Owen PustellOle Miss Head Coach Lane Kiffin has come to navigate the transfer portal better than almost anybody in the country, and this year’s portal class further proved that point. After an already impressive portal haul, Kiffin and his staff went out and hit a homerun in the form of former Texas A&M five-star Walter Nolen.
Nolen is a defensive tackle who transferred to Ole Miss from College Station in Dec. 2023, after his sophomore season, leaving him with two years of remaining eligibility. Out of high school, Nolen received a grade of .9997 from the 247Sports Composite, which made him the second overall player nationally coming out of his senior year. After entering the portal, Nolen received a grade of .99, which tied for the top player in the portal.
First and foremost, Nolen is a special talent. That is the best way to describe what he can do on the football field. He has incredibly strong hands that he can use to cave in the pocket or reset the line of scrimmage in the run game. It is rare to see him get displaced by a single blocker, as he is often able to get under their pad level and force them back (or wherever he may want them to go).
Nolen is adept at causing traffic in the run game. He can collapse the guard from the backside of a play or stack and shed if they try to run down the middle.
Texas A&M deployed Nolen all over the defensive front. His rare athleticism allows defensive coordinators to plug and play him wherever the need is greatest. His future certainly lies on the interior, but keep in mind that this is a complete player who has the ability to slide up and down the line.
If it came down to one word to describe Nolen as an overall player, it would be power – that is the name of Nolen’s game. As previously mentioned, he plays stronger than almost everybody on the field, but the real way he can turn into a game-wrecker is if he learns some counter moves that work off his power.
So, where does Nolen fit into Ole Miss’ 2024 rotation? To be honest, Nolen projects as the best defensive tackle on the team. His competition for that title lies in J.J. Pegues, which says a lot about Nolen’s talent level. Pegues and Zxavian Harris, another star on the defense, were elite recruits in the 2022 class and are due to make the classic year three jump that is expected from defensive tackles. Adding Nolen to this already star-studded front-seven does not even seem fair, but Rebel fans are ecstatic that it is their reality.
