Ray Davis is ready to roll in the Kentucky backfield: ‘The goal is to earn my respect’
By Keith Farner
Published:
Ray Davis was the subject of some questions to Mark Stoops last month at SEC Media Days, and he understands many people remember his performance last year against Kentucky.
The Vanderbilt transfer had 129 yards and a touchdown against the Cats last year.
“It was a good day, a good game with the previous team I was with,” Davis said in an interview with KSR. “But right now we’re trying to focus on getting a W here Sept. 2.”
To establish himself in the running back room, Davis said he strives to be a leader and to be consistent. In fact, the word he chose to describe him during fall camp was “consistency.”
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“I got to be the best person I can be on and off the field,” he said. “My peers look at me not just as a football player, but as a young man, and that’s what I got to do to separate myself in the sense of just being myself every day. And I know that can translate to when I’m on the field, and translate to off the field.”
Davis is as experienced as they come. The running back has played in 31 career games, including 16 games at Temple and 15 at Vanderbilt, with 24 career starts. He ended the 2022 season ranked 30th on the NCAA’s active career rushing yards list with 2,497 yards. He also has 2,936 career all-purpose yards.
“The goal is to earn my respect, man, and for people to give me my respect, like LeBron said, man, give me my respect, I may not do it at the highest of the highest in the sense of everybody else with expectations, but me personally I’m doing it and I just want respect,” he said. “And I’m going to continue to earn respect by what I do on the field and I hope at the end of this season, the Kentucky fans respect me as a running back and I hope that the nation and the world respect me as a running back.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
