Georgia State’s best offensive weapon had no scholarship offers to play Division I football.
He caught coach Trent Miles’ eye while doing dunks during a pickup basketball game.
Such is the fun and exactness of recruiting that wide receiver Robert Davis has gone from “who’s that?” to “make sure you know where he is” for the Panthers, who will open the season against Abilene Christian on Wednesday at the Georgia Dome.
“It was just the way he looked,” Miles said of seeing Davis at Northside High School of Warner Robins.
Davis had only a partial offer to a NAIA school when Miles signed him to a scholarship. Without the bona fides of a shoebox full of recruiting letters, and helped by playing opposite Albert Wilson, the 6-3, 198-pound Davis became the Panthers’ second-best receiver last season with 44 catches for 711 yards and four touchdowns.
With no Wilson on the other side of the field this season, and no other established receivers opposite him, Davis likely will be pegged as the guy to stop by opposing defenses.
It’s a role that Davis said he’s ready to handle.
“I just have to go out and make plays and whenever the team needs me go out and make big ones,” Davis said.
Wide receivers coach Tim Lappano said he must allow the game to come to him.
If Davis is being jammed at the line by a defensive back and sees a safety playing behind him, he shouldn’t get frustrated if he can’t get open because it means another receiver should be open.
“I think he will step up to the challenge,” Miles said. “He relishes the role.”
That Davis has blossomed into a No. 1 receiver is a testament to his hard work, according to 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 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 season, 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 season, 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, who 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 preseason 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.”
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