East Lansing, Mich. - I took extra time on Saturday to focus in on Kenneth Walker III.
It’s time to appreciate him as the best one-year wonder in Michigan State sports history. And it’s time value the fact that we only have one more chance to see him at Spartan Stadium.
We’ve marveled at his talent for just two-and-a-half months. He was a great story in September and October, beginning with his first carry as a Spartan.
Then he became a record-breaking hero with his 197-yard, five-touchdown performance against Michigan. That’s the day the Heisman thing got real.
Two months earlier, even his own teammates weren’t sure how great he was.
“During August camp,” said Michigan State safety Xavier Henderson, “he kept making plays against us, and I kept wondering, ‘Are we bad?’”
No, he was just that good. Soon, opponents became aware. And then a college football nation.
Walker came through with another 143 yards rushing against Maryland on Saturday, with two touchdowns, plus a couple of receptions for 29 yards.
He’s been steady, fast, tough, exciting, consistent … and humble.
We haven’t gotten to know him very well. But from what we’ve seen, we like him. He talks softly with a smile. He’s agreeable and kind.
He revealed a few weeks ago that he privately wrote down a goal last spring after he transferred to Michigan State from Wake Forest that he wanted to win the Heisman Trophy. That might have seemed silly to anyone who might have witnessed him recording it to paper back then. But here he is as the front-runner. And now that he is regarded as the leading candidate for the Heisman, he has reversed field and bounced to new daylight.
“I am not really focused on the Heisman or anything like that,” Walker said after Saturday’s game. “I am just focused on us winning together.”
That’s a good answer, the right answer. And I kind of believe him - because he’s believable, and I think his heart might actually be that pure. That’s just the vibe I get from him. He’s almost too good to be true.
His teammates are crazy about him. He stood aside and watched Payton Thorne and Jayden Reed address media following Saturday’s 40-21 victory over Maryland - with a smile on his face. He’s enjoying this. He’s enjoying them.
When Reed and Thorne exited the podium, and it was Walker’s turn, they all stopped and hugged. I think I heard Walker tell Thorne, “I could kiss you right now.”
Then they shared a laugh for a second. Then the microphone was Walker’s. And we had four minutes of questions to try to learn a little more about him. Our time with him is running out.
JUST A GUY ON THE TEAM
Usually, we know all about our football and basketball stars at Michigan State before they arrive on campus. The most ardent fans have followed these players during their recruitment, and are aware of their high school successes, and failures. We know which colleges they visited. We may have even feared that they might end up at a rival school.
Then they suit up at Michigan State for three or four or five years. And some of you name pets after them.
But we didn’t get to know Walker during his recruitment. He committed to Michigan State soon after he entered the transfer portal. There was no big transfer recruiting competition for him. Michigan State was the first program to reach out to him. MSU’s message, conveyed by running backs coach William Peagler and offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic, resonated with Walker.
Credit Michigan State with an organized sales pitch. Credit Mel Tucker with having a staff member monitoring the portal every half hour throughout the off-season. Michigan State speedily evaluated every name that popped up on it.
When Walker hit the portal, Michigan State researched him quickly, and pursued him. That’s Tucker’s organizational skill at work.
Walker spoke with Tucker once prior to his commitment. Maybe twice. Walker was sold. He wanted to become a Spartan, although he barely knew what being a Spartan was about. He wanted to be part of an offense that would utilize his talent in more of a quick-hitting, downhill fashion than was afforded to him at Wake Forest.
Walker can play that quick-hitting, downhill, pro style role. But his secret sauce is his ability to see or sense daylight away from the point of attack, and bounce outside with great lateral quickness, and then press the void with terrific acceleration. That’s his trademark - the lateral bounce to daylight.
He was so good at it early in the season. Then opponents became wise to it. They keyed on him with a wide posse of players to corral him, making sure to close off the bounce-out daylight.
Watch MSU’s flea-flicker touchdown on Saturday. Maryland’s outside linebacker, No. 19, Ahmad McCullough, had wide containment duty on K-9. He was left staring at a ghost when Walker flicked the ball back to Thorne while Montorie Foster began to break deep. These flea-flickers don’t work without the opponent’s preoccupation with Walker. And they’re all pre-occupied.
In October, Kapilovic and Peagler told Walker to do less bouncing, and trust the blocking a little more, lean into the pile a little harder. The tough yards will pay dividends, they told him. Eventually, the dam will break. And sometimes it did break, like on the TKO 23-yard touchdown romp against Michigan which provided the winning points.
Walker still has the green light to occasionally freelance. The coaches don’t want him to do it every time. He heeds their wishes. But once in awhile, if he’s feeling it, he can bounce.
And that’s what he did during a 36-yard run in the fourth quarter against Maryland. The play called for patience behind counter blocking to the right. Walker took it that way. He found traffic. Then he sensed or saw or sniffed daylight to the left.
He bounced out that way with that special K-9 quickness. Then he turned Maryland cornerback Tarheeb Still inside-out with a world-class, single-plant juke to the sideline.
That bounce and that accelerated juke were vintage Walker. That’s the type of play we’ll remember him by. You have to watch it back in slow motion to understand that some of his cuts are cuts that other scholarship running backs can’t make, which explains his great numbers and consistency.
After that juke, he tried to sprint down the sideline, and we could see that he didn’t have his top-end gears.
He had gotten his ankle twisted in a pile earlier in the game. Field microphones picked up someone yelling in pain as it happened. Probably him. He jumped to his feet, angry, and hobbled to the sidelined.