However, many colleges recruiting Deone Walker wanted him to play on the offensive line, not the defensive line where he preferred.
Kentucky recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow understood Walker could play either spot but also understood Walker wanted to play defense.
“Coach Marrow told me, ‘You come here, you can play what you want to play.’ He just wanted me to know so I would feel like if I came here and decided that I don't really like the D-line, I could move. He would have felt the same way about me if I had said O-line,” Walker said.
Walker eventually picked Kentucky over Georgia, Alabama, Michigan and a lot of other schools. The likely 2025 NFL first-round draft pick did not keep a written list of schools who told him he could not play in the defensive front but he remembers who they were.
“I got a memory of them now. Not a real list. I got a mental list,” Walker said. “People say what they want to say. It’s all about what you're gonna do and if you're gonna make them right or wrong. That was my mentality coming into college. I feel like I've made them wrong.”
He has started 25 of 26 games in his two years at Kentucky and led the team in tackles for loss (12.5) quarterback sacks (7.5) and quarterback hurries (8) in 2023.
Defensive line coach Anwar Stewart was also involved in Walker’s recruitment and is one reason the 345-pound Walker never seriously considered entering the transfer portal where lucrative NIL deals likely awaited him.
“He was fighting to get me here and playing D-line when I was deciding O-line or D-line. It was like he just felt me and he’s never eased up on me since I got here,” Walker said. “He knows I love him being like that. He knows that I want to play at the next level, so he’s still on me like a coach should be.”
Walker averaged 56 snaps per game last season, a high volume for a player his size but UK defensive coordinator Brad White knows how much better the defense is with him on the field. Walker knows the big expectations White, UK fans and even NFL personnel have for him and Marrow has said Walker has the talent to be a potential No. 1 overall NFL draft pick.
“I don't really look at the draft stuff. I feel like there have been a bunch of guys that were supposed to be highly-touted draft picks and then drop to the third or fourth round,” Walker said. “If you look at all that stuff too much it can get in your head too much. I've chosen to just not look
at it and just play like it's my first day here.”But it is his third season, not his first day, at UK and he knows he needs to be an even better leader this year. He’s made a bigger effort to help younger teammates and set an example for everyone on the team.
“All my teammates respect me and what I have to say. I’m not going to steer them the wrong way,” Walker said. “They know that everything that I say I'm saying to them respectfully and for their greater good and for the greater good of the team.
“I feel like it's a great feeling to have knowing that every one of my teammates respects me and wants to know what I have to say.”
He also likes that he has so many talented teammates around him this season.
“We got a bunch of guys who can really play,” Walker said. “That was one of my big points of emphasis as a leader and captain to bring my defensive line together. I do get double and triple teamed. When my teammates get a one-on-one block, I trust them that they can win that battle.”
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Current NFL receiver Wan’Dale Robinson impacted a lot of younger athletes during his spectacular high school football season at Western Hills where he swept the state’s top individual awards his senior year.
He finished his prep career with 8,582 total yards and 118 touchdowns. He ran for 6,795 yards and 97 touchdowns while averaging over 11 yards per carry. He caught 102 passes for 1,787 yards and 21 scores. His 781 career points ranked second on the state’s all-time scoring list.
Robinson played two years at Nebraska before transferring to UK for the 2018 season when he had 104 catches for 1,334 yards and seven touchdowns in 13 games.
Current Kentucky commit Javeon Campbell, a Western Hills defensive lineman, only came to a “few” games when Robinson was playing in high school.
“My brother was in high school when he (Robinson) was in high school. I knew who he was but I didn’t really know him,” Campbell said. “I heard his name a lot and what he did on the field. I heard a lot about him.”
Now Robinson is taking what time he can to mentor Campbell, who turned down some of the nation’s best football programs to commit to UK.
“That means a lot to me and it shows that he sees potential in me and that maybe I could do what he did,” Campbell said.
Robinson even found a way to get back to Frankfort for Campbell’s commitment ceremony after getting a message from UK recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow about the commitment ceremony.
“Obviously it was a busy time for him but he chose to come back for it,” Western Hills coach Simon Vanderpool said. “Just doing that and being here with Javeon was special. He didn’t really want to be seen but he wanted to be there for Javeon.”
Now Campbell has become a mentor for Western Hills sophomore defensive back JuJu Harmon, who has a Kentucky offer already.
“I do want to do all I can to help him and others,” Campbell said.
The UK commit is not focusing on any potential postseason awards like the ones Robinson won his senior year.
“I really don’t think about it but if it happens, it happens,” Campbell said. “It was crazy when I jumped up into No. 1 in the rankings (in the state). That’s something I had never thought much about.”
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Kentucky coach Craig Skinner had one weather-related plus on his side when he recruited Minnesota libero Sidney Burley.
“I am not a big fan of the snow. When I was younger I liked to sled and have fun. Now that I am older, sledding seems less practical ,” the 16-year-old Burley said. “I didn’t want to stay in Minnesota (for college). I was looking at schools more in the south.”
When Skinner first reached out to her coach, she was excited about the school’s location. She knew Kentucky always had a competitive program but the more research she did, the more she learned how Skinner pushed players and that UK had recently won a national championship.
