Banks Statements Come on the Field, Not in the Mail, for Huskies

The Husky defensive back showed he could deliver a blow on a Michigan State kickoff return.

The thing about Davon Banks is he always lets everyone know when and where he is on the football field. It might be with an interception, a pass deflection, a running-play intervention. A day might go by where you don't hear from him, but not two days.

His new University of Washington coaches learned this much to their pleasant surprise during spring ball. The redshirt freshman cornerback from San Jacinto, California, wasn't afraid to stick his nose in things. Hands, too. A full-body slam when required. He made a lot of plays, sometimes more than his share.

For that reason, Banks, on the slight side with a 5-foot-11, 175-pound frame, tends to get banged-up at times because he plays so fearlessly. He was seen wearing a sling at times in fall camp.

Yet he appears healthy again after introducing himself to kick returner Jarek Broussard of Michigan State and formerly of Colorado and the Pac-12. He left his No. 10 stenciled into the other guy's white jersey.

A half-dozen plays into the second quarter at Husky Stadium, after the UW had scored a third time to take a 16-0 lead, Banks put his foot on the accelerator and crashed into Broussard to keep momentum going and crowd roaring.

He came down on a kickoff unheeded and leveled his opponent on the Michigan State 20 with a totally legal, frighteningly lethal, shoulder-to-shoulder collision that got everyone's attention among the now hyped-up gathering of 68,161. 

"I was just trying to set the tone," Banks said. "One, it was kicked to my side and one of my jobs is to hammer that guy — so that's what I did."

Banks jumped up looking like he wanted to do the Compton Shake, a football contortion made famous decades ago by late UW linebacker Jaime Fields from the national championship team, but he settled for matching arm-flexes with teammate Drew Fowler. 

This was his second kickoff and he noticed the Michigan State players were holding back some, rather than coming up to meet him.

"I noticed everyone was hanging back on the right side and I knew it was field return from the kick returner so I just went over there and took my shot," Banks said.

In the third quarter, linebacker and special-teamer Carson Bruener followed his teammate's lead and delivered his own fearsome blow on a kickoff against the same Broussard.  

OH MY LORD, LOOK OUT! 🫣 pic.twitter.com/mxtc09Y4Qx

— PFF College (@PFF_College) September 18, 2022

Coming full speed over half the length of the field, a coverage guy in Banks' position has to be careful not to go helmet-to-helmet or simply spear the guy with his headgear, where a resulting personal-foul penalty can have so many consequences.

Someone could get hurt. He could get ejected. All of that impressive impact could go wasted if a flag gets thrown in the air.

Banks knew well in advance what he was going to do with this helpless Michigan State player. He's been coached to respond correctly. He carried it out to rip-roaring perfection.  

"It's just built in from the coaches," he said, "to hit in the strike zone."

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