Coach: KJ Wallace Left His Mark In Many Ways

KJ Wallace‍ is well-known for his accolades on the football field, but his head coach is quick to mention how the 2019 Georgia cornerback has also been a standout in the locker room, in the class room and in the community.

“I think he’s done a wonderful job in all of those phases,” Lovett School head coach Mike Muschamp said of Wallace, who signed with Notre Dame last month.

“He’s an outstanding person. I think he was elected by his student body peers in the eighth grade as class president. He does a good job in the classroom, he’s got great respect from his peers. He’s done a great job in the locker room. He’s one of the hardest workers that we’ve got in the weight room as well as practice every day and then he shows up on Friday nights and plays hard every chance he gets.”

As for his ability on the field, Muschamp believes it’s a combination of physical gifts and a tremendous desire to compete.

“First and foremost, I think he’s just a naturally gifted athlete,” the coach said. “That shows up on film. I think he’s got a great competitive nature about him and that makes that athleticism that much more attractive to a coaching staff.”

Muschamp, the brother of South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp, called the match between Wallace and Notre Dame “a great fit,”

“It’s the kind of school he was looking for in the recruiting process,” said Muschamp. “He wanted to go to an academic institution where he was going to have the opportunity to have a chance to play, but also get a great education. So, I think Notre Dame is getting a great fit for them.”

Wallace will have to make the same adjustments as everybody in stepping up from high school to college, but his coach is confident he’ll be able to handle the changes.

“I think just the step from high school to college is something you can’t really describe to somebody,” said Muschamp. “They’ve got to go through that. He’s going to go from a situation where he was the top dog for a really long time and he’s going to go to a place where everybody was the top dog.

“I think because of his background, his competitive nature and his drive to excel, it ought to be a pretty smooth transition for him, but it’s always a difficult transition for anybody.”

Muschamp said his program will miss Wallace “tremendously” moving forward.

“He was the guy who would help make us go in all three phases of the game. Special teams-wise, he’s a great return guy. Defensively, I think he ended up playing four different positions for us this year and he played three or four different positions for us on offense. He’s somebody who we may not ever fully replace. We’ll have guys who play those spots, but I don’t know that we’ll ever replace KJ.”