Some four years ago, Caleb Davis arrived at Notre Dame in a nebulous, unpaid role on the heels of Marcus Freeman's hiring from Cincinnati to become the Fighting Irish's defensive coordinator.
Through a relentless drive and unflagging work ethic, Davis -- who like Chad Bowden had been the first two people Freeman brought with him to South Bend, Indiana -- carved a paid, full-time football recruiting associate role with the Notre Dame program.
Last summer, Notre Dame named him its director of recruiting after Davis had followed Gerad Parker to Troy, where Davis served as that program's head of personnel.
San Diego State is on the verge of making Davis its general manager.
Multiple sources tell FootballScoop that Sean Lewis is working to finalize a deal naming Davis as San Diego State's G.M.
The impending move comes on the heels of a quick but in-depth interview process with Lewis first Zooming with Davis and then San Diego State flying him to campus for in-person meetings.
And it's another move where Notre Dame, after finishing as national runner-up to Ohio State last month in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff, is losing a key member of its personnel/recruiting department to the West Coast.
Chief architect in the Irish roster posting the program's first-ever 14-win season, Bowden now is general manager at USC with a record-breaking, first-of-its-kind four-year deal following his departure less than a week after the CFP title bout.
Notre Dame's new general manager is the well-regarded Mike Martin, a former Vanderbilt player with some two decades' NFL experience.
But the Irish still need to fill key personnel and recruiting roles after being turned down in the past month by Auburn's Kenyatta Watson and Texas Tech's James Blanchard, as well as previously losing director of player personnel Zaire Turner and now Davis.
With San Diego State set to join the PAC-12 in 2026, the 25-year-old Davis, a Cincinnati native and former student assistant in then-coach Luke Fickell's Bearcats program, is poised to become among the youngest general managers at the Power Conference level.
