Lavonte David On His Recruiting Journey To Nebraska | Bussin' With The Boys

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Danny Diaz, Fort Scott Community College, Miami Northwestern Senior High School
2. 3:00 – 6:00: University of Nebraska
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Brandon Kenny

Notable quotes from "Lavonte David On His Recruiting Journey To Nebraska | Bussin' With The Boys"

• Yeah. I started, playing in high school. I played at Miami Northwestern Senior High School, a prestigious high school down here in Miami. won two state championships when I was here. I never lost when I was started. I didn't.

  about Miami Northwestern Senior High School · at 0:28

• I signed to Middle Tennessee State, out of, out of high school. I didn't qualify. middle Manny Diaz was the linebacker coach and he recruited me big time, you know. he the only one who really, stuck with me throughout that.

  about Danny Diaz · at 1:30

• The roster and I ended up making a roster. And then from that point, end up going to the University of Nebraska, BK was already there at the time, Will, reaching out and stuff like that. Those guys welcome you open arms.

  about University of Nebraska · at 5:50

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Danny Diaz — Person · 1 mention · first at 1:35
• Brandon Kenny — Person · 1 mention · first at 6:14
  Yeah. Brandon Kenny, who was a receiver in Nebraska. He was like a highly recruited guy.

Companies & orgs

• Fort Scott Community College — Company · 1 mention · first at 2:13
  To get out and go to school. And then Eddie Brown, Antonio Brown's father was a coach at Fort Scott Community College and he reached out to my parents and say, Hey, we got a…
• University of Nebraska — Company · 1 mention · first at 5:54

Places & events

• Miami Northwestern Senior High School — Place · 1 mention · first at 0:31

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 I really want to hear about your process of like high school to the NFL because I mean there's some stats here that Will's going to read off later. He found these stats and they're absolutely beautiful. But like this cat that I'm looking at on this piece of paper and then hearing like junior college I think you uh Will was ahead of you and then Will got hurt and then all of a sudden you were never going like eight people were

0:21 I would love the entire the entire breakdown from you. Take as long as you want dude [clears throat] because it's it's truly it's truly fascinating.

0:28 Yeah. I mean, I started, you know, playing in high school. I played at Miami Northwestern Senior High School, you know, a prestigious high school down here in Miami. Um, won two state championships when I was here. Uh, I never lost when I was started. I didn't start playing varsity until my my junior year. So, uh, my freshman and sophomore year, I was really just, you know, everybody who I hung around, you know, was older than me. There was like, you know, seniors or juniors and stuff like that. So [snorts] my freshman and sophomore year, I was just out there having fun, you know, just doing whatever in high school, just, you know, skipping class, you know, uh just doing silly things the high school kids to do.

1:09 And then, you know, when I started, you know, getting serious in football, cuz I played junior boxing my sophomore year and I started getting serious in football [clears throat] and, you know, um, by the time you it was time for me to graduate, you know, I didn't have the the proper GPA to be able to, you know, go on to a 4-year university. So, um, uh, I signed to Middle Tennessee State, uh, out of, uh, out of high school. I didn't qualify. Uh middle uh Manny Diaz was the uh linebacker coach and he recruited me big time, you know. Uh uh he the only one who really, you know, stuck stuck with me throughout that whole process. He was trying to get me to come here really bad and unfortunately it didn't work out. And then um uh it was a it was a a thing that we was going I was going to gray shirt and then end up going to Mississippi State in the spring. But um something happened during the summer back at home in Miami uh that

2:04 kind of like you know spooked my parents. So they wanted me to get out you know hurry up and uh make a decision to get out and go to school. And then uh Eddie Brown, Antonio Brown's father was a coach at um Fort Scott Community College and he reached out to my parents and say, "Hey, we got a spot for him over here in junior colleges. You're just going to have to do a year and a half or two to get another another opportunity to go to a big uh a four year school." And I ended up doing that. And my first day at Fort Scott, I quit.

