Coming off of two tight losses to Princeton and Dartmouth, Cornell is desperate for a win in its final home game of the season. It’s likely that senior wide receiver Bryan Walters will play a key role if the Big Red beats the Lions this Saturday.
Walters has been a true triple threat throughout his entire career with the Big Red. During his four years at Cornell, Walters has averaged 150.8 all-purpose yards per game. Walter’s all-purpose production of 168.8 yards per game this season is three times that of any other player on the Cornell squad and leads the Ivy League. As a wide receiver this season, Walters has caught 42 balls for 647 yards, second in the Ancient Eight, and four touchdowns. On kickoff returns, Walters has gained 580 yards, which leads the league, and 123 yards off of punt returns. As his numbers suggest, Walters plays a particularly significant role in the Big Red’s offensive production.
At Juanita High School in Kirkland, Wash., Walters excelled at football, basketball, and baseball. He decided to come to Cornell simply because of “blind luck”. Walters hadn’t even thought about the Ivy League, but after he ran into the Cornell coaches at a Washington State University football camp he decided to come out east for an official visit and soon he made the decision to come to Cornell.
Bryan Walters quickly realized that everyone at Cornell was good, that everyone wanted to play, and that he had to be willing to work a lot harder to get playing time. As Walters points out, he was fortunate enough to be given an opportunity to get on the field as a freshman and play a role on specials teams. Most of his playing time that year came on special teams but soon Walters’ role as a receiver became much larger. In his sophomore season he had 48 receptions including four touchdowns, and 43 receptions including two touchdowns in his junior season. Walters sees special teams as a way to give his team an instant morale boost. Success has followed him there as well; he was named all-Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week in 2006 and 2007. Although very humble, Walters accepts that his teammates expect him to “make the most out of every opportunity” he gets as a receiver and kick/punt returner.
He certainly has done that throughout his career. In all-time stats, Walters ranks first in Cornell’s history in all-purpose yards, punt return yards, and kick return yards. The all-purpose yards record is an especially impressive achievement considering that Cornell’s Ed Marinaro was the 1971 Heisman Trophy runner-up. Although Walters has had a lot of personal success, he would have liked to see Cornell win more games during his career. He says that one play here and there let quite a few wins slip away, but he admits “that’s football for you.”
Going into this season, Walters and his teammates had high expectations. Walters believes that “he has never been with a harder-working group of guys” and has seen a lot of improvement and development in his teammates and leaders emerge on the squad. At 2-6, look for Cornell’s seniors, including Walters, to come out playing extremely hard on Saturday as they hope to prove something.
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