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NORMAN — Jaden Davis finds himself in a familiar position.
The Fort Lauderdale, FL, product will start at cornerback in Oklahoma’s season opener for the third straight season on Saturday.
Davis’ announcement as a starter may have raised eyebrows from the fanbase, but Brent Venables wasn’t shocked as he praised the consistency Davis brought to each and every practice on Tuesday.
Wide receiver Marvin Mims wasn’t shocked either, as he goes up against the 5-foot-10 defensive back every day in practice.
“He's definitely a really polished corner,” Mims said after practice on Tuesday. “A smaller guy but… him being at the top of the depth chart fighting back, fighting for a spot it shows the resilience he has.
“Not only him but his teammates too. We gotta believe in him. We all believe in him and we trust him and just the way he's responded over the past couple of years and what he's been through, I mean it's been great.”
Last year Davis had a down year and he’d be the first person to admit to it.
Appearing in 13 games and starting six contests, Davis only recorded a pair of pass breakups and failed to pull down an interception.
The 2021 season wore on Davis, as he unsuccessfully tried to block out the outside noise.
“Not good enough,” he said last spring of his 2021 performance. “I’m my hardest critic. I read a lot of stuff, and it's hard to shut everything completely out. But everything that anybody has ever said about me, I've probably said something 10 times worse to myself in my head.
"That type of stuff doesn't really bother me as much, but I'm really hard on myself. Like, really, really hard. I feel like it just wasn't good enough as a whole.”
Davis said his confidence dipped, but once the new coaching staff arrived he was able to buy in and get back on the right track.
Having a former cornerback, and an undersized one as well, now coaching him in Jay Valai was a big boost.
“It's great to have somebody who can relate,” Davis said. “Everything you're going through, he's been through it. He was at Wisconsin. He was All-Big Ten. He's been in the position where he's had to fight for a position. Ups and downs and everything, he understands.
“When you have somebody who has been through the exact same thing you're going through, it's just a big difference. I can go up to his office and talk to him about just life because he understands everything I'm going through.”
For Davis, Valai also empowers him to play to his own strengths.
He’s never going to bring overwhelming size to the table, and that’s okay because Valai wants Davis to play within himself on Saturday’s.
“Obviously, he's very detailed and you have to do it in the grand scheme of the defense or the grand scheme of whatever we're in at that point in time,” Davis said. “I’m not 6-2. We all can see I'm not 6-2. I'm not 6-1, but I know what I'm good at. I know I have great feet. I know I'm quick. I know I'm fast. Me and another corner like Kanai (Walker), Kanai is bigger than me. We might play completely different under the same defense, under the same scheme. It makes everybody more comfortable and confident in whatever we're doing."
Once the Sooners take the field against the UTEP Miners (0-1) this weekend, Davis will have a chance to show why Valai, Venables and the defensive staff have renewed faith in him, and Woodi Washington couldn’t be more excited to start opposite of Davis on Saturday.
“Obviously his freshman year he started off to a great start,” Washington said on Tuesday. “Sophomore and junior year he was kind of up-and-down, but he’s gotten it together. And Coach Valai and Coach Venables, they’ve definitely given him a chance and I think he’s doing a great job holding the other side down.”
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