Walker Lyons’ Mission Leads to USC

How USC TE Walker Lyons bloomed in Norway’s ‘dark time’

The freshman put his football career on hold to serve as a missionary in Tromso, where daylight disappears for months

USC tight end Walker Lyons, right, runs for yardage after one of his three catches during the Trojans’ 48-0 victory over Utah State on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Photo courtesy of USC Athletics)
USC TE Walker Lyons runs for yardage after one of his three catches during the Trojans’ 48-0 victory over Utah State at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. (Photo courtesy of USC Athletics)

Luca Evans (OC Register)  —  LOS ANGELES — As winter fell and the sun vanished, the Church of Latter-day Saints sent a teenage football player to the top of the world to spread the word of Jesus Christ.

Earth spins on an axis at an awkward 23.5-degree angle, and so it is that the northernmost part of Norway becomes one of the furthest regions of humankind from the sun in the winter. In the town of Tromso, daylight disappears in mid-November and hides until the spring, thrusting a populace of more than 70,000 into complete shadow and below-zero temperatures.

In Norwegian, they call this time morketiden. In English: the dark time.

It is not for the faint of heart. Seasonal depression, despite mental health remaining fairly stable, is a frequent topic of studies into northern Norway. And on the Church’s three-year youth mission to Oslo, Norway, mission president Kirt Montague found he could only put a certain type of young man or woman on the two-hour flight out north of the Arctic Circle.

After an hourlong conversation with Walker Lyons, a 6-4, 235-pound USC tight end commit who had put football on hold to serve, Montague tabbed him for Tromso.

“I knew he was a tough kid,” Montague reflected. “Again, this is not a place that you can just, you can send anybody.”

“I felt,” Montague continued a few words later, “like I could trust him.”

So Lyons spent months last year living in an apartment in Tromso, strumming a ukulele and teaching English classes. He later went all the way south to Stavanger, where he dabbled in coaching American football and honed his Norwegian as the sky turned bright again. When he finally joined USC as a true freshman this summer after a year away from football, there was a different glint to his eyes, head coach Lincoln Riley said Thursday. No choice but to grow, in the dark time.

After exactly three months of getting up to speed with college football, Lyons caught three passes in USC’s 48-0 rout of Utah State.

“I’m like, ‘You kiddin’ me?’” Montague said, his voice swelling over a phone call Wednesday. “He was a missionary a few months ago.”

“Now he’s out here knockin’ heads with D1 college players.”

It was a unique story, Riley reflected during fall camp: to sign a kid and then not see him for a year and a half, their only communication with Lyons the occasional FaceTime call across a 10-hour time difference. But Lyons had been up front with Riley and tight ends coach Zach Hanson throughout USC’s recruitment, the freshman said. His faith was a massive part of his parents’ lives, and a massive part of his, and so his family made a 700-mile drive from Folsom in February 2023 – according to the Deseret News – to drop off Lyons at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.

Lyons, still a young man barely wrapping up high school, had been given plenty. He wanted to give. And so he put down his life, for the better part of a year.

“Stepping away from football and school and that were, kinda things that I wanted for a little bit,” Lyons said Tuesday, “and kind of just looked outward in a way. Looked to help other people.”

When he was called by the Church, folks started sending Montague a slew of newspaper articles – a highly touted four-star recruit out of Folsom was tagging along. And the mission president was excited. Nervous, too. Was he cocky? Was he full of himself?

But the first time Montague met Lyons, after the 14-or-so-hour-flight from Utah to Norway’s capital of Oslo, he found more humility than he expected. Lyons transferred into Folsom midway through his freshman year of high school, and was deemed ineligible under the CIF’s transfer rules, so he spent much of his first season happily shagging balls as a younger 6-foot-3, 230-pound water boy. He played a few games during the pandemic-shortened spring his sophomore year, played his immediately subsequent junior season in the fall, and then had much of his senior year wiped out with a broken leg.

He was an introvert, Folsom coach Paul Doherty said, who rarely spoke in full sentences. But Lyons was resilient, Montague sensed. And self-assured enough to put a year’s worth of NIL opportunity on hold.

