Rare bird: Marcus Davenport's rise from three FBS offers to potential Top 10 pick in the NFL Draft

SAN ANTONIO and MOBILE, Ala. — Sometimes it would be a pair of bright blue socks — or a mismatched pair. Sometimes it'd be an outfit that appeared to be waging war against itself. "I'd think it was the coolest thing," he said. A preteen Marcus Davenport would come down the stairs and his dad, Ron Davenport, would greet him with a raised eyebrow and a quizzical look on his face. "Uh, are you sure you're going to wear that?" Marcus would chuckle and keep walking. But his mind would race. He'd get home from school and the outfit would come off — and never reappear. His dad never told him to take it off. But he felt the pressure of the question's tone. It was frequent, playful ribbing. But eventually those outfits stayed on and even after prodding from his father, some would make a reappearance. "He just taught me to be myself," Davenport said. A decade later, he's exactly that. His favorite poem he's written argues that too closely analyzing that which enthralls us takes away from the subject's charm and allure. It's called "Beauty." "We limit it and mold it into things we can understand when, true beauty, you shouldn’t have to fully understand it to appreciate it," Davenport said. [caption id="attachment_37526" align="alignleft" width="350"] Photo by Mary Scott McNabb[/caption] His love affair with video games dates back to Kung Fu Chaos and The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind on the original Xbox, where he played with a fully customized character with unlimited stamina and magical powers. "It was something I got to create," he said. "I always thought that was cool." These days, he leans more toward Fortnite, Minecraft and Shadow of War, another role-playing game. He's a diehard fan of anime classics like My Hero Academia, Naruto, Dragonball Z and Attack on Titan. "People just create these imaginative worlds," he said. "I always find that crazy." One NFL team asked him in an interview if he'd ever made a trip to Comic-Con. He hadn't. San Antonio's annual edition of the event always takes place during football season. He'll bury his nose in comic books and graphic novels, but he's just as likely to sit down with one of the works of Carl Jung, one of the founders of psychology. For over a year in college, he found himself reading Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power repeatedly before gifting his copy to a graduate assistant, just as an ex-teammate gifted the book to him. "Dad put his identity on us, but left plenty of space for us to find things we like and we want to do," his younger brother, San Antonio Stevens junior Michael Davenport, said. And next month, Marcus will be a first-round pick in the NFL Draft, with a chance to go as high as the top 10. After four years at a fledgling UTSA program — one with just a single NFL Draft pick in its seven-year history — he's among the best prospects from the state of Texas in this year's draft. Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield might end up being the only Texan drafted higher. "He has as much upside and room to grow as any player in this draft," an NFC scout told Dave Campbell's Texas Football. "He just has a lot of work to do to get there." He's spent nearly all his life in San Antonio, but he's about to begin a new one as an overnight millionaire. He's a couple signatures away from trading in Betsy, his decade-old white Acura sedan, for a new Ford F-150 Raptor. "When you’re 6-7, you’re kind of limited. You ain’t fitting in any of those Italian jobs," Ron Davenport said. His road to 6-7 was trickier than most. He was less than four pounds when he was born. For most of his life, he eyed a future in the NBA. He spent most of his football career at receiver. He graduated high school with a 198-pound frame and three Division I offers. Power 5 programs inside and outside the state wouldn't return his calls. Now, he's one of the most coveted pass rushers in the 2018 draft class.

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