In this episode of the Knup Sports Show, host Ryan Knuppel sits down with Luke Davis, founder of RockSource, to dive into his journey from being a collegiate athlete under Nick Saban to building a successful sports management company. Luke shares his insights on the evolving sports landscape, the impact of NIL, and how RockSource helps young athletes navigate the complexities of their professional careers. Whether you’re interested in sports business, athlete development, or leadership lessons from the field, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways. Tune in to hear more about Luke’s incredible experiences and what’s next for RockSource!
Ryan Knuppel
Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on, everybody? Ryan Knuppel here. Knup Sports Show episode two hundred and thirty-three. Hope you’re all doing amazing. We are Thursday night football at time of recording. We’ve got football going on tonight. We got the Bills and Dolphins tonight. I’m super excited for that game, being here in Orlando, Florida. Everybody loves to follow any Florida football, except maybe for the Gators right now. They’ve been struggling to start the season, but that’s OK. That’s OK.
All right. Yeah, I’m excited for today. We’re bringing you another amazing person doing amazing stuff in sports. So we’re going to dive into that in a second. But first, I got a little bit of housekeeping for you to touch on. We are just a couple of weeks away from SBC Summit Lisbon. We are media partners of that event. So, man, this one’s supposed to be an amazing event. They’re calling it like the super show of iGaming or the iGaming something or another super show. So make sure to check that out.
I personally am not going to make it to Lisbon. I am very bummed about that. But I will not be there in person. But if you do go, make sure to grab your ticket using promo code new partner VIP. That will get you an amazing discount. And if you do go, man, just enjoy it. It’s going to be an amazing show. So, OK, that’s about it for housekeeping. Let’s dive into the show today. I have another amazing guest. I have Luke Davis of RockSource. Luke, how are you?
Luke Davis
Hey, good morning, Ryan. Doing well. How about yourself?
Ryan Knuppel
I’m doing amazing, doing amazing down here in sunny hot Florida. Where are you living today?
Luke Davis
I’m in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m in rainy Atlanta, Georgia right now, you know, dealing with the storm, kind of getting that out, the out effects of that.
Ryan Knuppel
Nice, nice. Well, I appreciate you giving me a little time here, and I’m sure the audience is excited to get to know you a little bit and understand what you’re up to. But let’s dive right in. So, Luke, before we dive into RockSource and kind of what you’re doing with RockSource, why don’t you give me a little bit of background about you, what makes you tick, and what got you into the sports industry as a whole?
Luke Davis
Nah, man, sure thing. Yeah, so I live in Atlanta now but was born and raised in Monroe, Louisiana, West Monroe to be exact. You know, home of Duck Dynasty. That’s how you can pretty much pinpoint it on the map.
Cool. Up there, born and raised, got a chance to earn a scholarship at the University of Alabama in two thousand seven. Played for Nick Saban, was actually in Nick Saban’s first recruiting class, literally his first class. I think he got the job at Alabama like on a Sunday. He was in my living room that Tuesday evening, if I’m not mistaken. So it happened pretty quickly. Had to make some quick decisions to grow up. Played there, earned my degree there in human environmental sciences. Had a short opportunity to go to Buffalo with the Bills.
And from there, got into the sports management business completely accidentally. I just never thought about it, never aspired for it or anything like that. I had a former teammate, Marcel Darius, who, in my opinion, gave me my first opportunity of what this looks like. And just kept helping him with a few things along the way from a marketing standpoint. And even from there, two other teammates, Terrence Cody of the Baltimore Ravens and Brandon Dederick of the New England Patriots. And from there, I had a business and didn’t realize I had a business. So yesterday made twelve years since I’ve been in business with RockSource. And, you know, I’ve seen a lot of the highs and lows, but I’m grateful to be a part of this journey to help out young men and their families.
Ryan Knuppel
That’s very cool. We’re going to dive into RockSource here in a second, but I can’t skip forward without asking you, I mean, how was it playing for Nick Saban? You know, just that personally, how was it playing for Nick Saban?
Luke Davis
Man, I had a little bit of practice. So my hometown school, West Monroe, Louisiana, high school, West Monroe High School, we put out phenomenal guys such as Andrew Whitworth, who, you know, was a Walter Paisley Man of the Year some years back. Brady James, guys like that as well, even Cam Robinson today with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Xavier Woods. So we had a very tough and stern coach and a little guy by the name of Don Chow. He was about five foot six, but man, he had the heart of a seven feet tall man. Playing for Coach Saban, I had a little bit of practice to know what it would be like to have a coach and focus on what they’re saying rather than how they’re saying it.
