UNIVERSITY PARK — SMU defensive back AJ Davis was taken off the field in an ambulance during the second quarter of Saturday’s game vs. Pitt at Gerald J. Ford Stadium.
Davis, a redshirt sophomore, suffered a neck injury while playing defense on a kickoff toward the end of the second quarter. He was attended to by SMU’s training staff on the field before an ambulance drove on after a few minutes. Davis was placed onto a stretcher, loaded into the ambulance and taken off the field after a delay with 1:46 left in the first half.
He was taken to Baylor Hospital, underwent testing and returned to SMU’s sideline in the fourth quarter of the Mustangs’ 48-25 win. Head coach Rhett Lashlee said Davis’ scans came back negative and that “I don’t know the exact diagnosis of what happened, but I know he’s going to be okay.”
“Our medical team did a great job,” Lashlee said. “He was conscious, he was moving early on. So that was a positive that we knew down there on the turf that maybe everybody else didn’t know. Our medical staff did a great job of keeping him calm and everything.
“But, anytime it involves your neck and you’re still saying there’s pain, you’re going to be extra cautious, so that’s what they did.”
A Skyline alum, Davis has played in all nine SMU games this season.
