SOUTH BEND — With Jadarian Price off to the NFL, Notre Dame football needs a new primary kickoff returner.
In freshman running back Jonaz Walton, the Irish have a former Georgia state champion sprinter with three career house calls in that phase.
What’s the secret?
“Honestly, the trick I would say is just run,” Walton said Wednesday, Feb. 25. “Make a decision, and then you have to run.”
What about those 11 dudes flying downfield with ill intentions?
“Then you’re going to have to adjust,” Walton said. “There’s going to be people coming that you didn’t expect. You have to look around, but it’s just playing. Just letting your body go out and play. That’s my whole thing.”
His running style on offense?
“I’m a good power back for sure, but I have a lot of speed,” he said. “If I get open grass, I’m going to go. This year I tried to incorporate more shiftiness and moves, but mainly I’m a one-cut runner and I’m getting gone. I may run you over, may cut back, but power with a good bit of speed.”
A four-star signee from Carrollton, Ga., about 50 miles southwest of Atlanta, Walton is listed at 5-foot-9 and 200 pounds. That’s down 15 pounds from his playing weight at Central High School.
He’s been clocked at 10.60 seconds in the 100 meters, which he allows “is pretty fast,” but he’s not sure of his 40 time.
“I don’t know if that translates to a 4.4, 4.3, but it’s around that area,” he said.
No ‘proven starter yet’ in Notre Dame backfield
Arriving with plans to major in computer engineering, Walton is skilled at calculating probabilities. Along with fellow freshman running Javian Osborne, the path to early playing time seems open for Notre Dame’s latest backfield prodigies.
Junior Aneyas Williams figures to get the first crack at following Price and projected top-10 draft pick Jeremiyah Love, but Nolan James Jr. and Kedren Young are in the same prove-it mode as the newcomers.
“It’s a great room, but it’s a room that has a lot of opportunity,” Walton said. “That was definitely one of the big factors (in picking Notre Dame). There’s a lot, but the availability of the room that there’s not a proven starter yet, it’s just something I can strive toward.”
Price and Love signed a year apart, but the potential exists for a similar time-share agreement to flourish these next few years with Walton and Osborne. Walton says that has been discussed to some extent.
“Maybe a little bit in recruiting, absolutely, but at the same time me and Javian aren’t Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love,” Walton said. “We’re all separate persons. It may end up looking like that, but it’s going to be different. Right now, it’s still earning a spot in general, learning the playbook.”
Walton is intriguing due to his obvious maturity and range of on-field experiences, which include some H-back blocking, pass catching as a pseudo tight end, and even 20-30 snaps as a subpackage edge rusher last fall.
“It was stressful at first, for sure,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I hadn’t played defense in all my high school years until then. It was fun, but it was stressful.”
Seeing the game from the opposite side of the ball took some adjusting.
“Sacking the quarterback felt weird,” he said. “You get in that mindset when you play (defensive) end, like, ‘I’m going to get him.’ My mindset flipped from offense to defense.”
Jonaz Walton’s analytical nature
The carryover benefits to his main role include a heightened understanding of defensive tendencies and the flow of an offensive line, especially in pass protection.
“You see the tendencies that I had to do as a (defensive) end and how that affects the whole defense in general,” he said. “If I can remember a lot of it. I didn’t play too much.”
Both of Walton’s parents work in education. William Walton is a science teacher and middle school athletic director, while Sandy Walton teaches kindergarten and coaches middle school basketball.
Their son’s analytical nature led to him picking Notre Dame over the likes of Stanford and neighboring SEC powerhouses Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.
Walton said he “deciphered every single program.” The next step is figuring out a path to early playing time.
“There’s a lot to learn,” he said. “A lot of people are in front of me. There’s a lot of things they know that I don’t. I’d love to be a kick returner. I feel like I’ve shown I can do it, but that’s in high school. It’s different in college.”
Walton plans to be ready when spring practice opens on March 20.
“Special teams is a great way to get on the field,” he said. “Any way I can get on the field is probably the best way.”
Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football freshman Jonaz Walton hopes to seize opportunity
Reporting by Mike Berardino, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
