Physical traits are allowing Deone Walker to make early impact at Kentucky

There are two important traits in football that cannot be coached — size and speed. Play technique can be learned, strength and mass can be added in the weight room, and experience can all be added to a player’s toolbox. But certain traits are just genetic.

Deone Walker (6-6, 330) was blessed with great size and length. With 11″ hands and 33″ arms, the true freshman defensive lineman has physical traits that NFL scouts will be wowed by. Those traits helped make the Detroit (Mich.) Cass Tech product a blue-chip recruit.

Kentucky had to hold off Michigan in a tightly contested recruiting battle to get the top-300 prospect in Lexington. That is turning into a very big recruiting win.

Walker was seen playing with the ones at Kentucky’s scrimmage on Saturday and could open the season as a true freshman starter on the defensive line. Veterans at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility have been impressed by the youngster.

“Deone’s young, and he’s raw, but he’s very physically gifted,” redshirt junior center Eli Cox told reporters on Saturday. “He’s very tall, he plays with a lot of length. He plays with really good explosion and strength for a young guy. It’s something that he’ll be able to provide a great look for us on offense because he’s built just like every other SEC defensive lineman we play everyday.”

At Texas, head coach Steve Sarkisian has talked about the need for “big humans” as the Longhorns eventually make the transition to the SEC. In this conference, the league widens the gap from the rest of college football due to its play on the line of scrimmage. Big guys are difference makers on both sides of the ball. Georgia‘s Jordan Davis (6-6, 340) was the biggest in college football last season, and the first-round pick has some similar physical measurables to Deone Walker.

Defenses need big players to be stout up front, control gaps and allow linebackers to run free. It also helps when these players have enough twitchy athleticism to make an impact in pass-rushing situations.

Deone Walker might be the total package.

“I want to have length,” Stoops said about Walker. “To have a d-lineman with that kind of length and then be loose enough and sudden enough to get pressure on the quarterback from the inside position. He’s very good.”

Despite having the prototypical size to be a factor at nose tackle, Kentucky is cross-training the diaper dandy so Deone Walker can get on the field. The true freshman could be used at boundary tackle or field end in Kentucky’s three-down front. In subpackages, Walker can slide inside to provide an interior pass rush.

The four-star prospect has been a revelation in fall camp. The newcomer is built different and that could give him a permanent role in Brad White’s defense.

“He’s been great. He didn’t come in here just thinking that everything was going to be handed to him,” super senior linebacker DeAndre Squad said about Walker. “He’s been working and he’s just a big guy. You don’t see too many guys that big moving like that.”

Both Barion Brown and Dane Key have gotten a lot of attention on offense, but Walker is emerging as a player that will play big-time snaps as a true freshman on the defensive line. The rookie has the physical traits and movement ability to become an impact player in the SEC.

“If he just stays the course and keeps learning and improving he’s going to be really good here,” said Square.