Duo has formed very special bond
UW’s Dixon and Nelson are inseparable
MADISON – D’Cota Dixon’s routine after Wisconsin’s home games last season generally included a trip to the media room to discuss the team's latest victory.
Dixon, a fourth-year junior safety at the time, answered the queries thoughtfully and politely.
Watching intently from just a few feet away was teammate Scott Nelson, then a freshman safety who wound up redshirting.
Nelson usually alternated becould. tween pacing back and forth as he bided his time waiting for Dixon to finish and watching closely to see how comfortably his teammate interacted with the media.
The weekly scene was unusual because players who aren’t requested for interviews, particularly those who are redshirting, don’t visit the media room.
Asked why the freshman was tagging along with Dixon despite not being requested by reporters, a UW official smiled and explained: the teammates had quickly grown inseparable.
On the practice field, Dixon was the teacher willing to share all he Nelson was the eager student who couldn’t take in enough knowledge.
“I thought I knew a lot coming in and I still think football IQ is one of my strengths,” Nelson said. “But he helped me so much in learning the defense. He almost gave me too much (information). He was always trying to teach me something and my mind was spinning. But the more we went over it, it started to click more.”
Off the field, they had become brothers, bound by friendship, faith in Jesus Christ and football.
“I’m closer with him than anybody else in the DB room,” Dixon said, “really on the team.”
To Nelson, Dixon has become a second older brother.
“I ask him questions but he still asks me stuff,” said Nelson, the youngest of three children. “I’ve still got to keep him in check and it is the same with my older brother. And D’Cota expects that.
“There was a time I wasn’t doing that and he kind of called me out on it. He wants me to stay on him because I know him very well. I know his tendencies. I know his moods.
“I have hung out with him enough in the last year or so to know the mood he is in when I first see him.”
UW foes might see plenty of Dixon and Nelson in 2018.
Dixon, held out of spring practice while recovering from shoulder surgery, is expected to be in the starting lineup for the third consecutive season. He has 23 starts and 42 games played at UW. Nelson, who got valuable work in the spring, enters camp in a battle with redshirt sophomores Patrick Johnson and Eric Burrell to start alongside Dixon.
“I don’t try to think about it,” Nelson, from Detroit, said when asked about the possibility of starting with Dixon. “Obviously, it has crossed my mind. But I’m trying to ignore everything until it happens.”
Listening in, Dixon offered: “You see his mind-set and his attitude. He is very focused.”
Spend time watching Dixon and Nelson on or off the field and you can’t help but notice the ease with which they interact.
The discussions about the nuances of playing safety are intense.
When Dixon’s frustration mounted while he worked on backpedaling and coming out of his breaks for the first time in the spring, Nelson had to set him straight.
“He is a ridiculous competitor but it was his first time working on that in like four months,” Nelson explained. “I said: ‘Hey, forget about that. You’ve just got to keep your head.’
“He was better after that. I can tell when he is starting to get frustrated and I’ve got to step in. And a lot of times he might snap back . ...
“We are so close that if I say something he can say something back and there are no hard feelings. He knows I want the best for him and I know he wants the best for me.”
Dixon nodded.
“I like honest people,” he said. “That is probably why we mesh so well, because of how honest and genuine he is.”
They toss playful barbs back and forth, like brothers. The topics range from how Dixon didn’t spend much time with Nelson during Nelson’s official visit to who has more, um, swag.
During one practice last spring, Dixon and Nelson were standing along the wall inside the McClain Center. Nelson had just come out after participating in several plays and Dixon leaned down and started adjusting Nelson's pants near the knee.
What in the name of Jim Leonhard was going on?
“I rolled up his pads,” Dixon said. “I was trying to fix his swag.”
Nelson rolled his eyes and countered:
“He is trying to fix my swag? My swag is better than his.”
Dixon shot back: “Bro, you were looking naked.”
Nelson countered again: “It’s the
practice pants. It’s not the game pants. My swag is better than yours and you know that.”
Dixon, as older brothers often do, got the last word.
“He thinks that,” he said. “Look at him.”
Nelson and Dixon are part of a small group of players who routinely gather at the end of practice to say a brief prayer.
“It is good,” Nelson said, “reminding yourself that this is just a game and there is something bigger.”
Like caring for others.
That is why Nelson, knowing his parents were waiting upstairs in the McClain Center to greet him after games last season, was focused on waiting for Dixon to finish interviews.
Nelson didn’t want Dixon to spend the night alone.
“He knew that I stayed by myself and that after games I would just go home and chill,” Dixon explained. “But he would never let me go home by myself.”
Nelson’s mother, Linda KammerNelson, asked her son about the delay after the second game of the season, UW’s 31-14 victory over Florida Atlantic.
From that moment on, Dixon had a standing invitation to join the Nelson family for postgame dinners.
“As many parents do, when you go to the games you take your kid out to dinner,” she explained. “And D’Cota’s family, most of them are not nearby. Scottie did not like the idea that D’Cota didn’t
have family there. So we just immediately had him come out to dinner with us.”
Dixon was officially a member of the Nelson clan.
Dixon routinely communicates with Nelson’s older brother, Aaron, and older sister, Erin.
Nelson’s parents attended Dixon’s graduation in May and Dixon spent time with the Nelson family in Michigan after the Big Ten meetings in Chicago.
“He is really good friends with my family,” Nelson said, feigning a bit of jealousy. “He knows my brother. He talks to my sister. He talks to my mom on the phone. It is crazy now.”
If Nelson’s mom had her druthers, she would keep Dixon supplied in food, toiletries and pretty much anything he needed.
“Because he doesn’t have a car,” she said. “He has a moped and they don’t get to the grocery store. That is how I show my love for them.”
Dixon doesn’t want her to bother. “He will not tell me what he likes,” she said. “That is very frustrating to me.
“He is a blessing to our family. He is super easy to love. It is not about me helping him. It is about that he totally blesses our family.
“D’Cota has fit in perfectly.” Nothing is guaranteed, but Dixon and Nelson could be a perfect fit on the field in 2018. As they are off the field.
“I think they are so comfortable with each other that they challenge each other – socially (and) spiritually,” Nelson’s mother said. “I think they push each other. They aren’t afraid. They are totally honest with each other. It is unique.”