Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts failed to lead the White team offense to a touchdown during Saturday afternoon's A-Day game in Tuscaloosa.
Raekwon Davis had something to do with that.
The 6-foot-7, 308-pound junior defensive lineman from Meridian, Miss., repeatedly harassed Hurts and the rest of the starting offense, compiling eight tackles and two down-by-contact sacks. As a result, the White team had to settle on four Joseph Bulovas field goals for its scoring output.
"Raekwon is a good player, because he is hard to block," Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said afterward in a news conference.
With much of the focus this spring in Tuscaloosa on either the quarterback competition between Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa or a secondary that must replace six players from last season's national champions, the emergence of another formidable defensive front was overshadowed until A-Day. Before more than 74,000 fans inside Bryant-Denny Stadium, Davis, Isaiah Buggs and Quinnen Williams combined for 21 tackles and five sacks.
Davis was often overlooked last season on a defense that could have as many as 11 players selected in the NFL draft this week. He collected 69 tackles and 10 tackles for loss, and his 8.5 sacks led the team.
Southeastern Conference coaches didn't take Davis for granted, tabbing him as an All-SEC first-team selection.
"I just want to have more sacks than I did last year," Davis said in a recent news conference. "Last year was OK, but I know I can do better. Consistency is the biggest thing around here."
Davis was a top-100 national prospect in the 2016 signing class, according to Rivals.com and 247Sports.com, and played that year as a freshman. He didn't play much, however, getting in seven of Alabama's 15 games and totaling four tackles, one an 8-yard sack against Mississippi State.
His sophomore season was six days away from commencing late last August when Davis suffered a minor gun-shot wound to his right leg, but he was cleared to play in the opener against Florida State and had a 10-yard sack of Deondre Francois early in the third quarter. He followed that up with an eight-tackle showing in the 41-10 win over Fresno State and topped that last November with nine-tackle outings against LSU and Mississippi State on consecutive Saturdays.
Davis had two tackles for loss in the Sugar Bowl semifinal drubbing of Clemson and a 9-yard sack in the national championship game against Georgia, but his most memorable play of last season was an interception against Georgia that began Alabama's comeback from a 20-7 deficit in its eventual 26-23 overtime win.
"I haven't thought about that much," Davis said. "It was just one of those plays that kind of came to me. I was happy to help the team out."
Davis played his first two seasons under position coach Karl Dunbar and is working this year under Craig Kuligowski, who came up from the University of Miami and was an offensive tackle for Saban at Toledo in 1990. Competing at 6-7 hasn't always been easy, but Davis said yoga has aided in his development.
"It definitely helps with your flexibility, and it definitely helps you play better, too," he said. "I can play at my size because I can stay low. Before I got here and when I was a freshman, I stayed too high. There are certain little drills you can do to help your hips stay low."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.