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Back in the Fight

Back in the FightBack in the Fight

After a "flip-of-a-coin" surgery, veteran offensive lineman Walker Parks returned in 2024 with a repaired ankle — and a refreshed perspective

Note: The following appears in the October 2024 issue of Orange: The Experience. For full access to all of the publication’s content, join IPTAY today by calling 864-656-2115.

CLEMSON, S.C. — Before assembled media could even muster a question, the deep bass of Walker Parks’ voice reverberated into the microphone at Clemson’s Smart Family Media Center.

“Back in the fight.”

It was the evening of Aug. 1, and Parks — the six-foot-five, 305-pound, fifth-year offensive lineman from Kentucky — was the first player to speak following Clemson’s first fall camp practice.

In 2022, Parks played the majority of Clemson’s ACC Championship campaign with torn ligaments in his ankle suffered in an early October win against NC State. He missed most of the offseason after undergoing ankle surgery to repair three lateral ligaments and address bone spurs, but he entered the 2023 season ready to restore his game.

“I was joking with Coach earlier, I said it’s kind of like a rusty truck you find in your grandpa’s barn right now,” Parks said in August 2023. “I need some polishing, some new wheels and maybe some gas, but I’m getting back to it and working on getting better every day.”

That rusty truck didn’t stay out of the shop long. In the second game of Clemson’s 2023 season, Parks suffered another ankle injury, and an MRI revealed that Parks’ subtalar joint —the joint that acts as a bridge between the foot and ankle — had fused together. Parks faced two different surgery options: one that would definitively fix the ankle but instantly end his football career, or another that Parks and medical personnel called “a flip of the coin.”

Parks opted for the coin flip but admitted that doubt was present amid his recovery. His doubt was repelled though by one single thought of his final snap at Death Valley:

“There’s no way that was it.”

Despite the season-ending injury, Parks battled to return for 2024 following a medical redshirt. In his recovery, he dropped all the way to 260 pounds in December. His diligence with his nutrition, rehabilitation and training led him to add 45 pounds back by the start of fall camp eight months later.

His most important gain, though, was his perspective.

“It was very tough, but I will say it was very beneficial,” Parks said. “I think last season I was so stressed out all the time for the wrong reasons. I was not present. I was not where I needed to be. Mentally, I wasn’t in the moment. I was looking ahead, focusing on the playoffs, or ‘Do I come back for a fifth year or do I try for the NFL?’ My mind was all over the place. I was very — I don’t want to say ungrateful because I love this place and I love these coaches — but I wasn’t in the right mindset. Then [the injury] happened and it gave me a whole new perspective.

“I go from playing my senior season with my best friends, some of my favorite teammates of all-time — Will Putnam, Will Shipley, [Jeremiah] Trotter, the list goes on and on, [Justin] Mascoll — playing with guys I’ve worked with for the last couple of years, to now I’m having surgery and I’m laying in bed in a cast and I’m watching all my friends play.

“It gave me a reset and fully restored me and restored my faith in Christ. This gave me time to look at myself and really decide and figure out what’s important to me. So I developed as a man and as a player. It made me so much tougher too and it’s a constant reminder that it can end any day for any player… I think it’s one of the best things that could have happened to me, honestly.”

Parks credited the support system at Clemson and his family for guiding him through his hardship. While he was quick to cite Clemson’s coaching staff, training staff and nutrition staff, the support of his teammates on the offensive line carried additional weight in his comments.

“They would literally bring me food and just sit there and hang out with me because I couldn’t walk. They’d say, ‘Hey, we’re praying for you,’ and they’d bring me food and they’d check in on me all the time,” Parks said. “These dudes, these aren’t my teammates, these are my brothers. That’s my family. You talk about having a good support system, it’s so much different when you have guys you love that you want to fight for and play with.”

Head Coach Dabo Swinney said he is always prayerful for the health of his players. But asked at the start of camp to expound specifically upon Parks’ return, emotion emerged from Swinney’s voice.

“Keep him in your prayers, man. I’m praying for that guy,” Swinney said. “There is nobody more committed to football, first of all, or to Clemson or to this team than Walker Parks. He’s just tremendous. He’s one of the best leaders I’ve ever been around, one of the most committed people I’ve ever been around.”

From the objective perspective of on-field performance, Parks’ impact on Clemson is evident. He entered the 2024 season as Clemson’s active leader in career snaps with 2,107 over 39 games and 28 starts from 2020-23.

But within the program, Parks has been regarded as one of its most important player voices and one of its most passionate leaders.

“We need him,” Swinney said. “We need that fire. We need that presence. We need his leadership. We need his knowledge. We need his experience. These last couple of years have been really hard on him… I’m just praying he can have the type of season that he’s worked for because he truly does deserve it.”

To understand Parks’ devotion to Clemson, it’s best to understand its origin. Parks is the son of former Kentucky offensive lineman David Parks, and many assumed Walker would follow his father’s footsteps four miles down the road from Lexington’s Frederick Douglass High School to the University of Kentucky.

After a prospect event in the region in July 2017, Parks snuck into Memorial Stadium in Clemson and told his father he wanted to play in that stadium. He returned to Clemson 11 months later as a relatively under-the-radar participant in Clemson’s annual Dabo Swinney Football Camp. By design, the Parks family hoped to draw minimal attention to his status as a Division I prospect with five or six offers. Parks quietly competed in camp, impressing Swinney and Offensive Line Coach Robbie Caldwell and earning an emotional offer from Clemson.

In 2021, unfounded rumors began to swirl that Parks could transfer to return home to Kentucky. The rumors were quickly squelched when David took to the message board of Tiger Illustrated to remind Clemson fans of who his son is and aims to be.

“If you’ve ever heard Dabo tell the story, he offered Walker right after camp ended and Walker cried,” David Parks said. “He absolutely did. We hugged and laughed and cried. He had done it. He had come to the No. 1 program in the country, completely unknown, fought his ass off to leave his mark and earned his spot – on his own! The posts from [recruiting reporter Paul] Strelow showed the Kentucky kid in the wifebeater tank top that had earned his offer.

“From that day forward, Clemson had his heart. He’d have probably committed then if I’d have let him. Since then, his goal has been to build himself into the absolute best player he can be and to represent the Clemson standard – Best is the Standard.”

Parks’ passion to represent that standard is further buttressed now by another powerful force: gratitude.

“The perspective changed for me. I wake up every morning, I stand up, come in this building and I’m just like, ‘Thank you, God,’ because I’m so happy to be here and so happy to be part of it,” Parks said. “I thank God for being back and for being able to be a Tiger.”