When the news dropped on Thursday that Tez Walker’s contentious eligibility battle with the NCAA was finally over, the highly-touted receiver was sitting in class. It isn’t often that head coach Mack Brown will deliberately make his players miss class, but this time, the Hall of Famer had to pull rank.
“We have to try and get him out of class,” Brown said after Saturday’s 40-7 win against Syracuse, “because the NCAA was gonna release a statement at 12:45 p.m. and we didn’t want him to read it. We didn’t want his family to read it. So we actually had to find him, get him over, try to tell him right quick before it was announced, then tell our team, because we like to tell them before things are announced. And then he and [receivers coach] Lonnie Galloway went immediately downstairs and started working on gameplan stuff.”
The countdown was on. Walker had approximately 48 hours to shed his scout team duties and prepare to play against a tough Syracuse defense. Brown, meanwhile, was faced with a dilemma: how much to use Walker when Carolina’s other receivers had been playing well?
“[Saturday] morning, we decided we weren’t gonna start him,” said Brown. “We were gonna play him, but we wanted to work him in. We didn’t want him to be overwhelmed with being thrown out there. And the fans responded to him so well, because the story is so important. I don’t know if I could’ve handled it with all the emotion going on. I thought he did so well.”
As Brown referenced, Walker was greeted with loud cheers when he first subbed in on offense. Every catch, short or long, drew an ovation. And despite Walker not starting, quarterback Drake Maye still targeted him eight times. His six catches ranked second on the team.
Maye was no doubt happy to have what many believed would be his No. 1 weapon back in the offensive fold, but he said afterward the biggest positive was just getting to spend more time with his friend.
“I told him out there in the huddle one time, ‘Just glad to have you out here. It’s a blast,'” Maye said after the game. “He brings so much joy to this team. He’s been on the sidelines at games where he hasn’t been eligible with a smile on his face. He’s still getting chants of ‘Free Tez.’ He’s still getting the loudest cheer.”
Even teammates who don’t share the field with Walker, like linebacker and fellow Charlotte native Cedric Gray, said they felt the impact of his return to action.
“Just as a brother and as a friend, I know it was eating him up not being able to play,” said Gray, who ended Saturday’s game as Carolina’s leading tackler. “So I’m just really happy to have him back. Happy that he got his feet wet a little bit today. Just real good to have him back.”
Walker guessed he had around a dozen family members, including his beloved grandmother, in attendance at the game. During his eligibility battle, Walker noted how his grandmother had never seen him play at Kent State due to health issues preventing her from traveling up to Ohio. Now, with Walker just a couple of hours away from her hometown of Charlotte, his grandmother got to see him play college football for the first time ever.
She also got to see Walker lead the team out onto the field waving the North Carolina state flag, a pregame honor only bestowed on a few Tar Heels. Unlike the news of his eligibility, this was something Carolina kept as a surprise. Walker said it was a dream come true.
“They had it in my locker before pregame,” he remembered. “That was dope that they let me run out with the flag. It’s a great honor. Being from here, growing up in this state, everyone in this state dreams of running out with the flag at this university.”
A little late, but Tez Walker led the way (holding the NC flag) as #UNC ran out of the tunnel ahead of kick off. pic.twitter.com/EhuQ9pDaeK
— Jacob Turner (@JacobTurnerTHI) October 7, 2023
Now, Walker will get what he was robbed of for two months: a normal week of preparation with the team. It isn’t known yet whether Walker will move into the starting role when the Tar Heels host Miami on Saturday night, but whenever and wherever he plays, the team will be happy to have him back.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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