“I went to the campus and it was not really a hard decision to make,” Burley said. “It was a spur of the moment decision to visit. It was not much more than an academic tour and looking at the facilities. When we were walking to the student center we ran into two (volleyball) players and they were so nice and very welcoming.
Burley drew interest from a lot of schools and some consider her the top libero in the 2026 recruiting class because of her incredible athleticism.
Her approach to matches is to make it seem like she is not there.
“My job is to keep the game going smoother and not have you even notice me,” she said. “If you notice me, I am not doing my job right. I would rather be celebrating other teammates rather than having the focus on me.”
Ironically, playing volleyball was not her decision. Her mother told her if she wanted to play any other sports, she also had to play volleyball.
“She loved volleyball so much and wanted to share her love of the game with me,” Burley said. “When I was 8, she was my coach. Now she says I am more of her coach because of things I can tell her about the game.”
Burley admits she “gets into volleyball a lot” and sometimes can burn out. She’s learned to take breaks but also has a hard time resisting a chance to be in the gym working on her skills.
“I know if I could stay in the gym all the time it would help my skill set but I also know I would burn out,” she said.
Burley likes a challenge and pushes herself as much academically as she does athletically. She has a 3.95 grade-point average.
“I usually push for an A but sometimes I do get an A- but there is definitely competition between me and my brothers,” she said. “They swear every year they will prove they can do better, so that pushes me.”
Burley admits there’s not as much pressure on her now, especially in big tournaments, because she has her college choice made.
“I want to win and play well and put a lot of pressure on myself but I don’t have to worry about what colleges are there to watch and how I am doing,” she said.
While the Big Ten has several volleyball powerhouse, her family and friends were not surprised by her commitment to UK because they knew she wanted to head south.
“They were happy for me and supportive of my decision,” Burley said. “It’s only about an hour flight to Louisville and then an hour drive to Lexington, so it is not that far away and it definitely gets me away from the snow.”
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Kentucky track coach Lonnie Greene was extremely proud of how former UK team members did at the Paris Olympics but said the “finished product” everyone sees requires a lot of work.
“You’re looking at training for four years just to run for 12 seconds. So that’s a commitment,” he said about 100-meter hurdle Olympic gold medalist Masai Russell.
Even Russell, who also won the U.S. Olympic Trials, knows it is hard to comprehend what she did.
“It’s like I see the gold medal, but it’s like did I really do that,” Russell said. “I just tell coach Greene all the time like it was just like yesterday I was a freshman just listening to everything he said, like, ‘Yes, Coach.’ It’s just crazy because I’m living out my dreams, truly.”
Russell never quit believing in herself even when her times were not nearly as fast as she wanted earlier this year.
“I am not going to lie. I believed that (Olympic gold medalist) should be my goal. When you are preparing to win and get that outcome, it is not unbelievable to you,” she said. “The gold medal race is a very high pressure situation but I just told myself I had been running against these ladies all year and tried to make the meet not as big as it really was in my head.”
She admitted at the 2023 World Championships she let the name of the meet scare her.
“I was not going to allow the same thing to happen to me again,” she said. “The nerves are always going to be there but I just tried to do my job and focus on doing that. When it was over and posted that I won, I was so geeked up. I took off and screamed and went crazy when I saw I had won.”
Russell has learned to maintain a set routine on race day no matter how big the event is. She even writes down some thoughts she has on race day.
“I keep telling myself it is possible and I am able to do it,” she said. “Your mind tries to trick you into believing you can’t do something. I have learned to keep thinking I can do it. I tell myself not to get too nervous to where I can’t eat or am not able to do my makeup. My dad always told me everybody I was racing against put their pants on the same way as me and bleed the same way I bleed.
“But I really used to get so nervous that I could not eat. I would feel like I was going to throw up and be shaking in the (starting) blocks. You cannot perform if you let the nerves take over. Now I am anxious to run and have learned to actually allow the nervousness to enhance my performance and not take away from what I know I can do.”
Russell notes she was never a national champion until this year and never won a NCAA or AAU championship.
“I took the losses as lessons but at times I did wonder why I could not win. The beginning of this year was difficult for me on and off the track but I just had to do what I could with the cards I was dealt,” she said. “There was no indication early this year I would be the 100-meter gold medalist but I kept training and believing great things were going to happen and they did.”
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Quote of the Week: “I think now, I’m not a freshman anymore, so it’s going to be more challenging. This is a new year, no one knows what’s going to happen so I think working even harder to better myself and learning new skills that I can have in my back pocket,” 2023 SEC Freshman of the Year Brooklyn DeLeye of UK on her sophomore season.
Quote of the Week 2: “I don’t think I’ve ever played with or had anyone as talented who’s just able to stretch the field and make plays downfield as him,” UK receivers coach Daikiel Shorts on junior receiver Barion Brown.
Quote of the Week 3: “He’s a really good kid, all the boys in that room look up to him. He’s gotten extremely stronger since I’ve been here. He’s done a really good job of making some contested catches and just pushing himself to get ready for the season,” UK receivers coach Daikiel Shorts on junior receiver Dane Key.
