Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Herd's Davis chose road to success, bright future
8/27/2018 6:09:00 PM | Football, Word on the Herd
Senior running back overcame adversity, enters 2018 on all-purpose watch list
Note: This story originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of Thundering Herd Illustrated, the official magazine of Marshall University athletics.
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
Occasionally, Marshall senior running back Keion Davis will meander into the office of Mark Gale, the program's assistant athletic director for football operations. Davis and Gale have a relationship that dates back to 2014, when Davis redshirted and focused on academics. Davis has a reason for his visits.
"He asks me to shoot him straight," Gale said. "He doesn't want to hear what he wants to hear; he wants to hear what he needs to hear."
More so then, than now, what Davis heard was not pleasant. It was not savory. It did not paint the Georgia native in a positive light. He struggled with his personal demons, the ones that nearly waylaid his life and football career as a young man trying to escape the clutches of a rough neighborhood on the south side of Atlanta.
"I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel," Davis said of his early years within the Marshall football program. "I had a hot temper; I got mad at everything. I took everything personally. I got to the point where I had to treat this as a business and not take everything personal. I started trusting people. It's hard to trust. But I decided to stop doing it my way and have it done their way, and everything has turned out good."
Now Davis, who turned 24 on August 11, is on the cusp of what he hopes is a banner senior season. Marshall, which opens the season this Saturday at 3:30 p.m., against longtime rival Miami (Ohio), is loaded with offensive weapons. The Thundering Herd is the only FBS program that returns a pair of 800-yard rushers and an 800-yard receiver. Davis is one-third of that trio, having rushed for 812 yards in 2017 and ranking among the best return specialists in the country. He is on the Hornung Watch List as one of the best all-purpose players in the nation, and he is on pace to pass names like Randy Moss and Doug Chapman for career all-purpose yardage at Marshall.
Davis has led Marshall in all-purpose yardage each of the last two seasons. The previous six Herd players to lead that category in consecutive seasons: Darius Marshall, Ahmad Bradshaw, Darius Watts, Randy Moss, Chris Parker and Troy Brown.
But, Davis nearly took a different path. He made what he called "silly" and "goofy" decisions as a teenager, often getting in trouble with siblings or friends and jeopardizing his future.
"Just like any kid who grows up in the ghetto, you have to change it," he said. "I'm doing crazy stuff; all types of bad stuff. One time I got jammed up and I was like, OK, I've got to do right. I changed it and never looked back. My friends supported me. They told me I didn't need to be where they were at, that I needed to do something else with my life."
Davis only played street ball in middle school, idolizing Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick because Vick, like Davis, was left-handed.
"That's where I got the love for the game," he said.
Davis' middle school did not sponsor organized football, so it wasn't until the ninth grade that he shifted his focus from the streets to the field. He played catch up, made the varsity as a junior and became more than a blip on the recruiting radar.
"I had to use football as a way out," he said. "You don't see too many people where I'm from make it out."
Davis, who is one of seven children, not including two step-siblings, hailed from Shady Park. The south side of Atlanta had produced a few elite football players before him: Cam Newton, Adam "Pacman" Jones and Eric Berry. Davis saw an avenue to a better life, and eventually decided to continue his football career at Marshall.
Davis, who is 6-foot-1 and 208 pounds, has gradually improved his numbers since he debuted in 2015. He rushed for 331 yards as a freshman, 469 yards as a sophomore and 812 yards last season. He has 14 career rushing touchdowns, but his most electrifying plays have come in the return game. In the 2017 season opener against rival Miami (Ohio), Davis returned the opening kickoff of the season 99 yards for a touchdown, and later added a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to become the 20th player in NCAA history with a pair of kickoff returns for scores in the same game.
The then-junior did not start the game at running back, and he felt he had something to prove. He remembered when he felt he was running out of options as a kid on the outskirts of Atlanta.
"I wasn't the starter against Miami," he said. "I might not have played much. So, OK, I've got to do something to play. What you saw was me with my back against the wall."
Davis was motivated to be better, but not be about himself. He welcomed the addition of a dynamic runner like King, who was a freshman last season and eventually led the team in rushing, to the backfield. Davis has embraced his role as a senior and a leader this season.
"I don't look at it as I've got to share this or that," Davis said of his workload. "Before you have individual success, you've got to have great team success. When I try to be me, me, me – bad things happen. When I try to be us, us, us – good things happen.
"I want to win. I want to win so bad. I don't care how many yards I have. I just want to win."
Davis has spent his entire life trying to elude whatever could bring him down: defenders; the streets; and, yes, even himself. He gave the wrong path a stiff arm and ran to a better place with a brighter future.
"Is he a finished product? No. But I'm probably not either," Gale said. "But to see how he's evolved and where he's at compared to when he first got here, it gives you a sense of pride. Sometimes young people hear you, but they don't listen. Keion is a person who listened."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and a six-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
