Behind the scenes of Jadyn Walker’s development

One of the more interesting recruitments USC took part in this cycle, in my opinion, was Portage (Mich.) Northern linebacker Jadyn Walker. Walker was a late offer and target as any know, being the first offer from Trojans new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn.

Walker was committed to Michigan State since September, but after the coaching changes in East Lansing and the eventual offer from USC, things got interesting. He elected to not sign in December to allow himself to have time to make a decision. Following his official visit to USC, it looked like the Trojans were trending. As the month of January went on and signing day got closer, it was apparent that Lincoln Riley, D’Anton Lynn, and Matt Entz had taken over his recruitment.

Now that he has officially signed with USC and he is preparing to enroll this summer, I was able to get some thoughts and behind the scenes looks from Walker’s head coach, Kurt Twichell.

As someone who was able to see his development and growth over a four-year period, he has a perfect perspective on who Walker really is.

Twichell went into depth on Walker’s makeup as a player but also had one thing to sum up what his thoughts are.

“He’s got a chance to be really damn good for USC.”

There may be some USC fans, and especially outside fans, who will look at the rankings, and questions what Twichell said. Walker is ranked outside the top 1,000 players in the country and is ranked as the No. 113 linebacker. I think WeAreSC has done a good job highlighting the kind of player he is, but Twichell goes deeper. He also describes the kind of athlete Walker is.

“His ranking is nuts, but he didn’t play much defense as a junior due to an injury. He was a hell of a receiver for us [too]. And then he went from 185 to 205 in the off-season but still ran like a freak. He’s got a 4.6 forty yard dash, 4.2 shuttle, 36” vertical, and 10’5” broad jump. Plus his arm length with a 78” wingspan.”

And as far as position and playing linebacker, he really didn’t even play the position until he was a senior.

“He played safety as a junior, then went to linebacker after the weight gain.”

Walker had a fantastic senior season and he was able to develop quite a bit at the position. But Twichell is confident about what he will be molded into.

“He’ll have a learning curve playing inside, but he has no bad habits. Entz can build him from the ground up.”

USC was a very late entry to Walker’s recruitment, and happened to be just one of a few that felt compelled to offer. Walker was not a big name prospect simply due to the prior injury, position changes, and late development.

“His recruiting process at the division one level started very late because we didn’t get him to camps as a linebacker until the spring and summer before his senior year. Most of the power five schools were full on commits by then, and Michigan State kind of fell into place, then of course USC. It was all a numbers game. There’s no question though, had the growth spurt happened earlier and he had linebacker tape as a junior, his offer list and ranking would’ve been up there with anyone.”

Luckily for USC, Walker flew under the radar from evaluators, media, the headlines. As a result the new USC staff has a new chess piece they can mold into the exact player they are looking for. As someone who has the speed, the quickness, and burst to go along with the mental recognition and tackling ability, Walker is primed to be a big playmaker for the Trojans.

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