Lincoln Riley says Raesjon Davis suffered hand injury, will return for second half of camp

USC has begun fall camp, but it does so with one key player already banged up and out for a little while: linebacker Raesjon Davis.

Davis suffered a hand injury early in fall camp and will miss the first half of fall camp recovering from it, coach Lincoln Riley said on Wednesday morning on the West coast.

“Yeah, he had a hand injury the first day of camp,” Riley told reporters. “First or second day of camp, very early. So he’ll be out for just a couple of days. We’ll get him back here in the second half of camp. He’s starting to get now where he can move around and stuff, too, have some activity on it.”

Davis is going into his junior season after playing sparingly in each of the last two years. He played in 10 games in 2021 as a reserve inside linebacker and special teamer, while appearing in all 14 games in 2022.

In total, Raesjon Davis tallied eight tackles, with all eight coming during his sophomore season in 2022.

“He’s done really well. Had a really good summer,” Riley said. “Had a good stretch of plays even before he got injured. Feels like a guy that’s — I know we’ve talked about it some — but feels like a guy that’s starting to surge.”

That Davis is pushing for playing time as he heads into his upperclassman years shouldn’t come as a big surprise. He was a high-profile recruit in the 2021 class.

Raesjon Davis was ranked as a top-100 prospect, checking in as the nation’s No. 77 overall player and the No. 8 linebacker in his class. He was also the No. 6 overall player in the state of California, hailing from Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei.

At 6 foot 1, 225 pounds, Davis has worked hard to reshape his body.

“He’s in the best shape, by far, of his life,” Riley said. “His body is much more developed than where he was when he came in. He’s stronger, he’s faster, he’s a little more confident. He knows the scheme really well and he’s really become, I think, one of our better coverage linebackers in terms of his athleticism on the field in space. We fully expect him to push and what we saw early on in camp suggests nothing but that.”

How soon Raesjon Davis can return from his hand injury will determine just how strong his push for major playing time is come this fall.