In return to Penn State, Rasheed Walker finds next gear
Rasheed Walker’s place as one of the Nittany Lions with the most potential hasn’t been in question since his enrollment at Penn State in 2018.
Ranked the No. 65 overall prospect in the national recruiting class, Walker marinated for a season before taking over Penn State’s starting responsibilities at left tackle as a redshirt freshman. Now 22 games later, Walker has a third-team All-Big Ten media selection and honorable mention selection on his resume.
Returning for his fourth season in the program, opting to continue his collegiate career over pursuing NFL aspiration, Walker is determined to create a dramatic expansion of those early accolades.
“It was kind of a hard decision but after the season, I kind of weighed my options with my family and I just thought it would be best for me to come back and get developed more by Coach Traut,” Walker said of his decision to return for the Nittany Lions’ 2021 season. “I also had a few personal goals I was still trying to reach, like getting first-team All-Big Ten and getting All-American. And the team had a lot of goals, obviously to have a championship season, so that's why I came back. That's the main reason why I came back and I feel like we can accomplish those goals this year.”
For the Nittany Lions to do so, Walker’s performance figures to be a central component to that success.
A constant presence on Penn State’s offensive line last season, repping out with 726 total snaps for the season, tops among all Nittany Lion performers tied with center Michal Menet, Walker’s overall PFF grade of 70.6 placed him among Penn State’s best for the season. At 71.9 in run blocking, Walker trailed only Juice Scruggs among the Nittany Lions’ offensive linemen for the season.
For a player believed to be capable of even more than he’d demonstrated in his career thus far, though, the Nittany Lions have looked for and found a next gear from the Waldorf, Md., native this offseason.
“I think Rasheed Walker is practicing the way he needs to practice to be the type of player that he wants to be,” head coach James Franklin said. “I've seen a real change in him.”
Lauded by Trautwein for his athleticism, great feet, strength, and punch even before the 2020 season, the commitment for improvement shown by Walker in recent months has been bolstered exponentially.
Explaining that his sets, his punch, pad level, football IQ, and other basic elements of his technique on the offensive line are being worked on toward achieving perfection, Walker acknowledged that his approach has fundamentally transformed.
“Since I decided to come back, I felt like I took a big step in the way I've been attacking things like workouts, practice, meetings, lifts. I just think starting with winter workouts, I just really attacked winter workouts and it's just all starting to translate,” Walker said. “Coach Traut just emphasizes to us to have that dog mentality in everything we do and just do everything with a purpose. So I think that's where that's coming from, just being intentional with everything I do, every step I take, every move I make.”
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