Micah Davey has unfished business in Lake Charles.
The standout linebacker accomplished plenty as a sophomore, including earning All-American honors from six different publications a year ago.
Davey not only led McNeese but led all of the FCS in several defensive categories. His 153 tackles ranked first. Additionally, he led in tackles per game with 15.3 and solo tackles per game with 8.3.
Basically, if there was a play to be made on the defensive side last year, Davey made it.
That type of season would lead many to speculate whether or not Davey was going to enter his name into the transfer portal after last season. In the ever-changing world of college football, plenty of FBS teams likely wanted the services of an All-American linebacker.
Davey had other plans.
“It’s unfinished business. And I’m bought in with the coaches,” Davey said when asked why he returned to McNeese in 2024.
Davey is the son of former LSU quarterback Rohan Davey. For a player of Micah’s caliber, along with his genes and namesake, you would have expected him to be highly sought after from a young age. However, that was not the case.
In fact, Davey did not even have a star rating by 247 Sports coming out of University Lab High School in Baton Rouge. The scholarship offers never came, and Davey ultimately chose to walk on at McNeese and try to prove himself.
Those times were tough, but the young linebacker was able to lean on his father to get him through it.
“I didn’t travel, I didn’t get to do anything with the team, but him staying in my ear that whole year just telling me ‘Trust the process, your time will come, God has a path laid out for you… Just believe in it and stay faithful to it’… that’s really what helped me go through the struggles of being a freshman preferred walk-on.”
In addition to recognizing his own struggles, Davey knows that plenty of college football players are going through something similar, and that it is not easy for many of them to talk about it.
“Everybody goes through struggles, trials, and tribulations throughout college football because it is an emotionally and physically taxing sport. A lot of people don’t open up about how they really feel inside,” Davey added.
There’s no doubt that Davey was thankful for the original opportunity given to him at McNeese, and he has not forgotten about it. While his own successes have been plentiful, he wants to turn that into team success.
“At the end of the day it is still not about me. Last year, it doesn’t matter how much of a great season I had, the main goal is to win games,” Davey said about the record-setting campaign he had.
Along with a revamped roster, Davey and Coach Goff are looking to turn that individual success into more team wins.
The McNeese Cowboys open the 2024 season on August 24th against Tarleton State. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2 at 2:30 PM.