Walker now a center at attention for spring football
LaMons Walker has been in a lot of different roles during his San Jose State University career. During his redshirt year, he helped the video crew tape practices. In his first active season, the 2000 season when the Spartans were 7-5, he was the team
| LaMons Walker is learning the center position. (Photo by Rich Schmitt.) |
When 2001 fall camp commenced, the team wasn’t as deep as it hoped to be in the defensive line. With less than two weeks before the season opener at USC, the 280-pound junior from Concord, Calif., got a crash course in learning to play as a defensive tackle at the major college level.
His stay as a defensive tackle was short. By midseason, as the offense was evolving, the coaching staff moved him from defensive tackle to tight end. Along with George Campos, who completed his eligibility last year, San Jose State had a two-tight end offense that was comprised of seven offensive linemen from the 2000 team.
Heading into 2002, an outsider could project Walker as San Jose State’s number-one tight end. Walk away from that assumption. When spring practice started on April 5, LaMons Walker worked with the number-one offense at center.
"The coaches came to me after the season and asked me to switch. When I got back from the semester break, I started learning to snap. I switched positions to help the team," says one of the team’s four seniors in the offensive line. "It’s pretty hard, but I’m up to the challenge. I have to learn a whole new way of playing. It’s going to take a lot of practice and lots of ‘reps.’
"As a tackle, you have time to react to a defensive lineman’s motion. As a center, you have to set the tempo and make the calls for the line. Everyone goes off of your call; so you have to be mistake-free."
Walker has always enjoyed the 15 sessions that make up spring football practice. "It gives you a chance to get better. There’s usually great competition because you have the chance to go hard. In the fall, when you practice, you don’t want any of your teammates getting hurt," says the Spartan who is learning his third different position in seven months.
A kinesiology major, Walker has a spring 2003 target date for graduation. He wants to join former teammates Kevin Michaelis and Deonc Whitaker as student-athletes who began their college athletic careers with a Prop 48 label, learned effectively in the classroom and received a bachelor’s degree in four years time in order to earn a fourth playing season.
Practice resumes on Sunday, April 7, at 3:00 p.m. on the South Campus fields.