Newton County running back Carlois Walker burst upon the scene last year with a monster season for the Cougars.
After leading the Cougars to an 8-6 season and the third round of the Class 4A South State playoffs, Walker has gotten on the radar screen of many college coaches.
This past week, Walker received his first official Division I offer from Central Florida.
“It was kind of expected,” Newton County coach Bobby Bass said of the offer. “He’s a qualifier and had a 25 on the ACT. If we had have spring practice, there would have been a lot of people come by to see him. He was on a lot of radars right now. The spring period is really an observation period. College coaches can go out and put eyes on the kid and can watch them practice and can evaluate them in person. It’s probably hurting their evaluation process more than anything.”
Walker said he was somewhat surprised by the offer but had some contact with the school after sending them his season highlights.
“I started sending my highlights out to different colleges and they were one of the schools that I sent them to,” Walker said. “I talked with the offensive line coach and then talked with the position coach and we really hit it off. I was really kind of shocked. I thought they were interested and they went ahead and made the offer.”
Walker is coming off a season in which he rushed for 1,845 yards on 242 carries. He was a second-team Class 4A all-state selection and was named the Division 5-4A Offensive Most Valuable Player. Bass said that season was going to bring attention and he expects more offers to come.
“He had already had several of the junior colleges offer him,” Bass said. “But once you get that first Division I offer, there are generally more to come. I know there are some schools looking at him. I know South Alabama has talked with him and Tulane has called about him. Mississippi State wanted him to come to their junior day but that got cancelled. I was expecting him to have a pretty busy spring. April is a pretty heavy recruiting month and I expect that there will be several more offers to come.”
Walker has also been a beast in the weight room. He benches 325 and squats 535 while running 4.59 in the 40-yard dash. Walker said he is doing his best to stay in shape during the quarantine.
“I have been working out every day to try and stay in shape,” Walker said. “I’ve been doing pushups and setups and body-control stuff. I’ve been doing running and footwork drill and pushing the sled. I’ve just tried to stay positive and do what I can do to stay in shape.”
Bass said he has sent individual workouts to players and hopes they are working out to keep the gains made in the offseason.
“We as a team had come very far in the weight room,” Bass said. “I’m giving them individual things they can do own their own. A lot of our kids are motivated to do that and get better. I think when fall ever gets here, I think it’s the individual workouts that are going to make the difference. I think if they do these workouts, they are creating a self-discipline that will be a great asset to the team.”
