Davidson Academic Mega Camp Defensive Players To Watch

This past weekend, Davidson College hosted an Academic Mega Camp where several college football programs with high academic standards and reputations were present to evaluate over 350 players over two sessions for recruiting and potential offers to play on the next level. Several players on the defensive side of the ball were in attendance, and they are going to be players to watch this upcoming season here in the state. Let's take a look at some of these talented young men.    Griffin came into this camp with a 3.83 GPA, a strong asset for his recruitment. Griffin is also a two-time returning All-Conference player who can contribute on both sides of the ball. Griffin competed at the EDGE position at this showcase, and I liked his quickness off the football and I thought he took coaching well during the positional individual period. Griffin showed a nice dip & rip move during the 1 on 1 period, as well as a counter to it on a 2nd rep, showing he has some good moves in his pass rush arsenal.     Picking up offers from Wofford, Davidson, and Cornell in a roughly a month's period has made it a strong offseason for this talented EDGE prospect from the Huskies. Will ran an impressive 4.69 40-yard dash time during the testing portion of the camp. I thought Will did a good job of moving through the agility drills and looked fluid during the defensive positional individual period. With a 4.5 GPA and an overall class rank of #4, Will is definitely going to have a number of good options on the table for himself when it comes time for him to make a choice to play college football.       Jaylen is fast becoming one of my favorite players to write about. I thought he did a great job at the Gardner Webb Mega Camp, where he earned an offer from the Bulldogs. Jaylen also fit in well at this camp, sporting a 4.2 overall GPA. The exciting thing about Jaylen is that he competed as an EDGE player at this camp, and it looked natural to him. Jaylen measured in at 6'4 at the Gardner Webb Camp, so he's still growing into his body, and he looked very quick coming off the football from this spot. He's going to get a lot more college interest moving forward.     Xavier was an All-Conference selection last season, and he'll be an important piece for the Spartans once again if they want to repeat the success they had last year as a team. The thing that stood out to me about Xavier at this camp was the quickness with which he executed his defensive drills. I was taking some pictures as players were going through their reps, and it took me a while to get a good shot of him. I know that's a little different assessment, but that's the best way to show his speed and agility. His recruiting has been a bit slower for now, but I think if he can have a good start to the year, college programs will be interested.     Brady is a player we like here at Prep Redzone North Carolina, and his reported 4.0 overall GPA makes him a good fit for this Academic Mega Camp. An all-conference selection last season, Brady has been named a team captain on two occasions as well. Even though he plays as a defensive back, Brady is a tough one, as he was also named an All-Conference wrestler. Brady shows the ability to come up and support on the run on film, and at this camp, he showed the ability to come down in the slot and cover receivers in short spaces. Brady has been receiving some well-deserved recruiting attention this offseason, and that should continue as we get closer to the start of the season in the fall.     Daniel came into the Academic Mega Camp with a reported 4.5 overall GPA and was taking AP & Honors classes. That's some impressive work in the classroom! Daniel can play a number of positions for the Sabres, but he competed as a defensive back at this particular camp. We recently added Daniel to our 2027 Class Rankings update, and Daniel has been working hard on improving his skills on both sides of the ball so far this offseason. Daniel shows a good ability to cover ground as a ballhawking safety and is not afraid to come up and tackle ball carriers well in space.     Jackson was named a 1st Team All-Conference Linebacker last season, but even more impressive is the reported 4.3 GPA that he had coming into this Academic Mega Camp. The fluidity and quickness Jackson showed as a linebacker going through drills were a strong point in his camp performance. Jackson ran a 4.63 40-yard dash time and showed the ability to change direction well in space throughout the agility circuit portion of the camp. We have highlighted Jackson a good bit recently, and he continues to impress throughout this offseason.     Lukas is having a strong offseason so far, picking up offers from Columbia, Cornell, and Georgetown in about a two-month span. With excellent physical size at 6'3 and 210 pounds, Lukas has a reported overall GPA of 4.4, an excellent asset in his pocket in terms of recruiting. Looking at his film, Lukas shows nice patience from his safety position in coverage, exhibiting strong ball skills to break up passes on a routine basis. Lukas is also not afraid to come up and tackle in space in the running game or the quick screen game against wide receivers.     First impressive thing about Selester is his reported overall 4.7 GPA - awesome job right there. Selester is also a successful track runner in the 100-meter dash, so that tells you one asset of his overall game is speed for sure. Selester is not afraid to cover receivers on an island, and I think he plays bigger than his size. Teams would try to pick on him in certain situations against bigger wide receivers, and he would consistently break up passes with good technique. He probably will project to the slot on the college level, but his outside experience will be valuable if he makes that transition ultimately.     A two-time All-Conference selection, Gavin is someone we should have had on our radar before now, but in our next rankings update, he will be a priority player for us. Gavin has a reported overall 4.27 GPA and a 4.5-second 40-yard dash time. Gavin is also a good runner on the track in the offseason, which just enhances his ability between the lines. Gavin had an offer from Cornell coming into the Davidson Camp; however, he picked up an offer from the home school for his second overall offer, and it was well deserved. Gavin shows up well on film, displaying long speed to easily run with wide receivers. Gavin is also physical and comes up and tackles well in space. Finally, Gavin is an asset on special teams with several impressive returns under his belt.

This past weekend, Davidson College hosted an Academic Mega Camp where several college football programs with high academic standards and reputations were present to evaluate over 350 players over two sessions for recruiting and potential offers to play on the next level. Several players on the defensive side of the ball were in attendance, and they are going to be players to watch this upcoming season here in the state. Let's take a look at some of these talented young men.