From the gridiron to center stage, how Georgia’s Jalon Walker was destined for greatness at an early age
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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
ATHENS, Ga. — When Jalon Walker was a boy, he told his mother he was going to become famous and arrive in Hollywood in a limousine.
As a potential first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft, there’s a good chance the Georgia linebacker might soon become a household name.
And if professional football doesn’t work out for some reason, the aspiring sports commentator and voice-over actor might still work in Hollywood one day.
You might have already heard Walker’s deep and resonant voice in one of the SEC’s “It Just Means More” TV commercials.
That’s not the only way Walker is using his commanding pipes. He’s one of the leaders of a unit that is starting to play like dominant Georgia defenses of the recent past going into Saturday’s game against Florida at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville (3:30 p.m. ET/ABC/ESPN+).
“I don’t take that lightly,” Walker said. “I feel that our standard at the University of Georgia is incredibly long and historic, and I want to keep that torch and flame going. I want to set an example for the younger guys to see what it takes and what you need to do to be a leader.”
In the Bulldogs’ 30-15 victory at Texas on Oct. 19, Walker had seven tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery — all in the first half. Going against offensive tackles Kelvin Banks Jr. and Cameron Williams, who are considered potential high NFL draft picks, Walker was the first player in at least the past 20 seasons to have three sacks and seven tackles against a No. 1-ranked team in the AP poll.
After Georgia’s defense surrendered 39 points in a 41-34 loss at Alabama on Sept. 28 and 21 in the second half of a 41-31 victory against Mississippi State two weeks later, coach Kirby Smart called on Walker and others to take ownership of the unit.
The Bulldogs responded with seven sacks and 11 tackles for loss and shut out the Longhorns in the first half.
“He gets everybody pumped up,” Bulldogs cornerback Daylen Everette said of Walker. “He’s doing his job, and then even off the field, his leadership, he motivates people to be good. He’s a great leader, great guy.”
Walker has been around football his entire life. His father, Curtis Walker, was a Division II All-American linebacker at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. He still holds the school’s single-game record with 25 tackles against Wofford in 1991 and was a team captain and MVP.
In 1995, Curtis joined Catawba’s coaching staff as linebackers coach and was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2001.
Two years later, Curtis was hired as Coastal Carolina‘s first defensive coordinator under coach David Bennett. He spent 10 seasons with the Chanticleers.
After one season as Western Carolina’s defensive coordinator, Curtis was hired as Catawba’s head coach in December 2012. He was the first Black head football coach at his alma mater and at any school in the South Atlantic Conference.
Jalon and his brother Deuce, who is 2½ years younger, attended practices of their father’s teams nearly every day when they were old enough.
“I got the opportunity to be around football a lot,” Jalon said. “Being on the sideline, being at his games, being in the locker room, being at his practice. It was a great opportunity for me to learn football in a different way, from a different point of view.”
Jalon didn’t start playing football until the seventh grade. His small Christian-based middle school didn’t have a team, so he played basketball, soccer and track and field growing up. His father was pleased when Jalon joined the Salisbury 49ers, a recreational league team.
“It was a little strange being the head coach in this community, and my son’s not even playing football,” Curtis joked. “We were excited that he finally decided that he wanted to play.”
“I appreciate my dad, because he let me fall in love with football myself,” Jalon said. “He didn’t press me to play football. He just let football come to me.”
At Salisbury High School, Jalon helped the Hornets reach the Class 2A state championship game as a sophomore. The next season, they defeated St. Pauls High School 42-14 to win a state title. Jalon had 12 tackles in the final contest. During an 11-game season, which was played in the spring of 2021 because of COVID-19 restrictions, he had 97 tackles, 19 for loss and eight sacks.
Jalon was ranked the No. 3 outside linebacker in the country and No. 1 prospect in the state in the Class of 2022 by ESPN Recruiting. He committed to Georgia in March 2021, choosing the Bulldogs over Clemson, North Carolina and Ohio State.
“He’s just such a high-character kid with high moral values and a great family,” Smart said. “You think back to all those wins you get in recruiting and how you really don’t know how important they are. I think back to when he called and told us he was coming, what that changed his life towards and what it changed for us.”
