photo by: NM State Athletics

New Mexico State linebacker Quincy Davis is pictured during a game against Texas A&M on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in College Station, Texas.

Kansas linebacker Quincy Davis has a tattoo of a star under his right ear.

“I’m going to be so honest with you, it was a deal, so I just got it,” Davis said with a laugh as he met with KU media for the first time on Thursday.

In any case, it might be fitting for the player that linebackers coach Chris Simpson said has “probably shined the most” in his position group during KU’s spring practices.

“He’s just very steady,” Simpson said. “And he’s showing up literally every day, in terms of making plays on the field, but it goes beyond that. He’s doing things off the field to make sure that he’s just honing his craft.”

The linebacker position returns Trey Lathan, who played more snaps and made more tackles than anyone else on defense last season. Beyond that, it’s anybody’s guess who might play and how much for the Jayhawks this fall after Davis came in alongside transfers Jibreel Al-Amin (Marshall), Bam Crouch (Boston College), Landyn Watson (Kentucky) and Jaron Willis (South Carolina), as well as freshmen Joseph Credit and Joshua Galbreath. The only other returning scholarship linebacker is redshirt freshman Malachi Curvey.

In short, there’s been plenty of opportunity for Davis to impress — but he credited his success in the early days of spring to his teammates.

“Just my brothers around me, man,” he said. “We all just try to work, just push each other each and every day.”

The 6-foot-1, 227-pound linebacker from Las Vegas might not have been KU’s most attention-grabbing transfer portal addition at first. He is a redshirt junior transfer who according to Pro Football Focus started one career game in his time at New Mexico State. A former defensive end in high school, he played 282 snaps, 199 on defense, in 2024; that total increased to 519 with 314 on defense and the rest on special teams in 2025. He recorded 43 tackles, one for loss, as a redshirt sophomore.

But Davis was one of PFF’s highest-graded players on the Aggies’ defense, and his film appealed to Simpson and the KU coaching staff: “They liked how I blitzed, and just my frame, and just my aggression to the ball, just getting to the ball, my motor I have,” Davis recalled.

And in turn, Davis liked what he saw of the KU coaches on his visit.

“It was just a very family-oriented staff,” he said, “everybody was getting along with each other, and I know that’s a main thing to be able to win.”

Simpson was acquainted with NMSU linebackers coach Jared Hensley — “It’s a small fraternity,” Simpson said — who put in a good word for his former player.

“Some of the things that he said he was going to be is what he is,” Simpson said. “First-in-the-building type (of) guy, loves the weight room, football junkie, all those things that you hear in the process (that) make you say ‘OK, that’s somebody that you want in your building.’

“And for him, he was at, I guess, a quote-unquote lower level, so he comes in with a little chip on his shoulder to be able to prove that he can participate at this level, and I think he’s doing a good job of that.”

Davis said he doesn’t necessarily view his day-to-day efforts from that perspective, but acknowledged that it meant a lot to be able to make a move to a power-conference school. (His other choices in the portal were UTSA and Western Kentucky.)

“When you’re growing up, you want to play P5, P4, whatever you want to call it,” he said, “and just being able to have this opportunity is a true blessing, man.”