Jalon Walker's words of wisdom

Jalon Walker’s mantra for himself as a member of Georgia’s football team might as well be chiseled in gold lettering and hung above the locker room for all his teammates to see.

Head coach Kirby Smart might even become verklempt.

“I take every day not with a grain of salt. I take every day with pride,” Walker proudly told reporters after practice Thursday. “I take every day knowing that you don’t know when your last snap is. I take every day knowing I need to put in hard work and with a positive attitude so that when I have that opportunity this season, I need to attack it.”

No, these aren’t words casually tossed out by the sophomore linebacker for the sake of having something to say.

Walker means every single syllable.

The son of a coach - his dad Curtis is the former head coach of Catawba College - Jalon Walker learned at a very young age that all the athleticism in the world doesn’t mean much if your mind isn’t equally as strong.

“I appreciate my dad so much because this opportunity was in front of me before I even knew it,” he said. “Watching him give pregame speeches throughout the year, hyping his team up, and see his players go throughout life, it was a great opportunity.”

It’s an opportunity Georgia fans should see being to pay off for the Bulldogs this fall.

To the surprise of some, the media who cover the conference voted Walker a third-team member of the preseason All-SEC team at middle linebacker, despite playing on the outside the second half of last year.

“I feel like I’ve made the most strides though in the mental game. I had the opportunity last year to get some experience playing. Not a lot of freshmen get that opportunity, so once I had that opportunity I took it,” Walker said. “During the spring, I improved in that aspect of the game and now that we’re in fall camp, I’ve got a better perspective of myself.”

So too, does Smart.

Walker is back at inside linebacker after injuries, specifically that to Nolan Smith, convinced Smart and Georgia’s defensive coaches to move him to the outside to give Walker a better opportunity to get on the field.

He’s back on the inside now, playing alongside Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Xavian Sorey while Smael Mondon continues to recover from the foot injury.

“He'll be in that competition for guys that get an opportunity to play. He has a unique trait of being able to rush the passer, which not all inside linebackers have. So he has some outside linebacker characteristics, and he helped us a lot last year on third down,” Smart said. “Because of the injuries we had, we were like, he's got a better chance of playing OLB than ILB. This year, really the entire time he was out in the spring with a shoulder, he was still in the inside room and he'll start in the ILB room. He'll be part of a third-down package that allows him to rush the passer.”

Walker talks a lot of pride in the ability to play different roles.

“Versatility is the new age of the game. Personally, I love being able to play both sides of the ball. Being an inside linebacker gives me the opportunity to play on first and second down,” Walker said. “Being an outside backer, being able to play on third down as well is great. Rushing the passer is another strong suit of my game.”

Walker credits Smith for helping him get as far as he has.

“Personally, being here last year and going to that Florida game when Nolan Smith got hurt, that opportunity of him throughout the rest of the season of him coaching me, was a highlight of my life in general,” Walker said. “It gave me the best opportunity to grow from his game and just learn. It’s all about learning and that person right there improved a lot of aspects of my game.”

He doesn’t plan on letting the rookie with the Philadelphia Eagles down and hopes to emulate him even more very soon.

“That relationship with Nolan was great. Getting the opportunity to watch him was a very humbling experience, watching him live my dream. I want to be like that one day,” Walker said.” To have him be there for me when I had that opportunity. For me, going out and watching him, was just the aspects of his leadership that he had. He was a vocal guy, to things on the field and off the field, those are the things you want to have overall.”