By By STEVE FRANKLIN, Sports Writer
Even Emanual Davis didn’t expect to make this big of an impact this soon.
Davis, a redshirt freshman cornerback for East Carolina, was fighting just to get playing time at the start of the season. Now, he’s being tabbed as one of the top freshman in the nation.
Davis has picked up five postseason awards since helping the Pirates win the Conference USA Championship on Dec. 6.
The Manteo native, who tied for the team lead with four interceptions and led the Pirates with seven pass break-ups, has been named a First Team Freshman All American by rivals.com, a Second Team All Freshman by Sporting News and collegefootballnews.com, a Third Team All Freshman by Phil Steele Magazine and was a member of Conference USA’s All Freshman Team.
East Carolina defensive back Emanuel Davis picked up his fourth and fifth post-season honors Wednesday afternoon after being named 2008 Rivals.com First-Team Freshman All-American and Third-Team All-Freshman by Phil Steele Magazine.
In his first career start, Davis made an immediate impact.
The 20-year old filled in for an injured Dekota Marshall against Houston on Sept. 27, and on the Cougars’ opening drive, Davis came up with an interception and returned it 11 yards for the score.
Davis’ biggest contribution came in back-to-back overtime wins over Central Florida and Marshall.
After coming up with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery at the end of regulation, Davis intercepted Golden Knights quarterback Michael Greco in overtime to help set-up Ben Hartman’s game-winning field goal.
The following week versus Marshall, Davis intercepted a career-best two passes and had six tackles in a 19-16 overtime win. He was named Conference USA’s Defensive Player of the Week for his play against Marshall.
All told, Davis finished the 2008 season with 42 tackles, four interceptions, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, two tackles-for-a-loss, and seven pass break-ups.
Not bad for a kid who never played a snap in the secondary before August.
So how would Davis like to close out this season?