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Football

Davenport Remains An Impactful Force On Darien’s Line

Jeff Jacobs

09.09.2024

In 2022, Jackson Davenport started as a sophomore at left tackle for the Darien football team.

Last season, along the road to the CIAC Class L state finals, Ben Rolapp took over as starting quarterback as a 10th grader.

“Me and Ben relate,” Davenport said. “We have a common starting ground.”

A quarterback’s best friend is his left tackle. He protects his blind side. When a left tackle blows an assignment at one of the team’s most important positions, well, let’s put it this way:

It’s not pretty.

Now a junior, Rolapp is developing into one of the top quarterbacks in the state for a team many feel is the best in the state. 

A senior captain, Davenport is the right man to protect him and help blow open holes for his running backs.

“Jackson started as a sophomore and at that time there weren’t a lot of sophomores starting, especially at O-line in Darien,” said Andy Grant, who was elevated from assistant to head coach in 2023. “You can see his progression. The physical aspect is there. He’s a big, strong, physical kid.”

Davenport has grown to 6-6, 263 pounds. In June, he announced his college commitment to play FBS at Buffalo. In July, Davenport was named the top competitor at the Southington Lineman challenge. He is a leader.

“In his first big game sophomore year, I had a long conversation with Ben beforehand,” Davenport said. “I said, ‘Look, fans are going to be screaming. You’re going to get heckled. You’re going to get hit. Just play. You just have to look forward to the next play. Keep yourself calm.’

“I think we’ve built a great relationship. I trust him. He trusts me.”

Rolapp opened last season sharing starting duties with senior Declan Cunningham. When Cunningham was injured against Greenwich, the job belonged to Rolapp.

“Ben starting as a sophomore is always a tricky thing,” Grant said, “because when you’re a sophomore you’re young. You don’t have command of the room like a senior or junior. I think Jackson protecting him last year, taking a ton of heat from that left side, they developed a relationship where, ‘I know the backside of my body is going to be protected.’ If he doesn’t, he hears about it.” 

Davenport points to Grant and his staff as the reason for his significant maturation.

“My sophomore year we had a completely different coaching staff, a completely different O-line coach,” Davenport said. “We learned a lot, but I feel like we could have learned more. We definitely didn’t have as much technique as we do now.”

Davenport pointed to offensive line coach Erle Ladson.

“He played at Delaware and went onto the NFL,” Davenport said. “He’s one of the smartest people I know. He has helped our technique, our mental game, our physical game. As a group, we’ve all improved. I definitely realized my junior year when he came in. I was like, whoa, I haven’t heard this stuff yet. It opened a lot of new opportunities for us.”

Davenport’s recruiting process started his sophomore year with interest from FBS, FCS and D3 schools.

“Buffalo first reached out to me through an assistant coach who later left,” Davenport said. “They started reaching out to me more mid-junior year.”

Pete Lembo took over as head coach in January. Akron and UMass also offered Davenport, but Buffalo got him.

“I loved the school, the academics, the people, the town,” Davenport said. “I went on my visit and I kind of automatically knew this was my place.”

He is trying to get up to 275 pounds before entering college.

“One of the things that Jackson has really developed is the ability to process the game,” Grant said. “To go from seeing the game from not only a very myopic — looking one direction, blocking one guy — to seeing everything develop in front of him.”

Some positions are instinctual. Offensive line isn’t. It’s easy to see the brawn. Fewer will see the requisite brains. There is choreography to those padded oxen.

“You’re seeing different stunts, different blitzes,” Grant said. “He’s a left tackle, so you’ve got a lot of pressure protecting the back side. His ability to learn what’s coming, to see what’s coming, play with his eyes first is really that development piece. We have some young guys right now that physically can compete but they don’t see as well. They haven’t had as many reps of different blitzes coming off the edge or different twists happening.”

Davenport said he continues to study video of Trent Williams, one of the NFL’s premier left tackles.

“He’s one guy I look up to a lot,” Davenport said. “I know I can improve on everything. As a line, I really want our level of violence to get better. We want to start seeing bodies on the ground. Old school football is gnarly.

“Left tackle is definitely a big commitment. You’ve got to know that your quarterback trusts you, your O-line and running back trusts you. You’ve got to be on top of your game 24-7. You can’t take any plays off.”

Grant said there’s already a lot of self-imposed pressure by players after getting FBS offers. The coaches have a different demand.

“We put pressure on our seniors, from senior one to senior 20, to lead by example,” Grant said. “To understand concepts and really develop a larger purpose than I’m going to block this guy or I’m going to catch this pass. To play every play, finish every rep, work in the weight room.”

The talk around Fairfield County has been that Darien is the team to beat. Yet it is New Canaan that is No. 1 in the GameTimeCT Preseason Top 10 Football Poll. Darien is second.

“We feel good about our team and how they’ve been working,” Grant said before the Sunday poll release. “I don’t know how we become the No. 1 team in the state or why. We’ve got a lot to prove. We lost four games last year. Lost to New Canaan twice. We were in a dogfight in a lot of games. If we want to be successful, we need to play Week 1 against Cheshire like the world’s on fire. We’re not looking at what the polls will be (weeks) zero through 12. We want to see what we do Week 1.”

The two touchdowns in the final 5:03 that capped New Canaan’s 28-21 comeback victory for the state title still sting. Davenport called it a big bummer, but the heartache has hardened Darien’s resolve.

“I think we’re going to have an amazing team,” Davenport said. “We have a great group of guys, a lot of returners. We all have a definite passion to win. We love the brotherhood.

“At Darien, we always set a huge standard for ourselves. Coach Grant sets a very high standard. Our standard is to win. Our standard is to go undefeated all season. Our standard is to win this game, then win this one, then win this one and keep going.”


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