Madison High School wide receiver Lawrence Walker committed to the Arizona Wildcats and head coach Rich Rodriguez after a visit earlier this week, reports Erik McKinney of ESPN.
The 6-foot, 166 pound Walker, out of San Diego, was especially impressed with the family atmosphere already developed under Rodriguez. He told McKinney that he could tell his coaches cared for him.
"I just wanted to see if they were a family," Walker said. "I had to see it for myself. The receivers coach asked where we were from and what type of family environment we were looking for. I haven’t been recruited by a lot of people, but I’d never been asked that by a coach. I could see they care."
That relationship goes all the way to the top, and was something Walker was able to experience on his trip as well."Coach Rodriguez, you can tell he cares about his players," Walker said. "I committed and he gave me a hug. We took a bunch of pictures and it looked like a wedding for a minute."
Currently, Walker is an unranked recruit for 2013, but it's also important to note that Rodriguez has skill in finding and developing diamond-in-the-rough talent. He's an addition to an already monstrous class assembled by RichRod that now stands 23 deep
Walker caught 21 passes for 572 yards and seven touchdowns in his junior season, according to McKinney. That'd be an average of 27 yards per game and a touchdown every third catch.
Take a look at Walker's ESPN profile, which says he was also interested in UCLA.
(h/t to Barking Carnival for the news)