News Taffy

A two-time First Team All-Sun Belt Conference selection and senior linebacker on the 2011 Arkansas State football team, Demario Davis (Brandon, Miss.) has accepted an invitation to play in the 2012 Senior Bowl for the North Team on Saturday, Jan. 28, at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala.  Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. (CT).

Davis will be the seventh Arkansas State player to compete in the Senior Bowl, joining defensive end Alex Carrington (2010), quarterback Gene Bradley (1980), offensive linemen T.J. Humphreys (1977), Ken Jones (1976) and Wayne Dorton (1971) and linebacker Bill Bergey (1968). All six previous ASU players to compete in the all-star game were selected in the NFL draft, including Bradley, Jones and Bergey in the second round, Carrington in the third, Dorton in the sixth and Humphreys in the ninth.

Davis, who was named all-conference as both a junior and senior, will wear jersey No. 28 in the Senior Bowl. He was on the Rotary Lombardi Award Watch List in 2011. Along with senior safety Kelcie McCray, he was the leading tackler on ASU’s defense this past season with 70 stops to his credit. He completed his career with an impressive 230 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss, 7.0 sacks and 4 interceptions from his linebacker position.

The Senior Bowl is one of the nation’s most unique football games and football’s premier pre-draft event, annually featuring some of the country’s best senior collegiate football players and top NFL draft prospects on teams representing the North and South that are coached by the entire coaching staffs of two National Football League teams.

The 2012 Senior Bowl and its practices will be nationally televised by the NFL Network. The first nationally-televised Senior Bowl was in 1958 by NBC, and the contest has been on national television each year since then.