Maurice Davis is good. The Dougherty High senior defensive end is a three-star recruit, according to 247Sports, and most of the notable recruiting services also have him rated as one of the top edge rushers in high school football. The 6-foot, 5-inch, 215-pound senior received offers from Ole Miss, Louisville, and South Florida, and he recently decided he would attend Mississippi following this season. He is projected to play outside linebacker at the collegiate level, according to Dougherty head coach Uyl Joyner.
Yes, Maurice Davis is a very good player for Dougherty. But Joyner said that wasn’t always the case. Joyner recalled a time before he joined the staff at the Albany school, when he was an assistant coach at Carver-Columbus and the Tigers were preparing to play the Trojans.
“We were getting ready to play against Dougherty, and Maurice was a 10th grader,” Joyner said of Davis. “We were watching film of Dougherty, and Maurice jumped out at us. He was very raw, very wild, and playing without much focus and discipline. He was not playing the run very well, and he was trying to pass rush on every down.”
Joyner said he and his fellow Carver coaches decided to use the talented yet erratic young player’s weaknesses in their offensive game plan approach.
“We used that against him,” said Joyner.
Since then, Davis has worked hard on improving the technical part of his game, which has made him a complete player two years later.
“Maurice has grown with his maturity, and he plays with a lot more discipline, but he did not lose that motor that makes him such a great player,” Joyner said of the improvements Davis has made since that 10th-grade season. “Maurice and I were just talking about that, and joking about that [Carver] game. I told him how wild he was, but he’s not that same player. He’s much more well-rounded now.”
Davis has improved his game through hard work over these past two seasons. That work ethic, Joyner said, sets him apart from everyone else.
“Maurice is probably the hardest-working kid in our program,” Joyner said. “You don’t have to worry about getting him ready. He gives it to you everyday.”
Davis has certainly given it his all every day for the past two seasons, along with the first half of his senior season. Heading into the 2023 campaign, Davis had racked up 91 tackles, including 20 tackles for loss and 9 sacks. He also had an interception. Through the first five games of this season, Davis had 5 sacks and 12 tackles, plus 3 pass breakups. That gives him 14 sacks and 103 total tackles.
As good as Davis is on the field, his head coach said he also takes care of his business in the classroom, too.
“I used to always check behind him for his grades, then I began to realize that I don’t have to do that every day now,” Joyner said. “Maurice is on top of everything. He handles his business.”
