Navy kicker Daniel Davies leans on memory of older brother

Daniel fully believes Ricky was with him last week when Daniel made his debut as the team’s place-kicker and went 3-for-3 on field goals, including a 29-yarder in double overtime to give the Midshipmen a 23-20 victory over East Carolina for their first win of the season. On the way to the game, Davies was listening to Spotify on shuffle when the song “Closer” by the Chainsmokers came on. The song was released in 2016 and their father, Michael, said the song reminded him of Ricky. Every time the song plays, Daniel thinks of his oldest brother. The song came on as the team was riding the bus to face the Pirates at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The same song randomly came on again as the team was walking from the bus to the plane after the game.

“I was like, ‘Yup, he’s right here,’” Daniel said. “That was really cool.”

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Ricky Davies died six years ago of injuries suffered after being struck by a bread delivery van while walking. He was a soccer player at the Coast Guard Academy and is the reason Daniel is at Navy in the first place. The Davies are a soccer family with Ricky being the eldest and middle brother Eric playing collegiately at Saint Louis University. The brothers weren’t even allowed to play football until seventh grade and Daniel played soccer until dedicating himself to football after his freshman year of high school. The family has no real ties to the military, but Ricky wanted to continue playing after high school and the Coast Guard offered the opportunity. Daniel remembers Ricky constantly calling home to complain about all the responsibilities that came with being at the academy, but he still graduated in 2016 and was an ensign with the Coast Guard. Daniel, who didn’t know much about the service academies, thought the Coast Guard Academy campus was “the coolest thing.” So when Navy reached out, he already an understanding.

Davies had to wait until his senior year to get his first chance to kick field goals in a game as fellow kicker Bijan Nichols was also part of that freshman class. Nichols has been the No. 1 kicker since his freshman year, is second on Navy’s career field goal list, was named second team all-conference in 2021 and voted a captain in 2022. A leg injury, however, has kept Nichols sidelined this season. Evan Warren replaced Nichols in the first two games before Davies, who has served as the holder and held the punting responsibilities in 2020, got the nod last week. He was named American Athletic Conference special teams player of the week after the performance at East Carolina.

The opportunity was slow to…