ORLANDO, Fla.---
“Glad I get to relax a little bit, get the stuff I need to get worked on, worked on,” Gabe Davis says as he rides a stationary bike at Ram Performance and Rehab in Orlando.
Recovery is never easy especially after a long football season.
“You get hit by these big dudes all year, need to recover,” he says as he steps off.
For the UCF junior receiver it’s even harder to say good bye.
“I put my all into UCF, UCF put their all in to me,” Davis says. “They trust me, they believe in me, they’ve loved me unconditionally. And just leaving that part of my life behind it’s a bitter sweet.”
Soon after the final game of the season versus USF he announced his decision to forgo his senior season and declare for the NFL Draft.
“People think it’s an easy decision to leave that school, but once you actually do it you just feel like you’re leaving so many people behind,” he says.
As a junior he had one more year of eligibility. But after seeing his teammates McKenzie Milton and Brandon Moore go down with knee injuries he knew it was his time to go.
“Especially seeing two of my good friends, great friends, brothers have devastating injuries like that, it definitely made me second guess what I wanted to do for my career.”
Standing out in a loaded wide receiver class won’t be easy, but that’s where his trainer Bert Whigham comes in.
“Spring semester this past year in January, February, March he was driving three days a week to come train with us. There aren’t a lot of pros or college kids that are going to do that. And that’s the kind of focus and dedication it takes,” Whigham says.
Whigham played football at Seminole and Illinois State. As a trainer he’s worked with some of the biggest names in the sport including Saquon Barkley, Dak Prescott, and Khalil Mack. Last season he trained Miles Sanders out of Penn State. A strong combine performance helped elevate Sanders to a second round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles.
“As a coach I want him to run a 4.2, is that likely? No very humans have ever done that,” Whigham says. “But anything sub 4.5 is going to be amazing for him.”
The forty time is always a headline grabber, but it’s Davis’ intangibles that made him such a great player at UCF. His favorite player is Larry Fitzgerald who has built a Hall of Fame career doing the little things.
“Been my favorite since I was nine years old, still playing to this day,” Davis says about Fitzgerald. “That guy slow forty time but every time the ball is in the air somehow he comes up with it every single time.”
As he looks forward to what’s next he knows he’ll miss UCF.
“Just miss the guys. Miss the culture of UCF, miss the fans, I’ll miss everything about it. It feels like it’s an easy decision to say I’m going to the NFL living my dream but you feel like you’re leaving a part of you at UCF. That’s how I feel and I just know I’m going to miss those guys.”