2:36 I didn't want to be there obviously. And then um the reason that I quit is because we had a conditioning test. You know, I tell this story a thousand times. And I just can't believe I actually this was actually a conditioning test. We ran 4220s, 16 110s, and 2040s and at all time. And as freshness coming in, you can't have be couldn't couldn't drink any water or nothing like that. Only people could drink water. It's like guys who been already. And on the second 220, I passed out. You know, I'm on the ground flat on the ground. Coach Sims, Coach Jeff Sims, he's the uh he was the head coach at the time, cursing me out, calling me all type of names, saying my daughter can effing do this. My three-year-old daughter can effing do this. Uh you Miami guys are weak and soft. And you know me, I'm, you know, I'm getting pissed off. What up, man? I just basically like, man, [ __ ] this. I'm gone. And I quit. So, uh, in back of my

3:31 mind, you know, uh, I was going to go home and, uh, be a firefighter. It's like, football is done. My football career is over. I'm going to go home and just make a career for myself right away. And then, uh, Eddie Brown put me to the side. Like, man, trust me, man. Just stick it out. It's going to work out. It's going to work out. So, the whole time I'm there, I'm just I'm just angry. I'm pissed. I'm mad at everybody. And I don't know if BK told you this story, Will, but the first day in pads, we doing um I came in as a safety. They had me playing safety. So the first day in pads, we doing one ons and you know, well, you know, BK is the guy at the time. So I'm like, I pushed everybody to the side. No, I want him. So I'm trying to earn my strikes now. So [clears throat] the first playing and one-on- ones, BK runs a slant and I hit him. Like I literally like hit him cuz I'm mad. And me and BK get into it and

4:25 this and that. And uh everybody like, "Oh, what's going on?" Like, "Break it up. Break it up." And then like everybody looking at me like, "Oh man, like this dude here, you know, he's he's crazy." Cuz you know, BK, nobody does BK like that. So I'm like,

4:37 "Yeah, because BK was the recruit. BK was the recruit that was going to lead, you know. He was like uh he was like the uh the bell of the ball running out of

4:45 Scott. BK was one of the guys who was putting uh Fort Scott on the mat, you know.

4:50 So uh I'm like, "Okay, I'm go go go go against him." And then it happened again and they started fighting and stuff like that. And then uh it transpired to uh 907. I'm uh 9007. I'm the strong safety where cover four and they got this uh this top back that coach Sims love and they do like a little stretch zone stretch play and then um I run the alley and cover four after cover for safer safety and I hit him like one of the biggest hits I probably to this day ever had in my life [snorts] and the ball flew way in the back of the end zone the opposite way and everybody was going crazy going crazy and the night meetings coach S put to his office is like you going to be my linebacker, you're starting, you making this team and the rest is history. I ended up uh making the team. And the whole story about that is like going through all that only 12 man out of state guys can make the roster at the

5:44 time and I'm like at the bottom of the roster. So, I had to fight my way up all the way there to get uh to the top of the roster and I ended up making a roster. And then uh from that point, end up going to the University of Nebraska, you know, uh BK was already there at the time, you know, uh Will, you know, uh reaching out and stuff like that. Those guys uh welcome you open arms

6:07 cuz Yoshi was there. That's when Yoshi comes up cuz BK they were they were recruiting a recruiting class right before.

6:13 Who's BK? Brandon Kenny. Got you. Thank you. All right. I know a lot of people, right? Mitch, you're back there. BK, they're talking. We just know everybody from Nebraska ever.

6:21 Yeah. Brandon Kenny, who was a receiver in Nebraska. He was like a highly recruited guy.

6:26 Yeah. I I remember you talking about this cat. He was supposed to be like the one and then just got a little yippy.

6:32 Yeah. He like dislocated his thumb. Dude was super athletic, a great leader. He was a He was a stud. But him and Yoshi were already there. Was Was JP your class or in that same class with BK and Yoshi? He was the same size as DK.

6:46 Yeah. So that the only one that they lost out on was JPP. He went to South Florida. So when Levante was coming out, it was basically down to Nebraska and South Florida.

6:56 Okay. And everybody ultimately got Levante recruited to Nebraska. So when Levante was coming in, he was this JO all-American linebacker, like a fourstar in the JO rankings coming out. He was a big dog that was coming.

7:07 So uh he had great relationship with like BK and Yoshi. They're telling me Zo Why the linebacker room about Levante and so everybody was just kind of getting connected.

7:15 Gotcha. Everyone's And your two biggest offers were Nebraska and USF. Yeah, Nebraska and USF at the time until I found out I had a lot more offers that I didn't know about. But that's another story we'll talk about.

7:27 I didn't know that. That's crazy. I didn't know that. I just remember E and co E and coach Bo just talking about how

7:33 Levante like we need to, you know, hey, reach out to him like they want him to feel as comfortable as possible.