Curtis and his wife, LaSheka, who works as a development officer at Catawba College, raised their sons to be well-rounded students and not just athletes. Deuce is a freshman defensive back at Georgia State.
LaSheka encouraged her sons to write their goals on Post-it notes, which littered the inside of their closet and dresser. She recited Habakkuk 2:2 from the Bible: “Write the vision and make it plain.”
During a Sunday sermon at Southern City AME Zion Church in Salisbury, the pastor announced that he was searching for a child to compete in a singing contest. The winner would be awarded a trophy.
“Jalon’s eyes lit up,” LaSheka said. “And so, of course, in true Jalon style, he went and won the trophy. He won it a few years back-to-back. [His musical talent] comes from just being around it and hearing it.”
Back then, Jalon’s voice didn’t sound like the late James Earl Jones’ — his high-pitched tone was more like Cyndi Lauper’s. Before long, Jalon was singing with the church choir and performing with 100 Men in Black, a community male choir in Salisbury.
After Curtis became Catawba’s head coach, Jalon sang the national anthem at the Indians’ home openers. He also performed at Catawba basketball and minor-league baseball games. Curtis remembered a woman crying in the stands during one of Jalon’s performances.
Jalon also took up acting; he was the Tin Man in the “Wizard of Oz” and Scott Kunkle in “Dear Edwina” musicals at school.
“For all those who know Jalon Walker, you know his work ethic,” Curtis said. “You know that guy grinds. When he did the musicals in middle school, he was there every day, as long as it took for him to learn his lines and perfect his songs.
“When he was running for the student government president in high school, he did everything in his power to make sure that he was going to be the one selected. It’s the same work ethic we see now.”
Curtis resigned as Catawba College’s coach in November 2022. He works as an analyst at Livingstone College in Salisbury, which gives him more flexibility to attend his sons’ games.
Jalon’s opportunities at Georgia didn’t come quickly. He played behind veterans like Nolan Smith Jr., Smael Mondon Jr. and Jamon Dumas-Johnson the previous two seasons. Still, he led the Bulldogs with five sacks to go with 20 tackles in 14 games in 2023.
“I feel that there was development that I’ve always needed,” Jalon said. “I feel like that time I took learning and being able to be developed by the coaches here has helped a lot. We have great players here. But when an opportunity was presented to me, I definitely had to capitalize on every opportunity that I got.”
Despite not starting a game at Georgia until this season, Jalon has opened the eyes of NFL scouts. ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. ranks him as the No. 10 prospect eligible for the 2025 NFL draft; Matt Miller has him at 14th.
Jalon’s proclamation to his mother many years ago might just be coming true.
Before the Bulldogs played TCU in the CFP National Championship in Los Angeles in January 2023, Jalon visited with his parents and brother in a hotel lobby. LaSheka reminded Jalon of what he’d told her as a child.
“Well son, you made it,” LaSheka told him. “You may not have made it in the limo, but you made it to Hollywood.”
“Looking back, you hear a child say that and you think they’re just talking and dreaming,” LaSheka said. “It melts my heart. It really makes me happy. I smile from ear to ear because ever since he was a little boy, he always knew that he wanted to do something great.”
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David Schoenfield
PHILADELPHIA — Welcome to October chaos.
With a dominant effort from Blake Snell, one perfectly executed wheel play and one fortuitous scoop from Freddie Freeman for the game’s final out, the Los Angeles Dodgers escaped with a tense, thrilling 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in their National League Division Series.
“I’ll take off my Dodgers hat and just put on a fan hat,” shortstop Mookie Betts said. “I think that was a really, really dope baseball game. I think both of these games were really, really dope baseball games, fun to be a part of. Obviously, it’s a lot better when you’re on the winning side, but you can’t ask for better postseason baseball. It’s just fun. This is why we play.”
The first six innings were a classic pitcher’s duel between Snell and Phillies starter Jesus Luzardo as the game was scoreless through six innings. The final three innings were a wild affair of hits, walks, tag plays at home plate and on the bases, second-guessing of managers and a nearly costly throw in the dirt from Tommy Edman that Freeman scooped with the tying run on third base to close it out.
