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Tim Davis enters his third season as an NFL assistant, as he works alongside Hudson Houck in tutoring the Dolphins’ offensive line. Davis joined the Dolphins with more than 15 years of experience at the collegiate level, including the previous three with the 2004 national champion USC Trojans.
In his first season with the Dolphins in 2005, Davis helped Houck transform an offensive line that allowed only 26 sacks, the fourth-lowest figure in the NFL that year. Led by the offensive line, the Dolphins’ running game averaged 4.3 yards per rush attempt in 2005 and 4.2 last year, representing the first time the Dolphins have averaged better than a 4.0 yards per carry in consecutive seasons since 1986-87.
In Davis’ three years at USC, the team won a major bowl game each season and claimed at least a share of the national championship the final two years. He was in charge of the Trojans’ guards and centers in his first year at the school before handling the entire line from 2003-04. In Davis’ two years in this capacity, USC yielded a total of only 40 sacks, an average of 1.5 per game. In 2003, tackle Jacob Rogers was a consensus All-America selection and went on to become a second-round draft choice of Dallas in 2004. In addition, the line blocked for a pair of Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks in Carson Palmer (2002) and Matt Leinart (2004).
Davis first went to USC in 2002 following a five-year stint (1997-2001) as tight ends/offensive tackles coach at the University of Wisconsin. The Badgers played in a bowl game in four of those five seasons and in 1999, Davis helped coach an offensive line that led the way for Heisman Trophy winning running back Ron Dayne. Davis got his start in the coaching profession at the Madison, Wis. school as a volunteer assistant in 1983 and 1986, and a graduate assistant from 1984-85. After one more year as a graduate assistant, at the University of Arizona in 1987, Davis landed his first full-time coaching position the following year, as offensive coordinator at Walla Walla (Wash.) Community College. He moved on to Idaho State as offensive line coach in 1989 before being named to the same post at Utah in 1990, a spot which he manned for the next seven seasons. During that seven-year stint at Utah, the Utes made four bowl appearances after not having been to a postseason game since 1964.
After beginning his collegiate career at Chabot Junior College in Hayward, Calif., Davis went on to become a three-year letterman as an offensive tackle at Utah, from 1978-80. He earned his degree in physical education from the Salt Lake City school in 1982, and his master’s degree in higher education from Wisconsin in 1986. Following his collegiate playing career, he had brief stints with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian League (1981) and the Los Angeles Express of the USFL (1983).
A native of Castro Valley, Calif., Davis and his wife, Janice, have a son, Nick, and a daughter, Mary Rose. | 