Quote:That Davis has blossomed into a No. 1 receiver is a testament to his hard work, according toTim Lappano.
When he began working with the receivers this spring, Lappano couldn’t understand why Davis, whom he called physically gifted, had no offers to play Division I football.
Talking with his high school coach, Lappano realized that Davis was a wide receiver mostly only in name at Northside because its offense almost exclusively ran the ball.
“People (college coaches) just saw a big kid blocking,” Lappano said.
Davis impressed last year, other than drawing some personal foul penalties that he said won’t happen this year.
Knowing that he would be the go-to player in Georgia State’s offense this year, Davis continued the work he started as a freshman. He improved his bench press from 280 to 325 pounds so that he can push away defensive backs who try to jam him.
“I knew this was my opportunity so I had to take advantage of it,” Davis said.
Davis continued to work on refining his route-running techniques during the spring. Lappano gave Davis videos of Calvin Johnson, whom he coached with the Detroit Lions, running routes and going through drills to show him what he needed to do.
Lappano said Davis finished first in all the drills. After sitting out part of the fall camp with an ankle injury, he returned and once again went to the front of every line in drills.
“When you have that work ethic and are coachable, good things are going to happen when you work hard,” Lappano said. “It’s not surprising to me that he’s been able to improve his skill set.”