Former NU receiver conducts camp

A last-minute scramble led former Nebraska wide receiver Matt Davison to the Fremont High football practice field Tuesday evening.

Davison put on a trial run of his, “Matt Davison Youth Experience” which will run again Thursday for kids in grades 6-8.

Davison wants to eventually have 15 or so of his camps around the state next year but also wanted to get his feet wet first.

The camp, though, isn’t just about football.

“We’re going to talk about a lot of other things: character, steroids, teamwork and everything you can learn playing football other than winning and losing,” Davison said. “The key message is just having character on and off the field.

“There is a quote that I love, ‘sports do not build character, they reveal it.’”

The camp is offensive in nature since that is where Davison played, catching 93 passes for 1,456 yards and six touchdowns as a split end from 1997-2000.

“I was on the offensive side of the ball so that’s what I know,” the Tecumseh native said. “I’ll let them play at whatever position they want; I don’t care what position you played on your team last year, if you want to be a quarterback today you’re a quarterback and we’ll have fun with it.”

The campers spend time doing position work (quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers and offensive line) where they learn about the position and run drills.

“I know what my attention span was when I was that age so I’m not going to bore them with an hour speech,” Davison joked.

Davison worked with the receivers and was assisted by Fremont High coaches Kevin Meyer and T.J. Roffers who worked with the line and backs, respectively. Nebraska Wesleyan starting quarterback Matt Hagge accompanied Davison on the trip and worked with the QBs.

Thursday Davison plans on giving out T-shirts, posters and other items.

Davison’s camp begins on the heels of a change in coaching staff at the University of Nebraska.

Four-year coach Bill Callahan’s contract was bought out and Bo Pelini was soon hired.

Davison said, however, his camp has nothing to do with the coaching change.

“I’m not here because of the change, the timing is more coincidental than anything,” he said. “It’s a good time for it, though, because when I was at that age, Nebraska football was at a much different place than it is now and so I think it’s important for these kids to see, touch, hear and feel Nebraska football from somebody that has been there a done it.”

Davison did say that he welcomes the change to Pelini.

“It was time for us to move on and get someone in here that I think really understands the roots of Nebraska and can turn kids this age into aspiring to be great Nebraska football players and representing this state and to stay in the state and not want to go somewhere else,” he said.

Davison added that last season Nebraska was missing the give-it-all-you’ve-got attitude of past Husker teams.

“We should’ve been 7-5 last year just on effort,” Davison said. “I think we’ll win two more games this season because of effort and that’s what I hope to teach at these camps.

“Guys are going to play hard and that’s what I want to see. The wins and losses are going to play out but if you give it everything you’ve got on every play there’s no reason we shouldn’t win more games.”