Lucas: Perseverance paying off for tailbacks Schipper and Davis
November 16, 2021 | Football, Mike Lucas
In-state products playing vital roles as opportunities open in Badgers’ backfield
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Both have a treasure chest of high school highlights and memories. Both have overcome injuries, necessitating surgery, at different intervals of their football careers. Both have worked their tails off and stayed the course even when maybe the odds weren't favorable.
Most importantly, Brady Schipper and Julius Davis have always believed in themselves.
That faith in who they are, and in the process, has allowed both tailbacks to steadily move up in the rotation after dismissals, departures and season-ending injuries have decimated the running back room.
"You have to bet on yourself if you're going to come here as a walk-on and try to get on the field," Schipper said. "I had chances to go other places where I might have gotten a little bit of (scholarship) money. But I love Wisconsin. I've grown up a fan my whole life. So, it was a dream."
The recruiting traffic was much different for Davis, who got offers from LSU, USC and Notre Dame and heard from Michigan, Alabama and Michigan State after verbally committing to the Badgers. Once on the UW campus, though, he almost fell through the cracks. But he continued to dream, too.
"I always wanted to try and get better in any way that I could," said Davis whose stick-to-itiveness has been tied to his self-belief. "As a player, you have so many resources here where you can improve your game and watch other people and learn from different situations."
Both have persevered. And now that their roles have expanded in a tailback rotation headed by a 17-year-old freshman (Braelon Allen), Schipper and Davis have found themselves in a contributing situation, which has not always been the case. Their value to the offense has never been greater.
"It's kind of crazy and you don't really think about it, especially now that it has been a couple of games where I've played more and more," said Schipper, who had seven carries and caught two passes against Northwestern last Saturday. "It just feels like I'm playing football again. It's just normal.
"A couple of years ago, I'd get nervous about it. Now the more you do it, you realize this is just football. Nothing more, nothing bigger. It's still the game that I've been playing since I was young. Just getting more and more experience builds up my confidence more and more."
Feeling like he has also turned a corner, Davis said, "I'm comfortable enough with the playbook now that I can really play without having to think too much. I can play without hesitation. I know my assignment and I don't have to think twice about what I have to do. I can just go, go, go."
Davis snapped his fingers for emphasis.
"Once you can play fast at this level, that's when you can really show what your talent is."
In his first action of the 2021 season, Davis had seven rushes for 32 yards at Rutgers.
"I just wanted to put on film what I can do," he said. "Just because I don't look huge, like I'm 230 (he's 5-foot-10, 201 pounds), I just wanted to give the impression, 'Yeah, I might be lighter than some of these other backs, but I'll run behind my pads just as hard, and you will have to tackle me.'"
In the fourth quarter of the Northwestern game, Davis had runs of four and six yards before fumbling after a five-yard gain on his third consecutive rush. In his exuberance to pick up additional yardage and finish the run the right way, he just lost the football, much to his chagrin.
"He really didn't reach in there and hit it all," Davis said of linebacker Xander Mueller, who was credited with the forced fumble. "I was trying to get more yards and it happened. Coach (Gary) Brown says if you play this game long enough, it's going to happen as a running back.
"I just tried to move past it and put it in my rearview mirror."
On the final possession of the game, Davis ran out the clock with five straight carries.
"Those were big for me and the rest of the team to see," he said. "I just wanted to show everybody that I can bounce back after something like that. It wasn't going to affect me mentally or affect my game at all. I wanted to show them that they could still trust me."
The players definitely trust Brown, the aforementioned first-year running backs coach.
"We're all like a brotherhood," Davis said of the room. "Everything comes out of respect."
Last March, Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst hired Brown, who had served as an assistant for 11 seasons in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys. Brown had an immediate one-on-one impact with Schipper, the only tailback who wasn't injured during spring practices.
"It really helped build that relationship with him and it kind of allowed him to see what kind of running back I am," said Schipper, a 5-11, 205-pound redshirt junior. "Running with the No. 1 offense for a lot of the spring helped me build relationships with them (the starting O-line) as well.
