Player Focus: DeMarcus Walker

The 2015 Florida State Seminole football team will feature a lot of talent but also a great deal of inexperience. To ease the transition of new faces all across the depth chart, veterans will need to step up. On the defensive line, DeMarcus Walker will be one of the one's tasked with leading a unit that lost 3 starters from a year ago in Desmond Hollin, Mario Edwards, Jr. and Eddie Goldman.

Coming out of high school, Walker was rated a consensus 4-star prospect, U.S. Army All-American, and the 40th ranked overall player in the ESPN 150. The 6'3", 277-pound Jacksonville, Florida native has started 14 of the 26 games he has played in for the Seminoles including the last 7 of the 2014 season. He finished with 38 tackles, six for loss, one sack and one forced fumble in his sophomore season.

(via WLPearce.com) Demarcus Walker had the 2nd-most tackles of any Seminole defensive lineman in 2014.

Comparison: Cameron Heyward, Pittsburgh Steelers. Heyward is obviously doing extremely well in the NFL and is a little bit bigger but I believe that Walker has the un-tapped potential to be this elite. Both are larger, not flashy defensive ends, but ones that can dominate and disrupt the line of scrimmage consistently. Walker has a lot to prove to deserve this comparison but I think he has the potential.

Career Day: In the last 2014 home game against the team from Gainesville, Walker recorded six tackles, one for loss. He was consistently disruptive to Treon Harris and the Gator offense for most of the game.

Best Moment: In last year's shootout in Raleigh against NC State, Walker sacked Jacoby Brissett early in the second quarter on 3rd and 10 to force a punt that swung momentum in the Seminoles' favor. Florida State was trailing at the time 24-14 and were struggling to slow down the Wolfpack offense. After the offense got the ball back with excellent field position, Jameis Winston and the offense cashed in with a touchdown pass to Christian Green that cut the deficit to three. Walker finished the game with four tackles along with the sack.

Quick Fact: Was named co-defensive MVP with Freshman defensive end Rick Leonard for the 2015 Spring Practice.

Despite losing a great deal of starting talent to the NFL, the Seminoles return a lot of depth to the defensive line. The 'Noles will need to take a great leap forward from last season's embarrassing 17 total sacks, only three of which were recorded by returning players. Walker will, himself, need to take a great leap forward and live up to the hype he received coming out of high school or he could be passed up by the abundance of younger talent behind him.