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COLUMBIA, Mo. — The line between the weight room and waiting room has been a blurry one for Johnny Walker Jr.

The junior defensive end is entering his fourth season with Missouri and now, after one redshirt season and two as a rotational option, he’s poised for a starting role along the Tigers’ defensive front.

“He had an outstanding spring and has really earned his starting position,” coach Eli Drinkwitz said Saturday. “I anticipate that he’ll take the first snap at defensive end.”

Walker committed to MU in January 2020, making him one of Drinkwitz’s first recruiting wins. But when he came to Columbia, he didn’t have the weight to immediately push for a role on the edge.

“He was an undersized guy,” said Kevin Peoples, Missouri’s defensive ends coach.

Walker redshirted the 2020 season, when he was listed on the roster as an outside linebacker who weighed 204 pounds.

Then came protein shakes and weights. Last year, Walker was listed at 244 pounds but still didn’t get much of a chance in a room dominated by NFL-bound rushers Isaiah McGuire and D.J. Coleman. Walker played 19 defensive snaps through the Tigers’ first 11 games, according to Pro Football Focus.

Then, in the final two regular season games, his role expanded. He played 19 defensive snaps against New Mexico State and 17 against Arkansas, also notching a sack.

Walker’s emergence advanced further when he started the Gasparilla Bowl in his hometown of Tampa, Florida. There, Walker played 56 snaps on the D-line — the same amount he had played across the rest of the 2022 season.

“I was just very excited, starting for the first time, especially in my hometown,” Walker said at the start of preseason camp.

Whether or not the bowl game was a test, Walker entered the offseason determined to pack on even more poundage. Now, he’s above 260 pounds.

“I feel a lot more powerful,” Walker said. “I feel like I can do better.”

His coach agrees.

“He’s got the mass behind him that he needs to be successful,” Peoples said. “And he’s still moving the same.”

Missouri returns the vast majority of its defensive production from last year at nearly every position, but defensive end is the exception. Walker’s counterpart along the edge likely will be graduate Darius Robinson, who will line up both inside and outside at times.

Robinson has been around the program since 2019, the Tigers’ last season with previous coach Barry Odom, so he’s watched Walker’s development from the start.

“Johnny’s been ready,” Robinson said. “He had to sit behind a lot of talented guys.”

There are still elements of Walker’s game that need to be tested in games.

“He hasn’t had the reps,” defensive coordinator Blake Baker said at the start of preseason camp. “He’s got to go out there and prove it, but he helped himself a lot.”

There will still be plenty of competition around Walker. Transfers Nyles Gaddy and Joe Moore III, from Jackson State and Arizona State respectively, are in contention for snaps at D-end.

“We got a lot of good names to choose from,” Baker said.

Walker and Robinson, as program veterans, have been teaching some of the new arrivals alongside their coach. That includes Missouri’s pass rush schemes, but also technical topics like hand use — “stuff about D-line that I didn’t even know until I got here,” Moore said.

Walker will get his tests in game situations as the 2023 season gets underway with Missouri’s opener Aug. 31 against South Dakota. But for now, he’s built a foundation alongside a massive frame.

“He’s got competition with Nyles (Gaddy) and Joe (Moore III), but he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do as far as gaining weight, understanding the defense, creating a pass rush,” Drinkwitz said, “so I’m excited to see what kind of season he’s gonna have for us.”

Mizzou picks up commitment from 3-star defensive end

Three-star defensive end Jaylen Brown verbally committed Tuesday to Missouri.

Brown is 6-6 and weighs 240 pounds, hailing from Madison, Alabama. He visited Mizzou in late July, according to his account on X, formerly Twitter, where he made his commitment.

He’s the 13th commitment in Missouri’s 2024 recruiting class, which now ranks No. 48 in the country, according to .

Brown follows five-star, top-ranked Williams Nwaneri as defensive ends who recently committed to the Tigers.

Recruits in the 2024 class need to wait until Dec. 20 to sign their national letters of intent.