Raiders : Scott Davis Has Promise, and Promises He’ll Make It <i> His</i> Way

OXNARD —  Everywhere you look in the Raider camp, there’s a No. 1 pick. They have three, one for every taste.

There’s Tim Brown, the All-American kid.

There’s Terry McDaniel, the unassuming greyhound at cornerback.

And then there’s Scott Davis.

Davis is a defensive end from the University of Illinois with great potential, apparently in several directions. He is big, athletic, intelligent and independent, but also inconsistent, not to mention occasionally in trouble, too. Put it this way, according to his detractors, the Raiders are getting him with his promise intact, because he’s used so little of it.

He was once supposedly ticketed for the top of the draft. A week beforehand, the Green Bay Packers were thought ready to use their No. 8 overall pick for him, or the Houston Oilers their No. 10.

He wasn’t drafted 8th, 9th, or 10th, but 27th. And just before draft day, he was arrested for slapping a woman in a Champaign, Ill., bar.

The Raiders, typically undiscouraged, with a history of turning around unfocused young ends who could come off the football in a hurry (see Howie Long), went for Davis in a big way. How big? They traded Dokie Williams to the San Francisco 49ers, just so they could move Davis up eight spots.

So what do they have?

“I think in Scott Davis, you see what you want to see,” an Illinois journalist says. “If you want to see the great talent, it’s there. They might have reached a little this time, though.”

Says a National Football Conference general manager: “There are so few defensive linemen, you just have to take a chance. That’s why a guy like Eric Kumerow went to Miami on the first round. People who know the business knew exactly what the Raiders were doing.”

Davis, himself, is pleasant and approachable, if a little weary of being asked what he is and is not.

“You know what?” he says. “I never usually paid attention to any of that. I stay away from those kinds of things because everybody is going to have a different opinion. If you get caught up in caring what people are thinking and saying, it can really get to you.

“My play was pretty good my senior year. They didn’t run my side very much. People are looking at you and your total stats are down but a lot of those times they’re running away from you, and you’re running defenses that keep you out of plays. Like I said, you just can’t worry about it.”

What’s to like about him?

Just one look, that’s all it takes.

He’s 6 feet 5 inches, 270 pounds. He was a basketball star as a prep and a Parade All-American tight end. Recent Raider successes in the defensive line have been project types--Long came out of a small program at Villanova, Sean Jones was a pudgy kid from smaller Northeastern, and Bill Pickel’s development at not-so-immense Rutgers was slowed by back trouble--but Davis reports fully grown.

And his own man.

Take the workouts. After a senior’s season and his appearance at the scouting combine workout, he is expected to do individual drills for scouts of interested teams.

With the Raider linemen, these typically would go like this: line coach Earl Legget shows up on campus, tells prospect to assume three-point stance, drive out of it, and then cut upfield a couple of times. Whole thing lasts a few minutes. Prospect figures Raiders aren’t interested and is incredulous on draft day when they select him five rounds higher than he’s supposed to go.

Well, Davis’ test was even shorter than that.

He didn’t work out, for the Raiders or anyone else.

“I chose not to,” he says. “I thought it was best at the time. People had seen me enough. They knew what my speed was. They knew how I could move. Why do it again?

“It might have turned some people off. But one thing you can’t do, you can’t look back on a decision you made in the past. You can run yourself ragged. So leave ‘em in the past and go on from here.”

Once a Raider, he passed up most of the mini-camp season to stay at Illinois and take his final exams.

“I’ve always been independent, since I was young,” Davis says. “I basically do my own thing, within the realm of things. You do what you have to, but at the

same time, I like my independence.

“My parents were divorced. Living with one parent, you grow up a little bit faster. You learn to take care of yourself. I’m not really much for following people. I like to go my own direction and I trust my own instincts.”

He progressed at his own rate. He quit school after his freshman year, then returned and became a star as a sophomore. By the time he was a senior, he was a preseason All-American--and he didn’t start the opener. He was benched, said then-Coach Mike White, for inconsistency. So Davis came off the bench that day to have a big game against North Carolina.

But it’s not like there isn’t room for improvement. He’s young, he’s a Raider, and he has a $1.18-million contract to prove it, too.

Raider Notes

The Raiders and San Francisco 49ers finally consummated their deal, the Raiders getting linebacker Milt McColl for an undisclosed draft choice, reportedly a mid-rounder conditional on how many games McColl plays. McColl, an eighth-year player, started 10 games last season, but the Raiders are looking at him as a backup. . . . The veteran tight ends, wide receivers and centers plus quarterback Jim Plunkett reported Monday, three days before they can start working in pads. Linebackers and defensive backs will come in today and linemen on Thursday before the veterans start work in pads Friday. All are here voluntarily--”If you’d like to call it that,” Coach Mike Shanahan said. “Technically, I guess you’re right.” Translation: he invited, they accepted.