Mike Elston wanted to know what Shaq Davidson would think of an offer from Notre Dame, so the Irish assistant coach asked Gaffney High School (Gaffney, S.C.) head coach Dan Jones during a visit to the school on Thursday.
“I said, ‘Coach, well it’s Notre Dame,’” Jones recounted.
“‘You played for the national championship, everybody knows who you are, you’ve got a kid from South Carolina right now, quarterbacking your group, so certainly he’d think it was special.’”
Jones informed the 6-foot-1, 175-pound junior receiver of the offer from Notre Dame and the coach was right on with his prediction.
“He had a grin from end to end,” Jones said of Davidson. “Whether that’s where he wants to go or not, I don’t know that. I do know it’s certainly a well-respected program.”
Davidson also has offers from programs like Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Ohio State and South Carolina among others. Elston’s explanation as to why the Irish were extending an offer was simple.
“Because they’ve seen enough video on him to know what kind of skills he’s got,” Jones said.
Jones certainly enjoys coaching a player of Davidson's caliber.
“Speed and then just his awareness and quickness,” the coach said of Davidson's strengths. “If you get it to him wide, he can take an easy pass, a screen or something and go the distance. He’s the type of kid who can make you look like a good coach when the play really shouldn’t work.”
Jones said Davidson would run a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash, but game speed is what really matters and said the junior wideout would run, “Faster than whoever is chasing him. He can go.”
Davidson is also a standout away from the field, according to his coach.
“He’s great,” said Jones. “He’s real unassuming. I told Coach he’s just real humble. He’s just a good kid. All of the kids like him. He’s one of those kids a lot of kids are attracted to.”
Jones doesn’t want Davidson to have to wait until the end of the process to squeeze in a bunch of visits and is already looking into a way to get the wideout out to South Bend this summer.