7:38 Yeah. You're like hosting him. I I do you during during your story you talked about how you weren't eligible though you were didn't start till your junior hanging out the older kids you're skipping class

7:48 as a guy who was also like on the fence like when I was going into my senior year a lot of schools came and recruited me and they're like we would clearly love to have you but your grades are there we don't know if you're going to make it and so a couple schools didn't offer because of that Wisconsin and a couple of other those but like I ended up making it that story has been well documented on busting with the boys

8:07 for you what was it like when you're staring down the barrel looking at it like okay I need to be eligible whether it's the sliding scale of the ACT and your GPA like what what didn't take place for you to be able to take the next step cuz I mean clearly when guys get D1 offers we like

8:24 people think it but it's very clear that you get a silver spoon shoved so far up your ass immediately in high school like you become like the guy in school where the teachers the principal everyone kind of is like looking out for okay this kid we know the direct line of what his future can be as opposed to all these other kids. And it's like, we hope it works out for them. They're going to go to college and figure out their lives.

8:43 And so for me in [clears throat] school, it was this kid clearly can do something in the NFL or maybe make it to the NFL. Let's at least get him to college. So there was a big push from like my uh student counselor, the head coach, the the principal of the school, teachers, like everyone was kind of in it to be like, "Let's get Taylor to college and then he can someone can take him out taking care of him from there." But you being in Miami, it didn't work out that way. like what did not happen? Like how bad was the GPA? I I just kind of want to understand that a little bit more.

9:13 Yeah, I was hard-headed, man. My whole thing was just, you know, I was just wanting to have a GPA uh 2.0 GPA to play football. You know, I wasn't really thinking about nothing else. I just wanted to play play football uh because we was really good at the time. I was having a lot of fun uh with my homeboy uh and I was having a lot of success. And then you know when you have that those those meeting with your counselors going to your senior year and uh trying to see where you at and things like that you know I had that meeting it was like hey man like you slacking like if you want to go to school you got to you know pick it up. And then that's when I saw all my scholarships getting taken away and things like that. So my senior year I was pretty you know pretty behind just trying to catch up and stuff like that.

9:52 And then when it was time to take the ACTs and all that my grade my score didn't match up with my GPA. you know, I ended up with a 2.3 GPA I graduated with,

10:01 but I had like a a 18 on the uh ACT. So, by the time it was kind of, you know, make those decisions, it it wasn't adding up. So, I wasn't able wasn't going to be able to qualify and things like that. So,

10:14 um end up going the dream college route, you know, kind of that I think that whole process just, you know, humbled me and just helped [clears throat] me understand, you know, how important, you know, schools is and school is and stuff like that. I always thought like as long as I'm good at football, I'll be okay. But that's not the case. And um that's something that I kind of, you know, just, you know, that's something that just humbled me and I definitely, you know, um kind of like just took that [clears throat] for what it was and I took it from a side of God and just went on ahead and I went to junior college and I was able to, you know, graduate my AA right away and then, um going to a 4-year university. Even though I didn't graduate, you know, on time at Nebraska, I did go back and get my degree. So, I'm extremely proud of that. So that uh that whole process, man, just going through

11:00 all that stuff, like just finding out things late, I I I advise anybody to, you know, get on it right away because, you know, even though I went the Jo route, man, I won't I won't recommend going. I mean, it's always a a good story to to have, but [snorts and clears throat]

11:15 it is rough going that Jo route. The stories that you, Yosh, BK, that you guys would tell about being a Jo, I mean, that conditioning test is

11:24 outlandish. Yeah, the the condition test is crazy. It's like uh I don't know, like '90s football, high school football. And then I feel like Jo still lives in that world where we just got to we got to weed out the week 247 n on I I could tell you so many stories that we had, man. Like we used to have to run to this run to this lake that was 5 miles away. Uh when somebody messed up, you had to run to the McDonald's that's like 5 miles away. Bring back a a ketchup packet to make sure that you went there. Um uh it was uh one time during practice we wasn't having a good practice. Coach thought the pres ran gashers until he got tired of us running gashers. Um [clears throat] shoot another story. It's another story.

12:11 I mean it was one time when we you know we kind of got in trouble did some knucklehead stuff. We had to run around this uh run around this path in front of the school when it was freezing cold like 12 degrees outside and everybody Yoshi ended up getting frostbite on his head. It was so much stuff.

12:27 No [ __ ] That is it was it was it was a it was a lot of stuff that we had to uh endure during junior college. But it it made a lot of guys, man. It made a lot of guys.

12:38 Did you guys that year you played one year at junior college or did you two? I played two. My first year, my first year, that's when I played with JP.

12:47 Gotcha. And we went to a we went to a bowl game and we beat uh Blind College in a bowl game.

