Sunday, January 23, 2005

Recruiting - Football

More happenings this weekend - the Jackets lose another recruit - Linebacker Antonio Jones. He decided to stay closer to home and head to Baylor. Jones is a 6'2" 200lb LB listed as a "2-star" by Rivals. He is not listed among the top LB prospects.


In better news the Jackets gain the verbal committment of Defensive Lineman Vance Walker, from Fort Mill South Carolina. He is 6'3" 255lb. This past season he was one of SC's top tacklers with 41 tackles-for-a-loss, 17.5 sacks, 7 QB-hurries, 2 caused fumbles and 2 fumble recoveries. His local paper named him defensive player-of-the-year, and he started in the Shrine Bowl. By the way, in the Shrine Bowl he had 6 tackles, 2 sacks, and another tackle-for-a-loss........ Here's a story on him from a local paper.

Walker was the talk among opposing coaches when it came to Fort Mill, and he was easily a first-team All-Region 3-AAAA pick.


At 6-foot-2, 245 pounds, Walker has good speed. As his stats show, he also has a good nose when it comes to sniffing out the football.


Evidently Walker is a different guy on versus off the field:

That's a lot of words coming from a player who is quiet off the field but makes lots of noise once he steps into his uniform. It's kind of like when Clark Kent steps into a phone booth and Superman comes out.


By the way, his high school mascot - the YellowJackets, so obviously he had time to try that on for size.

SCVarsity.com named him to the All-State SC Second Team... He was also named to the 2nd Team All-Mecklenburg Team....... Evidently Walker was one of those "come out of nowhere kids".....

Enough. Let's get back to football. Each season we seem to have a player that comes out of nowhere. Any this year?


"A couple jump out at you. The first is Vance Walker, a defensive lineman at Fort Mill. That kid can play.


Here's more on Walker.......