DETROIT — He was spoken of as ‘a unicorn’ when he switched over from wide receiver to defensive back, but Michigan football looked like they’d never really see the talent of Amorion Walker blossom.
After switching sides of the football for one year, Walker tried his hand in greener pastures, transferring to Ole Miss at the outset of the offseason. However, once spring ball was over, he transferred back to Ann Arbor. But now he’ll be playing the position he was recruited at.
So what brought him back? Ultimately, Walker missed everything about the program and recognized that he has his best shot at the next level in Ann Arbor.
“It’s pretty much the team camaraderie, the guys — I love being here,” Walker said. “The coaches — I felt like something was missing. I feel like I can get the most out of myself here.”
Walker feels like he did learn some new traits in Oxford but it couldn’t compare to the love he receives in Schembechler Hall. After all, Michigan has built a strong culture over the past few years, and that was something that Walker felt he couldn’t live without.
“It’s been a little (different) a couple of months, but ever since I’ve been back in the building, everyone’s been greeting me back,” Walker said. “Just giving me the love that I was talking about. It’s been good so far.”
We’ve seen wide receivers switch to cornerback in the recent past — like Mike Sainristil — and it paid huge dividends because he had a strong knowledge of what wide receivers want to do.
Though that position switch didn’t necessarily work for Walker, he does feel like getting a taste of what cornerbacks want to do to disrupt wide receivers will certainly help him now that he’s back with the pass catchers.
“I’m gonna say it’s gonna help me a helluva lot,” Walker said. “Playing defense, you look at it in a different lens. What you not feel so good about, things you feel good in areas, pushes you the wrong way when you’re back there. I just kinda know all those tips and how I’m gonna approach the game and attack guys. I think it’s gonna help me a lot.”
So where does he go from here?
There are aspects to Walker’s game that he feels like he was already good at but he knows there is a lot of room for improvement.
“I’d say I was a good route runner but I want to improve my route running,” Walker said. “Every last bit of my game, fundamentally, taking different things, different situations, being a smart football player.”
Walker joins a room with Tyler Morris, Semaj Morgan, Fredrick Moore, Kendrick Bell, and C.J. Charleston. There are a lot of unknowns at the position, but those who have spoken to the media over the course of the past few months have been insistent that fans (and media) will be surprised once the season commences this fall.