“You’re not just walkin’ away from football, you’re walkin’ away from a lot,” Montague said. “And that, honestly … I knew enough to know that that was no small sacrifice.”

The pressure for Lyons to return and start his life at USC, Montague said, was nearly constant, from all directions. Why would you leave? Why aren’t you here? Get your butt home. But the kid put it aside for months, starting in Tromso. His days were full enough, waking at 6:30 a.m. sharp and in bed by 10:30 p.m., walking the streets and knocking on doors and holding classes and activities and game nights in the hours between.

There were about 70 young missionaries around Norway, Montague said, rotating in cycles across a three-year mission from 2021 to 2024. The Church divided the country into zones with roughly 25 missionaries each, and each zone is divided into a handful of “districts.”

Shortly into his mission, by the time he had arrived in Stavanger, Lyons became a district leader. Then a zone leader. A quiet kid embraced the Norwegian language with fearless aplomb, and led tour groups with gusto, and Montague is convinced there’s a large part of Lyons that simply didn’t want to leave.

“My physical was already, I felt it was pretty strong,” Lyons said. “But the other parts of myself, I felt like they were able to grow and catch up to that physical part.”

Eventually, though, the clock began ticking on reporting back to USC, and Lyons and Montague made the collective decision to send him back in June. There was a plan set in place for him by strength trainer Bennie Wylie and USC’s staff, Lyons said Tuesday, as soon as he returned. And he had less than three months to train before USC’s season kicked off, his only true conditioning coming within sanctioned 30-minute workout blocks during his missionary schedule in Norway, honing a routine sent to him by trainers.

It’s still a work in progress, Riley affirmed Thursday. But as the head coach has increasingly incorporated tight ends further as blockers and pass-catchers in USC’s offense, Lyons flashed potential in spot action in a blowout of Utah State.

“There’s a lot about him out there,” Riley said, “that doesn’t feel like a freshman.”

Both off the field, too, after Lyons became a mission leader in the Norwegian darkness. He was a changed kid upon his return, Doherty reflected, suddenly beaming with confidence.

“He’s got enormous potential to have impact for good in this world,” Montague said. “And he’s got that mindset.”

ocregister.com

___________

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Rock2112
Noble Genius
Rock2112
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September 18, 2024 1:15 pm

To me, this weekend’s game is simple: If we get guys on the ground defensively with the consistency and authority that we did in the LSU game, we’ll win. If we backslide into arm tackles and over-pursuit, we’ll probably lose the game. Especially with the running QB element introduced, the first guy to the ball-carrier HAS to make the play. Do that for most of the game, without major busts on D, and we win.

Rock2112
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September 18, 2024 1:35 pm
Reply to  Allen Wallace

That’s what I see too, but if I were Lynn, I’d still be very serious about emphasizing tackling and no over-pursuit in practice this week. Our guys are going to be jacked up and nervous in this game, with few friendlies in the crowd unlike in Vegas. Fundamentals and technique are your friends on the road!

Jamaica
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Jamaica
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September 18, 2024 8:06 pm
Reply to  Rock2112

If you ever watched Urban Meyer’s QB option offense, I think you will see it Saturday in Michigan using it.

illinoisusc
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illinoisusc
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September 18, 2024 1:04 pm

LR strikes……Jerome M goes to USC…….not a big lineman but very welcome. One of the top WR guys.

Jamaica
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Jamaica
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September 17, 2024 12:05 pm

Joel Klatt is amazing. He always finds why games are won or lost from a coaches standpoint. Today he reported Michigan has changed drastically with their DC Wink Martindale schemes to blitz on 49 percent of their plays so far this season. In the past they have averaged 26 percent. Klatt says Michigan blitzes so much now, the Wolverine defense sometimes (hello Alex Grinch) out of position to defend plays where the opposing QB calls an audible at the LOS. Texas was able to do this. LR & Moss can do this too!

illinoisusc
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illinoisusc
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September 17, 2024 11:38 am

Wow…..Tennessee just announced that all tickets will have a 10% surcharge in order for the team to have the cash to pay players.
There is so much to say….. All these years the admin, coaches, facility and equipment folks, TV, announcers, marketers have been making millions if not billions……now a kid wants to make a small portion of what he is producing and…….you folks have to pay. The BIG members each receive 72 million each year for the rights to broadcast basketball and football. SEC very similar. Maybe the brains that run the place forgot that.

