UW Will Try to Beat Minnesota With One of Its Own

In the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," Elinneus Davis was the big fish who got away.

Spun the reel, snapped the line and swam off.

A top five high school football recruit in Minnesota, the defensive tackle turned down the advances of his home state University of Minnesota and Iowa State in 2022 to commit to Kalen DeBoer's Washington Huskies.

Four years later, the 6-foot-3, 320-pound Davis will show the Gophers he has lived up to all of that hype previously surrounding him to become a team captain, a two-year starter so far and more than likely an NFL draft pick some day when the UW hosts Minnesota on Saturday evening at 8 p.m. at Husky Stadium.

By now, the story has been well-documented how a self-described "Mama's boy" climbed aboard his first airline flight and traveled to Denver and caught another one to Seattle, where he decided to be even more adventurous and stay for his college years.

"It was a place I'd never been before," Davis said. "It was very different from Minnesota. It was very different. Obviously, I'm glad that I'm here."

He hails from Moorhead High School in the suburban city of Moorhead, which backs up against the North Dakota state line and the much bigger metropolis of Fargo.

Elinneus Davis started 10 games at UW defensive tackle in 2025. | Dave Sizer photo

Curiously, he is not the first player from his hometown team to come to the Northwest and try to make a big name for himself.

More than 100 years ago, Warren Magnuson was a Moorhead High quarterback who earned UW undergraduate and law school degrees and went on to become one of the most powerful senators in the U.S. There is no record that he ever took part in Husky football.

When Davis first arrived in Montlake to play for DeBoer's staff in 2023, he was a pudgy, homesick and even injured freshman who eventually pushed through all of those obstacles, including the coaching change to Jedd Fisch, and made himself into a player.

As a redshirt during the Huskies' 2023 College Football Playoff run, he was up front about the challenge before him.

"This offseason is going to determine whether I play or not, to be honest," Davis said at the Sugar Bowl. "[I need] everything, to be honest."

Originally from the Twin Cities area, Davis and his family moved 240 miles west to Moorhead when he was in middle school and where his father opened up an African market.

When he wasn't sweeping the floors at the family business, Davis became a three-sport athlete in football, basketball and track, and excelled in school.

Jacob Bandes jumps on Elinneus Davis to celebrate Davis' first sack in 2024. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Hs mother signed him up for football in the third grade and he was a natural, scoring plenty of touchdowns early on. After church on Sundays he sat with his father and watched NFL games and as a now much larger kid first envisioned himself becoming a pro player.

For the Huskies, he turned himself into a much more muscular defender ready to come off the bench in 2024 and he appeared in 12 games. Last season, he started 10 times.

"It was all just a mindset and flipping a switch," Davis said of his depth-chart climb.

This month, he opened the season against Washington State before an injury sidelined him for the past two outings. A shoulder ailment previously had slowed him during spring football.

Not surprisingly, Davis was cleared this week to go up against the Gophers, who will host the Huskies in Minneapolis in 2027.

"I don't think there was any way he was going to miss this game," UW defensive coordinator Ryan Walters said.

Not after all of those maiden airline flights, time-zone changes, body makeovers and personal commitments to become a difference-making player.

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