Deone Walker Prepared for Season of High Expectations
In just two years at Kentucky, defensive lineman Deone Walker has made his presence felt. Now, as he prepares for his junior season with the Cats, Walker is on everyone’s radar ahead of the 2024 season.
Just how much attention has Walker gotten this preseason? Walker has been named to the Watch List for the Bednarik Award, the Nagurski Award, the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award. He has been selected to multiple preseason All-American teams. He was selected to the preseason All-Southeastern Conference first team on Thursday.
All of that is due to the big season that the Detroit native had as a sophomore. Walker played in all 13 games and had a total of 55 tackles. He registered 7.5 sacks and 12.5 tackles for loss, broke up two passes and had eight quarterback hurries.
Following Thursday’s practice, UK defensive coordinator Brad White was asked what he wants to see from Walker this season.
“I want to see what everybody wants to see. We want to see a dominant defensive lineman,” White said. “We want to see a guy that can absolutely alter a game, change an offense and how they plan to attack us. And I think he’s ready to do that.”
Walker’s size alone is something that opponents must take into account when making their game plan. Standing 6-6 and weighing 345 pounds, Walker takes up quite a bit of space inside. How can he, and the UK defense as a whole, make the most of Walker’s talents?
“When you’re playing 11 on 11 football, then you take the quarterback out, so now they really have 10. If he gets a one-on-one situation and he can dominate that situation, he can make plays,” White said. “So, then an offense has to start thinking, how can we alter that. They start shifting eyes and attention and it’s going to free up for other guys. He causes all kinds of issues. He can eliminate parts of the field that offenses can attack. That’s why it’s so vital for him to play at a high level.”
Walker is literally and figuratively a big part of the 2024 Kentucky defense, a unit of which much is expected this season. There is talk that this could be the best Kentucky defense of the Mark Stoops era in Lexington. How can White get his unit to that elite status?
“The bottom line is, you’ve got 12 games. You need your elite players to play their best,” White said. “If you want to be an elite defense, those guys must show up.”
That includes Walker, who will be anchoring the defensive line again this season. If he can live up to the preseason expectations, it will bode well for the UK defense.