"You build that confidence and trust with each other — this is the closest group (of running backs) that I've been a part of. We've had that Next Man Up mentality because of all the crazy things that have happened throughout the year with guys going down and with guys leaving.
"Having a good relationship that we built through the summer and fall has really benefited us."
• • • •
Last week, former Wisconsin basketball coach Bo Ryan was honored during halftime of the Green Bay game at the Kohl Center. Throughout his successful run at UW-Platteville — four Division III national championships — Ryan put a lot of stock in developing relationships and role players.
One such player was Brady Schipper's father, Rob. Although injured during the 1990-91 championship season, he came back to play in 55 games (with two starts) the following two years. That '91 team was inducted as a group into the school's Hall of Fame and Rob Schipper was a part of it.
"Boy, he was a tough, hard-nosed player for us," Ryan said. "He could have played football in college, too. Rob Schipper was one of our mainstays. He played with (Rob) Jeter, (T.J.) Van Wie and (Ernie) Peavy. To see what his son is doing now doesn't surprise me at all."
Brady Schipper says that his dad doesn't talk much about his college hoops career.
"Growing up, I knew that he played for Coach Ryan because when we'd go to basketball camps, he'd say hi to Coach and they'd talk a little bit," he said. "I know a little bit but not a ton. He really doesn't say a whole lot. But I know that he found his role by playing defense and being gritty.
"Going through my college career, the process of football, he has compared it a lot to his basketball experience. No matter where you play, college sports are a different world. It's tough. It's hard. And he helped me get through the mental part of the sport."
At Stoughton High School, Brady Schipper averaged 14 points and 4 rebounds during his senior year. In an upset of previously unbeaten Monona Grove, he went 13-of-15 from the field and scored 38. In the fall, he had rushed for 364 yards and five touchdowns against the Silver Eagles.
It was a bounce-back year for Schipper in both sports after tearing the labrum in his shoulder while stiff-arming an opponent in a game against Madison Edgewood. The injury and subsequent surgery not only prematurely ended his football season, but it carried over to the basketball season.
"That junior year, we had a really good basketball team and not being able to play kind of reminded me of why I love sports," said Schipper, who was first-team All-Badger South Conference in football, basketball and baseball. "I ended up being a better person and better athlete out of it."
Davis can relate. At Menomonee Falls High School, Davis had a monster junior season that was highlighted by a 67-yard touchdown run against West Allis Hale in which he hurdled a tackler with a 360-spin. The video went viral. Davis ended up with 1,762 rushing yards and 17 scores.
In the 2018 opener against Germantown, Davis added to his resume by rushing for 334 yards, including a 95-yard touchdown run. The following week, he played only three quarters and had 203 yards. It was the second and final game of his senior year. He went to the sideline with a sports hernia.
"I feel it may have started in the Germantown game because I tried to hurdle someone and I kind of felt a burning sensation," he said. "I played through it but it might have made it worse. Having any type of surgery is difficult as far as mentally and physically."
His parents, among others, helped motivate him through the rehab. Davis' father, Dornaj — not unlike Schipper's dad — has been a positive influence on his journey from a training aspect. Besides running hills, he had his son doing push-ups from a deck of cards. Pick a card and match the number.
Face cards called for 10 pushups. Aces for 25. And Jokers for 50. Former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, a Hall of Famer, popularized the 52-card workout, not counting Jokers. (Lewis would customarily go through the whole deck, shuffle, and do it over again, only with sit-ups.)
Getting on the field early for the Badgers was certainly not in the cards for Davis, who redshirted as a freshman in 2019 and struggled at times to get healthy enough to even practice. His only game appearance last season came against Minnesota. He had one carry for one yard. But it was meaningful.
"It was nice to have the ball in a game setting again," he said. "After so long."
Schipper and Davis have now been entrusted with backing up the wunderkind (Allen) and filling the void left by tailback Chez Mellusi, who was injured at Rutgers and lost for the reminder of the season. They both sounded ready for the role.
Why not? Both have never stopped believing in themselves.
