LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The momentum from the Louisville football program’s red-hot transfer portal recruiting weekend has now bled into the work week.
Wesley Walker, a safety who spent the last two seasons of his collegiate career with Tennessee, announced Monday that he has committed to play his final season the Cardinals.
Walker is the seventh transfer commitment for Louisville over the past four days. Toledo running back Peny Boone pulled the trigger on Friday, while Houston offensive tackle Reuben Unije, Oklahoma safety Daeh McCullough, Georgia Southern offensive tackle Rasheed Miller, Texas A&M linebacker Jurriente Davis and Tuskegee wide receiver Antonio Meeks all committed on Saturday.
The 6-foot-1, 204-pound free safety had an incredibly productive 2023 season with the Volunteers. Starting the first 10 games of the regular season before missing the final two due to injury, Walker finished fourth on the team in tackles with 53 (33 solo), while also logging 3.5 for loss, a sack, two pass breakup and a forced fumble.
The Lewisburg, Tenn. native was a key reserve during his first season in Knoxville, playing all 13 games with a pair of starts in 2022. That year, he was fifth on the team in tackles for loss with 5.5, and also collected 36 tackles (23 solo), a sack, an interception and four pass breakups.
Walker spent the first three years of his collegiate career in the ACC with Georgia Tech, and was a regular fixture of their secondary in his final two seasons in Atlanta. In 22 games and 13 starts as a Yellow Jacket, he tallied 95 tackles (56 solo), 2.0 for loss, six pass breakups, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
Despite losing Cam’Ron Kelly to the NFL and Josh Minkins Jr. to the portal, Louisville heads into 2024 with multiple options on the back end at safety. They bring in Eastern Illinois’ Blake Ruffin and Oklahoma’s Daeh McCullough through the portal, bring back starter Devin Neal, and are slated to get back starter M.J. Griffin following his injury in the 2023 preseason. D’Angelo Hutchinson also made strides as the 2023 season went on, and Benjamin Perry continues to be a viable option at STAR.
Louisville has now landed 23 transfer commitments in this cycle, while also seeing 18 scholarship players of their own enter the portal during the winter transfer window.
The Cardinals finished their 2023 season with an overall mark of 10-4 (7-1 in ACC) including a berth in the program’s first ever ACC Championship Game, but ended year one under head coach Jeff Brohm on a three-game losing streak.