Menomonee Falls running back Julius Davis joins the recruiting effort for University of Wisconsin football

Curt Hogg | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Menomonee Falls head football coach Dan Lutz considers senior running back Julius Davis’ personality “magnetic.”

The University of Wisconsin coaching staff is finding that to be true.

Davis, part of the 2019 Badgers football recruiting class, is getting ready for his final year on the field with the Indians, one in which he hopes to rush for 2,000 yards and 25 touchdowns en route to a first-team all-state nod.

When Davis isn’t working on his craft, however, he’s collaborating with his fellow recruits to get more players to commit to UW.

Accelerating toward Madison

Watch Davis make a couple of runs during a game, and his strength and physicality stand out as he runs over smaller defenders and attacks the bigger ones head-on.

“He’s a very, very physical kid that likes running people over,” Lutz said. “At the Big Ten level, he will probably have to learn not to do that all the time, but he will try to take four, five, sometimes six guys with him.”

What stands out most to his coach, though – and a significant reason why he sits as the 30th-ranked high school back in the country by 247sports.com – is his burst.

“He’s the best kid I’ve ever had at getting from horizontal to vertical in a split second,” Lutz said. “He can get vertical almost instantly on a cut. His acceleration is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

The acceleration on Davis' recruitment was just as notable.

Davis entered his junior season without much interest from Division I schools; it was understandable, since he wasn't the fulltime starter as a sophomore. That all changed as soon as he posted the video of his 67-yard touchdown run against West Allis Hale last August, one in which he spun past, leaped over, ran through and stiff-armed defenders on a clip that landed on Twitter timelines across the nation.

RELATED: Check out video of this insane 67-yard touchdown run by Menomonee Falls back Julius Davis

The tape reached the desk of Badgers running backs coach John Settle, and he quickly sent special teams coordinator Chris Haering on the recruiting trail across I-94.

“When that one play went viral, that’s when everything started to pick up for me,” Davis said. “I started visiting a couple more schools. Then, Wisconsin asked me to come to a game, and they ended up offering me that weekend.”

Three days later, Davis verbally committed.

RELATED: Menomonee Falls running back Julius Davis doesn't need much time to say yes to Badgers

“I knew what school I wanted to go to since I was young,” he said. “That’s why I jumped on it so fast. I wasn’t so used to the recruiting process at all, so I said to myself, ‘Well if I don’t take this, are they going to try to take this kid or that kid instead?’ In the end, I just knew it was right for me.”

Not going anywhere

In the ensuing months, Davis went through what many other high school recruits at the Division I level have experienced: coaches trying to get him to back out of his verbal commitment and re-open the recruiting process.

USC, Notre Dame and LSU all offered Davis in an effort to get him to flip. Other schools said that they would offer him as soon as he de-committed from UW.

Davis, who grew up watching the likes of John Clay, Melvin Gordon, James White and Montee Ball rumble through opposing secondaries at Camp Randall, didn't budge.

“It’s pretty cool because it shows that Wisconsin got a good player and the other schools were late on it,” Davis said. “The attention, it feels good, but at the same time, it wasn’t tough to stay true on my commitment.”

Now, Davis is using that experience to try to help Badgers head coach Paul Chryst keep players within the program.

Perhaps the most heralded player in the 2019 class is four-star quarterback Graham Mertz, from Blue Valley North (Kan.) High School, who announced he was closing his recruitment for good. After committing to play in Madison last fall, the likes of Ohio State and Alabama were after Mertz in hopes that he would flip his commitment and join their ranks.

RELATED: Top quarterback recruit sticking with commitment to Wisconsin

Throughout that process, Davis was there trying to keep his signal-caller a Badger.

“Myself and a few of the other guys, we talked to him a lot and about the recruitment a couple of times,” Davis said. “I was just trying to make sure he was still going to Madison. He always told us he’s not going anywhere.”

Blazing a recruiting trail

Ever since his official visit with the Badgers last week – and even before – Davis has been doing almost as much recruiting as his future coaches.

“Julius, I can say all the positive things there are to say about a kid about him,” Lutz said. “If you’re talking about his ability to draw people in, though, that’s something that definitely seems to come naturally to him.”

The members of the 2019 class have been steady presences in the message folders of uncommitted UW targets.

“We started doing it even before the coaches said something to us,” Davis said. “I was already texting some of the guys, seeing how they were doing, catching up on a regular basis. When they said something to us, we were kind of like, ‘We’re already doing it.’ ”

Davis and crew helped land commitments from defensive tackle Gio Paez and cornerback Semar Melvin in the past week.

Others, including linebacker Lance Dixon, Etinosa Reuben, offensive tackle Bryce Benhart and linebacker Spencer Lytle, are on the radar.

“A lot of them are pretty close to committing, hopefully,” Davis said.

It's all part of a plan with grand aspirations.

“We’re just trying to bring a national championship to Wisconsin,” he said. “We want them all on board for it.”