Homecoming week in College Park is usually about nostalgia, but for Vernon Davis, it’s turning into something closer to a family album that’s still being filled in.
The former Maryland star and Super Bowl champion is coming back to campus for the Terps’ Homecoming game against Rutgers, and this time the trip carries a different kind of meaning. He’ll be there not just as a former player, but as grand marshal for the weekend, and as the father of freshman running back Jianni Davis, who is starting his own Maryland run.
“It’s not like a regular father-son relationship,” Jianni Davis said. “That’s my dog.
We’re best friends in a way. I tell him everything.
We have a really open relationship.”
That bond has been built around football, but it isn’t limited to it. Jianni grew up watching a father whose NFL career stretched nearly 200 games, included 63 touchdowns and ended with a Super Bowl ring with the Denver Broncos. Vernon was inducted into the Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022, though Jianni said that legend never overshadowed the man at home.
“It was pretty regular for me, because I’ve always just seen him as my dad. I grew up being able to see a lot of things that not a lot of people are able to, so it was pretty cool. Standing on the field after a Super Bowl is a pretty cool experience.”
Vernon’s career took him from College Park to San Francisco and Washington, D.C., but Maryland clearly never left him. He said the university has stayed close even through a busy life and a football journey that carried him far from campus.
“I’ve been so busy, but Maryland has always been on top of my mind and in my heart,” Vernon Davis said. “A lot of people still recognize me whenever I go anywhere, especially in Maryland.
It’s been cool. The journey has been amazing.”
For Vernon, coming back for Homecoming means stepping into a new version of a place that helped define him. He described the weekend as more than a reunion.
“Homecoming weekend is super cool. Homecoming is what it’s all about.
It’s a tradition. It’s a celebration.
It’s who we are and what we represent. We’re going to celebrate the culture and everything that has to do with this university.
To be able to interact with the fans and be a part of this as a grand marshal means a lot to me. To be able to come back in this way is special.”
The football part of this story goes back even further, to a five-year-old Jianni tearing through a flag game in San Francisco. Vernon said that was the moment he knew there was something special there.
“I saw him catch the ball, and he made probably six or seven people miss,” Vernon Davis recalled. “I was like, ‘Wow, this kid’s going to be all right.’
I knew right then and there that he had something in him, a natural ability to elude defenders. I saw that at a very young age.”
Still, Vernon didn’t steer his son into Maryland or into football. Jianni said the decision was his own, right down to the recruiting process.
“Not at all,” Jianni Davis said. “He let me do my own thing.
He wanted me to go wherever I wanted to go. He never forced me to play football or anything like that.
Getting recruited and committing to Maryland was just my own thing.”
That decision became a little more real during Jianni’s junior year of high school, when Maryland’s offer arrived in a way he didn’t expect.
“I didn’t even know I had an offer from Maryland until Coach Locksley FaceTimed me and said, ‘You know you have an offer to Maryland, right?’” Jianni Davis said.
“I didn’t even know at the time, so that was pretty cool. I chose to come here because of my relationship with Locksley.
I liked it when I came here for my official visit. It automatically felt like home.”
Now, as a freshman running back, Jianni is already adding his own line to the family history. In his first career game, he scored a touchdown exactly 7,588 days after Vernon’s last collegiate touchdown.
“That whole week, I was envisioning myself getting in the end zone,” Jianni Davis said. “I was picturing in my head what I was going to do and how it would look.
When I scored, I knew in the back of my mind that it was something pretty special. It was pretty cool.”
The family was right there to feel it with him.
“I was with my family, and we were screaming and shouting. My daughter was screaming at the top of her lungs, and it was super exciting to see him do that.
We were proud of him. We were excited, and it was just awesome seeing him score at the collegiate level.”
The two may line up on different sides of the offense - Vernon was a tight end, Jianni is a running back - but the teaching still travels the same route. Vernon offers advice when he can, especially because his own background gives him a useful angle on the position.
“He definitely gave me tips,” Jianni Davis said. “Even when I switched to running back, he was still on the offensive side of the ball. He could still tell me what I could be doing better when the offense is out there, because I always have things I can work on.”
For Vernon, though, the biggest pride comes from what he’s tried to pass along beyond the field. He said the traits he sees in Jianni go far past football.
“I want people to know that Jianni is just like me when it comes to what he’s attached to,” Vernon Davis said. “He takes pride and joy in all of his commitments really seriously.
For him to be able to go to the University of Maryland and be a part of something that I was a part of is a legacy that we get to hold on to. It’s really heartwarming and amazing to witness.”
And while Jianni may have big shoes to fill, the pressure isn’t coming from home. Vernon said he’s proud of his son, proud of Maryland and proud of the path they’re building together.
“It’s been great having Jianni attend the University of Maryland,” Vernon Davis said. “It’s exciting to think about the years to come.
I know he’s going to be a special talent. He’s definitely going to be able to get out there and contribute and help the team win football games.
I’m excited about that and about his growth as a football player and as a person.”
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