And what I can say for sure with Coach Saban, he never promised me anything. And I think that was a good lesson to learn in life early in that whatever you achieve, you have to earn. And even in a dire situation, you have to figure out a way to face adversity and pull yourself out of it. And I’m just always forever grateful because I went through a tough time of having committed to LSU at the Army All-American game. And then once Coach Saban came to Alabama, having to decommit and go to Alabama and just believe in a plan and process that I could not see at first and what it flourished and turned into and what it is today.
I’d be lying if I said it would turn into that, but I knew that he had the power and effects. And if he got the right pieces in place, that he could build up something great. And I wanted to be a part of that. I didn’t want to be another number. I wanted to be significant. I wanted to be one of the bricklayers and one of the individuals to lay the foundation. So he instilled education in me as much as hard work. You know, football, believe it or not, was kind of secondary because he wanted us to be great young men and great men to turn into family men. And I’m just forever appreciative of that.
Ryan Knuppel
Man, I love to hear that. That’s super cool because when you look at it from the outside, you’re thinking, oh, Alabama, all they focus on is football. But, man, the good coaches, the great coaches are focusing on what really matters in life. I’m sure you brought a lot of those principles and things you’ve learned from great leaders like Nick Saban now into business, into what you’re doing for the rest of your life. So that’s just super cool to hear. I always love hearing that, especially on iconic coaches like him. It’s just really good to hear, really refreshing.
Luke Davis
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely is, man. I hate he has used to say quotes all the time in meetings where it is being a, you know, nineteen to twenty one year, nineteen to twenty two year old man. How’s this relevant? What is this going to apply to in life? And it applies to life. You’re right.
One even that I use today often is how you do anything is how you do everything. And just, you know, that approach to, you know, something as simple as taking out the trash, you know, on trash day or putting a cart back in the parking lot of a grocery store. You know, your approach to that is going to definitely dictate how you go through life. And if you quit today, you’re going to quit tomorrow. It’s not going to be, hey, I’m just done here. You’re going to be you got to find a way to be done with everything going forward and just being able to outcome that and push yourself on waves.
Ryan Knuppel
Oh, yeah, that’s super cool, Luke, to hear all that great stuff. But let’s dive into business a little bit, and let’s talk a little bit about RockSource. I think for people listening and watching this show, they’re interested in what RockSource is, right? So why don’t you give us that thousand-foot view of what RockSource is, what you guys are doing, and what you’re set out to do.
Luke Davis
No, sure. Yes, it was. So RockSource Management is just that—sports management and representation company. And, you know, our goal when I started RockSource twelve years ago, I didn’t quite know what I wanted to build it out to be other than something unique and different from what the other traditional agencies were doing. And when I realized as big of stars, if you will, that I had a chance to work with who were former teammates, you know, when they had challenges with day-to-day life and how to pretty much pick up, leaving an establishment like Alabama where we pretty much were very fortunate to have everything waiting for us hand and foot. You go into the NFL realm, and I get it, where you’re being told, okay, you’ve been paid millions of dollars, so you’re an adult, figure it out. But if you’re not given those tools to figure it out prior to that, it’s kind of putting you at a disadvantage from a lot of other people.
And I think that’s why sometimes you’ll see guys who were first-round picks, they get called busts or that rookie slump or that sophomore slump because they have so much going on in the outside world to where they’re not able to really focus on what is now their job. And then there are so many man-hours dedicated to building out a great organization where personal life gets kind of pulled to the wayside. So my job was always to be a buffer and a liaison to kind of step in where, okay, you know, if I didn’t play at the highest level or as long, you know, I played at the level, you know, from a collegiate standpoint, yeah, I know what it’s like playing at institutions like USC, Alabama, Ohio State—that’s the closest to playing professional because of the structure that’s there.
So being able to implement those tools, those styles, that organizational structure into business and try to make the transition as smooth as possible because it can be a scare tactic. It can be a bit of fear out there. Imagine being, you know, twenty-three years old. You’re so excited to get drafted. You get that phone call. You’re either at the draft, which at the time when I got into business, it was at Radio City Hall in New York, or you’re on the living room couch in Louisiana, and you get a call from the Seattle Seahawks, or you get a call from the Buffalo Bills, or the Miami Dolphins, three places you’ve never been before in your life, and you have to figure out, okay, wow, what’s there? What’s next?
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah, that transition has to be scary for a lot of young players. It’s amazing that RockSource steps in to help guide them through all of that.
Luke Davis
Exactly. Even giving a quick story about myself, when I got an opportunity to go to Buffalo, I remember flying in, looking out of the window, looking for the big, tall buildings, looking for Central Park. I just had no idea. I had no clue that Buffalo was essentially on the other side of New York. And I just remember that moment. It was myself, Marcel, and Kelvin Shepard, who’s a linebacker coach with the Detroit Lions. We were with our liaison going around the city and being shown around. I remember asking, because I didn’t want to sound dumb. I didn’t want to sound dumb. I remember asking, hey, how far is New York City from here? And she’s like, oh, it’s really not far. You know, a lot of players go there on their off day. You know, it’s an hour flight. I said, an hour flight? She’s like, yeah, you know, you take an hour flight, get back in time, you know, before meetings the next day. But it’s about a six-hour drive. And it was that moment when I realized I needed to pay a little more attention to what’s going on.