The key play of the game, however, occurred earlier in the bottom of the ninth. Nick Castellanos‘ bloop two-run double to shallow left field made it 4-3 with nobody out. With Alex Vesia entering to face Bryson Stott and Los Angeles expecting a bunt, the Dodgers huddled up and called for the wheel play, which entails having the third baseman charge toward the plate and the shortstop cover third base. It’s a play third baseman Max Muncy said the Dodgers don’t practice in spring training.
“Immediately, Mookie was like, ‘Hey, we need to be doing this,'” Muncy said. “It speaks to his baseball IQ and his intuition in that situation. We were all thinking it, but Mookie was definitely the one that brought it up and said we need to do this.”
Betts, who just finished his first full season at shortstop, explained his thinking.
“It’s just another learned behavior,” he said. “I’ve got to give that credit to [Miguel] Rojas. I think we did it earlier in the year in Anaheim, and I remember asking him, ‘When’s a good time to do it?’ He said, ‘In a do-or-die situation,’ and he and Woody [Dodgers coach Chris Woodward] have really helped me a lot just learning situations.”
Manager Dave Roberts gave the go-ahead. If the Dodgers failed, it would put runners on first and third with nobody out.
“I think it just speaks to the experience that a lot of us have been in a lot of these big games before, and we have a lot of experience doing these types of things,” Muncy said. “Doc trusts us as much as we trust Doc, and it’s not an easy thing to gain, and so that’s why in that moment, Doc heard us talking and right away he was on board with it.”
The first pitch to Stott was a slider out of the zone. With Muncy charging and Betts hustling to third, they were worried they might have given away their strategy.
“When it comes to the wheel play as a third baseman, your first job is obviously to field the ball, and then you’ve got to make a good throw,” Muncy said. “But the one thing no one talks about is you got to make sure the guy’s there to catch the throw.”
Betts got there.
“God blessed me with some athleticism, so I was able to just kind of put it on display there,” Betts said.
“It’s tag play, too,” Woodward said. “Running the wheel on a force out is a lot easier because the third baseman just has to catch it. But if you have to tag him, it presents a more difficult play. For Muncy to field it, know right away, make a good throw. Mookie hung in there. That was the play of the game.”
The Dodgers didn’t have a 5-6 putout in the regular season, the only team in the majors without one, according to ESPN Research.
In an era with few sacrifice bunts, the attempt was debatable. The Phillies had just 16 sacrifice bunts all season. Manager Rob Thomson explained the decision: “Just left-on-left,” he said, referring to Stott against Vesia. “Trying to tie the score. I liked where our bullpen was at, compared to theirs. We play for the tie at home.”
He praised the Dodgers’ execution.
“Mookie did a great job of disguising the wheel play,” Thomson said. “We teach our guys that if you see wheel, just pull it back and slash because you’ve got all kinds of room in the middle. But Mookie broke so late that it was tough for Stotty to pick it up.”
The Phillies eventually put runners on second and third with two outs in the ninth. Roberts went to Roki Sasaki, whom Roberts hoped to avoid using for the second time in three days after Sasaki missed most of the regular season because of a shoulder injury. Sasaki got Trea Turner to hit a routine grounder to second — which Edman fielded but nearly threw away.
For the first two-thirds of the game, Snell and Luzardo were dominant. Luzardo allowed just one hit through six innings and fired 20 fastballs at 97-plus mph. Snell didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning. He got his biggest outs in the sixth. After walking Turner and Kyle Schwarber with one out, he struck out Bryce Harper on a 2-2 slider.
“I needed weak contact,” Snell said. “I knew I was going to have to attack him somewhere where he could hit, but I felt confident with the slider. Like today, I felt really confident with that pitch. Just kind of rode it out against him in that at-bat and ended up winning.”
Snell then got Alec Bohm to ground out to third base. Rojas fielded it and dove to tag the base just ahead of the speedy Turner.
Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner whom the Dodgers signed for $182 million in the offseason, had made 10 postseason starts before this season and never made it through six innings. He has now done it twice this year after pitching seven innings in the Dodgers’ wild-card opener against the Reds.
The Dodgers are one win from advancing to the NLCS as the series shifts to Dodger Stadium. The Phillies’ top three hitters — Turner, Schwarber and Harper — are a combined 2-for-21.
“Huge, huge momentum maintainers,” Roberts said. “Great ballgame, great plays, huge win.”
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