JACKSONVILLE — Jarrad Davis cried out in pain as the stadium went quiet.
The linebacker pounded his right leg on the ground in frustration, unable to move the other as trainers tended to his injured ankle.
Coach Jim McElwain regularly refers to Davis as the “heart and soul” of Florida’s defense, and now he watched as that heart was reluctantly ripped out by way of a gingerly limp to the locker room.
That was two weeks ago during Florida’s win over Missouri.
And in the following days, it was announced that Davis was battling a “severely sprained ankle.”
His status for Saturday’s game against Georgia was supposedly in jeopardy.
But in his mind, it never was.
“I came back to the University of Florida to play with my brothers and to win,” he said.
“I didn’t come back to sit on the bench just because of an injury.”
Davis had an avalanche of motivation to play against the Bulldogs.
He’s a senior.
He’s from Georgia.
He’s the team’s leading tackler and a vocal presence in the locker room.
He wanted to be out there.
But coach Jim McElwain wasn’t as optimistic in the days leading up to the game.
“He got beat up by a tackling dummy on one play (during practice),” he said.
Cornerback Duke Dawson was equally skeptical.
“The whole week he tried to practice,” the junior said.
“But he really couldn’t.”
Then, on Friday night, Dawson said he spoke with Davis.
“We had a great talk,” he said.
“He said he was going to play.”
And when he arrived at Jacksonville’s EverBank Field on Saturday afternoon, he kept his promise.
“I just felt the energy in the stadium and I knew I had to play,” Davis said.
“I knew I had to play.”
But how would the ankle hold up? Would he be the same player — the heart and soul?
His stat line answered that question: A team-leading seven tackles with 2.5 of them for loss and a quarterback hurry.
The screams of pain from two weeks earlier were replaced by screams of triumph, especially late in the fourth quarter.
Down by 14 with about 3 minutes left, Georgia was facing a fourth-and-3. If the Bulldogs converted, they had a chance.
If not, the game was over.
Quarterback Jacob Eason dropped back and found receiver Javon Wims just in time for Davis to blow him up like a landmine two yards behind the line of scrimmage.
“I took a really good, educated guess,” Davis said.
“And I guessed right.”
The play — and the fact that he played at all — epitomized why McElwain calls Davis the heart and soul of the team.
“Those guys,” Davis said, “the time we put in this summer, the time we put in throughout this season. The energy, the blood, the sweat the tears we’ve shed.
“What I’m about wouldn’t have showed up if I would have sat this game.”
Contact Ethan Bauer at ebauer@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ebaueri.
Jarrad Davis (center) makes a tackle during Florida's 24-10 win over Georgia on Oct. 29, 2016, in Jacksonville.
