Miles Davis Exits Transfer Portal, Returning To BYU Football
Dec 13, 2023, 11:56 AM | Updated: 12:42 pm
(Ryan Sun, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – BYU football running back Miles Davis is withdrawing from the Transfer Portal.
Davis confirmed the Deseret News report to KSL Sports.
The Las Vegas native is exiting the portal after Aidan Robbins declared for the 2024 NFL Draft on Tuesday.
He has a great opportunity for playing time along with returning sophomore LJ Martin, who led BYU in rushing yards last season.
Davis has appeared in 19 games over the past four years with the BYU program. During the 2023 season, he played in five games, rushing for 78 yards on 16 carries.
In BYU’s win against Cincinnati on September 29, Davis rushed for 17 yards on four carries in his first appearance of the season. After that game, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said that he felt Davis would be a “mainstay” in the Cougar backfield.
“I was so proud of Miles Davis, fighting through adversity, and he got lost in the shuffle in the competition and had opportunities and I never saw him letdown at all,” Sitake said on September 29. “Throughout the whole season, he was always working, always upbeat, always positive, and then had his opportunities. I think he’s going to be a mainstay for us.”
Davis joins a small group of BYU football players over the years to enter the Transfer Portal and then find their way back to Provo. Kody Epps did that last season after a brief 72-hour stay in the portal. The same goes for former linebacker Payton Wilgar during the first year of the portal’s existence in the 2019 cycle.
Miles Davis has been part of the BYU football program for four years
Davis signed with BYU in the 2020 recruiting class. He initially arrived as a wide receiver from Las Vegas High School. When he arrived in Provo, he was immediately switched to running back, a position he never played in high school.
Davis was on pace to potentially be the primary backup to Tyler Allgeier in 2021. He was the talk of fall camp for his play, but he suffered a foot injury that sidelined him until the last two games of the year.
In 2022, Davis had the best performance of his BYU career, rushing for 131 yards on 13 carries in a win over Wyoming on September 24, 2022.
Two years remaining for Davis
Davis has two years of eligibility remaining in his collegiate career. That’s caused by the 2020 season being a free year of eligibility amidst COVID-19 and 2021 counting as Davis’ redshirt.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X and Threads: @Mitch_Harper.