Buford's Walker headed to Notre Dame

BUFORD - After teasing the crowd for nearly a minute, Buford High football standout Darius Walker emerged from under the podium wearing a Notre Dame sweatshirt.

And with that, he let a crowd of nearly 100 friends, family and faculty gathered at the school cafeteria know where he had decided to spend the next four years playing college ball.

It was a verbal committment only. National signing day isn't until February 4th and players are allowed to change their minds before then without penalty.

The 2003 Georgia All-Classification Player of the Year choose the Fighting Irish over Ohio State and Stanford.

"I felt comfortable there and I feel it will give me the best opportunity for a good education and a chance to play football right from the start," Walker said.

Besides his prowess on the football field - he rushed for 2,406 yards as a senior and scored 46 touchdowns, a new single-season state record, which broke the old record of 45 held by Herschel Walker and Charles Grant - Walker is also a 4.0 student.

He also led the Wolves to three consecutive state titles, the last two in Class AA and finished his career with 5,675 rushing yards and 91 touchdowns.

"They were all great schools academically, but the tradition of Notre Dame was hard to turn down," he said.

Locally, Georgia Tech was in the running but with the emergence of P.J. Daniels, Walker's playing time would probably have been limited the next two years. Arkansas and Alabama in the Southeastern Conference heavily recruited him but Georgia did not.

"I liked Tech a lot and my teammate Kyle Manley is going there, so it would've been fun to hang with him," he said. "But I didn't know if I would play for a while. As for Georgia, I don't have any resentment. I had some great choices and just the chance to play college ball is a dream-come-true."

His dad, Jimmy Walker, who played for Arkansas, said he didn't try too hard to influence him.

"Academics come first so we were more than pleased with the choices he had," the elder Walker said. "It would have been nice to see him go to Arkansas, sure, but ultimately it was his decision. Plus, he looks great in a golden helmet so it seemed like the perfect choice."