But again, I’m able to take my experiences as a player and put it into business for helping clients and their families understand. We don’t control where you go. The cool part about college—you get to choose, you get to pick. But professionally, we can’t. Even if we had the best relationships with the general manager, the head coach, the position coach, you know, across the board, that’s something that’s out of our hands. And we do our best to try to make sure it’s as smooth and comfortable a transition as possible. We’re there every step of the way, whether it be training camps, sending care packages, just letting them know we’re thinking about them. We try to personalize it to the point where, you know, it’s something that they like, not just something we think they’d want. And I think that even goes a long way, too, because it’s so hectic. Learning the new playbook, you know, trying to adjust to the team to make the roster—it’s good to kind of feel like things are a little bit close to home until you’ve officially made that new place your home.
Ryan Knuppel
Very cool. Very cool. Sounds like an amazing business. And, you know, you really opened my eyes. So you’ve been on twelve years. You said you started the business twelve years ago. That’s pretty, pretty cool. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of changes in this space over the twelve years. Maybe touch on a couple of the biggest changes that you’ve seen just in this space in general that maybe have shifted the way just this whole space works. Maybe touch on one or two changes that you’ve seen.
Luke Davis
No, sure. So the first change I can go back to is just traditionally where the NFL draft was held. It was in New York City. And now it goes all over the place, and it’s kind of like getting an opportunity to experience new cities. And it’s become more fan-favored rather than being almost, you know, business structured—a little bit of a secret society type deal in a way. So now, even with technology, we’re given the luxury of knowing who’s picked and what network’s trying to beat the other network, so we know who’s selected and where they’re going before it even happens.
That’s been one big change. And then the seriousness of how concussion protocol has been taken into effect has really shifted the game as well. The evolution and changes to the game, like with kickoffs and how that’s changed—like, Marcus Jones of the Patriots, for example, has seen changes in how kickoffs are handled now versus when I was playing, with guys like Devin Hester who could take a kick from the back of the end zone to the other end. Those are some huge changes in the league. And probably the most amplified change of it all has been NIL in college sports. That’s been a game-changer for sure.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah, NIL has certainly changed the game in the college space. Do you wish it was there when you were back playing? Do you wish that was a thing? I mean, obviously, oh, yeah, I would have made money. But do you look at it as a good thing? I guess it’s kind of more the question. Do you wish that’s been a thing all along, or how do you actually look at NIL as a whole?
Luke Davis
I’m going to be completely honest with where I’m at today versus who I knew I was then. I couldn’t handle it. I could barely handle being from a small town, being a five-star recruit, and so many schools calling me and just showing up unannounced to my parents’ house. I could barely handle that. So now you put money into the equation where I come from humble beginnings and didn’t really know. So now that’s an added equation. I don’t know if my decision would have been the same. I have to say that because I looked at it at the time of, you know, the road less traveled, being different, not doing something that everyone else was doing.
Even my decision to go to LSU was because it was the easiest decision. They recruited heavily in my high school. Everyone went there. I knew LSU was going to win the two thousand seven championship before I got there just because of how things were set up. I used to look at college football rankings and make my own conspiracy theories, like, okay, this bowl game is in this site, these teams are going to play because it makes financial sense.
I remember my brother picked me up after my freshman year. Quick story—he picked me up after my freshman year, and we had just gone seven and six at Alabama. We lost to Louisiana Monroe, which is my hometown. And he’s essentially laughing at me, laughing at the fact that LSU had just won a national championship. And I said to him, “You know what? Next year, we’re going to go to the SEC Championship. We’ll probably lose to Florida because they’re just that good right now. But I guarantee you by my third year, we’ll win a national championship.” The only thing I got wrong was that I said we’d play Michigan. I never thought we’d play Texas.
So, in terms of being able to handle that pressure, could I have done it? Man, it would have been tough because I went to Alabama because I believed in Nick Saban. The only thing I knew about the school prior to that was that Forrest Gump went there. And then I got there and found out that he didn’t go there at all. I just remember hearing stories like beating Tennessee and the cigar tradition, and I had no idea what that was about. It served no relevance to me because I was from Louisiana. The biggest rivalry game I knew of was the boot—Arkansas vs LSU.
