Mack Brown: Tez Walker's presence is a 'game changer' for North Carolina

North Carolina head coach Mack Brown knew what his team was getting when Tez Walker was ruled eligible for the season ahead of the team’s game versus Syracuse. But it took another week for the country to fully understand the difference Walker can make for this Tar Heels offense.

In North Carolina’s 41-31 victory Saturday night versus Miami to move to 6-0 on the 2023 season, Walker caught six passes for 132 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran the ball twice for an additional 19 yards.

“Three touchdown passes to Tez Walker,” Brown said in his press conference after the victory. “Really, really proud of him. We were 4-0 without him. Obviously we have a chance to be much better with him. Now that people have seen him, it’s going to change the way people play defense against us. His presence is a game changer. Do you double team him? Do you do move people out and give him more opportunities to run the ball?”

Walker know has 12 catches for 175 yards through his first two games of the season. He had 58 catches for 921 yards and 11 touchdowns last season at Kent State.

Brown explained that having Walker on the field for North Carolina opens up opportunities for other players on the field, whether its Omarion Hampton and Drake Maye running the ball out of in the backfield or his fellow wideouts like Nate McCollum and J.J. Jones getting favorable matchups in the secondary.

“What we’ll have to do is see how people are going to play us because it’s going to be hard to play him with one guy. If you put two out there, that means you’re gonna have to have fewer inside for the run because a lot of people are now bringing safeties down and trying to stop the run. So you got Omarian inside, you got Drake inside. If you blitz, your one on one so you better get there. Then also, when he draws that attention, we’ll open up Nate and JJ Jones more and give them opportunity as well.”

Walker coming back and performing also helps the Tar Heels deal with the loss of wideout Kobe Paysour. Paysour broke his foot during practice leading up to the Miami game and is out for the foreseeable future.

He haw 22 catches for 282 yards and three touchdowns on the year.