By John Brice
Special Contributor
Notre Dame’s coaches and players walked through a phalanx of dedicated fans who flanked them on both sides as they marched from The Basilica of the Sacred Heart into Notre Dame Stadium, barely two hours before a recent kickoff.
Family members, kids and people of all ages, roared with encouragement and reached out for high-fives from those ambassadors of their cherished team.
Avery Davis, injured Notre Dame captain whose career has been the essence of selflessness, stood waiting for his brothers at the stadium gates.
Pointedly, repeatedly, Davis hugged every coach, every teammate, myriad members of the Irish support staff.
Notre Dame has touched Davis, and though he had an ACL injury in August that robbed him of ever playing again for the Irish, he remained adamant that he will touch Notre Dame.
“Just giving them a piece of love but also show them that somebody cares for them, show them that I’m invested still even though I am not playing,” said Davis, the veteran wide receiver who starred in Notre Dame’s captivating upset of No. 1 Clemson in 2020. “Whatever way I can be with them, especially on a game day, I try to do that.”
Davis has embodied what first-year Irish head coach Marcus Freeman has outlined as a necessary foundational component moving forward in Freeman’s program.
“That was part of another message I had to the team, everybody has to have value,” Freeman said. “If you’re going to be on this travel squad or you’re going to be at a game, you have to have value. A guy like Bo Bauer (the graduate-student linebacker also just suffered a season-ending knee injury) or Avery Davis, this is their last year, they’re captains, they have to understand, and they do, I don’t need to tell them where there is value or what can they give back to this football team or how can they help this football.
“Me rehabbing myself, that’s one thing, but to help this football team is another. They’re mature, they’re older, they understand the importance of that.”
Davis has embodied team above all. He’s a former nationally ranked prep quarterback prospect who has logged time in his Irish career at quarterback, running back, cornerback and wide receiver.
Coaches never asked Davis to be an offensive or defensive lineman, but his approach ensures the answer would have been yes. The Cedar Hill, Texas, native has fully leaned into being both a team captain and a ‘Notre Dame…