan, with those two are fairly well established as starters. Yet whether Davis is the third option or the first receiver off the bench, he should be heavily involved in the offense.
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