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Tennessee football makes cut for elite North Caroline edge Rico Walker

By Caleb Calhoun

The Tennessee football team runs through the T during a NCAA football game against Tennessee Tech at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021.Kns Tennessee Tenn Tech Football
The Tennessee football team runs through the T during a NCAA football game against Tennessee Tech at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021.Kns Tennessee Tenn Tech Football /
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Josh Heupel is targeting a player from Rick Barnes’ hometown in Hickory, N.C., on the recruiting trail to beef up Tennessee football’s defense in the future. So far, he’s having a good bit of success, as he has the Vols trending for the 2023 prospect.

UT is in the top five for edge rusher Rico Walker. A four-star across the board out of Hickory High School in Catawba County, N.C., Walker stands between 6’3″ and 6’4″ and weighs in the range of 230 to 235 pounds. He is listed as a defensive end on Rivals and ESPN and an edge rusher on 247Sports and On3.

Joining Tennessee football on Walker’s list are the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Auburn Tigers, the Florida Gators and the Maryland Terrapins. He announced all the schools that are in play Friday afternoon with a graphic on Twitter.

Obviously, adding depth at edge rusher can always be a benefit for Rocky Top. Byron Young and Roman Harrison will be gone by 2024 at the latest, and Young could be gone after this year. That would leave Tyler Baron as the only returning edge rusher who could be on the team past then.

Although Heupel has done a good job offsetting those eventual departures with the talent he has added on the recruiting trail for 2022 and 2023, he could still use more depth, as it’s hard to know exactly how those players will pan out. Adding a guy like Walker would be a huge deal.

Given his frame, Walker could be a very intimidating edge rusher for the Vols. He can cover a lot of area, and he’d allow Tim Banks to keep his schemes multiple. A guy like Walker could thrive eve if Banks veers away form his base 4-3, which happened a lot last year.

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Currently, UNC is the unanimous favorite on the Rivals Future Cast to land him and has both 247Sports Crystal Ball projections, each of which have a medium confidence interval. On3 has them as an overwhelming majority favorite. The Rivals Fan Future Cast has Tennessee football as a plurality favorite, but they clearly have work to do to beat out UNC.

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