VANCOUVER — Take a stroll inside UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium in the hours ahead of Friday’s countdown to kick-off and chances are you’ll bump into the Thunderbirds’ star receiver Sam Davenport.
Maybe he’s catching up with friends on the concourse level of one of the province’s most tradition-laden football churches.
Or, perhaps he’s testing out one of those upside-down plastic buckets which have been set out to serve as a mass of percussion for the thousands of fans expected to fill the stands later that evening.
Then, a little bit closer to game time, there he is again, this time on the turf well in advance of the warm-up drills he’ll run through with his fellow receivers.
Wearing his No. 83 jersey, Davenport is helping the field goal unit get into a smooth flow, first serving as a holder, then taking his turn as an emergency place-kicker by splitting the uprights from further away than any pass catcher seemingly has a right to.
Before we go any further, it’s key to note that Davenport isn’t a part of the place-kicking or punt units.
But like a true musician drawn to understand more than just his instrument of choice, Davenport feels an inexorable pull to gain a deeper and more complete mastery of what can only be called gridiron science.
“It’s just about versatility,” the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Davenport said following UBC’s second straight conference win, a 38-24 victory over the visiting Saskatchewan Huskies last Friday. “It’s just something I’ve always done.
“I did it in high school and I continue to do it now,” he adds, referencing his career at Abbotsford’s Robert Bateman Secondary, one perhaps best exemplified by his Timberwolves’ 49-0 win over Holy Cross in the 2018 Subway Bowl B.C. AA semifinals.
That day, Davenport scored in all three phases en route to a four-touchdown outing that also including two picks and 6-of-7 PAT kicking.
He says, quite simply, that he just wants to be ready for “…whenever my team needs me.”
FROM UBC MISS TO UBC HIT
That a statement game he played six years ago in high school can now be looked upon today as a portent towards the player he has now become — on a team looking to return to the Vanier Cup national final — tells you that nothing about Sam Davenport is a fluke.
And in the end, nothing has ever taken away from his singular quest for excellence at the wide receiver position.
Against the Huskies last week, Davenport didn’t come away with a touchdown, but his eight catches for 132 yards provided a level of dynamism that set the table for what was UBC’s most impressive and efficient offensive outing of the season, and one which also featured healthy contributions from deep core of receivers including Shemar McBean, Mark Webb and Skyler Griffith.
For his part, UBC head coach Blake Nill doesn’t try to hide the fact that somehow the ‘Birds whiffed on recruiting Davenport, who came out of Bateman in the spring of 2019 after being recruited to the since-shuttered NCAA Div. 2 program at Simon Fraser.
“Shomari and I always talk about it,” began Nill of he and recruiting coordinator Shomari Williams, “and we go ‘How did we miss this guy out of high school?’
“To be honest,” continued Nill after this past Friday’s win, “I just think he’s exceptional. Today, he was sicker than a dog. He played with a flu. We always talk about the integrity of the game. Davenport represents that for us fully.”
THEY’RE MAKING FOOTBALL EYES
What makes a great quarterback-receiver tandem?
Start with the like-minded desire to be the best through repetition and hard work, and you’ve set the all-important foundation.
And that’s why Davenport has synched in such lock-step rhythm with ‘Birds star quarterback Garrett Rooker.
“Honestly, he reminds me of my high school quarterback in that we have a great connection,” Davenport said of Logan McDonald, his pivot at Bateman.
“When I look at (Rooker), sometimes we make eyes and I just know where the ball is going,” he added.
It was at that moment this past Friday, as the players, coaches and officials cleared the field in the post-game, that Rooker just happened to walk by.
“That guy is awesome,” Davenport said, pointing at the Texas slinger. “He just knows when to run it, and he knows where he wants to put it.”
Coming to UBC in time for the start of the 2023 campaign following four seasons at SFU (where his first two seasons consisted of a redshirt (2019) and then COVID-cancelled (2020) campaigns), he played in 18 combined games over the 2021 and ’22 seasons, catching 47 passes for 667 yards and four touchdowns.
But since coming to UBC and building his bond with Rooker, the volume in those numbers has popped.
Over a 2023 season in which he missed the final three conference games to injury before returning for a brilliant playoff run, Davenport made 48 catches for 925 yards and seven touchdowns in nine games.
Combine those numbers with his 23 catches for 376 yards and one touchdown through four games this season and the special threat Davenport has become in blue and gold is impossible to ignore.
In just 13 career games with the ‘Birds, he has made 71 catches for 1,301 yards and eight majors.
And if you do some simple math, you understand a lot clearer why he loves the moniker first pinned on him during his high school days.
Nicknamed ‘Sudden Sam’ for his uncanny ability to beat coverage and succeed regardless of the size of windows afforded him, Davenport is not only averaging 100.1 yards-per-game, he is also averaging 18.3 yards-per-catch for his UBC career.
Rooker has certainly helped the cause, but even at SFU, where the offence was severely challenged within the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Davenport still averaged 14.2 yards-per-catch over a two season stretch, despite the fact that the program went a combined 2-16.
HERE’S TO AMAZING
With four more Canada West regular season games remaining before the playoffs, and the conference as tight as a drum, the fire-starting connection between Davenport and Rooker will no doubt prove pivotal.
Besides their shared work ethic, the pair has shown itself to have become truly special in its second season because of the way their individual skill sets have seemed to so perfectly meld.
It’s what we saw Friday.
Start with Rooker’s ability to become so much more dangerous when he breaks the pocket, then deploys his eyes and feet to very quickly go off script.
It’s his body language, complete with those probing downfield eyes and that cocked arm.
But it’s also the almost brotherly intuition that has seemed to exist in big moments this season, with Davenport knowing precisely when to shave an inch off a route here, then re-accelerate to gain that inch back at the catch point.
At its best, their shared gift is a seeming ability to adjust mid-play to the shifting dynamics of a defence, and it’s the same thing that every great duo at every level of the game seems to be able to lean on when the times get tough.
And when the Thunderbird Stadium crowd follows the arc of a Rooker pass, then spots Davenport breaking free to make, say, a sliding catch at the sticks for a first down, its impossible not to feel their football joy.
UBC (2-2) travels to Calgary to face the Dinos (1-3) on Saturday (1 p.m. PST, Canada West TV).
A win could move them to within a game of first place by the end of the weekend, while a loss could sink them into a tie for last place.
So is UBC ready for the push to the post-season?
“In the off-season, we went crazy,” Davenport said last Friday when asked how much work he put in with the quarterbacks in preparation for 2024. “In my opinion, in Canada West football, I think we put in the most work in the off-season. I think it showed tonight.”
Of course no conference rival is going to agree with Davenport’s take, but the important thing is that he’s talking out loud about the way every team had better feel about itself with four more games of conference play remaining.
“I tell you what, man,” begins UBC head coach Nill. “Sam Davenport is just a throwback, man. He’s a throwback and CFL teams should be looking for him right now. I’m telling you.”
Of course this past Nov. 11, when UBC went 95 yards over the final 52 seconds of the game, and Rooker hit Davenport with the winning 13-yard TD pass on the final snap of last season’s eventual 28-27 Hardy Cup victory at the stadium over Alberta, UBC fans knew the guy wearing No. 83 was special.
Maybe Rooker put it best in the aftermath of that win, one of the greatest in UBC football history, when he said “We built chemistry all year and I have so much trust in him to make plays. I don’t think there’s anyone in this league that can handle him out there wide. And he just shows up week in and week out and makes plays. It’s amazing to see.”
What else can you say to that but ‘Here’s to amazing.’
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