Tacario Davis has been mentioned as a potential first-round NFL Draft pick entering his junior season, but over Arizona’s first three games those pro skills hadn’t really shown. They did on Saturday night, and it led to him winning his first conference award.
The UA cornerback has been named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week after his monster performance in the 23-10 upset win at then-No. 10 Utah.
Davis, a 6-foot-4 junior, had seven tackles and broke up five passes against the Utes, including one in the end zone on 4th and goal that set the stage for Arizona to take the lead for good. Two of those PBUs resulted in turnovers on downs as Arizona stopped Utah four times on fourth down in addition to recording two interceptions.
The 10 points the UA limited Utah to was the fewest it had allowed to a Top 10 team since shutting out No. 10 Miami in the 1994 Fiesta Bowl.
For the season, Davis has 16 tackles, one for loss, but hadn’t broken up a pass until this past game. In 2023 he had 15 PBU, second-most in the Pac-12 and tied for fourth nationally.
Davis’ DPOW award is the second weekly Big 12 honor for Arizona this season. Wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan won Offensive Player of the Week after his school-record 304 receiving yards and four touchdowns in the season opener against New Mexico.
The last UA player to win a weekly defensive conference award was edge Jalen Harris in 2022 after a strong effort in the season-opening win at San Diego State.