12:53 And then uh the next year that we played, we ended up playing in the national championship against Blair again. And that's when uh we played against Camel

13:01 and he mopped. No, we lost. No, I He said he mopped. He He was Oh, yeah. a man amongst B.

13:09 He had a He had a solid game, but we lost on the last second return. We was going we was going to win. The clock was running. We punting the ball like 30 something seconds left and we was up by I want to say two and um the punt ended up going inbounds and the dude end up catching and ran right up the middle and scored a touchdown and we lost the game. [clears throat]

13:31 What a way to lose a national champion. Yeah, it's it's a clip out there about out it and about it and uh you know if you could see probably at at the sideline like everybody soon he caught the ball everybody just dropped like a and the crazy thing about that is I ain't I ain't you know trying to toot my own horn or nothing but I was supposed to be on punt team that week but they wanted me to spy Cam New and so I uh they took me off and uh that ended up happening.

13:55 I don't want to my own horn but they did take me off the punt team man. You ask him is was Cam Newton on the blind team?

14:02 Ask him. Use the mic. Levante and Yes. Oh, he was. Yeah, Cam Newton was on the blend team. Yeah.

14:10 How was it playing against Cam Newton and Jo? That's got to be I mean that's crazy.

14:17 I mean, for me, you know, it was it wasn't nothing. But I do, but uh he definitely was an intimidating figure, you know, as he is right now to the day still. He was an intimidating figure and you know uh he had that all that aura about him. But uh we should have won that game. I tell you that we should have won that game. But and the crazy thing is my boy uh Jasmine Hawkins, the running back, he won off MVP and I won divas MVP. So that goes to show that we should have won the game.

14:49 He said it won nothing. Still still truly takes it to heart. He's like Yeah. I mean Cam Newton is an action figure on the football field.

14:56 No doubt. Not to take nothing away from you. You've always been like an undersized cat.

15:00 Yeah, I have. But, you know, at the heart of a lion, man. You know how it go. No question. No question. And the Miami Northwestern team, he he talks about how he ended up, you know, the Middle Tennessee State and everything else. But Levante played with a dude named Sean Spence, a linebacker that was coming out that was like highly ranked. Like dude was a stud. He played at the University of Miami. Then I want to say he got drafted to Pittsburgh, right?

15:23 Yeah. He was a stud. Levante, I want to say like nine guys off that defense ended up going and playing college ball. Like Levante was like him going to MTSU and everything else. Like Levante wasn't part of the crop that every coach and teacher and people are rallying around. We got to get this kid.

15:38 We got to get this kid to the next level. I'm sure they, you know, I'm sure that they were having conversations with you, but Levante wasn't like the pick of the litter on that Miami Northwest.

15:46 No doubt. No doubt. That we had we had a whole bunch of guys. We had like two five stars, maybe like six four stars. We had eight guys signed to the University of Miami out of my class.

15:57 Yeah. Yeah. That 08 class. I I remember a lot of guys from your school was signing with the University of Miami.

16:04 That is just nuts. At my high school there was we had two guys go D1 and I was one of them. So it was and the other kid was a 4.0 student. He had

16:12 no problems at all. There was like we just got to fix that that kid right there. I know we're I know we're sticking a lot on the high school part, but did were you wanted to go to Miami? Were you in your hearts like if I could go to any school be Miami?

16:24 Yeah, I did. I did. You know, obviously I got a lot of love for Miami. I grew up in Miami saying fan watching those guys. Uh, you know, Jonathan Vilma, DJ Williams, Sean Taylor, and those guys. I definitely want to go there, but it was a chance I can go. I could have went out of Jo, you know. Um, but they wanted me to go. They wanted me to attend in the spring, but uh, I wouldn't be able I wasn't going to be able to graduate early. I had to go in the summer, so they ended up falling back from me. But you know, it's all good. I ain't tripping. It It worked out for me.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Lavonte David On His Recruiting Journey To Nebraska | Bussin' With The Boys"?

In order: 0:00 Danny Diaz, Fort Scott Community College, Miami Northwestern Senior High School; 3:00 University of Nebraska; 6:00 Brandon Kenny.

What is mentioned in this Bussin' With The Boys episode?

5 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Miami Northwestern Senior High School, Danny Diaz, Fort Scott Community College, University of Nebraska, Brandon Kenny. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Lavonte David On His Recruiting Journey To Nebraska | Bussin' With The Boys"?

The episode runs 17 min; the transcript is about 3,778 words in 57 timestamped sections.

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