ATL D.D.S.
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September 18, 2024 8:37 am
Reply to  illinoisusc

I think your point is valid, IL. The spirit of the ruling that allows the players to “revenue share” is that the all the other parties involved need to kick back from the gains they make from the performers on the field. TEN’s actions seem underhanded.

Golden Trojan
Major Genius
September 17, 2024 8:17 am

Week 3 playoff update:
1st round byes; Texas, Ohio St, Miami, Utah
1st round games; #12 NIU at #5 Georgia, #11 Oregon at #6 Alabama, #10 Penn St at #7 Ole Miss, #9 Missouri at #8 Tenn.

SEC still in the drivers seat. USC still first team out. Conference play will shake things out. When will Ohio St play somebody?

volunteerTrojan
Major Genius
September 17, 2024 9:49 am
Reply to  Golden Trojan

Conf championship game against USC.

Golden Trojan
Major Genius
September 17, 2024 10:16 am

😎

Jamaica
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Jamaica
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September 17, 2024 11:49 am
Reply to  Allen Wallace

What we all want to see are 3 & outs on defense or close to it and put Michigan’s defense on the field for longer periods of time and wear them out. I felt LSU’s defense seemed less energetic by mid-4th quarter. And at the end of that game they were struggling on our last drive to win the game. Michigan wants to keep the ball. We want to deny them the ball. So, if we could have it our way, we score the first two-three times we have the ball where they have to catch up. That ruins their… Read more »

Golden Trojan
Major Genius
September 16, 2024 7:01 pm

I have been checking in on the Big 10 Network weekly coaches interviews. I have yet to see Lincoln Riley. Is he the only Big 10 coach that won’t do interviews?

Steveg
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Steveg
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September 16, 2024 2:58 pm

This USC offense is so multifaceted I am going to have fun watching how MI is going to defend against it. They throw to the tight end a couple of times, and then there goes Kiron or Duce down the sidelines, and then you have Branch and Lemon crossing the middle at full speed or Lane already waiting for the ball in the end zone. Not to mention Marks has to get at least one pass to keep his streak going. The run defense for USC is going to get worked this week for sure. Maybe a 3 linebacker setup?It… Read more »

USC1988
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USC1988
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September 16, 2024 5:39 pm
Reply to  Steveg

Just win baby … that ex-NFL DC for Michigan mouthed off before the Texas game about his multiple D scheme and was schooled by Texas talent and Suckisian. Let’s hope he is running his mouth again.

Jamaica
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Jamaica
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September 17, 2024 9:35 am
Reply to  Steveg

We just know the Michigan offensive game plan is the QB-RB option where Orji will put the ball in his RB’s belly, look at the defense and decide to leave the ball with the RB or pull it out and run it himself. Sort of like Urban Meyer’s offense. I see our safeties/corners creep up and take on who runs outside with the rock. Maybe a few times Orji will keep the ball and quick pass it to his TE if he is open. Maybe see a few WR reverses in the backfield. I know Lynn will have spy’s looking… Read more »

Trojanfanatic
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September 16, 2024 9:31 am

AW, some rumor Michigan is gonna change up QB’s on us. Orji, was brought in after Warren was struggling. Apparently Orji can fly and could give us some fits on accounting for him. Some Michigan talking heads believe Michigan is gonna pound since they still have a formidable Oline and 2 great backs. Two tight end sets, keeping our offense off the field to keep it interesting. Who knows.

USC1988
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USC1988
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September 16, 2024 5:43 pm
Reply to  Allen Wallace

My 1st trip to the Big House! Trojans take care of the ball and handle the emotions early … score 3 TDs and win the game.

TrojanRon
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TrojanRon
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September 17, 2024 2:54 am
Reply to  Allen Wallace

I agree with you, Allen. I think we will win this one as well. No stage seems to be too big for Miller Moss. His first game starting last year in the Holiday Bowl, the fantastic win over LSU in Las Vegas where there seemed to be more LSU fans than USC fans, and his first game quarterbacking the Trojans in the LA Coliseum which was a childhood dream of his. When I was in Jr High and High School, it was a dream of mine to be the QB of USC. I determined my Junior year of High School… Read more »

Jamaica
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Jamaica
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September 17, 2024 9:43 am
Reply to  Allen Wallace

Hope this Orji isn’t another Vince Young on wheels!

