CHAPEL HILL – When Tez Walker was laying on the field at Bobby Dodd Stadium late Saturday night, moving very little, and appearing unable to get up on his own power, his teammates were highly concerned.
Some were scared. Some were stunned. And some prayed.
“Any brother that goes down on the field and doesn’t get up immediately, that hurts you as a person,” senior jack Kaimon Rucker said. “Because not only is a teammate down, that’s your brother down, that’s the person that you care about is down.”
With North Carolina trailing Georgia Tech, 46-42, and a bit more than three minutes remaining, it faced a third-and-17 from its own 40-yard-line. Tar Heels quarterback Drake Maye dropped back to pass and fired a dart at Walker, who was moving right-to-left.
The speedy wide receiver caught the ball in stride at the Yellow Jackets’ 33, but was hammered at an odd angle from behind by safety Ahmari Harvey, knocking the ball loose. As a Tech player fell on it, Walker crashed to the ground.
The home crowd roared in approval, but Walker didn’t move. And quickly, UNC’s trainers ran onto the field to assist the well-known Kent State transfer. Some of his teammates moved toward him, for a while surrounding him from a short distance. UNC Coach Mack Brown attended to Walker after a few minutes, too.
Meanwhile, Rucker, Maye, and defensive lineman Jahvaree Ritzie gathered about 15 yards away, kneeling and with their arms around each other as if they were going to pose for a photo. Instead, they prayed. Heads down, no movement, and prayer in unison.
“For me, the first thing I can do is pray,” Rucker said. “That’s the only thing I know how to do when it comes down to something that I can’t control, but I feel like there’s something that I can contribute…
“Me, Jahvaree and Drake, we were all thinking the same thing, making sure that Tez was going to be okay with whatever he had going on.”
Walker told Brown he was okay, and was eventually helped off the field, some ten minutes after the fumble. Walker was then transported to a local hospital in Atlanta.
As for the game, the Yellow Jackets ran out the clock and won, 46-42, handing the Tar Heels a second consecutive defeat. On their minds, however, was their teammate, who was released Sunday morning and flew back to Chapel Hill.
Walker didn’t sleep at all Saturday night, so Brown gave him off of practice Sunday so he could sleep. Roommate and fellow wide receiver Gavin Blackwell brought Walker his dinner. He had some visitors, too.
“We’re actually neighbors/roommates, so as soon as he got home, I went over there,” junior receiver J.J. Jones said. “And I was like, ‘Bro, I’m glad you’re back, I hope you’re feeling well.’ I’m just glad he’s back.”
Yet, Jones was still reflecting on the scary sequence Tuesday morning. Some things are hard to fully push out of one’s mind.
“It was definitely tough seeing Tez go down like that,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, it’s football. But when you see guys take hits like that and lay on the ground for a long time, it really stuns you, really shocks you…
“I’m just glad that he’s back, I’m gad he’s feeling way better, and I’m glad that he’s still here with us playing with the team.”
Back, mending, and prayed for. Rucker, Maye, and Ritzie made sure of that.
