Talent, Patience and Ups and Downs Have Led QB Davis Beville to Oklahoma
NORMAN — At its core, Saturday represented a new beginning for Oklahoma quarterback Davis Beville.
Beville grew up in Greenville, SC, about 30 minutes from the campus at Clemson University. He played high school football against Brent Venables’ sons. He spent three years at the University of Pittsburgh.
Now he’s an Oklahoma Sooner.
“It was awesome,” Beville said Tuesday night after practice. “Definitely running through that tunnel for the first time, clearing through that smoke and just seeing 85,000-plus was awesome. It’s nothing like I’ve ever experienced before. I’ve had that many people cheering against me but definitely not for me.”
Beville is OU’s backup quarterback, the guy who comes in when Dillon Gabriel needs to come out, and he played the fourth quarter of the Sooners’ 45-13 victory over UTEP last Saturday.
He played Saturday, rushing once for 4 yards but not throwing a pass.
“Great player,” Venables called him in the preseason. “Great athlete.”
A Rivals 4-star and the No. 11 quarterback in the class of 2019, Beville’s dad Scott was a long-snapper at Clemson for three years.
He graduated from Pitt in three years with a degree in marketing, so he came to OU to get a master’s in business administration — and an advanced degree in QB play from offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby.
“Honestly, I didn’t feel like it was a difficult decision,” Beville said. “I came out here on my visit and I knew that this was the place I needed to be. It’s kind of the best spot for me to grow, not only as a football player but also as a great man.”
His relationship with Lebby sprouted last spring when Beville was mulling over his transfer options and Venables had issued a clear statement after the Red/White Game that OU still needed a quarterback from the transfer portal. He’s gotten to know Lebby very well since they met.
“It was great,” Beville said. “We spent, obviously, the two nights together at dinner and just had very good talks, talking about how I just always have to be ready. He’s obviously grown me a lot as a player already. Learned more about defenses than I almost have the entire career before that. He’s taught me a lot and I’ve really enjoyed learning under him.”
Beville was a Panthers redshirt in 2019, a reserve in 2020, and a third-string QB in 2021. He played just three game for Pitt last year — until he was called on in the Peach Bowl. Starter Kenny Pickett had opted out of the bowl game, and backup Nick Patti broke his collarbone in the first quarter.
Davis Beville
Brett Davis-USA TODAY NETWORK
Beville came in for his first significant college action and completed 14-of-18 passes for 149 yards with a touchdown, but he also threw a game-ending interception as Pitt was trying to win in the final moments.
Beville directed a potential game-winning drive and nearly reached the MSU red zone when Cal Haladay picked him off and ran it back 78 yards for the clinching score in a 31-21 game.
Overall the game was a positive for him, but Beville can’t forget the ending. Still, he recognizes that the whole experience has led him here.
“I’d say it was huge for me,” he said. “The whole way I talk about it is just kind of like, ‘God works in mysterious ways.’ Obviously the game didn’t go how I wanted it to. I finished with the worst possible outcome.
“I never thought I’d end up here. If the game had gone different, maybe I hadn’t. So I’m just blessed to be here and that experience on the field was definitely big too just for being ready.”
That’s the trick for a backup QB: being ready, staying ready. The backup needs to prepare just like the starter. Has to know the game plan inside and out, must know the defensive tendencies, must be able to handle the situation. But then, he might go two months without getting on the field.
Davis Beville and Jeff Lebby
Ryan Chapman / AllSooners.com
“I think for Davis, we're going in together,” Gabriel said. “That’s something that, in the past, it's truly a QB room that has to come together and prepared together and ask the necessary questions. You can't ever get too many perspectives. Just with Davis, Coach Lebby, all the guys who help out with the QBs and the QBs. Just having that and being able to take notes and take things from other guys is super important. Davis and I have been together through the whole process of it.”
Beville is 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds. He’s obviously picking up the nuances of quarterback play at this level, studying under Gabriel and learning from Lebby. But he has a live arm and all the physical tools.
“I love how well he's been able to take in information and challenges himself in the mental game and the mental side of it,” Gabriel said, “knowing that it's a different game and a different perspective, having to wait and be ready. But he prepares like he's the guy too. I can respect that. It continues to push me to be at the top of my game too.”
Beville’s goal for this year?
“Just be ready,” he said. “When I’m playing, there’s no better feeling than being out there so I’m always just ready to be out there and help my team do what I can.”
The Peach Bowl was a prime example of how Beville was ready for what might have seemed like an unlikely moment.
“Yeah, it was kind of crazy how it happened,” Beville said. “Nick Patti’s one of my best friends and seeing him go down, it was tough but knowing that was my chance was all I needed and I was ready to go.
“I feel like it’s always about being prepared. We spend every hour of the day — I’m in grad school so I’ve got just online classes — so I’m up here almost 24/7, so it’s pretty incredible how much time we put in to prepare and that’s just how I feel like I’m ready.”
