THOMASTON, Ga. — As far as small, isolated towns go, this used to be a boomtown. Then, around the early ‘90s, the mills went out of business. Goodyear had a plant that moved away. You can see the remnants of some of the textile mills on the drive out of town, near a sign that welcomes you to Thomaston, home of the 2016 coach pitch state champions.
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Now the town’s largest employers are probably a graphics company, the local hospital, and the educational system, the latter of which is located a short drive from downtown. The receptionist there is Lasonia Walker, a quiet mother of three, whose husband is a marine, and whose one son is about to be one of the most celebrated young football players in the country.
And that just sort of snuck up on everybody.
“It’s been unique to watch. It’s almost like, How did this this happen?” said Justin Elder, the head football coach at Upson-Lee High School, who coached Walker, knows the family well and is a longtime Thomaston resident.
“You knew he was good, and you knew when you coached him that he was good, and you knew he had a chance to be great. But so many kids go to college and then mess it up. He didn’t mess it up, he blew it up and did great.”
So how did things go from Walker, Georgia second-teamer, to potential No. 1 overall pick in the span of a year? Is this another case of the NFL projecting upside rather than actual college productivity?
Perhaps, but more likely it’s the story of how amazing the Georgia defense was last year, how stacked in NFL talent it was, tamping down the college stats but still boosting the NFL profiles of so many great players. And winning a national championship in the process, quite a good thing for head coach Kirby Smart, or else the narrative this week would be: How did Georgia not win it all with these guys?
• Defensive linemen Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt could both be first-rounders. Davis, the nose tackle and face of the defense last year, is a near-certainty.
• Inside linebacker Nakobe Dean, the captain of the defense, is also a likely first-rounder, while the two guys who had to share time at the other spot — Channing Tindall and Quay Walker — should both be second-day (second or third round) picks.
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• Safety Lewis Cine is also going in the first or second day, and cornerback Derion Kendrick has a chance as well. In all, the generationally great Georgia defense could have as many as eight players go in the first three rounds.
But Walker, the man who wasn’t even named All-SEC, is expected to go before all of them. The man whose college career seemed as quiet as his hometown.
“For me, I’ve always been one of those guys that’s kind of been underrated. But it’s all good, I like it that way,” Walker said last month at Georgia’s pro day. “That way I can set my own standard and work as hard as I can, to be the best I can.”
Let’s not turn this into a come-from-nowhere story. After all, Walker was a five-star recruit, and has been projected for stardom — at least on the college level — since his freshman year of high school, when he camped at Alabama, and the Crimson Tide quickly offered him a scholarship. The blend of size and athleticism made him alluring.
Elder has kept a video on his phone of Walker, playing the middle of the field and looking gargantuan in the process, making a one-handed interception in an Upson-Lee game.
There were also moments of growth. Upson-Lee had a spring game at Georgia State’s stadium one year, and college coaches from all over — Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, etc. — were there to watch. Walker got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, which Elder had warned all his team would result in sitting out the rest of the game. Elder enforced it with Walker.
“Coach, they came here to watch me,” Walker told his coach.
“What’d I tell you before the game?” Elder said he replied.
Walker thought about it a few moments.
“I understand, coach,” Walker said.
There were no more problems from Walker, and that fall the team committed fewer penalties than it had in years, the message having been driven home that if Walker could be benched then anyone could.
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Walker’s parents were also a big part of it. They kept him grounded. His father, the ex-Marine, instilled the discipline. Travon was more quiet, like his mom, made good grades and was a good citizen. He used to make money on the side by cutting grass for people around town, including Elder, who paid him $50. He was the kind of kid who would cut up with friends in class, but otherwise kept on the straight and narrow.
Everyone could see his raw talent and potential, including the coaching staff and his parents, especially his father. He never let the five-star status become a circus. Of course, he could rely on his natural advantages in high school, but when he got to Georgia something else clicked.
“It’s like when we got up there he got really focused on what he needed to be focused on,” Elder said. “It was like he was up there for a reason, and didn’t want to screw it up. He wanted to prove he belonged there and wanted to make it to the next level.”
It took some time. Even as Smart publicly talked about how good Walker is — “we’ve got to find ways to get him on the field” — Walker was a reserve as a freshman and sophomore, blocked at defensive end by Malik Herring. That may have ultimately helped Walker, instilling patience and making him go harder in the weight room, and in the team’s conditioning program.
By his junior year, Walker was not only starting but the guy the coaches didn’t want to take off the field. He would rush from the edge on first and second downs, then go inside and rush from over the center on third downs. He would drop into coverage, and chase after the ball in space.
The stats weren’t eye-popping, but the tape didn’t lie: Walker made plays, especially as the games got bigger, blowing up the Michigan center in the Orange Bowl, running down an Alabama receiver 30 yards downfield in the national championship game. But Walker was seriously considering staying for his senior year until enough people convinced him and his family that, essentially, his stock had gone up so much that he would be crazy not to leave.
That was assuming first-round status. After blowing up at the NFL combine, it became top 10, even top 5, even ….
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Around Thomaston, the buzz about Walker’s draft status has come gradually. They watched him play off the bench during his fist two years at Georgia, then hoped he would have a good season in 2021, but Elder was hearing third-round projections, which he knew would result in Walker returning for his senior year.
“But man, it just kept getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger,” Elder said.
The town has had football notables: Mike Cavan played quarterback at Georgia and went on to be the assistant who recruited Herschel Walker. He’s still with the team as an executive assistant. Hugh Nall was on Georgia’s 1980 national championship team and was a longtime SEC offensive line coach. Michael Hicks played for the Chicago Bears. David Marshall played at Georgia but his career was derailed by injuries.
But now Walker may eclipse all of them. (Cavan and Nall were at the “Travon Walker Day” the town threw for him in January after the national championship.) Walker could even be the highest-drafted Georgia player since Matt Stafford went No. 1 overall in 2009.
Walker will not watch it from Las Vegas, where teammates like Davis, Wyatt and Dean will be. But he won’t be in Thomaston either: He’s hosting an event in Atlanta with “limited” seating. (There was a seat for Elder but not his wife.)
Around Thomaston, there aren’t any major signs or plaques yet commemorating Walker. That may be coming. They’re still prouder of Upson-Lee’s basketball team winning two straight state titles — both with Walker, who didn’t enroll early at Georgia so he could finish out the season with his basketball teammates.
Then he won a national title at Georgia. And now all this.
“I’ve always said I wanted to be the best person I could be, and I have a family I want to do it for,” Walker said. “That’s the main thing I do what I do. I just want to be the best person I can be.”
(Top photo: Bryan Lynn / USA TODAY Sports)
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