Justin Wilcox was asked his thoughts about Aaron Hampton during the Cal head coach's meeting with television broadcasters for the Louisville game earlier this week.

"King Salmon," Wilcox said with a big smile about his nickname for Hampton. "A walk-on from Alaska. There's not a ton of those guys playing college football."

After some chuckles from the broadcasters, Wilcox went beyond comparing the former walk-on inside linebacker to the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon commonly found in Hampton's home state of Alaska, praising Hampton's performance against Virginia, as well as his general competitiveness, toughness and ability to find the ball.

Wilcox was asked about Hampton because of his performance in the Golden Bears' most recent game against Virginia last Saturday when Hampton replaced an injured Cade Uluave and found the ball on many occasions to the tune of a career and game-high 15 tackles in the first extended game action on defense in his career.

Hampton, a standout two-way high school player in Alaska who focused on wide receiver more than any position on defense as a prep, earned the state's Gatorade Athlete of the Year honors as a senior and led West Anchorage to a prep title in a city 3,000 miles north of Berkeley and far from the spotlight and many recruiting football hotbeds.

Hampton saw many more animals – bears, moose, foxes, porcupines and wolverines were all on his list – in his home state than he did college football recruiters.

His father, Gene, emphasized the impact the Alaskan lifestyle has had on his son.

"The biggest thing in growing up here is that we're pretty close to nature," said Gene, who moved to the state known as 'The Last Frontier' along with his wife, Charlene, and older siblings before Aaron was born. "We have volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunami warnings, and when you when you step outside, you're looking for animals. Your mindset and subconscious are saying 'it's up to me.' if something happens, you've got to take care of yourself and not rely on someone else to do it."

So that's exactly the approach Aaron, Gene and Charlene took to recruiting.

They knew that if recruiters were in large part not coming to Alaska to see Aaron that they needed to take him to see recruiters, so each summer beginning before Aaron's freshman season he and his parents, or sometimes one or the other, made the rounds at football camps throughout the country.

"We were just trying to see what the differences and similarities were between Aaron and the kids from the rest of the country," Gene said. "Pretty soon, we figured out that he compared favorably to the kids in the lower 48, and, of course, that spurred us on and we continued to take the summer trips."

And although Hampton soon found out after a few 3000-plus mile flights that he could hang with the competition, he had no scholarship offers headed into his senior year of high school and arrived at Cal in January of 2024 as a preferred walk-on.

Hampton, who had visited Cal unofficially on one of his trips, quickly became known within the program as "the walk-on linebacker from Alaska."

It didn't take long to shed the "walk-on" part of his identity as he excelled in his first spring and saw playing time on special teams as a 2024 true freshman. Hampton picked up a scholarship after earning first-team reps at linebacker in the spring of 2025 along with preseason All-American Cade Uluave and several others. Eventually, Luke Ferrelli won the starting job opposite Uluave but Hampton had established that he could be trusted when called upon.

That call came last Saturday against Virginia when Uluave exited the game after the first series with an injury. Hampton had received some reps in earlier contests in a backup role and said he was already comfortable but the Virginia game took it to an entirely different level.

"I just wanted to make the most out of my opportunity," Hampton said. "I have been focused on my role, and it felt like everything had been clicking, but the Virginia game was like that times 10," Hampton said. "It just felt so comfortable, like the game was coming to me."

"No matter what situation Aaron is throwing into, he steps up and finds a way to get it done," Uluave said. "He is one of the hardest working dudes on the team. He's super humble, always locked in and just a great guy to be around. The way he's adjusted so quickly and become a real playmaker says everything about his work ethic and mindset."

When you're used to looking out for bears tackling opposing running backs isn't so tough.