It wasn’t until we played Auburn my freshman year and they converted a fourth and one to win the game. They held up six fingers, and that’s when it clicked for me—this is what a rivalry feels like. And I’ve hated Auburn ever since. I hated Auburn from that moment. And I think we beat them the following year like thirty-eight to zero. But man, it would have been massive, massive pressure to deal with NIL.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah, I can’t imagine the pressure these kids have to go through. They’ve got to grow up quick, right? Grow up even quicker going through this whole NIL stuff and just understanding how to navigate that and being part of that world from such a young age. Crazy. And just wanted to let you know, I’m not trolling you with the shirt. This was not intended. It was not on purpose. I just looked down and realized I’m wearing a Florida shirt. That’s probably a little rivalry, huh?
Luke Davis
Nah, it’s all good! I take good fun in it. I’m friends with the Pounceys and other guys from Florida. We came out the same year. I’m my black, so… And I was happy to play against those guys when I did and see how their lives turned out after their careers. So, I mean, I was never shy about things, man. I just felt like I had a broader perspective of so many things. At that time, I tell people today, man, that two thousand eight Florida team was probably the best team I’ve seen with my own eyes up close and personal.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah, very cool. So let’s get back to RockSource real quick. What’s the future look like for you guys? Where are you headed? What are you looking to do here over the next year to five years?
Luke Davis
So our goal now is primarily grooming young prospects—future clients. We’re focusing on education and helping them and their families understand, one, how to maximize their talent, but also the value of the dollar they’re earning. One of the things I would have changed, just going back to NIL, is how quickly things can change from a coaching standpoint or even with the transfer portal. Commitment should be a commitment, unless there’s a dire situation or a dire need. At RockSource, we’re helping young men honor their commitments, and we talk to NFL scouts who pay attention to that. They want to know why a player transferred so much or why it looks unstable.
We had a client three years ago, and one of the questions that came up in his interview was, “Why did you transfer so much?” And this was before the transfer portal blew up as it is today. One time, the kid got in trouble. Another time, the school wasn’t what he expected, which looks like a red flag to not being able to rise to the occasion. And finally, when he got to a school where things worked out, he wasn’t drafted, but teams noticed that pattern.
At RockSource, we stress to athletes that their resume matters—how long were you at this job, what was your role, did you get promoted, did you start? It’s important to carry that into life as well. We’re also looking to grow from an NIL and professional standpoint while emphasizing our concierge services—birthdays, anniversaries, hotel stays—we don’t forget a thing. Sometimes we save marriages because husbands and boyfriends forget important dates, and we step in to remind them. So that’s our vision—to keep growing and maintaining those personal relationships.
Ryan Knuppel
Man, you’re dropping gems out here today. I tell my kids all the time—when things get tough, don’t just leave. My oldest plays college basketball, and I tell him the same thing: when things get hard on your team, you don’t just pack up and leave the second it gets hard. Fight through it. It may not always be easy. But you’re right, there are reasons to leave at some point. It’s just not at the first sign of trouble. And I love what you said about NFL scouts paying attention to that. So important.
Luke Davis
Ryan, I’d be happy to come back, man, another day. We can expand on that because I have a lot to share from my personal experience as a player and in business. But you’re absolutely right. There can be reasons to transfer, but it’s important to ask “why” and make sure it’s for the right reasons.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah, let’s plan a longer session and dive into that deeper. Well, Luke, I know you’re a busy man with RockSource. What did we miss? What do you want to tell the audience here before we wrap things up?
Luke Davis
Yeah, man. So RockSource is in a place now where we’re rebuilding and branding. And I’m excited about it. I’ve had the chance to collaborate with other agencies and be part of their building process. And now, it’s time to put ourselves in that position. It’s going to be a great two thousand twenty-four and beyond. I appreciate you taking the time to have me on for sure.
Ryan Knuppel
Absolutely. If anybody listening wants to get ahold of you or RockSource, what’s the best way to do that?
Luke Davis
Email is probably the best way to reach me. You can reach me at LDavis@RockSourceSports.com. That’s the best way to get in touch, and I try to be as responsive as possible.
Ryan Knuppel
Awesome, Luke. I appreciate you being here today, and I look forward to having you back for a follow-up session. Thanks again!
Luke Davis
Thanks a lot, Ryan. I’m looking forward to it. Take care!
Ryan Knuppel
All right, that was Luke Davis of RockSource on episode two hundred thirty-three. What an amazing conversation. So much great insight into the sports world and life beyond the game. I love hearing stories like Luke’s because it reminds us all that sports teach us more than just how to play the game—they teach us life skills that we carry forever. So many young athletes need to hear this message, and I hope you all enjoyed this episode as much as I did. If you want to connect with Luke or learn more about RockSource, be sure to reach out to him via email. Until next time, I’m Ryan Knuppel. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Knup Sports Show. Take care, stay safe, and we’ll talk soon!
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