When North Texas Fans looked over the field during practices and scrimmages they saw a tall receiver and wonder who he was. Well, it is Grant Davis, WR, 6-5, 205 from Plano High School, District 9-5A, Plano, Texas. He played one season, 06-07, at the senior level because the year before he was on the junior varsity squad. That one year on the senior team he put his mark on the Plano football program.

No one in high school knew he played football until in Grant’s senior year when Plano played Mesquite. It was the first game of the season and he wowed the fans, the opponents and his teammates with a 61-yard touchdown catch.  After the touchdown catch he all of sudden was on the radar screen. Opponents never took him lightly and his coaches knew they had a new weapon on the scene.

Under the direction of then Head Coach Gerald Brence and Offensive Coordinator Jaydon McCullough (now the head coach) Davis became a major target in the passing game. The result was the team scored 490 total points for the season which is the most ever for a Plano Football Team. Davis’ part of that history was 58 passes caught for 1,065 yards for an average of 18.4 yards per catch with nine touchdowns helping Plano to a 13-2, 6-1 record.

He had scholarship offers from West Texas State and Georgetown plus received heavy interest from North Texas, SMU and some other schools.

Grant was the added part of an offense which allowed the passing game to flourish at Plano. For those who follow the Wildcat football, know they have historically been a running style offense. They had a couple of outstanding players that started the trend to using the wide open offense and they are now playing for Football Bowl Championship Series teams. What Grant did was to improve the passing offense because he was a dangerous weapon. 

Grant was the type of receiver that would give everything he had and was known to have “sticky fingers” because he seemed to catch every ball near him. He has a natural touch in catching the ball and gets balls that seem uncatchable. He would sacrifice his body for the team and made awesome catches during his short career. He has been described as a Steve Largent type of receiver. One source stated “he was one of the finest receivers that Plano ever had” felt he was “very underrated” and called him a big play maker on the field for the Wildcats.

Because he was big, tall and could catch almost any pass, defenses could not lay off him. Sometimes they covered him with two defenders allowing the passing game to open up elsewhere on the field. Because he could catch the ball downfield, he would stretch the defenses allowing the running game to open up. He was a good downfield blocker which helped his running backs to get extra yardage when breaking into the open.  

In the 2007 Euless Trinity playoff game in Texas Stadium he was injured when three players hit him, one high, one low and one in the back. Comments from fans from both teams on the website, 5-A Football.com, talk about how he played in the game and his courage when getting beat up that he would get back up and get back into the game. It took Euless Trinity two overtimes to win 30-27. It was not over until a Plano field goal attempt was short of its mark by a couple of feet. Davis had caught two touchdown passes in the first half before he was injured. One of the Euless coaches after the game said the only reason they won the game was because of the injury to Davis. 

A poster on the same site who saw the hit Davis took talked about seeing the wide receiver from Plano getting sandwiched between three Euless Trinity players. He asked about the rumor Grant broke two vertebrae on the play. “Yeah, I heard that, too. What a tough kid. I have no idea how he got up and walked off after that. I've seen that replay of him getting sandwiched and he still held onto the ball. Amazing. I'd want him on my team just because he is fearless.”  The reply was “his name is Grant Davis. Yea he was injured and no one really knows how he played after those hits he took.” As for the broken vertebrae, his high school coach denied the rumor.

McCullough went on to add Davis is a “great player and made big plays in big games.” He described Davis as “very athletic with fly paper hands. [He is] not afraid to catch the ball in the middle of the field.”  The coach stated even in traffic Davis makes the catches look so easy. “It’s hard to describe.”

McCullough stated “his best game was his last game against Trinity in the state semi-final game.” The game was considered by some on the 5-A Football.com website as one of the best games ever played in 5-A. Keith Whitmore of the Dallas Morning News considered it for one of the top ten high school games to be played in Texas Stadium,

“He is a true sleeper” McCullough stated. When you look at his numbers and realized he has only played two years of football it says how good Davis really is and can be. “North Texas is going to be surprised at how good he can be.”  During the recruiting season, Davis came to the attention of North Texas safeties coach Chuck Peterson who invited him to visit North Texas.  

As for his demeaner off the field he has been called a “great kid, quiet, a perfect gentleman” but when on the field he was known to be aggressive and a crowd pleaser with his style of play.

Grant took a year off playing football but decided to walk-on at North Texas. During the spring practice he played with the first, second and third string offenses and impressed the coaches and fans.