Terrell Davis is one of the all time great Georgia running backs. He dominated the SEC during his time at Georgia in the 90s, but what if someone told you he was never supposed to end up at Georgia in the first place?
Davis recently sat down to tell the story of how he ended up at Georgia, and it really is quite impressive that he found his way to Athens.
"I came home one day to my dorm room," Davis said via si.com. "On my answering machine, there's a recruiter from the University of Georgia that calls, his name is Bob Pittard, and they're interested in bringing me out for a visit and to give him a call back. I just didn't understand how Georgia found out about Long Beach State. It made the national news when the program dropped. So he called one of the coaches and asked him, 'Do you guys have any players on your team that could play in the SEC?' And the coaches said, 'Yes, we have one player. His name is Terrell Davis.' So that's why they ended up calling."
Terrell Davis's recruiting story is as good as it gets
Recruiting was completely different in the 90s compared to today. Social media and the internet helped recruiting explode into what it is today, but before that it was much more difficult for coaches to find the right talent for their team.
So what did Georgia do? They cold called Long Beach State and asked if they had any players good enough to play in the SEC. Shockingly they were more than willing to give up Davis because they knew how talented he was. Coaches nowadays would never willingly give up one of their players, but that just shows how diffrent the times were back then.
Davis spent the next three years at Georgia where he recorded about 1,600 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns. He then went on to have a successful NFL career where he racked up 60 touchdowns in his career.
But if it wasn't for that one phone call made to Long Beach State then who knows how his career would've played out.