Roommates with purpose
October 19, 2016 | Football, Andy Baggot
There’s a method behind every detail of a Badger football road trip, including who is sharing rooms.
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BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — The ties that bind D'Cota Dixon to Leo Musso would exist even if they hadn't decided to be roommates during this Wisconsin football season.
They are close friends who share a strong, but quiet sense of faith.
They are upperclassmen and first-year starters in the secondary as safeties.
They are friendly, soft-spoken guys who give off the same calm vibe.
"Like salt and pepper," is how Dixon, a black man who grew up in big-city Florida, describes his relationship with Musso, a white man whose roots are in small-town Wisconsin.
So when UW players were given an opportunity to request a weekend roommate for the 12-game season, Musso, a fifth-year senior, thought of Dixon, a junior.
"I don't think he initially requested me," Musso said. "I don't know why not. But I requested him. I made sure."
In addition to six games on the road, including a Big Ten Conference assignment at Iowa on Saturday, the Badgers come together and spend Friday nights before six home games at a campus hotel.
Musso roomed last season with fellow strong safety Michael Caputo, the team captain who graduated. Dixon bunked with Derrick Tindal, now a junior cornerback, and was prepared to do so again until he heard that Musso had other ideas.
Musso said "similar mentalities and attitudes" drew him to Dixon.
"The thing that me and Musso do really well is we get into the moment when we're in the moment," Dixon said.
Every UW game is a vast series of moments and routines. The mechanics of a trip to, say, Iowa City, Iowa, are largely no different than the three that have been made to Green Bay, East Lansing, Michigan, and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The mode of transportation varies — buses to Green Bay and Iowa City; charter flights to Michigan – and the daily schedule is made to fit around a morning, afternoon or nighttime kickoff.
But when the Badgers arrive at their road hotel on Friday — typically scheduled for approximately 6 p.m. — a familiar rhythm kicks in as outlined in a tri-fold itinerary available to each traveler.
Players, coaches and support staffers collect their room keys and prepare for a team meeting that takes place 30 minutes after arrival. That gives way to dinner. Cell phones are prohibited at both the meeting and meal.
An optional snack is available later in the evening and one pay-per-view movie is allowed per room.
Roommates are split up between offense, defense and special teamers. Some are put together via request. Some are paired by position. Some are assigned, or sequestered, by circumstances such as snoring.
UW coach Paul Chryst and his staff work closely with T.J. Ingels, the director of football operations, on the matchup process. That includes a detailed seating chart for the charter flight. Everything is examined and reviewed during Thursday staff meetings.
Some roommates have an extended history of compatibility. For example, sophomore center/guard Michael Deiter and sophomore guard/center Micah Kapoi share the same campus address.
Some roommates were put together because they not only play the same position, but have the same temperament. For example, true freshmen wide receivers Quintez Cephus and A.J. Taylor have a heightened sense of maturity.
Road curfews have varied slightly this season — 11 p.m. before playing LSU in Green Bay; 9:30 p.m. before facing Michigan State in East Lansing; 10:30 p.m. before meeting Michigan in Ann Arbor — a process that includes bed checks.
Wake-up calls on game day vary with kickoff times. Same goes for meals.
A walk-thru is subsequently held somewhere on the hotel grounds (or, as was the case last Saturday, at the stadium prior to a prime-time kickoff). That's followed by a team meeting — wearing a tie — before the buses depart for the stadium.
The itinerary also includes bus assignments, as well as the pregame schedule for on-field activity.
In addition, there's an outline for meetings, meals and study halls on Sunday.
Musso said Chryst does a great job of creating a "hang loose, don't get too high or too low, just be comfortable" atmosphere leading up to the game.
Two rules are etched in stone, though.
"Being on time is big for everything — meetings and meals," Kapoi said. "And no phones. He wants us to be together."
Said Deiter: "We have a strict itinerary. You've got to follow that and be places on time."
Just as every trip has a rhythm, so too does every room.
"First thing when we get in, the air conditioning has got to go way down," Deiter said. "The next move is to get the blinds shut."
Deiter, from Curtice, Ohio, said he usually manages the TV remote, "but we watch whatever we both agree on."
Typically, it's something on Comedy Central or a funny, lighthearted movie.
"When it's time to sit there and watch something funny, football is off your mind for a little bit," Deiter said. "It's time to relax."
Kapoi, from Kapolei, Hawaii, said conversation is fine as long as it doesn't stray into the obvious.
"We try to stay away from football, keep our minds off of it and relax," he said.
Not so with Cephus, from Macon, Georgia, and Taylor, from Kansas City, Missouri. Not only do they watch football on TV, they typically review the pregame tip sheet put together by UW wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore.
"A.J.'s pretty tuned in," Cephus said. "A.J. studies hard. The more you study, the better you'll be. If you don't know it by Friday, then you don't know it. But we'll look over it just to make sure, so we can play fast."
Taylor said he and Cephus have learned to lean on one another.
"We both understand where we're coming from," he said. "Both of us came from out of state. We're here. We're freshmen. We're just constantly working, working, working."
Cephus said he and Taylor make a point of watching the upperclassmen go through their routines.
"We just try to follow those guys' lead and try to act upon their level and not be freshmen," Cephus said.
"Me and Q, we keep each other on point," Taylor said.
There was a moment earlier this year where Cephus and Taylor walked into a meeting room to find the session already underway.
They weren't late, but because their names had been mistakenly crossed off as present, Chryst had already begun his presentation.
"It was a good learning experience," Cephus said. "The guys didn't bash us for it, but they were like, 'You've got to know this and learn from it.'"
The two rookies are finding they have a lot in common.
"We're both pretty laid-back people," Taylor said. "The relationship's like, 'You do you and I'll do me.' We're both pretty relaxed people, so it's easy."
Every once in a while their talks will turn serious.
"We've got to keep working, keep grinding and our time will come," Taylor said. "We just have to stay patient, trust in delayed gratification."
Dixon and Musso began developing chemistry — on and off the field — last season when they were backups to Caputo and graduated senior Tanner McEvoy.
"A really good thing that Leo and I have in common is we just really focus on internalizing and visualizing what we're going to do and what we want to do," said Dixon, who lives in Oak Hill, Florida, by way of Miami. "We communicate so well.
"I know he's going to do his job. He knows I'm going to do my job."
That sense of compatibility extends throughout their roles as roommates.
"We like to have the room ice cold," said Musso, who's from Waunakee. "He sleeps on the bed toward the window and I sleep on the bed towards the door.
"When it's a home game, we'll go down and eat, leave together and come back up (to the room) together. At 7 o'clock my girlfriend will drop off some treats for us and bring my dog. She'll bring a cookies and cream bar for D'Cota and me a Gatorade and some gummy cherries."
Musso showers first in the morning. They'll eat breakfast together and get coffee on the way back to the room.
"Everyone builds a routine around the schedule," Musso said.
"We didn't plan this, either," Dixon said. "It's just the way it was."
The night before a game, Dixon and Musso will watch some TV, but mostly videos. Sometimes they'll latch onto a random conversational topic and research its details.
The two veterans will also review their playbooks, reviewing formations and calls before lights out.
Dixon said he and Musso will make time to pray before and after the game regardless of the outcome.
It's one of many routines that play out as the Badgers come together and prepare for another game. Not just teammates, but friends as well.
"We enjoy each other's company," Dixon said.
