North Carolina coach <a href="https://www.on3.com/db/coach/mack-brown-133545/">Mack Brown</a> needed to talk to <a href="https://www.on3.com/db/devontez-walker-36630/">Tez Walker</a> two Thursdays ago, but the Tar Heels receiver wasn’t answering the phone. After multiple tries, Walker finally pressed Accept.



“You need to come see me,” Brown said.



Walker hadn’t answered initially because he was in the middle of a class. “I can’t leave class,” Walker told his coach.



Brown had news, and he needed to tell Walker in person. So for the first time in his coaching career, Brown asked a player to duck out of a class. “Trust me,” Brown told Walker. “You’ll be good.”



You’ve probably seen the video of what happened next. After multiple times delivering the bad news that the NCAA had denied Walker’s eligibility waiver, Brown finally got to deliver the good news that Walker could play this season.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">The moment <a href="https://twitter.com/DevontezWalker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DevontezWalker</a> found out he’s eligible 💙🐏<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CarolinaFootball?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CarolinaFootball</a> 🏈 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNCommon?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UNCommon</a> <a href="https://t.co/DQLjUx6Dm5">pic.twitter.com/DQLjUx6Dm5</a>— Carolina Football (@UNCFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/UNCFootball/status/1709984815875821711?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



That hug marked the end of an eligibility odyssey that took months and the efforts of North Carolina’s athletic administration, North Carolina’s university administration and the state’s attorney general to convince the NCAA that Walker should be allowed to play now. It also required Brown to do something he’d rarely done in four decades as a college head coach. The consummate politician — the guy who rarely says anything controversial — had publicly ripped the governing body of college sports. He hadn’t couched his criticism. He hadn’t qualified it. He had said “shame on the NCAA,” and had he meant it with every fiber of his being.



Brown jokes that he’s old enough now that he can say anything that’s on his mind and get away with it. He’s not wrong. But he’s also banked enough goodwill that when he speaks that directly, it gets everyone’s attention.



He understood that he’d be called a hypocrite* because he’d heartily encouraged the passage of stricter transfer waiver guidelines. He didn’t care. The circumstances of Walker’s particular case, in Brown’s mind, merited a waiver. Walker, from Charlotte, had started his college life at North Carolina Central. He intended to start his football career there, but the pandemic wiped out what would have been his freshman season. When North Carolina Central opted not to play in spring 2021 — and fall 2021 wasn’t a sure thing, either — Walker went to Kent State. He played two seasons there. Then, after Golden Flashes head coach <a href="https://www.on3.com/db/coach/sean-lewis-105487/">Sean Lewis</a> left to be Colorado’s offensive coordinator, Walker joined a host of his teammates in the transfer portal. His argument to the NCAA was that he shouldn’t be treated as a two-time transfer because circumstances outside everyone’s control kept him from playing at North Carolina Central.



*I was one of the people who pointed out how vocal Brown had been about tightening those transfer policies. He stands by both stances, saying that Walker’s case was “common sense” and that this is a very different case than a player who jumps schools three or four times for reasons that aren’t sound.



The NCAA was unmoved, and request after request was denied. Finally, after North Carolina had convened many of its power brokers to examine all options — including suing the NCAA — the NCAA relented. The organization released a statement that it had received “new information” that changed the situation and caused the waiver to be granted. Not long after, North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham released a statement that said, in not so many words, that there was no new information.



Brown has no regrets about how hard he went at the NCAA. He’d do it again. “I felt like he was totally wronged,” Brown said on Tuesday’s edition of Andy Staples On3. “This was a no-brainer.” And it’s not personal, he said. “I wasn’t against the NCAA. I wasn’t trying to embarrass them. I wasn’t really trying to call them out,” he said. “I was just trying to say ‘This isn’t fair, so let’s make it fair.”



Brown and company didn’t care why the NCAA caved at that point. They just celebrated that Walker could play. When Walker was denied in the season’s early weeks, Brown had asked Walker what he wanted to do. Did he want to prepare for the NFL draft? Did he want to practice with the Tar Heels? Walker said he wanted to practice, and he wanted to play on the scout team — running the other teams’ plays so that the defense could prepare. Walker also asked if he could play on the special teams scout units. That way, he could be the most helpful to the team even if he couldn’t play this season.



Because Walker had been running Syracuse’s plays all week in practice, North Carolina receivers coach Lonnie Galloway took Walker aside that Thursday and taught him as much as he could of the Tar Heel’s offensive game plan against the Orange. Brown decided it would be unfair to the receivers who had been practicing with the offense to start Walker. But two series into the game that Saturday, Brown said, “Come on, man. Put him in the game.”



