The lineage of successful tight ends within the Western Michigan offense goes back to Kelly Spielmaker, continued with Jake Moreland and was passed on through Tony Scheffler and Branden Ledbetter.  A new group of tight ends are looking to make their mark on the program.  One of them is the subject of our camp feature.  It's 10 Questions With ... Dallas Walker.

It's not easy when you're position coach is one of the best at that very position in program history and still holds the record for receptions by a tight end but that is what Walker and the rest of the tight ends work with daily.  Lesser young men would see this as a daunting task but this group welcome the challenge, and if you loved the game of football as much as Walker, you would as well.

The Madison, Miss., native made his way to Western Michigan University through Georgia Military Academy and in his words this "college" life is night and day from what he experienced in Georgia.  He has three brothers and his fondest memories are with them.  He talks about where he would take teammates if they took a trip down to Madison and how the biggest cultural differences between the north and south is the food.

We opened his 10 Questions with one that we think many people would be interested in - where did his mom come up with the name Dallas.  He answered very matter of fact that she was a huge fan of the 1983 movie "The Outsiders," the coming of age story of greasers vs. soc's.  Matt Dillon played the role of Dallas Winston.  She had other names to choose from like Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), Sodapop (Rob Lowe), Two-Bit (Emilio Estevez). 

I'm sure Dallas thinks she made the wise choice and he hopes to make wise choices on the football field in 2010, beginning at Michigan State on Sept. 4.

Western Michigan closes out its fall camp Thursday night with a practice under the lights before holding one final Friday morning practice.  The team breaks camp for the weekend and returns for a Monday style practice on Sunday (2:50-3:50 p.m.) at Waldo Stadium.