Aug. 20, 2012
When Walker May and Jordan Rodgers roomed together last year they would go hours without talking to one another. It wasn’t that the two disliked one another; in fact it was the quite the contrary.
But what caused the Vanderbilt teammates to give each other the cold shoulder for hours at a time is actually a trait the two hold in equally high regard: their competitiveness.
Whether it was a card game or a video game on Xbox, neither one wanted to lose and it would be painfully obvious as soon as the game was over.
“Jordan and I are very competitive,” May said. “We’ll play each other in something and then we won’t talk for like three hours because we are so competitive about it.”
The head-to-head battles were most commonly waged in FIFA Soccer for Xbox. More times than not, it was May who came out victorious. (Jordan, however, is quick to make it clear that “Walker owned the game and played it a lot more.”) So as one gloated, the other sulked as they went their separate ways. Jordan would head to his room and Walker to his, the loser needing time to vent.
“I’m a sore loser and he was pretty good at the game,” Rodgers admitted. “If I’d lose I’d be pretty mad about it because he loves to rub it in your face a little bit too. I guess it was good that we had a door between our two rooms.”
After some time to cool down, the two would return to socializing as if nothing had happened. May, a defensive end, and Rodgers, a quarterback, are ultra-competitive and for one of the few times in their lives, they had met someone equally competitive, and neither handled losing to the other very well.
“He’s one of the more, if not the most, competitive guys I know on this team,” Rodgers remarked. “And I feel like I am the most competitive guy on this team, so anything we are doing we compete.”
For May it is that competitive drive that has fueled him up the depth chart and helped him gain widespread respect of teammates. In the spring, May received the greatest compliment from his peers when the redshirt junior was voted as co-captain.
Bestowing a junior as a captain does not happen every year and could have come as a surprise to those outside the program. Watch May at practice and it is easy to understand why his teammates voted him captain.
One minute May is encouraging his fellow defensive linemen with chest bumps and taps on the helmet and the next he is leading the defense in a rallying cry.
Because of this, it comes as no surprise that in an informal poll of 20 members of the team, it was May who teammates voted as the team’s “Best Motivator.”
“He is a do-right kid,” defensive line coach Sean Spencer said. “He does things right on and off the field. Those guys see him when we don’t, and when people aren’t watching those are the times people can make decisions about who you are as a person and I think because of that, that is one of the reasons they elected him.”
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May’s motivational tactics jive with his competitive drive. He commits himself to giving max effort in everything he does because of his disdain for losing and he expects nothing less of his teammates.
“I don’t like taking no for an answer,” May commented. “I don’t like quitting and I don’t like losing, ever. That gets under my skin more than anything there is. So I set out every single day to win. No matter what it is, I am going to win in practice. So I just try to get everyone else to join me.”
So far, May has been successful in his quest, as evidence by being voted captain. He leads by example but also vocally and is not afraid to take a stand if he knows it will benefit the team.
“He’s going to tell you what you need to hear, whether it is what you want to hear or not,” Rodgers said. “He’s going to be the guy to kind of push those guys, see the potential in guys and push them to where they need to be.”
Just as he has pushed himself.
Blessed with a 6-foot-5 frame with room to grow, May has added 40 pounds since he arrived on campus as a wiry 205-pound freshman from Birmingham, Ala. By adding weight, May has been able to change his game from more of a finesse style to one that blends his speed and power.
Signs of his transformation were evident last year as May played a significant role in Vanderbilt’s leap up the national defensive rankings from 93rd in 2010 to 36th. Getting pressure on the quarterback helped trigger turnovers, and few were better at causing havoc in the backfield than May. He tied for third on the team with three sacks and also had 4.5 tackles for loss.
“Physicality is where I’ve grown most,” May said. “My first year here I was just trying to trick people and run around them. Now I come off and hit you in the mouth and make a move off of that.”
May has also benefited from Vanderbilt’s new defensive scheme, which enables him to be more aggressive off the snap. “I am more of a speed kind of a person and on our defensive line we are (driving hard upfield off the snap) and that is definitely better for me than trying to read. Instead, I’m the one taking the pressure to them.”
In 2012, May will be looked upon to continue to take strides forward. Gone is former defensive end Tim Fugger, the team’s top pass rusher from a year ago. With Fugger and his team-best eight sacks gone, May will be an important part of the puzzle as Vanderbilt dials up blitzes to get to the quarterback.
‘”He’s got tremendous get off,” Spencer said. “We’ve gotten him as low as a 4.55 (in the 40). He’s got tremendous speed and range for that position. There are a lot of short and quick guys, but we are talking about a guy that is 6-foot-5 and 245 with that kind of speed. He’s a really limber person. He creates some pass rushes that a lot of guys can’t do. His bend is so unbelievable.”
It’s those tools that make May a candidate for a big season in 2012.
He knows he will play a key role in replacing Fugger’s production and he is willing to take on the challenge the only way he knows – head on. “Tim was really good to me and taught me a lot. I’m going to try to do what he did last year because he did a great job,” May said.
As the competitor he is, May enjoys challenges, and the objective of continually elevating his game against the competition is an obstacle that never rests.
But neither does May.
“He has tremendous work ethic,” Spencer said. “He works so hard and maximizes everything that he was God given. He’s the type of kid that when you recruit, you want to recruit a Walker May.”
And as Jordan Rodgers knows first hand, it is much better to have a Walker May on your sideline than the other because he has a competitive drive that is unrelenting in anything he does … even Xbox.
