FIU football preview: Defensive tackle swims with sharks, also swallows up ballcarriers

Davon Strickland swims — uncaged — with sharks.

Stingrays, too.

No, he does not have a death wish. It’s just that the FIU Panthers defensive tackle loves the ocean.

A marine biology major, Strickland has a 3.47 grade-point average and is set to earn his bachelor’s degree this spring. After that, he plans on getting his master’s.

“Davon is an awesome human being,” said Debbi Hixon, one of his former teachers at South Broward High School. “If someone needs help, Davon does not wait to be asked. He helps.”

Strickland, 21, is clearly one of the best things about the FIU program, which is coming off a dreadful 0-5 season that was heavily impacted by COVID-19 absences.

Strickland arrived at FIU as a walk-on in 2018, willed his way into becoming a starter and enters the 2021 season on the watch list for the Lombardi Award, given annually to the collegiate lineman who excels on the field and in terms of character.

Strickland has a lot of character, and he gets huge doses of it from his mother, Phoebe Tyeskey, a teacher.

In fact, Strickland — a Shreveport, Louisiana, native who has never known his father — took an epic road trip with his mom just before he started his freshman year of high school.

“We had lived in Oregon for most of his life when I resigned as a teacher and put our house up for rent,” Tyeskey said. “I put my finger on the map, and we headed for South Florida.”

It took them nine days to reach Broward County. Tyeskey drove her 2001 Chevrolet Suburban — which she still owns — to Louisiana, where she and her son have family. From there, it was off to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute museum in Alabama and then the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, where Strickland’s love affair with fish continued.

From there, they saw St. Augustine’s Fort Mose, which marks the first legally sanctioned settlement of freed slaves.

Strickland, the product of a white mother and a Black father, learned more about his heritage during this trip.

“I’m big on teaching history,” Tyeskey said. “Davon couldn’t escape that.”

FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT

Strickland, who was just 14 during that Oregon-to-Florida trek, arrived in Hollywood on July 30, 2014.

He became a three-year starter at South Broward, including the final two seasons under coach Keith Franklin.

“Davon’s motor never stops,” Franklin said. “As a senior, we used him at defensive end, D-tackle and middle linebacker. On offense, we used him at right tackle, right guard, fullback and tight end.

“He had two different jersey numbers [44 and 52 to accommodate the position switches], but we almost always ran behind his blocks.”

Franklin said Strickland had 18 sacks as a senior, but it still wasn’t enough to earn a collegiate scholarship offer.

The fact that Strickland was undersized at the time — 6-1, 250 pounds — hurt his chances.

“Miami and Florida State missed on the kid,” Franklin said. “They got caught up in that he wasn’t 6-4, 300 pounds.

“I also think that had Davon played for St. Thomas Aquinas or American Heritage, he would’ve gone to a bigger college program.”

Instead, Strickland ended up at FIU as a preferred walk-on. Strickland said he could’ve walked on at other schools, but he ruled out any university that didn’t have his marine-biology major.

“As a freshman [at FIU], I had to prove to the coaches I was worth a scholarship,” Strickland said.

Strickland played eight games — mostly on special teams — as a true freshman. After that first year, FIU coach Butch Davis awarded him a scholarship.

“It was a relief,” Strickland said. “I didn’t want my mom to struggle trying to pay for school. I didn’t want to have major debt. All of that was on my mind, pushing me to do my best.”

RENAISSANCE MAN

Strickland, who has grown to 6-2 and 285 pounds, finally became a college starter last year. He started all five of FIU’s games and made a consistent impact, with at least one tackle for loss in four contests. He also had a sack in three different games, earning honorable mention All-Conference USA.

“Davon is strong, has a quick twitch,” said Everett Withers, FIU’s new defensive coordinator. “We’re going to move him all over so he can make plays.”

Strickland is just as versatile off the field.

An only child, Strickland was in the drum line up until middle school. He was in the chess club, played basketball and baseball, and he took hip-hop dance classes for years.

In addition, he started cooking his own dinners in middle school.

“He’s not close-minded,” Tyeskey said. “He wants to learn everything.”

Strickland enjoys life. For his 18th birthday, his mom dropped him off at the pier, and he fished for 12 hours — catch and release.

He has gone swimming with sharks in the Bahamas and with stingrays in the Cayman Islands. He spent two weeks in Costa Rica with his high school marine-biology program.

“It is dangerous,” Tyeskey said when asked about the sharks. “But he said, ‘Mom, if I die, I die doing what I love.’ ”

Strickland said if he makes it to the NFL, likely after two more seasons at FIU, that would only help his dream of educating people about the importance of wildlife conservation.

“There are a lot of issues I could give voice to,” he said. “With a bigger following, I could start my own projects.

“I just love the ocean. Being around the ocean and studying science — I don’t see how that’s not a field for me to get into.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 7:40 AM.