Mack Brown reacts to Tez Walker getting to make North Carolina debut

Mack Brown was thrilled Tez Walker was finally able to suit up and play for North Carolina over the weekend.

Walker transferred in and his eligibility was a well documented saga, but ultimately, the NCAA did the perceived right thing and granted him eligibility for more than just a postseason game. The Tar Heels wide receiver was excited to play in front of his grandmother, whom he came back closer to home for in North Carolina.

Brown detailed the impact Walker made stepping onto the field against Syracuse.

“Really happy for Tez Walker that he got back on the field and I love the way our fans responded to him,” Brown said postgame. “Because the young man is living his dream and as of Thursday morning he didn’t think he’d ever get to play here this year. Except for a bowl game. So what an unbelievable night for him. 

“And one that he’ll remember for the rest of his life, plus that catch he made over there in front of us was one of the best I’ve ever seen. To jump up with one hand, make the catch and keep his foot in, it was just a freakish play.”

In the 40-7 win over Syracuse, Walker got his feet wet and caught six passes for 43 yards.

As a sophomore in 2022, Walker started all 12 games for Kent State and earned first-team All-MAC honors. He caught 58 passes for 921 yards and 11 touchdowns last season.

Mack Brown thrilled Tez Walker made UNC debut

“I was sitting there and so we get told at 12:30 on Thursday that he’s gonna play, then we have to go find him and he’s in class,” Brown said of Walker’s eligibility news. “We have to get him out of class because the NCAA was gonna release a statement at 12:45 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 and tell our team because we like to tell them before things are announced.”

Brown also detailed the preparation, albeit really fast, they put Walker through to get him up to speed for the game.

“And then we thought, he and Lonnie Galloway went immediately downstairs and started working on gameplan stuff because he had not worked with the offense for three weeks,” Brown said. “He’d been on the scout team and he even been on the scout team with special teams. So No. 1, we didn’t know how much he would know. No. 2, you’ve won four games with guys that are playing really well that you just put him in when he hadn’t practiced and take their spots away, that’s not fair. 

“Until this morning, we decided we weren’t going to start him and we weren’t going to play him but we wanted to work him in. We didn’t want him to be overwhelmed with just being thrown out there and then the fans responded to him so well. Because the story is so important that I don’t know if I could have handled it with all the emotion going on. And I thought he did so well. I don’t think he dropped the ball.”