Before the first day of spring practice, Dabo Swinney looked at his depth chart at defensive tackle and saw Tyler Davis listed with the first team.
“I was like, ‘We can’t run that guy out there first. He just got here,” Swinney recalled. “‘Surely, we have somebody on this team that can run out there first.’ But that is where we are. It was a little ugly early, but I thought we finished well.”
Davis ended up having a great spring. The post-season injuries that forced defensive tackles Nyles Pinckney and Jordan Williams to miss all of spring practice turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it forced true freshmen like Davis, Etinosa Reuben and Ruke Orhorhoro to get a lot of reps in the spring, reps they more than likely would not have received had Pinckney and Williams been able to practice.