Emboldened by Trautwein's influence, Walker sets high expectations for '21
Phil Trautwein didn’t need the COVID-squashed spring practices of 2020 to understand the potential in front of him.
Arriving into the Nittany Lions’ program as its new offensive line coach two months before the onset of the pandemic, Penn State’s winter workouts offered a compelling perspective of Rasheed Walker. A rising redshirt sophomore with 13 starts at left tackle in his full-season debut in 2019, Walker appeared to have a limitless amount of potential.
“He's athletic. He has great feet. He's strong. He has a great punch when he uses it. You could tell that he's nasty. He tries to finish his blocks,” Trautwein said. “For a young talent, I'm excited to get him when he's young and mold him into what he feels like he's going to be. I know his goals, and I'm going to do everything I can to get to his goals. He's a really good player that I'm excited to get my hands on and coach.”
Finally able to connect with Trautwein upon the team’s return to campus last summer and eventual preseason camp with the coaching staff, that relationship has blossomed in the time since.
Needing to work through an acclimation period that ran into the pandemic-amended 2020 season, Walker added another nine starts to his career tally with the Nittany Lions and earned third-team All-Big Ten status from the media and an honorable mention nod from conference coaches as a result. But in the process, Walker indicated that his approach to the game and improvement aligned with the teaching Trautwein brought to the offensive line room.
A two-time All-SEC pick with a pair of national championships at Florida, followed by an NFL career, Trautwein represented an example of what might become possible for Walker with the same approach.
“The guy knows what he's talking about,” Walker said this spring. “Being a former NFL offensive tackle, he sees stuff that not everyone else sees, so when I first started working with him, I already thought I was pretty good. But as I worked with him more, he just started to point out a bunch of things that I have to work on to be better. As I trusted him and kept on working his techniques and doing drills he had me do, I felt myself getting better, and I felt more confident as an offensive lineman.”
Eligible to enter the NFL Draft following his third year in the program after the 2020 season, Walker continued, the appeal was dwarfed by the prospect of another year of teaching under Trautwein. Considering his options, the choice became clear.
“I just looked at it as like, I had time. It's only my third year,” he said. “I can leave, but I also can come back and just invest more in myself by being coached by Coach Traut for another year to give myself a better shot at the next level.”
Praised throughout the program for his dedication and pursuit to reach his full potential this winter and spring, the approach has paid off for Walker.
Already considered one of the top tackle prospects in all of college football ahead of the 2022 NFL Draft, Walker has only further impressed Trautwein as he seeks to reverse the team-wide disappointment that has lingered from last season.
“Rasheed is doing a heck of a job. He came back with the mindset that he wants to be a first-rounder, and he wants to lead his team to a national championship, a Big Ten Championship, he wants to be All-Big Ten. He has goals… and every day it's my job as a coach to make sure that he's on track to do that,” Trautwein said. “He's come out every spring practice and went out there and tried to work on something, and he tried to make sure that he works on the no-talent things; his effort, his technique, his fundamentals, because he wants you guys to watch him and say, he's a consistent left tackle that can play a long time in NFL.
“That's his goal and that's what he's striving to do every day. And it's my job as a coach to show him that way. He's coachable, which is great. (We) have a great relationship. He's an awesome kid that's growing and getting better every day.”
Emboldened by that progress, both personally as well as within the offensive line room as a whole this spring, the result for Walker is a heightened set of expectations as the 2021 season nears.
Striving to deliver an offensive performance in which the Nittany Lions improve dramatically on their 3.11 sacks allowed per game (109th nationally, 13th Big Ten) and pave the way for a ground game that bests its 174.3 yards per game output last season (55th, 5th), Walker expects the group’s shared approach this offseason to open up those possibilities.
“The main things that I expect out of myself and that you're gonna see from me and the rest of offensive line is, I feel that we're all going to be technicians,” Walker said. “We're all going to be very disciplined. And we're all going to finish. We're all going to play nasty, hard-nosed football because that's how we drill, that's how we've been training, that's how we've been practicing, so it has to translate. I'm really confident when I say that.”
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