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Davenport makes the catch that counts
By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
NEW ORLEANS -- By his own count, Najeh Davenport has dropped 30 passes in practice this year, from the beginning of spring two-a-days until final preparations for the Nokia Sugar Bowl. His teammates beg to differ, saying the number is closer to the upper 40s.
|  | | Miami back Najeh Davenport was a threat rushing the ball, but his end zone catch against Florida could end up being his legacy.
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But none of it matters anymore. The only number that does is one, signifying the number of acrobatic touchdown grabs Davenport came down with in the Sugar Bowl to help his Miami Hurricanes to a 37-20 victory over Florida on Tuesday.
His third-quarter 2-yard catch, between the outstretched arms of Gators linebacker Marcus Oquendo-Johnson, gave the Hurricanes a 27-17 lead that Florida wouldn't challenge.
It was Davenport's only catch of the game, but an ever-important one for the man known in Miami as "Stone Hands."
"Anytime you score and can help your team win, of course it's satisfying, but this was a little extra sweeter for me," Davenport said. "I had a lot of fun talking about that one."
That's because it's been a trying year for the once-heralded recruit from Miami's Central High. After tearing his ACL in the Kickoff Classic last year, his play hasn't been the same. A move from tailback to fullback during the season didn't help raise his spirits much either.
But Davenport never complained and coach Butch Davis noticed.
"He has been an unsung hero for us this year," Davis said. "He's been instrumental in completing our offense with his unselfishness and willingness to play football where we put him. It's been a huge key to our team all year long."
Tonight was no different, as Davenport did his best to contribute when starting running back James Jackson went down. In addition to his touchdown catch, he later added a 3-yard run to seal the game's final score.
"He was quite the shot in the arm tonight," Davis said. "It was exactly what we were looking for when James got hurt."
Even sweeter was the fact that Davenport has long been berated by his teammates for his penchant for dropping passes. Since his freshman year, teammates Reggie Wayne, Santana Moss, Clinton Portis and others have gotten on Davenport's case for his stone-like hands.
So Tuesday night, when quarterback Ken Dorsey rifled a pass between the arms of the leaping Johnson and into the hands of an air-borne Davenport, everyone got a chuckle out of it.
"He catches more abuse in practice than anybody on our team," Davis said. "And that's probably because he has a different count on his drops than everybody else does. But tonight, he made a fantastic catch. That ball was almost intercepted and he really got his hands on it and made a great catch. So I told our guys they should leave him alone from now on."
Davenport can only hope for as much. His teammates recently bet him that if Dorsey threw the fullback 10 passes, he'd drop at least two. As it turned out, he dropped one.
"And it was a bad pass," he said. "So they know I can do this. And hopefully tonight showed them something as well."
Portis wasn't quite so sure.
"Nah, he's not off the hook yet," Portis said. "It was a nice catch -- for someone who has rocks for his hands."
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