Teammate helped to cure his homesickness after his freshman year.
By Phil Collin
For a guy who likes to fly to Ohio a lot, Fred Davis now regards his trips home as a foray into enemy territory. "That's old Ohio State people,'' the USC tight end said. "They always say I'm not going to make it out here and all that.'' When the receiver accepted a scholarship and enrolled at USC in what would have been his final semester of high school, he figured that the toughest part -- escaping the clutches of the Buckeye Nation -- was behind him. As it turned out, Davis couldn't break that strongest of bonds, family. "You start realizing how far from home you really are,'' Davis said, "and you never get to see your family a lot.'' So Davis made trip after trip back to Toledo last year during his freshman season. Which might not have been so bad had he not been so late returning a few times. The tardiness added up, and Davis was left off USC's traveling squad for the national championship game in the Orange Bowl. "I kind of started missing my family a little bit, so I went home, a few flights got delayed and so it made things even worse,'' Davis said. "It's not like that this year. I haven't been home, and I don't think I am going to go home 'till we get a long break.'' His newfound dedication, he said, comes from simply maturing, and accepting the help he got from those around him. It especially helped to be roommates with classmate Dwayne Jarrett, the receiver from New Jersey who was going through his own pangs of homesickness.
Jarrett and Davis had struck up a friendship while they were still in high school. They met while taking a recruiting visit to Pittsburgh the same weekend and "ever since then, we've been buddies,'' Jarrett said. Knowing Davis was already at USC helped him make up his own mind to travel across the country to attend college. And then he was there for Davis.
"I just tried to keep him focused,'' Jarrett said. "He's been down because he really hasn't gotten the opportunity to play to the best of his ability. I just told him to keep focused and his time will definitely come, and it's coming. He capitalized on the opportunity last week.'' Davis is no longer the skinny but well proportioned 6-foot-4, 215-pound receiver who arrived in early 2004. For one thing, he's no longer a receiver. Before last season started, offensive coordinator Norm Chow convinced him to switch to tight end. Now, he's up to 250 pounds, contends he still runs around 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash, and showed he can catch by hauling in a 19-yard scoring pass from quarterback Matt Leinart in Saturday's win over Stanford. It was the first touchdown of his career, and it came in his first start with senior Dominique Byrd sidelined with a hip injury. Touchdowns were a regular occurrence for Davis at Rogers High in Toledo, but he had to make one admission.
"No, I don't remember my last one,'' he said. "It's been that long, like two years, so it feels good. But I think there's going to be many more. "They were just waiting for me to be a more responsible person so they could trust in me and I could represent them. At first, I probably didn't understand that that much, but now I see a lot more this year. I'm just doing things the right way.'' It might have looked a long way off last year, but this season it seemed like only a matter of time. He has been in the regular rotation at tight end and USC frequently uses two tight ends in a set. And he paid his dues by learning to block, which was never more evident than in USC's win over Notre Dame. On Leinart's sneak for a touchdown with three seconds left, Davis cleared out two defenders as Leinart tumbled into the end zone. His touchdown, his acceptance of his role and his persistence have brought him back into good graces with the coaches and his teammates. "He has been waiting for that chance to get going,'' Carroll said. "I think this is going to be the first of many. He is going to do a lot of good things for us. "It would be great if he could make a big impact as we finish the season. As a coach, you want to see the guys show you the success, so you feel good about it.'' Davis may have contributed even more than just on the field. For the weekend, he was the host for the nation's No. 2-ranked high school running back, Chris Wells, who just happens to be from Akron, Ohio. Wells has already committed to Ohio State, but had nothing but good things to say about his visit. "Recruiting-wise, I think I'm pretty good,'' Davis said. "(Wells) liked it a lot and I just told him, I was real with him: 'It's not real easy, but the possibility is there to come out here and be a great running back.' We always have all the great running backs.'' Then, maybe they could trade reports about how they're treated when they return home.
"That's how Buckeyes are,'' Davis said. "If you leave them, they're done with you for life. Man, like Charles Woodson (who went to Michigan). They hate him. "So I take that like fuel for a car and try to drive with that. I just take that and use it the best I can to try and show them differently.'' And now, contact with the family doesn't have to mean hopping on a red-eye and taking the chance of returning late. "I called my mom after the game,'' Davis said. "She was still up when I called her and it was late back home, like 2 or 3 in the morning. So I know she was all excited.''
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