Avery Davis Warming Up as Notre Dame’s #3 QB Today

Among the eight players that Notre Dame announced were out – most of which unexpectedly – for this afternoon’s contest with South Florida, one was backup quarterback Brendon Clark. That leaves true freshman Drew Pyne seemingly one snap away from getting on the field. It sounds like one of Notre Dame’s contingencies is former quarterback Avery Davis.

Davis, who has played running back and corner in addition to wide receiver, was originally recruited by Notre Dame initially as a quarterback after a record-setting high school career in Texas. In a perfect world, we won’t have to see Davis relive those glory days this afternoon.

With Clark out, true freshman Drew Pyne serves as Ian Book’s backup for at least this afternoon. Pyne was a consensus top-100 recruit early in his recruiting cycle but fell down the rankings throughout his senior season. Pyne was an early-enrollee for Notre Dame in January, but with just one spring practice before COVID shut spring sports down, he didn’t get the normal benefit of enrolling early practice wise.

Brian Kelly hasn’t been asked about Davis at quarterback this year, but it’s safe to assume that the Notre Dame coaching staff prepared for such contingencies given the nature of playing football amid a pandemic.

It could be a busy afternoon for Davis even if he doesn’t have to play any quarterback. Lawrence Keys was also among those listed as unavailable for Notre Dame today so Davis will be playing a lot of slot wide receiver as well.