Jailin Walker is Back From Injury and Ready to Elevate the Defense

Image: Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times

Written By Nick Gonzales (@nrgonzales_)

On Thursday August 1st, Jailin Walker spoke to the media after the start of Indiana’s fall camp. After recovering from offseason surgery, Walker is excited to be back and playing football again. Walker did not practice during Spring Camp, but still showed up and has become a leader in his new program. During the offseason, his teammates would refer to him as Coach J Walk due to him being on the sidelines and coaching up some of the players.

Since day one, Walker has been trying to engrave that winning mindset into players that come from programs that didn’t really build that mindset.

“I try to lean on them a little bit and get them encouraged and try to get them to be the best players they can be,” Walker says in response to what he is trying to impart to them.

He is not just trying to elevate himself and the starters. He’s trying to elevate the whole team, mainly the linebackers behind him. Walker revealed in his Q&A that he was never much of a leader as a freshman and sophomore, but now he has to step up. He is in a new program, surrounded by a ton of new faces, but he stepped up to help coach the younger guys.

“I’ve been trying to like be more of a leader to the young guys, because when I’m gone, they going to be right in my footsteps, so I just try to like coach them as much as I can … because when I’m gone, that’s going to be the linebackers here,” Walker replied when asked how he imposes his leadership opportunity on the younger guys. 

In the last three seasons, Indiana has a record of 9-27, and in the nine games the Hoosiers lost last year, four of them were one score games. Cignetti was brought in to turn the program around and both Coach Cig and “Coach” J Walk have emphasized the need for consistency.

“Consistency builds confidence, and it builds power. So being consistent every day makes you a better team. So, every day we just try to lock in and be consistent every day,” Walker responds when asked how the team goes about consistency.

Walker wants to elevate his fellow teammates to his level and develop a winning mentality in them. Coming to a Big Ten school with little to no identity in football, they have to make a name for themselves. When asked about establishing the winning mindset Walker acknowledges how hard they’ve been trying to create that mentality in Bloomington and says, “we’re finding our identity in camp, and I feel like it’s working.”

Walker is amped up for the beginning of the season and puts a lot of faith in his coaching staff and his brothers in arms. When asked what the identity of this team is, Walker answers “Win.”