Armstrong to Davis should be fun to watch for seasons to come

By Jerry Ratcliffe

The late Green Bay Packers play-by-play man Ray Scott was known for his simplicity in describing the prolific passing combo of quarterback Bart Starr and receiver Boyd Dowler.

In fact, one of his most famous calls was as basic as: “Starr … Dowler … touchdown.”

Virginia’s radio voice, Dave Koehn, just might become so familiar with a present-day Cavaliers combo that he might become comfortable calling: “Armstrong … Davis … touchdown.”

We’re talking UVA quarterback Brennan Armstrong and wide receiver Lavel Davis, Jr., who are beginning to carve out their own special notch in Wahoo history. Armstrong is a sophomore, Davis a true freshman, and they’ve already established quite a chemistry with three games remaining in the regular season of their first campaign together.

Armstrong and Davis have already hooked up 14 times for 374 yards and five touchdowns. Perhaps those don’t seem like staggering numbers, but Davis isn’t too far away from breaking UVA’s records for most receiving yards and TD catches by a freshman.

Davis, who was relatively unknown outside of the coaching staff until he burst on the scene in his collegiate debut against Duke in UVA’s opening game when he had more than 100 yards and two touchdowns, thusly being named ACC Rookie of the Week. Also keep in mind that Davis is 6-foot-7, which makes him a strong target.

Could it be that by the time Armstrong and Davis are through, they’ll be mentioned in the same breath as Shawn Moore and Herman Moore (Moore to Moore) along with Matt Schaub and Billy McMullen, two of the most dynamic passing duos in Virginia history.

Davis enters Saturday night’s UVA game at Florida State ranked fourth among all the nation’s receivers in yards per reception, an eye-popping 26.71 yards per catch, which is the very best by any Power Five receiver. He’s also fifth in the nation among freshmen with 374 receiving yards and No. 2 in the country among freshmen TD catches.

Remember, Davis has played in only six games due to an undisclosed issue, which was speculated to have been Covid-related matters.

Bronco Mendenhall was asked if he had ever coached such talented true freshmen receivers while at BYU, because Virginia hasn’t had a rookie pass catcher like Davis in quite a while.

Mendenhall remembered Mitch Matthews, a 6-6 freshman receiver.

The coach said that Matthews’ and Davis’ size made them always open. Throw it high, they’re open.

“When you can run like Lavel, that is an additional bonus,” Mendenhall said. “So that he’s at the front end of his career is really exciting and helpful, but we have used and designed things like this before and we were hopeful, at some point, we could move in that direction here at UVA.”

Davis, who hails from a small town in South Carolina, was lightly recruited, and again, took Wahoo Nation by surprise with his spectacular performance in the season opener. When Mendenhall signed the lanky receiver, he and his staff felt it would be a year before they would get significant production from Davis.

“Seeing the summer workouts, my perception changed immediately,” Mendenhall said. “Work ethic, speed, ability, determination, and it was not long before he was going to be a first-year player. Maybe took less than two weeks from the time he arrived even before we started practicing.”

Nine of Davis’ 14 receptions have accounted for 20+ yards, four of them for 30+.

No one could blame Armstrong for looking at Davis any time the big receiver is in the game. Armstrong, a fiery competitor from Ohio, ranks No. 23 among all quarterbacks in the country in passing touchdowns (15), and No. 31 in total offense (1,970 yards, 281.4 average, as a dual-threat QB). He’s also 34th in passing yards (1,571 … 224.4 per game).

Last week, the sophomore beame the first quarterback in Virginia history to throw three touchdown passes in a game of 50+ yards (90, 56, 52). His 383 yards passing against Abilene was the seventh most in a game by a Cavalier and his 435 yards of total offense was third-most. He didn’t play the entire third quarter.

“Great quarterbacks have anticipation and great quarterbacks are really fast decision makers,” Mendenhall said this week. “I think Brennan’s accuracy of decisions without compromising speed is improving, so one of the great things is he’s so decisive and so competent.

“Like any of us, we can be fooled on occasion by an opponent or by a situation. His ability to discern what he’s seeing with accuracy and speed is improving each and every week. That’s what I see, he’s already a good athlete. He already has a strong arm. He already  is a great leader, but I would say just the speed an accuracy of his decisions is what I see improving consistently.”

Armstrong has also only played in six full games. He suffered the first concussion of his career in the first half of the NC State game and didn’t return in that contest or the following game at Wake Forest.

In six games, what would normally be only half a season for this new Wahoo pass combination, is a tempting offering of what could be over the next two seasons or more for Virginia’s offense.

So bright that Bronco has to wear shades.