HATTIESBURG — When Austin Davis and his father Greg walked into new Southern Miss football coach Larry Fedora’s office, all they wanted was a chance for Austin to play quarterback.

His name on Rivals.com or Scout.com had no stars beside it and he spent a year holding a clipboard on the USM sideline in 2007. Despite being West Lauderdale’s all-time wins leader at quarterback, he was better known as a baseball player.

The walk-on redshirt freshman wanted a chance. No promises of playing time. Just an opportunity.

“I might have been here a week, three or four days maybe and they introduced themselves, who they were,” Fedora said. “And I said sure. Sure, you’ve got an opportunity and the rest of history. He was willing to do the things it took to put himself into that position.”

That is a bit of understatement. All Davis has done at Southern Miss is take that opportunity and run with it. He has spent his four years on the field etching his name in the USM record books. He has already earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration and has been on the honor roll since his arrival. He has led the team to three bowl berths and came back from a broken foot in 2009 to re-assume his mantle as the offense’s unquestioned leader.

Now, Davis is on the cusp of his final season in Hattiesburg. He needs just 300 yards to become USM’s passing yards leader, eclipsing the legendary Brett Favre. He has 22 career 200-yard passing games, tying a record held by Jeff Kelly.

Davis file

• 7,396 passing yards

• 53 passing TDs

• 21 rushing TDs

• 16 interceptions

• 31 career starts

                                                                                         

He needs five rushing TDs to pass Reggie Collier (26) with the most for a quarterback in Southern Miss history. He owns the school record for touchdown passes (53), passing Favre and Lee Roberts.

In 31 starts, he has thrown for 7,396 yards and 53 touchdowns.

Fedora is amazed at how much the first quarterback he’s worked with for all four years at one school has improved and embraced the concepts of his spread offense. As Davis grew in the offense, the staff has put more and more on his shoulders and Davis responded with aplomb.

“It’s been really neat to watch Austin progress in this offense since day one with the questions he had and how fast the game moved at that time,” Fedora said. “But he still did a tremendous job as a freshman. We told him to just take care of the ball and give us a chance to win. Watching him mature, the game is slow for him now. I’m not saying that it is boring for him, but he sees things before they happen and it frustrates him sometimes when his receiver or the right tackle doesn’t see it. He understands what we’re trying to accomplish in every single play and every series.”

Mistakes have been few for Davis, but the ones he has made still drive him to improve.

Fedora said that in the offseason, Davis wanted to review film on one issue in his 31 starts — his 16 interceptions in 1,052 attempts. For those doing the math, that’s one interception for every 66 times David dropped back and threw the football.

“He looked at all of them,” Fedora said. “Three of them were end-of-game, throw-it-up-for-grabs situations. The rest were on go routes, when he might have over or underthrown it. But 16 interceptions in four years, with as many balls as he’s thrown in these games, that’s pretty amazing.”

The marriage of quarterbacks coach Blake Anderson, the playcaller, and Davis, his representative on the field, might be one of the best in recent memory. Davis’ skillset fit Fedora’s spread offense like a pair of Isotoner gloves and his work ethic watching film and soaking up knowledge helped him grow in the system.

“I know what my guys are doing, but that’s not what you have to worry about. You’ve got to know what the defense is doing,” Davis said. “They’re always coming up with ways to trick you into bad throws. I’m comfortable with what my receivers are doing and what we’re doing on offense.

“I know what Coach Anderson likes to call in certain situations and I have been working with him since I’ve been here. He’s taught me everything I know and it helps that we think alike.”

With a new defensive scheme and a talented senior class with a lot of chemistry, Davis is optimistic that USM could be poised for a breakout performance in Fedora’s fourth season.

“I’ve had as good a feeling going into this season as I’ve had,” Davis said. “I think after the summer we had and this group of seniors, it’s really clicking together. I think if we avoid some injuries, get a couple of breaks here and there, we can have a special season.”