Ranking Florida Football, Bama and other contenders for Walter Nolen

Florida Football, Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, and Tennessee made the top five for Walter Nolen. Here’s how they rank as contenders.

Five-star defensive tackle Walter Nolen is the top-ranked recruit that’s not committed yet in the 2022 recruiting class, but after releasing a top-five list, he’s moving closer to a decision.

As you can imagine, the offer list for the No. 3 overall recruit in 2022 is expansive, however, the likes of Florida football, Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and Tennessee made the final cut.

Michigan is the one outlier since the Wolverines are the only program not from the SEC to make the list and one would think if any Big Ten program would make the cut, it would be Ohio State. It’s not though and the Wolverines appear to be a viable contender.

The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder from Memphis can basically do it all on the defensive line and he would be the cornerstone for any recruiting class. For Tennessee or Michigan, it would really be game-changing, and the Vols did a solid job to make the final cut.

Where do they rank on his list of contenders? Here’s the top five, which begins with in-state Tennessee.

No. 5. Tennessee

You have to give the Vols credit for working their way into the top five which wasn’t always a foregone conclusion with teams such as LSU and Ohio State firmly in the mix.

But Josh Heupel has done a solid job with a prospect from Memphis and Nolen did take an unofficial visit to Tennessee in June.

However, at the end of the day, this is one of those situations where if the Vols were not the in-state program, they might not have made it. It would be a mild upset if he ended up at Michigan, but Tennessee feels like an even longer shot right now.