Surprise star of the weekend: UTSA's Marcus Davenport

UTSA entered the year with high expectations under second-year head coach Frank Wilson, and a lot of those hopes were based on the strength of the Roadrunners’ front seven. The unit was billed as one of the strongest position groups in Conference USA coming into the season. Since then, UTSA has caught a few tough breaks since starting C-USA play, losing its first two conference games to Southern Miss and North Texas by a combined five points. But even through the early struggles, one thing remained clear – the front seven is as good as advertised. And the majority of that success falls on the shoulders of senior defensive end Marcus Davenport. After forcing a fumble against Southern Miss and then wreaking havoc all night in Denton, Davenport had his biggest coming out party to date Saturday night in a 20-7 win over Rice. It’s no surprise that Davenport had a big game in what was really a must-win matchup for UTSA against a struggling Rice team. What was more surprising was how consistently commanding Davenport was, as the junior almost single-handedly stifled Rice’s chances at pulling off an upset on the road. His first-quarter sack of Sam Glaesmann forced a fumble that Davenport recovered and returned 34-yards for a touchdown is what will standout, but his control over the game continued throughout. Davenport finished with a career-high 11 tackles, 3.5 TFL and two sacks in a truly dominating effort. Just when it seemed as though Rice may be orchestrating a scoring drive to potentially make things interesting down the stretch, Davenport was there with a key stop to keep the game in check. During one second-half sequence, Davenport deflected a pass on third down before recording his second sack on fourth down to give the UTSA offense the ball back. For a player who was once a raw prospect with outstanding potential out of Stevens High School, Davenport has developed into one of the most feared edge-defenders in C-USA. His success is to be expected – but Davenport’s overwhelming dominance Saturday set him apart from the rest of the state and displayed the talent some believe will give the junior a shot to play on Sundays after his college career draws to a close.

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