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Penguins QB Davis better after rehab on knee
youngstown
Ricky Davis appears to be good as new and has been taking almost all the snaps in practice as Youngstown State prepares for a road contest against South Dakota State for first place in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
The junior quarterback injured his knee last week against Northern Iowa and had a busy rest of the weekend trying to get back to a healthy position.
“I did a lot of leg presses and a lot of different rehab-like stuff to get my knee back,” Davis said. “This is the time of the season where I can’t be hurt and I have to fight through everything.”
The remaining snaps with the first-string offense have all gone to Nathan Mays. Offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery said the similar play styles between Davis, Mays and Trent Hosick, who is out for the year after having surgery to repair his broken collarbone, has made the transition between quarterbacks relatively simple.
“We’ve been able to run the same things with all of them,” Montgomery said. “So we’re not going to prepare any differently, we’re just not as deep as we were.”
Now being away from scout team, Montgomery said Mays should know plenty more of the playbook that is specific for this week’s game. The playbook became hyper-condensed against Northern Iowa because Mays had been focusing entirely on running the scout team.
“This week [Mays has] had some practice,” Montgomery said. “He’s more familiar with what we’re doing so the playbook has expanded this week.
“Last week he had seen things in meetings but until you get a chance to rep in practice and when you get into a game where every play is important, I wasn’t going to call something he wasn’t familiar with [against UNI].”
Hunter Wells has taken the role of scout team quarterback this week. While he doesn’t appear to be asked to throw much in that role, the last two days when he has thrown the sore shoulder YSU head coach Bo Pelini cited this week doesn’t look like a serious issue. Wells isn’t expected to travel with the team this weekend.
If Davis is able to stay healthy this week those potential issues should be avoided. Initially Davis thought his injury was going to be much more severe than the knee bruise it turned out to be.
“[I thought it was] pretty serious,” Davis said. “I coudln’t put much weight on it. I couldn’t push off. I tried to fight through it and I couldn’t push off into my throw and it affected my play.”
But don’t expect Davis to come out easily this week should anything happen to him.
“Unless I can’t walk I’ve got to be out there with my team,” Davis said.