It remains to be seen where he ends up on draft day, but few guys have free fallen more since the end of the season than Ball State QB Nate Davis. Davis had an incredibly impressive start to his season this year, and Ball State turned into a national sweetheart after running through the regular season undefeated. He’s got a nice arm, he can scramble, and he plays an exciting style of game. There was talk then that he could even be a first round choice. But then things went awry. Ball State lost to Buffalo in the MAC title game, and then got crushed by Tulsa in theGMAC Bowl. Davis had eight fumbles in those games and the questions started to come up. Things didn’t get better when he was lacklustre at the Combine. The ultimate sign of the depth of his problems was evident when only one team showed up to his pro day. That’s ugly.

You have to think that Davis got some bad advice that led to his decision to enter the draft. He had a good year, but he still played for a school and a conference that doesn’t get a whole lot of real respect. He’s just a junior, so there was no reason for him to rush into the draft. There is little doubt that another year of college play would have given him more time to mature and develop and find his game. Someone should especially have told him to be patient because the two biggest knocks against him that are hurting his draft status couldn’t have come as a real surprise. In fact, they seem kind of obvious. For one, he’s only six feet tall – good size in the real world, but on the small side for a QB. He could overcome that if it weren’t for the other issue – he has a learning disability that makes it very hard for him to absorb written materials. Fair or not, teams are concerned about how that will impact his ability to absorb an NFL playbook.They might be more accepting of that issue if he had performed better at the Combine, or if he hadn’t fumbled so much when the pressure was ratcheted up down the stretch, or if he wasn’t so relatively small. Add all that together, and Davis has a long, long wait ahead of him before he hears his name called.

There’s another story behind this, and it’s one of the unfortunate aspects of college sports. Ball State coach Brady Hoke left after the season to take over at San Diego State. Coaches have the right to do whatever they want, but Davis is one of the countless examples of the collateral damage that isinevitable when a coach follows their ambition. Davis felt that going to the draft was a better risk than trying to learn a new system and potentially getting caught up in the transition problems.

I hope for the best for Davis, but it’s hard to be very optimistic about his chances on draft day or beyond.