How basketball helped turn Deone Walker into one of Kentucky football’s best talents ever

As sophomore defensive tackle Deone Walker walked through the Kentucky football practice facility during a recent Mark Stoops news conference, the Wildcats’ coach was asked about how his rebuilt offensive line benefits from facing Walker and his fellow defensive linemen in practice.

“There’s big Deone over there,” Stoops said with a laugh. “‘I had to throw you out of the scrimmage today so we could get a play off.’

“He’s been a force.”

The prospect of lining up opposite the 6-foot-6, 348-pound behemoth on the football field is daunting enough, but seeing Walker standing near the goal on the basketball court might be even more intimidating.

Cass Tech High School basketball opponents in Detroit, Michigan, were faced with that challenge after football season ended.

“Just a passionate basketball player,” Cass Tech basketball coach Steve Hall told the Herald-Leader this week. “We would have basketball games in the fall where he wouldn’t be able to participate because it was football season but he may drive 20 miles just to come sit there. When he came in the door, even when he wasn’t playing, I think it was a statement to our team as well as the opposing team.

“He’s just an infectious type of kid. The success that he’s having, it doesn’t really surprise us.”

Watching Walker play football immediately begs the question how a human that large can move so nimbly.

Cass Tech football coach Marvin Rushing credits Walker’s time on the basketball court for helping hone his agility. Playing basketball provided a form of offseason conditioning for Walker to keep his weight in check, but Walker was more than an enforcer in the paint.

“The thing that really made him a good basketball player was that with his size he was unique because of his IQ and feel,” Hall said. “He was somebody that I could put in the high post that could throw backdoor passes, that had the wherewithal of what was going on. He wasn’t just some big body that was banging around.”

Even at Cass Tech, it was clear Walker’s future was in football. Entering the second season of Walker’s college career, Kentucky coaches are not eager to put a cap on the ceiling of his potential.

Walker earned freshman All-America honors last season after he totaled 40 tackles with 4.5 tackles for loss, one sack and one forced fumble. He was named second-team All-SEC by the Associated Press.

With a full offseason in Kentucky’s strength and conditioning program under his belt, Walker looks poised to take that production to another level.

“I don’t want him to be good,” defensive line coach Anwar Stewart said. “I don’t want him to be great. I want him to be elite. Because he has that elite. He has it. He has the elite ability to just freaking shut down everything.”

Stewart has pushed Walker to take on a leadership role despite his relative inexperience.

Even before he played a college game, Walker’s Kentucky teammates spoke of him as one of the most impressive players on the practice field. A year later, Walker might be the Wildcats’ best player.

The team needs its best players to set a positive example, even when they are only sophomores.

“There are days out there he has this incredible energy, and everybody feeds off it,” defensive coordinator Brad White said. “Defense, offense, everybody feels it. Now it’s for him to learn how to bring that every single day.

“It’s hard. Hey listen, nobody can just be cloud nine every day, but the really good ones, those elite ones, they find a way to sort of push through so their bad days aren’t a lull. Their bad days are better than most good days, especially from just an energy standpoint that so many feed off of.”

White reports positive growth even from spring practice in Walker finding the consistency needed to assume that leadership role.

Meanwhile, on the field, Walker has been so dominant at times that coaches are already instructing Kentucky’s other defenders how to make the most of the inevitable double-teams opponents will throw at Walker.

“They’re going to have to pick their poison,” Stewart said. “Then at the same time, Deone is talented enough to beat those double-teams.”

Stewart, who played defensive line at Kentucky before starting his coaching career, is not shy about voicing his expectations for Walker — “He has a really good opportunity to be one of the great ones to ever come through here,” Stewart said — but those expectations result from more than just physical gifts.

Walker’s intelligence makes him an even better player, Stewart said. He mentions the same feel for the basketball court Walker boasted in high school as being key to his football performance.

Had he focused on basketball full-time, Walker is confident he could have played that sport at the collegiate level.

“I feel like I could go get a double-double,” Walker said with a smile after a recent practice before nodding his head in ascent when asked if he could give John Calipari a few minutes if needed.

Hall remembers a summer basketball game where an opposing player who would go on to play for a mid-major college program was talking trash to Walker. After ignoring the talk for awhile, the soft-spoken Walker finally looked at the trash-talking opponent and simply directed him to “Google me.”

The message was clear. A search of Walker’s name would reveal basketball wasn’t even his first sport and he was still making enough of an impact to draw that much attention.

That competitive spirit was on display whenever Walker took the basketball court or gave his best effort when racing sprints against his much smaller teammates.

And it’s that competitive spirit that might hold the key to Walker taking the next step as an elite football prospect.

“One thing you forget sometimes when you watch him: That’s a young guy out there,” Stoops said. “But immensely talented and takes coaching.

“Has to continue to do that, continue to have that All-American mindset, where you want work. If you have the best talent or some of the best talent, the great ones I’ve been around have always been the hardest workers on the team.”

2023 UK season opener

Ball State at Kentucky

When: Noon Saturday

TV: SEC Network

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

2022 records: Ball State 5-7 (3-5 MAC), Kentucky 7-6 (3-5 SEC)

Series: Kentucky leads 1-0

Last meeting: Kentucky won 28-20 on Sept. 8, 2001, in Lexington

This story was originally published August 31, 2023 at 7:59 AM.

Jon Hale

Lexington Herald-Leader

(859) 414-6776

Jon Hale is the University of Kentucky football beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He joined the Herald-Leader in 2022 but has covered UK athletics for more than 10 years. Hale was named the 2021 Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year. Support my work with a digital subscription