Michigan State Football: Kenneth Walker III earning national respect

We are approaching the end of July which means one thing: preseason award watch lists.

For Michigan State football, there haven’t been many players making preseason award watch lists over the past few years, and when you look at how poor the program has fared since 2017, it makes sense. The Spartans haven’t had many breakout players worth national recognition over the past few years, but that might soon be changing.

Mel Tucker hit the transfer portal hard to find some incredibly talented guys and the one name that sticks out whenever you talk about newcomers is Kenneth Walker III.

In fact, 247Sports ranked him as one of their top-150 incoming transfers for the 2021 season as well as one of the top-10 in the Big Ten.

The former Wake Forest running back has been earning praise all offseason and after an impressive spring with the Spartans, there’s a feeling that he’ll break out and become one of the best rushers in the conference.

College football experts are taking notice.

On Wednesday, the Doak Walker Award preseason watch list was released and the newest Spartan running back made the cut. Although there were a good number selections to the watch list, Walker III stands out as one of the top transfers.

Michigan State could have two guys who make a run at the award this season with Elijah Collins and Walker III and you can’t overlook Jordon Simmons or Harold Joiner, either.

Michigan State football talent level clearly improved

With Walker III making the Doak Walker Award watch list, it got me thinking about which other players could push for certain positional awards before the season is over with.

Quavaris Crouch could be one of the top linebackers in the Big Ten, Jacub Panasiuk and Jalen Hunt as top defensive linemen, Ronald Williams Jr., Chester Kimbrough, Kalon Gervin, and Xavier Henderson might be top defensive backs, JD Duplain, Nick Samac, Kevin Jarvis, Jarrett Horst, and AJ Arcuri could be top linemen, and Jalen Nailor, Jayden Reed, and Ricky White have top-tier receiver potential.

This team has improved at essentially every position group. And now I think I have my next story idea.