ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was big news last year when Michigan football switched second-year wide receiver Amorion Walker from being a pass catcher to a cornerback. He had all of the spring hype as ‘a unicorn,’ but injuries and the depth chart precluded him from seeing game action. He thus transferred to Ole Miss for a semester but, to much fanfare, returned to Ann Arbor as a wide receiver.
The expectations were through the roof given the sudden lack of depth and size at the position. However, through two games, Walker has only seen one snap, according to PFF.
On Wednesday, his position coach, Ron Bellamy, shared what has held Walker back from seeing the field and what he needs to do in order to become a productive member of the offense.
“Just the transition from defense to offense. Although he was on offense his freshman year, we changed some things,” Bellamy said. “So just that hurdle, that’s kind of been the biggest hurdle now is kind of just getting the consistency there.
“Super talented guy, super talented player. He’s getting more and more each and every day. He’s getting more and more comfortable, acclimating himself back into the receiver room. So, hopefully, we’ll be ready to roll with A-Walk. He’s talented and I love him. And, he’s spending a lot of time working on his craft to make sure he gets on the field more.”
He’s not the only one with high expectations. The entire group has underperformed to this point, even as Semaj Morgan, Tyler Morris, Fred Moore, and others were lauded all throughout the offseason as the next big thing. Thus far, Morgan is the only wideout to have scored a touchdown through two games and it came in garbage time against Texas.
Bellamy says that the expectations remain high on all of them and that eventually he anticipates that the cream will start rising to the top.
“I think you put the added stress on just picking one particular person,” Bellamy said. “All our guys have very unique skill sets that I think it makes it harder on Saturdays for defenses to, like, ‘OK, we’re going to single this guy out.’ But, like I said, once the production rises, then obviously that becomes more stress for the defense. So that’s something that we constantly — guys have different skill sets that are better than others that you’ve got to utilize on Saturdays. And, moving forward, that’s our goal.”