Why a South Carolina receiver walked away from football and how he’s moving forward
Randrecous Davis laid in his Columbia apartment and stared into the ceiling.
His mind raced.
It’s August, only a few weeks away from the 2021 football season, when the highlights of a career that carried him from Atlanta to South Carolina replayed over and over. The memories of his freshman season at USC flashed through his mind. So, too, did the recollections of earning first team all-state honors at Mays High School.
As Davis recounted those not-too-distant glory days, he could feel the tinging pain in his right leg. The scar marking where a metal rod and two screws had been surgically inserted was still visible on his flesh. It was a reminder of what football cost.
“I woke up one morning, I was in really bad pain and I didn’t know why,” Davis explained somberly. “I had already had my surgery and I’d been kind of out there running. But when I woke up in this really bad pain, I’m like, ‘I don’t want to deal with this every single day.’ ”
Just a few hours earlier, Davis entered Shane Beamer’s office on the second floor of the Long Family Football Operations Center. The season opener against Eastern Illinois, slated to be Beamer’s first as the head coach at South Carolina, drew near.
In a perfect world, it also would’ve marked Davis’ triumphant return from a slew of injuries that marred his career in Columbia.
The injuries that deprived Davis of a full college career weighed heavy on his heart as he and Beamer chatted. The hope he might return to the form that saw him dance through high school defenses and shine in spurts at South Carolina had dissipated.
Davis told Beamer he’d decided to medically retire from football.
“I wouldn’t say I’m 100% at peace,” Davis told The State. “I’d say I’m 75 to 80% at peace, just because it’s still deep down inside that I’ve always been so good at football and I just love playing football. I’ll just forever have that little part of me that still wants to play.”
A high school star lands at South Carolina
Davis was always speedy as a youngster. It’s why he played just about every offensive skill position as a high school star in West Atlanta.
Flip on the Hudl tape from his senior year at Mays, the one with over 23,000 views, for proof of his abilities.
The first shot of the nine-plus minute reel shows Davis running a deep post toward the right sideline. Readjusting to a ball thrown on the inside of his defender, he snags the pass, dances past a would-be tackler and races into the end zone for a score.
One clip later, Davis sprints across the left side of the formation from the slot, snags a shovel pass from his quarterback and dips backward to loft a throw downfield. He hits a streaking teammate for a 32-yard touchdown pass.
Then, of course, there’s the replay of a catch on a 7-yard dig route in the middle of the field. Slicing and dicing his way through the secondary and up the sideline, he outruns quite literally the entire defense on his way to the end zone.
“I knew when he hit that field, he was going,” Chrisangela Strickland, Davis’ mother, told The State. “It was just very, very exciting watching him play (at 100%).”
That Davis shined in one of the most talent-heavy football states in America inspired confidence he could translate as a mismatch option at the college level. Finding a true position for him would be a process, but he projected as a Swiss Army knife-type option under then-head coach Will Muschamp
There were glimpses of that ability over Davis’ time in Columbia. He recorded a trio of catches for 45 yards in contests against Mississippi State and East Carolina as a freshman. Davis played 11 games over the 2017 season — including a four-reception, 23-yard outing against Michigan in the Outback Bowl.
Yet those flashes never completely materialized.
“Everybody wants to decide when your football career ends,” Beamer told The State. “And that stinks when you don’t really get to necessarily make a decision because of your health. I hated that for (Davis).”
Davis is asked to list the varying issues from his time at South Carolina. It takes almost a full minute.
He suffered a torn hamstring his freshman season that resulted in a blood clot. The following year brought a pair of sports hernias. The hernia on his left side later required three cleaning procedures due to a stitch from his initial surgery that wouldn’t heal.
Then came the high ankle sprain during fall camp that forced him to miss the 2019 season. The stress fracture in his right leg followed the next year. That necessitated the surgical insertion of a rod and two screws. A second surgery followed to take the screws out.
Davis also opted out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns.
“It’s so surreal,” he said. “I had to live it and experience it and it was just crazy the whole time. But I had to keep my head high.”
‘We’re moving forward’
Derrick Moore sympathized with Davis’ tribulations.
South Carolina’s executive director of character and player development spent six years as a fullback in the NFL after a standout college career at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma.
Nine games into the 1995 season during a spell with the Carolina Panthers, he ranked among the NFL’s rushing leaders when he had his leg rolled up on following a late carry against the San Francisco 49ers.
Moore healed enough to see the field later that season, but never quite regained his pre-injury form. A two-year stint with the Arizona Cardinals followed before his knee finally forced him to retire.
“Seven hundred pounds came down on me in a twisting (motion) and it left me with a knee injury that I never recovered from,” Moore told The State. “I was never the same after that injury.”
Moore and Davis met regularly as the latter worked through lingering side effects of the — by Davis’ count — eight procedures he underwent during his time at South Carolina.
The shared experiences of leaving football created a bond. Moore worked with Davis on keeping his mindset positive. Davis has since channeled that in varying ways.
He still endures gloomy days — days in which he wishes he could still play. Davis said he briefly allows himself to be sad. After that, he fights off those feelings with an eye toward the future.
“I think it’s OK for people to be sad,” Davis explained. “Most people wouldn’t want to be sad. I don’t get sad a lot, but it’s OK. I give myself that space or that little time — maybe a day or so — to feel bad about the situation and then, after that, it’s thrown out the window. We’re moving forward.”
A future outside of Gamecocks football
Davis has stayed connected to the South Carolina football program since retiring in August.
He and Moore remain close. Former director of football relations Connor Shaw, too, helped mentor Davis through his transition away from the game.
Teammates like Josh Vann, Aaron Sterling and Kingsley “JJ” Enagbare also kept in constant contact and conversation with Davis since his decision to hang up his pads.
The other constant? That’d be Boss, the 9-month-old American bully Davis adopted two days after his birthday on Sept. 29.
“I’ve got to take care of my little baby,” he says through a laugh.
“He’s kind of been like my emotional support animal,” Davis continues as the audible joy in his voice increases with each word. “He’s just somebody around so I won’t be lonely.”
Davis has maintained football contacts in Atlanta. He hopes, eventually, he’ll get into coaching. He sees it as a chance to be a role model for kids back home.
The what-ifs have become fewer and further between in recent months, but Davis readily admits he’s still healing. There are days he wonders what would’ve happened had injuries not plagued his college career. Strickland thinks he’d be training for the NFL Draft.
A peek down at the scar on Davis’ right leg is a reminder of the toll football took. An occasional glance at his bedroom ceiling can also stir up the memories of a career concluded too soon.
Those scars, both physical and mental, continue to mend.
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 1:00 AM.
