By R.L. Bynum
It looked like Tez Walker’s weekend might be a triumphant one when he caught a 36-yard pass with 2:54 left in the game at Georgia Tech.
At worst, North Carolina was set up to take the lead, and Walker could potentially have scored on the play.
But a blind-side hit from Georgia Tech safety Ahmari Harvey changed all that and how the rest of Walker’s weekend went.
Walker fumbled because of the force of the jarring hit. The Yellow Jackets recovered the fumble, allowing them to run out the clock and put away a 46–42 victory. Walker was hurt and ended up spending a sleepless night in Atlanta.
While he was still down on the field, anxious teammates prayed for him nearby. Eventually, he got up and was helped off the field.
“When I got to Tez and I said, ‘Are you OK?’ and his eyes opened, and he said ‘yes,’ ” UNC coach Mack Brown said at his Monday press conference. “And they moved his feet, and they moved his hands. I don’t think he has anything hurt internally, but I know he’s not paralyzed. I know he can move. I know he’s talking.”
Brown was explained how he can move on from an event like that and focus on the rest of the game. He could do that because he was pretty sure Walker didn’t suffer a severe injury.
Walker went to an Atlanta hospital for further evaluation. While the rest of the team took the planned charter flight back to Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Walker stayed at that hospital overnight as a precautionary measure.
“Smartly, they kept him in the hospital just to make sure that everything was OK, because it was a tough hit,” Brown said.
After not sleeping overnight, he headed to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for a flight back to RDU Airport.
Rather than the comfort of a charter flight back to North Carolina, he was on a full Frontier Airlines flight with many others, including me.
While waiting in a packed area around Gate D1A for the flight to leave, I looked over and was surprised to see Walker sitting about 25 feet away from me. I walked over and briefly spoke to him. He said he was fine but didn’t get into any details.
Our flight didn’t arrive until 10:45 Sunday morning.
“We sent him to his place to sleep, made sure that trainers and doctors had checked him out,” Brown said. “Because [assistant head coach] Lonnie [Galloway] said he’s exhausted. And I said, ‘tell him to go to bed.’ ”
A team nutritionist figured out what he should be eating, and Gavin Blackwell, Walker’s roommate, brought the meal to Walker so that he could rest.
After missing Carolina’s first five games before the NCAA ruled him eligible, his weekend in Atlanta was just another chapter for Walker in a year with many twists and turns after transferring before from Kent State before the spring semester.
Walker and the Tar Heels can only hope that the remaining chapters of his 2023 season will only be full of highlights.
UNC schedule
| Month/ date | Opponent/event | 2023 record | UNC record in series |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | |||
| 20 | Spring game, 3 p.m. | — | — |
| August | |||
| 29 (Thurs.) | at Minnesota | 6–7 | 1–0 |
| September | |||
| 7 | Charlotte | 3–9 | 0–0 |
| 14 | N.C. Central | 9–3 | 0–0 |
| 21 | James Madison | 11–2 | 3–0 |
| 28 | at Duke | 8–5 | 65–40–4 |
| October | |||
| 5 | Pittsburgh | 3–9 | 12–5 |
| 12 | Georgia Tech | 7–6 | 22–33–3 |
| 26 | at Virginia | 3–9 | 66–58–4 |
| November | |||
| 2 | at Florida State | 13–1 | 3–17–1 |
| 16 | Wake Forest | 4–8 | 72–36–2 |
| 23 | at Boston College | 7–6 | 6–2 |
| 30 | N.C. State | 9–4 | 68–39–6 |
Photo via @UNCFootball
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