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.
No. 4 Georgia
The Bulldogs are basically in the mix for just about every elite prospect, particularly in the South, so it wasn’t a shock to see them make the top five for Nolen.
Georgia also hosted Nolen for an unofficial visit and the Bulldogs have an impressive track record of sending defensive players, and really players on both sides of the ball, to the NFL.
We’ll see how things progress. Georgia is still in the mix but right now, it’s hard to rank the Bulldogs ahead of Alabama or Florida, at least in my view.
Georgia’s first mission is to land an official visit and then the Bulldogs can move up the list of contenders.
No. 3 Michigan
The Wolverines are probably the biggest dark horse in this race, but they shouldn’t be overlooked. When Nolen visited Florida football, he was blown away. Soon after that, he said he wanted to shut down his recruitment.
That was later clarified to mean he wanted to focus on the schools currently recruiting him and that it didn’t mean he was going to make an announcement. This happened back in June before he visited Ann Arbor and that reportedly went really well.
Nolen has family ties to Detroit and if it was up to his family, Michigan football might well be the choice. Yet as we all know, these things change, and being the sentimental favorite doesn’t mean much.
But, if there was a top three, I feel confident Michigan football would be in it.
No. 2 Florida
The Gators really impressed Nolen when he visited the Swamp and it’s clear that Nolen is among the top priorities for Florida football and its recruiting efforts in 2022.
You need to have elite defensive lineman to win big in the SEC and Nolen is a perfect fit for any scheme. The Gators have become a force on the trail under Dan Mullen and another feather in their cap is that they are recruiting Kody Jones, a cornerback committed to Michigan that’s close to Nolen.
Jones was recently offered by Florida football and is going to take a visit. The Gators can sell the tandem the chance to pair up in Gainesville, which only Michigan can offer right now among the top contenders.
No. 1 Alabama
No college football program has more built-in advantages on the recruiting trail right now than Nick Saban and Alabama football.
The Crimson Tide are yearly contenders for the national title and routinely put players into the NFL. As a defensive prospect, it’s hard to say any program is better at developing players than Bama.
Saban is also a master recruiter and if I had a crystal ball pick, it might go to Alabama, especially in light of Nolen’s plans to take a visit there in November according to 247 sports. He also spent three days three on an unofficial visit. Bama will also be just the third school to get an official visit when Nolen goes to Tuscaloosa for the LSU game.
That’s an interesting time. Nolen has talked about deciding this summer, so that could mean he would be taking a visit after a decision. It also wouldn’t be surprising to see him push his timeline back to get more looks at other top schools too.
All I can say is that this recruitment is a tough one to handicap and if I had to make a choice, I’d give Alabama the edge, especially with how hard Saban is working to make it happen.