Terrill Davis Ended a Near Monthlong Catch Drought in Best Game as a Cowboy

LAWRENCE, Kansas — Terrill Davis had four games with at least 14 catches last season at UCO, but his 21-yard catch-and-run in the first quarter Saturday was Davis’ first catch in three weeks.

Oklahoma State fell to Kansas 38-21 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, but it marked a career day for Davis since making the jump up to the Division-I level.

He caught five of his six targets for 78 yards against the Jayhawks. His last catch before Saturday was in the third quarter of the Arizona game on Oct. 4 — nearly a month ago.

“Just prayer and a lot of connection with the team because, like I said, we want to be here,” said Davis on how he’s stayed locked in over the past month. “So when you go into practice and you’ve got people who are not downers and they want to actually be here, have fun, it makes it kind of easier to forget those type of things.”

It’s probably no coincidence that Davis’ big day came with the return of Zane Flores, who had been out since that Arizona game with injury. There were a lot of Cowboy receivers who had their best games of the season on Saturday.

Davis had a few near misses on deep balls this season, but he brought in one against the Jayhawks. He went up and over KU corner Austin Alexander in the fourth quarter to bring in a 29-yard gain. Alexander was flagged for pass interference on the play, but it didn’t matter because the former UCO Broncho brought it in.

“It felt good for sure,” Davis said. “It had been a long time coming. It finally came.”

Davis, from Choctaw, has quite the story. He got a late start on football, as he was initially a basketball player before the pandemic closed gyms. So, he went out for the football team as a senior. He was his district’s offensive player of the year in that one year he played, securing a scholarship to UCO.

After redshirting in 2021, Davis would go on to catch 167 passes across his next three seasons in Edmond for 2,347 yards and 19 touchdowns. His 2024 season was especially ridiculous, bringing in 109 receptions for 1,609 yards and 15 TDs. He was catching, on average, about eight balls a game.

He went from starting football as a high school senior to being a D-II First Team All-American in a short amount of time.

“He came from a school where he caught 116 passes,” OSU interim coach Doug Meacham said. “He’s kind of used to catching 8, 10, 15 balls a game and that’s not really where we are right now. He comes in here, he blocks, he battles, he comes to practice, he’s not getting the ball near like what he’s used to, primarily.

“And as a receiver, a lot of times you could react in a negative way. He’s the consummate teammate. Consummate great kid. He should be the first guy complaining, and he’s not. Comes out and works hard every day. He’s just a great kid and made a few plays. How many balls did you have today? Three, four? (Five) Great play there at the end on the fade. Battled. You can’t say enough good things about him. He just battles.”