Mack Brown provides latest on eligibility of wide receiver Tez Walker

Mack Brown has provided an update on the status of North Carolina transfer wide receiver Tez Walker.

On Monday, Brown revealed that the Tar Heels still haven’t heard anything from the NCAA regarding whether the former Kent State pass catcher will have to sit out a season or not. The NCAA recently denied Walker’s transfer waiver as it will be the second transfer of his college career.

“We still haven’t heard anything from the NCAA on Tez,” Brown said, per Adam Smith of Inside Carolina. “We’re hoping to hear something, at least on the process, today.”

Brown is hoping the NCAA will look at the specific circumstances surrounding Walker’s transfer, as many believe an exception should be made.

The Charlotte native made the decision this offseason to transfer to Chapel Hill to be closer to his grandmother, who is battling illness and had never been able to see him play in person while he was at Kent State the past two years.

Just two days after he enrolled at UNC on Jan. 11, the NCAA released a revised set of guidelines intended to complicate the process of acquiring immediate eligibility for multi-time transfers that haven’t graduated yet.

Brown delivered a passionate plea to the NCAA to reverse the decision at his press conference Tuesday, citing the impact it has had on Walker’s mental health. The Tar Heels have still yet to hear back from the NCAA after appealing the transfer waiver denial.

“We have a committee that sits up there that never talks to Tez,” Brown said. “Never talks to his grandmother. Never talks to our doctors. Never talks to the mental health people on our campus. Never talks to our chaplain, who Tez talks to every day and feels really guilty that he’s brought negative attention to our program, which he shouldn’t. But he does and he’s really struggling. I see him crying after practice. He came over to me and said, ‘have you heard anything?’ and he does every day.”

Walker’s college journey began with a commitment to East Tennessee State in 2019, but he never set foot on campus after suffering a knee injury in his senior season of high school. He later transferred to NC Central but again never played for the school as the 2020 season was canceled due to COVID. 

That led him to transfer to Kent State, where he spent the past two seasons. So while Walker has technically transferred multiple times, Brown argued that his injury and the season being canceled in 2020 should not count.

Time will tell, but Mack Brown and North Carolina believe Tez Walker should be eligible, but it’s not their final call.

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this article.