In a move that apparently caught everyone but Mike Frank by surprise, Darius Walker declared for the NFL draft Thursday.  Walker, and his father, Jimmy, have been a huge part of my experience at Notre Dame, as the former's been the only consistently contributing offensive member of my class while the latter was turned into a running joke by Rob, but in a loving, good way.  

Walker's had a lot of critics in his time at Notre Dame, mainly the idiots who stand in front of me at the Stadium.  He doesn't have much of a burst, doesn't hit the hole particularly hard and seems to crumple at the touching of his ankles, but I think he's been more than serviceable as a back and would have been worthy of the all-time rusher and receptions leader records at Notre Dame, records he probably would hold after his senior season.  He hardly fumbled, blocked exceptionally well and caught the ball out of the backfield, and it's not like he was a terrible running back, especially this season when he was working with a below-average line and third consecutive terrible pass defense that kept putting us into catch-up mode.

So should Darius Walker not return - and he would be missed, despite the logjam developing in the 2007 Notre Dame backfield - I think we need to honor his contributions during his three years.  Up to debate and purely based on the opinion of a guy that saw literally every carry and catch he had in his career, the five best D-Walk games.

You could put any number of "Huge Stat Games" here, but I went with one where Number Three averaged an insane 10.3 yards per carry.  153 yards on 15 carries and a score, although you could use many of his junior year games, including Purdue (146 yards on 31 carries, plus 73 yards receiving), Stanford (153 on 25) or Army (162 on 24, plus two scores in his final home game).  I just love that yards-per-carry, although he wasn't his usual receiving threat in that game.

In what ended up being his final game as a Notre Dame player - who knew? - Darius ran over and around the big, bad SEC defense Glenn Dorsey and the Bayou Bengals were supposed to be throwing out at him.  He tallied over a hundred yards in the first half before the JaMarcus-imposed deficit eliminated the running game from things.  On the second quarter game-tying drive alone, D-Walk had runs for 35 and 15 yards, ending up with 128 and nearly six yards per carry.  In a game where Rhema continued to drop passes and Brady wasn't exceedingly accurate, Walker carried the load in the first half.

In the final game played in old Stanford Stadium - demolition equipment was literally waiting outside the gate - Darius Walker helped to propel Notre Dame into the BCS by rushing for a career high 186 yards on 35 carries, adding in a touchdown and 55 more yards through the air.  As time ticked down, it was Walker who scored - then added on the two-point conversion in a very Patriot-like play - to give the Irish the 38-31 lead.  Victor handled the defensive side of things, but it was D-Walk who drove the offense forward on a night where Brady had two picks.

In a game where it looked like most of the team was hanging out with Sun Devil coeds the night before, Darius again was the offense, tallying 127 yards of total offense on 23 touches and accounting for all three Notre Dame scores in the 34-20 loss.  Remember, Walker was doing this against a defense that would yield seven players to the NFL draft, three in the top eighteen picks and six on the first day.  Although the two BCS games under Weis have been disappointing in their results, they would have been significantly worse without D-Walk.

Coming off an embarrassing opening night loss to BYU, Notre Dame was shut out in the first half by heavy favorite Michigan.  But in the second half, Ty made one of the best decisions in his Notre Dame tenure, deciding to just run Darius Walker, who hadn't even seen the field against BYU, until the Wolverines could stop him.  31 carries, 115 yards and two fourth quarter touchdowns later, the Irish had upset the Wolverines in both D-Walk and this blogger's first home game as Notre Dame students.  The Irish just ran sweep after sweep, and Michigan never adjusted - that's right, kids, ol' Uncle Lloyd was that rigid all the way back in aught four - outscoring their rival 28-11 in the second half.  The numbers got gaudier, but Darius saved a 0-2 hole to start the season with his game against a Michigan team that would only lose two more games all season (to Troy Smith and the Rose Bowl; Some things never change).