Ray Davis says he almost returned to Kentucky in 2024

Ray Davis became a fan favorite in only one season at Kentucky. What if he stuck around in Lexington for another season?

During the 2023 campaign, Davis rushed for 1,129 yards, the fourth-most in the SEC. He also ran for 14 scores and caught seven touchdown passes to earn First-Team All-SEC honors in his fifth college football season.

Nobody was surprised when Davis entered the NFL Draft. After all, he started his career at Temple, and after two seasons in Philly, he transferred to Vanderbilt for two more years. Even though there was a Covid year mixed in there, he played five years of college football. It was time to move on.

Well, he only appeared in four games during his final season at Temple. Davis could have used a redshirt to return for a sixth season of college football in 2024. According to the talented running back, that was the plan.

“No one knows this. You’re going to be the first person that hears this,” he told the Kentucky Kernel’s Jenna Lifshen. “I actually almost came back to Kentucky. After our South Carolina game, I didn’t have the best game. I sat down with Stoops. The plan for me was to come back to Kentucky in 2024 instead of going and getting drafted.”

If you recall, the 2023 game at South Carolina was an absolute nightmare. Multiple turnovers in Gamecock territory squandered an opportunity for a seventh win. Mark Stoops looked disheveled prior to his postgame press conference. After only tallying 61 yards on 12 carries, Davis Tweeted, “Thought I was the bell cow.” The locker room appeared to be unraveling before our eyes, but everything changed the following week.

Kentucky upset 10th-ranked Louisville 38-31 thanks to three scores from Davis, including the game-winner late in the fourth quarter.

“What stopped that was the Louisville game,” Davis recalls. “The Louisville game is what stopped that. If I didn’t have that three-touchdown game, I would’ve been right back at Kentucky next year wearing the No. 1 again and bleeding the blue and white.”

Instead, Davis was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the fourth round of the NFL Draft. In his second season, he was a First-Team All-Pro Kick Returner.

The funny thing about plans is that they can change. I don’t think anybody in BBN would change what happened on Thanksgiving Saturday in 2023, one of the most shocking wins of the Stoops era.

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