Long before Re’Mahn Davis arrived at Vanderbilt, he already developed a wide perspective with a multiplicity of life experiences.

The Temple transfer and San Francisco native attended New Jersey’s Blair Academy for a year after he spent three years at Trinity-Pawling, a boarding school in Pawling, N.Y., about 60 miles from New York City. What’s more, he has 10 siblings.

When the running back announced plans to transfer from Temple, he told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he wanted to be closer to home.

“This is in the best interest for my family,” Davis told The Inquirer. “I began to get a little homesick and have been on the East Coast for awhile and I started to miss my family.”

And given his desire to place academics high on his priority list, it’s no surprise why he chose Vanderbilt even though it’s still a ways from the West Coast.

“(Football) will end one day,” Davis told 247Sports. “Being a running back, your body doesn’t even last that long at the next level. You’ll get 2 or 3 years if you’re lucky. So I definitely want to go to a program with a world-class education that’s gonna be able to benefit me after football and after college.”

Given Vanderbilt’s departures, Davis is a sight for sore eyes. Vanderbilt does not return a player who rushed for at least 100 yards last season, and after the departures of Keyon Henry-Brooks and Ja’Veon Marlow, the position goes from a very strong strength to a stable positive. But the strength of the position is largely pinned on Davis, as the Commodores are down to 4 running backs.

Since he’s been at Vanderbilt, the 5-9, 215-pounder has received positive impressions and continued the kind of production he had at Temple where he led the team in rushing last season despite missing 3 games. He had 308 rushing yards in 4 games, including 113 yards at Memphis, and 97 yards and a touchdown at Navy.

Overall in 16 games for Temple, Davis rushed for 1,259 yards and 9 touchdowns to go with 27 catches for 243 yards and 2 scores. He also topped 100 yards in a game 3 times, and rushed for at least 50 yards 10 times. But his best game came in 2019 against Georgia Tech, when he had 29 carries for 135 yards and 2 touchdowns.

A glimpse at his 2019 highlights shows a compact style, but also plenty of shifty moves to hit the holes and cut upfield.

Because of the returning experience at quarterback and relatively thin depth at running back, it would seem that Vanderbilt would at least start the season as a stronger passing team. Coach Clark Lea at SEC Media Days offered a glimpse at the kind of offense he wants to run.

However, after 4 offensive line opt-outs last season, it is difficult to get a grasp on what kind of line Davis will run behind.

“We need to design around matchups,” Lea said. “This is about how we use formations, motions, tempo to create pressure on the defense to get the matchups that are favorable to us. Every play needs to be a design, and we need to have a reason for why we’re doing what we’re doing.”