Davis Making Most of Second Chance

Coming out of Daytona Beach Mainland High School in 2002, middle linebacker Buster Davis wanted to make an impact right away with the Seminole football team.

Unfortunately for the former four-star recruit, playing time wouldn’t come soon enough and Davis was ready to leave the team during his redshirt freshman campaign because of the position he was forced to play when he finally was put to action.

“I came here expecting too much,” Davis said. “I wasn’t really happy as far as my position. Everybody thinks it was because I wasn’t getting any playing time. It had nothing to do with that. It was because they had me playing Sam (strong side) linebacker and I came here with aspirations of playing middle linebacker. I was too immature at that point to understand that it was going to help me out in the long run.”

The disappointment with his assignment was enough to make Davis want to head back home for a week and possibly from the team entirely.

“I went home for like a week during the season,” Davis said. “My mom was like, ‘you don’t want to be called a quitter’ and that is something that I am not. So I came back and it has all worked out.”

His decision to come back, however, was not as simple as it sounds. While the rest of his teammates were working on drills and normal practice, Davis says that head coach Bobby Bowden made him train a different way.

“Man, I felt like I was in the Army or the Marines,” Davis said. “While everyone else was practicing and doing drills I was running stadiums, pushing the boards and doing bear crawls. It was unreal. That was my practice for like five days but I came back and bounced back and all that made me who I am today.”

Entering his redshirt junior season, Davis now anchors arguably the most talented linebacker corps in the nation. Alongside AJ Nicholson and Ernie Sims, Davis looks to build off the 2004 season – a year that saw him break out and become a veteran leader and dependable defensive presence.

He points to the decision of the coaches to move him around as part of the reason why he has become such a talented middle linebacker.

“I have gotten to play all three spots at linebacker since I have been here,” Davis said. “It’s helped me to learn my position better. Everything has a purpose and I truly feel that I am here for a reason.”