Walker wound up catching six passes for 43 yards in North Carolina’s 40-7 win. After a week of practicing with the first team, Walker showed what he’s truly capable of by catching six passes for 132 yards and three touchdowns in Saturday’s 41-31 win against Miami.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">𝗪𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁. <a href="https://twitter.com/DrakeMaye2?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DrakeMaye2</a> 🤝 <a href="https://twitter.com/DevontezWalker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DevontezWalker</a> <a href="https://t.co/lHm7pLDkn1">pic.twitter.com/lHm7pLDkn1</a>— Carolina Football (@UNCFootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/UNCFootball/status/1713347375161540762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



“With a full week, he’s just settled down,” Brown said. “He’s just playing now and having fun.”



The Tar Heels are 6-0 with an eye on an ACC title and possibly more. With Walker playing, they’re going to have a lot more fun.



And Brown is fine that he had to go anti-establishment to help make it happen. He’d do it again. “I’m always trying to say the right things,” Brown said. “But I thought the NCAA was wrong. I thought they were totally wrong and hurting a young man’s life. And I felt like for our players, for our parents, and for Tez and his family — who could not stand up for themselves — that I had to do it.”

mack-brown-raves-about-connection-between-drake-maye-coaching-staff

On3 Football

UNC’s Mack Brown fought the NCAA and Tez Walker won

team image

The Main Board

Football

Basketball

Women's Basketball

Softball

Baseball

Teams

Fan Sites

Forums

Shows

team-link

College Football News

College Football Player Rankings

College Football Rankings

College Football Playoff

College Basketball News

Women's Sports

College

NIL News

NIL Valuation

NIL Deals

NIL Deal Tracker

Sports Business

Transfer Portal News

NCAA Transfer Portal News

NCAA Transfer Portal

Transfer Portal Rankings

Transfer Portal Team Rankings

Transfer Portal

NCAA Transfer Portal Home

Football Recruiting

Basketball Recruiting

Database

Team Rankings

Player Rankings

Industry Comparison

Commitments

Recruiting Prediction Machine

Recruiting

High School News

Schools

High School Search

Rankings

High School Rankings

Scores

High School Scores

High School

NFL Draft

NFL Draft News

Draft By Stars

College Draft History

College Draft Totals

NBA Draft

NBA Draft News

Draft

NASCAR

Culture

Sports Betting

About

On3 App

Advertise

Press

Contact

Alabama

Arizona State

Arizona

Arkansas

Auburn

Baylor

Boston College

California

Removed

Clemson

Colorado

Duke

Florida

Florida State

Georgia

Georgia Tech

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Iowa State

Kansas

Kansas State

Kentucky

Lettermen Row

Lettermen Lounge

Louisville

Maryland

Miami

Michigan State

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi State

Missouri

NC State

Nebraska

North Carolina

Northwestern

Notre Dame

Ohio State

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Ole Miss

Oregon

Oregon State

Penn State

Pittsburgh

Purdue

Rutgers

South Carolina

Stanford

Syracuse

Tennessee

Texas A&M

Texas

Texas Tech

UCLA

Utah

Vanderbilt

Virginia

Virginia Tech

Wake Forest

Washington

Washington State

West Virginia

Wisconsin

BamaOnLine

BOL Round Table

Inside Texas

IT Members Only

DawgsHQ

Dawg Walk

Scoop Duck

Recruiting & Sports

AuburnSports

The Corner

WeAreSC

GarryP's Trojan Huddle

The Wolverine

The Fort

The Lions Den

The Wolfpacker

The Wolves’ Den

GatorsOnline

Swamp Talk

Alabama A&M

Alabama State

Albany

Alcorn State

Abilene Christian

Appalachian State

Akron

Army

Austin Peay

Arkansas-Pine Bluff

Arkansas-Little Rock

Arkansas State

Air Force

Ball State

American

Wofford

Winthrop

Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Wisconsin-Green Bay

Wichita State

Western Carolina

Volleyball

Gymnastics

Men's Lacrosse

Women's Lacrosse

Men's Soccer

Women's Soccer

Women's Track

Men's Golf

Women's Golf

Men's Hockey

Women's Hockey

Men's Swimming

Women's Swimming

Wrestling

Men's Tennis

Women's Tennis

Annual $1

Annual Premium

Annual $1 

Monthly

Annual

Unlimited Access to This and All Articles.

Article (On3 Plus Rivals)

Forum (On3 Plus Rivals)

Intro

Join

College scoop, experts, and community - all in one.

UNC’s Mack Brown fought the NCAA and Tez Walker won

Jordan Seaton

Dabo Swinney

Bediako ruling

College Football Playoff

Arch Manning health