How Terrill Davis went from basketball star to NCAA's leading receiver
For most of his life, Terrill Davis wanted to be a basketball player.
www.ocolly.com
How Terrill Davis went from basketball star to NCAA's leading receiver
- Calif Poncy, Assistant Sports Editor, @PoncyCalif
- May 9, 2025
For most of his life, Terrill Davis wanted to be a basketball player.
Football never even entered his mind. Four years before leading the NCAA in receiving yards with 1,609 and scoring 15 touchdowns, Davis had never played a competitive game of football. Now he’s a member of a wide-open Oklahoma State football receiver room and has plans to play in the NFL.
And had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic, it never would’ve happened.
“My junior going into senior year (of high school), all the basketball gyms were closed, so all we had was football fields around,” Davis said. “So I’d go out there with some of the guys on the team and they were just doing one-on-ones and stuff, and I was getting in it.”
Davis’ friend, former Oklahoma safety Jordan Mukes, convinced Davis to give football a try. Until that point, not only had he not played football, he'd turned down Jake Corbin, the coach at Choctaw High School, for years.
As a star shooting guard on Choctaw’s basketball team, Davis’ athleticism was clear. He would regularly soar through the air for dunks and layups. His athletic style of play led MaxPreps to rank him the No. 24 recruit in Oklahoma.
It also led to Corbin tirelessly recruiting Davis to play on the football team.
“I mean, it was a three-year process,” Corbin said. “You could tell his athleticism on the court. When you’d go and watch him, it wasn’t very difficult to see that he could transition that talent from basketball to the football field.”
Davis’ athleticism jumped off the court long before it jumped off the field, and he planned on using it to play basketball at the next level.
He was a starter on his AAU team, AET. Alongside former Creighton star and current Denver Nuggets guard Trey Alexander, Davis worked to secure his future on the hardwood.
“Those times were the times that really put my work ethic in me,” Davis said. “I used to dang near stay with Trey and his pops. They work hard. I see why he’s in the league, because the work ethic they got is different than everybody else.”
Davis spent countless days and nights with Alexander and his dad, Steve, honing his craft. His work with AET led to the team's invitation to a tournament in Orlando, Florida, at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports. Behind Trey and Davis, AET finished third in the national tournament.
It was a testament to the work Davis put in. The long nights and early mornings were paying off, and Davis was blossoming into a promising basketball player. The stage was set for Davis to use the lessons he had learned with the Alexanders to become an elite player at the high school level.
And he did.
As a junior, Davis led Choctaw in scoring and assists. The offers from major programs weren’t coming despite his success.
He had made waves on the AAU and high school levels, but, for whatever reason, the college interest had yet to come in.
“You know, basketball, they look more for the height,” Davis’ mom, Isabel Gorbea, said. “He was really good, but I felt like he felt discouraged because the height wasn’t there.”
Listed at 6-foot, Davis had always been undersized on the court. His dynamic athleticism allowed him to thrive in AAU, but height had always been in the back of his mind.
“I remember when he was in AAU basketball, he would get up, like in pictures, he would get on his tiptoes so he seemed a little taller, like compared to his friends,” Gorbea said.
Despite his stature, Davis was set to embark on a senior season in which he had a chance to pick up more college offers. But when COVID-19 caused most of the gyms around his area to close, Davis ability to improve was limited.
Heading down to the football field started as something to do with friends, but Davis quickly realized there was more to the game than one-on-ones.
“I was like ‘Dang, I could actually play a little bit,’” Davis said. “So I just ended up trying it my last year in high school. I was just gonna try it.”
It didn’t take long to become clear that Davis made the right choice.
In Choctaw’s third district game, Davis had nine catches and 209 receiving yards against Bixby, the eventual state champion. He went on to star for Choctaw that whole season, helping it to its second-ever state championship game.
“Man, it was a great feeling,” Davis said. “I’m sad we didn’t come out with the win. But just going out there and seeing what I’m able to do, I feel like that was one of the first games I could see the potential.”
From the second he got on the field and had success, Davis was hooked. The work ethic he had developed in the gym with the Alexanders made its way to the football field. The offers that never came in basketball showed up early in football.
With only one season of tape, Division I schools weren’t sold yet, but a slew of Division II schools expressed interest. Eventually, Davis landed at Central Oklahoma, citing the short distance from home as the primary driver in that decision.
Still underdeveloped, Davis spent the first season on the bench, taking a redshirt.
The work didn’t bother Davis. Neither did the lack of playing time. But the culture at UCO wasn’t shaping up to be a fit. The senior season he spent at Choctaw was defined by the relationships he had with his teammates and the familial bond that radiated from the team.
At UCO, that bond was nonexistent.
“I guess he was just discouraged,” Gorbea said. “I guess the coach that was there when he first came ran it more like a JUCO. So hardcore, like crazy football atmosphere.
“... The culture was not there. People were kind of miserable.”
Davis had gone from loving basketball to loving football to being lost. He considered quitting and doing something else, but he stayed with the team, with pleas from Gorbea, due to the free education it was providing.
After Davis' dismal freshman season, UCO made a coaching change and Adam Dorrel took over. Davis’ love for the game was immediately reignited.
“(Dorrel) came in and Terrill loved him,” Gorbea said. “Terrill felt like, 'OK, I can do this. I can stay here. I can play, and Dorrel is going to give me a chance.'”
With his redshirt in the past and his passion renewed, Davis got on the field and contributed as a freshman. He had 12 catches for 141 yards and started eight games.
UCO co-offensive coordinator James Curlee served as Davis’ position coach. He preferred a more vertical passing system, but the Bronchos were a ground-and-pound team that had five players with more than 175 rushing yards in 2022.
The next season, UCO once again played a run-oriented style, but Davis started to shine. As a sophomore, he led UCO in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches.
The raw athletic ability that had made Davis an appealing prospect to Corbin at Choctaw was evolving into football prowess. He was ready to make the leap from good to great, but he needed an offense that prioritized the pass and allowed Davis to use his athletic ability in the open field.
