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Recruiting Blue Chips: Parents Of Five-Star DT Walter Nolen Talk Michigan

EJ Holland

Recruiting Monkey
Apr 25, 2019
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We're going to do Blue Chips a little different tonight. No quick hitters. Here is a full story with quotes from the parents of five-star defensive tackle target Walter Nolen.


Nolen's Parents Talk Michigan

Michigan’s satellite camp blitz started off with a bang.

Jim Harbaugh and his entire defensive staff flew out to Memphis to see five-star 2022 Cordova (Tenn.) Benedict defensive tackle Walter Nolen on the first day the dead period came to an end.

Along with getting to see Nolen work out, Harbaugh and his staff also got some quality face time with Nolen’s parents, Walter Sr. and Yolunda.

“Everybody was really friendly,” Walter Sr. said. “It felt like it did on the Zoom. Finally getting to meet them was just ‘wow.’ My family was ‘wow, that’s Coach Harbaugh.’ It was great to finally meet them face-to-face. It was different that just seeing them on the Zoom. They were all down to earth.”

Yolunda was equally excited to meet the Michigan coaching staff but added that the entire staff has done a tremendous job throughout the process and not just on the day they met in-person.

“They’re wonderful,” Yolunda said. “They are very down to earth. They are all approachable. Everybody from Coach Harbaugh to the assistants to Coach (Aashon) Larkins, they are all easy to talk to. I’ve had questions, and they are always there to answer. You need to get to know them if you’re going to send your son 800 miles away from home. And I like that they are always available."

Harbaugh, area recruiter Ron Bellamy and defensive line coach Shaun Nua have been leading the way in this recruitment and really impressed Walter Sr. at the camp. All made him feel like part of the Michigan family.

“(Harbaugh) is a nice guy,” Walter Sr. said. “Of course, we talked about recruiting. He’s looking forward to having us up there in a couple of weeks. If I didn’t know better, I would think that Coach Nua was related to me. He’s a really nice guy. Coach Bellamy is like one of my cousins at the family reunion.”

The next step for Michigan is impressing the Nolen family on their official visit on June 18. Florida impressed last weekend, while schools like Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Tennessee are all making hard pushes.

Nolen and his family took a self-guided tour of U-M this offseason. This time around, however, the Nolen family will get a true in-depth look at the program.

“I can’t wait to get up there on the official,” Walter Sr. said. “We’re going to get to see everything. I mean, everything. I’m excited to meet with everybody. I’m hoping we get to walk through the tunnel and walk out onto the middle of the field and look around. It’s going to be a big weekend. We know what the campus looks like, but we’ll get to see inside the buildings this time. The facility looks great on Zoom. When I see it in person, I’m probably going to be mesmerized.”

Yolunda, whose parents live in the Detroit-metro, is also excited about the trip and has one wish in mind.

“I like Michigan a lot,” she said. “I just hope my son likes them as much as I do.”

 
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