Golden Trojan
Major Genius
September 16, 2024 10:21 am
Reply to  Trojanfanatic

LSU thought they could run on USC and Lynn’s D stuffed the run. One dimensional offenses are easy to stop. USC should win this but it will a bruiser.

ATL D.D.S.
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ATL D.D.S.
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September 16, 2024 10:26 am
Reply to  Trojanfanatic

Lynn will have Maleava run scout team offense for a good preview of a wheels first qb….

We got this.

Trojanfanatic
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September 16, 2024 5:50 pm
Reply to  ATL D.D.S.

Ahh. That’s actually a great idea. Seen Maleava at the Coliseum in clean up time and he’s got the juice. I hope Lynn convinces LR to give the D some running QB looks.

illinoisusc
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illinoisusc
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September 16, 2024 11:28 am
Reply to  Trojanfanatic

Orji has been announced as the starter. He is 100% muscle and darn quick. More of a vertical runner….once he starts in a direction he goes until taken down. Has run a 4.34 40 time. About 6′ 2″ 235 pds.. They have several plays to allow him to run…..some reversals. His arm is reasonably accurate in the short to intermediate. He can throw it long but loses accuracy. Warren was corporate….Orji is emotional. This is his third year at Michigan. A lot of Michigan people wonder why it has taken three games to make the change. Another factor might be… Read more »

Trojanfanatic
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September 16, 2024 5:54 pm
Reply to  illinoisusc

Just hoping this isn’t one of those “new qb turns the season around” games. Be nice if we can chew some clock. Big House.
One hell of a place to play an away game.

illinoisusc
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illinoisusc
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September 17, 2024 8:48 am
Reply to  Trojanfanatic

I’ve been there a few times……it’s not as loud as I imagined……but…….where do all those people come from? LOL.
As for Orji…..I know what you mean……let’s hope he plays like a bonehead.

Jamaica
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Jamaica
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September 17, 2024 9:52 am
Reply to  illinoisusc

Illinois we will have chances of fumbles. I have never seen a QB rush a lot and not fumble. They are easy pickings when gained tackled and having the ball ripped out. The wear & tear of the tackling will loosen that rock up.

TrojanMPA90
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September 16, 2024 1:43 pm
Reply to  Trojanfanatic

This was a dumb decision by Sharrone Moore. You don’t announce your QB change at the beginning of the week so the other team has time to prepare for it. Moore should have kept it under wraps and announced it maybe Thursday night or Friday morning or even at game time.

Now Lynn has time to prepare the defense to face a dual threat QB and develop a plan for the defense in addition to the two weeks we’ve had to prepare for it.

I think we’ll roll these guys now for sure I hope.

illinoisusc
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illinoisusc
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September 16, 2024 2:38 pm
Reply to  TrojanMPA90

The decision to announce seems like a young coach trying to keep the wolves at bay. It was dumb.
I keep looking at the WR and TE room at USC and saying……unless somebody gets to Moss consistently……he is going to burn you. Can Mich get to him?

Trojanfanatic
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September 16, 2024 5:56 pm
Reply to  TrojanMPA90

We’ve got a lightning fast QB that can play scout team to simulate Orji. Cross our fingers.

Jamaica
Noble Genius
Jamaica
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September 17, 2024 10:02 am
Reply to  TrojanMPA90

I think Moore did the early announcement giving the Michigan faithful something to cheer and hope about. A new HC doesn’t want to hear boos from the home team fans. Moore knows he is being judged severely by the lack of offense which he is/was the OC. He knows one more poor showing by his team will bring out the booing. Their fanbase cares more about beating USC in having a long history in the Rose Bowl and losing more than winning.

Jamaica
Noble Genius
Jamaica
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September 17, 2024 9:41 am
Reply to  Trojanfanatic

Orji’s got some size being 6’3 and 235 lbs. Hope he isn’t another Vince Young. I don’t ever want to see that kind of rushing QB again.

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