CLEMSON – Walker Parks’ journey to Clemson’s Pro Day started with a late-night coconut donut.

A few months before pro day, Clemson’s former offensive lineman was sitting at his family’s home in Lexington, Ky., enjoying the frosted treat one night with his father, when his phone rang.

Blake Miller, Parks’ Clemson teammate, was calling from a training facility in California.

“Blake calls me and he’s like, ‘Hey, man. What are you doing?’” Parks said, recalling the donut-laden conversation. “I was like, ‘You know, just working out at home, taking care of business.’”

“‘Well, you need to do Pro Day,” Miller said, cutting through the mandatory long-distance small talk.

At the time, professional football hopes were not even on Parks’ radar, especially after he suffered his third major ankle injury in as many years last November, forcing him to miss the final three games of the season.

Though he could not run down the hill on Senior Day against Furman, Parks waved to Clemson fans from a scooter as grateful, but slightly sympathetic, cheers echoed through Memorial Stadium. It was the perfect sendoff for a hard-fought career and the end of an era.

Or so he thought.

Naturally, after the season, Parks went home to Kentucky, and spent the next few weeks researching sales and coaching jobs, fully removed from football practices and training regimens. But with a conversation, an invitation to California, and a donut, Parks hit ‘pause’ on the job applications.

“I’m working out here with some guards,” Miller said on the phone, continuing his pitch to Parks. “’Man, you can really do this. If you get healthy, you need to take your chance. I’d hate to see this go to waste.’”

Parks, intrigued, took Miller’s charge to head coach Dabo Swinney, a man whose “heart broke,” watching his veteran exit the field for the last time against Louisville last November. After confirmation from Swinney that, yes, Parks could participate in Pro Day and generate some interest from professional teams if he got healthy, he packed his bags and met Miller in California.

The donuts were still fresh when he left.

The road to recovery, as well as regaining speed and strength after a third surgery, however, was not as quick and simple as a phone call and a pep talk.

“It was tough because I had that surgery late November and they said like six weeks until you can get back on the field,” Parks said. “You’re always going to have a mental battle and some days it would feel good, some days it didn’t. And then you just keep moving… And you just go out there and keep doing the work, stay on top of rehab, eating clean, doing everything you can, and you know, everything will take care of itself.”

Four months and seven days after Parks’ injury, he greeted former coaches, teammates, and Miller — the architect of his return — at Clemson’s Pro Day, participating with a tightly-wrapped ankle alongside 16 other NFL hopefuls. Despite getting only three hours of sleep and “tweaking” with nerves the night before, Parks led all participants with 31 bench press reps and posted solid 40-yard dash and 10-yard split times. 

While Parks finished with a healthy, strong performance at Pro Day, the four-year starter was realistic with media members after he finished his workout in front of scouts from every NFL team.

“I know obviously the biggest knock on me in this process is going to be my injury history and medical stuff,” he said. “So, the biggest thing for me is I just wanted to take the field and show that I’ve healed up and how well I can move again.

“I’m not going to be this superhero out there. If they’re looking for a ten-year guy to go play and hold on a spot, I’m probably not that guy. But what I am is somebody who is going to go out there and do whatever they ask and do it to the best of my ability. I’ll do it really cheap too.”

While not a ‘superhero,’ Parks pieced together a successful career at Clemson, despite his injuries. After recovering from a surgery that gave him a fifty-percent chance to ever play again in 2023, the guard became one of only eight players in program history to record over 3,000 snaps from scrimmage, and became the eleventh Tiger to make 60 starts.

Parks will now wait, as he could hear his name called in the 2026 NFL Draft on April 23-25 in Pittsburgh, Pa. 

In the meantime, after finishing his training for Pro Day, he made a point to share that a celebratory donut was in his future.