When Tracy Walker’s name was announced as the Lions’ third-round pick in the 2018 NFL draft, the reaction was almost unanimous: “Who?”

But the small-school safety has big-league talent, and Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press caught up with Walker’s former Lousiana-Lafayette head coach, Mark Hudspeth to get some insight into what makes him worthy of the No. 82 overall pick.

“He’s a guy that during the day when the team’s not over there, you’re walking down the hall and Tracy walks out of the position meeting room, he’s been in there watching tape,” Hudspeth told Birkett. “And to me that’s what set him apart. And everybody’s like, ‘Man, he’s always around the ball.’ Well, yeah, because he studies the tape. He’s one step ahead of the offense and when you know your keys that makes you a faster player.”

In what’s quickly becoming the most-cited stat nugget of the Lions’ draft class, three of Walker’s eight college interceptions came against SEC competition: Texas A&M, Georgia and Kentucky.

Hudspeth thinks it’s Walker’s enthusiasm for the mental side of the game that puts him in position—and his long 6-1 frame, with huge 33.5-inch arms, that help him execute.

“He can scratch his toes without bending over,” joked Hudspeth.

But for all of Walker’s NFL-caliber traits, even his former coach was surprised, as he told Birkett, that Walker was drafted so high. Not that he didn’t deserve it, necessarily, just that he’d heard through the football-coaching grapevine to expect selection in the “mid to mid-late to late” rounds.

But wherever Walker was quote-unquote ‘supposed’ to be drafted, Detroit’s decision-makers wanted him—and rightly or wrongly, were convinced they had to take him where they did to get him.

Now all that’s left is for Walker to apply his physical and mental tools at the next level.