Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

7/20/2011 at 3:30pm

HOOVER, Ala. — Even though he was named All-Southeastern Conference first team running back last fall, not everybody around the SEC knows about Knile Davis or when his breakout 2010 season began (the Ole Miss game midway into it, he says). That was easy to deduce from some of the questions the Arkansas Razorback junior fielded Wednesday at SEC Media Days.

Though he was last year's first-team league running back, he goes into the 2011 getting only the second-team nod from SEC coaches. Davis ran for 1,322 yards and 13 touchdowns as the catalyst for the Razorbacks' late-season surge.

Back home, not everyone knows the off-the-field Knile Davis, the junior who will be counted on to take some pressure off a first-year starting quarterback and a Hog passing game. We endeavored to learn a little more of that Knile Davis on Wednesday at SEC Media Days at the Wynfrey Hotel.

For instance, Davis likes to use Twitter (@knile_rashaad) and, despite some college coaches now outlawing Twitter use among their players, Davis says he believes every player on any college team should be able to "tweet" as long as "they're not stupid about what they say." Davis said later he likes to keep his tweets "PG."

On Monday, Davis tweeted that he had hit 430 pounds for one bench-press rep, his best total yet. That amount of weight ranks up there with three Razorback linemen (offensive linemen Alvin Bailey and Grant Cook and defensive lineman Alfred Davis) who are a little better, he said.

Davis also considers himself a "weight room guru." He's maxed out at 550 pounds in the squat lift and 320 in the clean, to join his 430-pound bench press.

"I'm in the 3-4-5 club," he says of a designation his high school back in Texas had that he strived for but could never attain.

Striving — that's a word you notice regularly with Davis when he talks about preseason recognition and post-season honors. He says he's always striving simply to get better and to help the team win. It sounds cliché around this time when the SEC brings in 12 coaches and 36 players to talk about the upcoming season, but with Davis it sounded genuine.

"If we win, everything else will take care of itself," he said. That includes his possibly contending for or winning the Heisman Trophy.

We did notice his eyes brighten when a reporter asked if he thought about winning the Heisman, or if he made it his goal, but Davis' answer was merely that his aim was team victories. His favorite Razorback running back of the past, Darren McFadden (2005-07) ran second two years running for the Heisman.

And, to be frank, it's probably best that Davis or any Arkansas star not become too concerned about their Heisman chances. Alabama didn't have one until running back Mark Ingram came out of nowhere and won it in 2009 after a perfect Crimson Tide season, and Alabama players traditionally will get more national notoriety than those from Arkansas. So will those from Florida. And, in this league, even as potent as the SEC West is from top to bottom, attention still tends to lean East.

So, witness that preseason All-SEC coaches team that had Alabama's junior Trent Richardson and South Carolina sophomore Marcus Lattimore on the first team.

"It's not up to me. I don't have any control over that," he said of the result that left him on the second team, despite his leading the league in rushing in 2010. "I'm going to go on and try to have a big season and hopefully show them I'm first-team."

What he can control in almost three years at Arkansas, he's done. Davis entered Arkansas in the middle of his senior year in high school to get a jump on the college game. He fought back from a broken leg in his senior year in high school and various injuries during his first year and a half at Arkansas to finally, seemingly explode on the season as a sophomore last year, and even then he didn't fully arrive until midseason.

He says that slights like being left off the All-SEC first team can be motivation, and that he "always has a chip on my shoulder, because I'm a competitor."

His maturity before a large group of media here belied his age -- his just 19 going into his junior year. He's had some hard knocks.

On the field, the hardest hits were delivered by Mississippi State last year, he said. In practice, the big hits come from senior linebacker Jerry Franklin. Head coach Bobby Petrino said Wednesday in his media appearance that he wants his team to "practice safe" in trying to avoid injuries, and Davis says Franklin does manage to hold back a little compared with what fans see from Franklin on game day.

He says he watches other SEC backs to pick up on some moves to add to his repertoire, which last year included one of the most dynamic cutbacks in the league, resulting in a handful of long touchdown scampers. His 4.29-seconds-in-the-40 time before pro scouts last spring tends to overmatch many of the SEC defenses.

Ingram, now moved on to the NFL, "has a great first step. And [South Carolina's Marcus] Lattimore, what I notice is he just refuses to go down," Davis said.

He knows he's part of a league that is dominated by top runners. While Lattimore and Richardson were coaches All-SEC first-team selections, he said, "Every team in the SEC has a good running back. Trent Richardson, [Auburn's] Michael Dyer, they are great running backs."

It's interesting to wonder where Arkansas would have been without Davis's surge during the last eight games of 2010. The Hogs were also without backup running back Dennis Johnson for most of the season with a life-threatening torn bowel suffered on a kickoff in Week 2. Sophomore Ronnie Wingo, dangerous and speedy when used as a receiver, wasn't as physical as the Hogs needed for a regular tailback, and Broderick Green, whose career ended prematurely in the spring with a knee injury, was bullish but not fast and took a few steps to get going.

Wingo has come back more muscular and just as fast, and Johnson is healed. Davis will share carries with those two, and he'll also see Arkansas trying to spread the ball around to a brigade of receivers. He said he doesn't worry about or mind sharing the ball, nor does he fear blocking for his "best friend," Tyler Wilson, at quarterback.

With all those weapons, the opportunity for another unsung Knile Davis to emerge on the scene this season is likely. Davis' top candidate for that surprise is his backup, the recovered Dennis Johnson.

Davis said of Johnson, "I think he's is the most underrated running back around."

Email: jharris@abpg.com or follow Jim on Twitter @jimharris360

Tagged: Marcus Lattimore, Trent Richardson, Michael Dyer, Southeastern Conference, 2011 SEC Media Days, Bobby Petrino, Knile Davis, Dennis Johnson, Ronnie Wingo, Tyler Wilson