BREAKING: Merry Christmas, Rebels! Nation’s No. 1 Transfer Portal Player Walter Nolen Commits to Ole Miss
OXFORD, Miss. — It has happened!! Merry Christmas, Rebel fans! After much speculation, former A&M defensive lineman Walter Nolen, the nation’s No. 1 transfer portal player, has committed to Ole Miss per Hayes Fawcett of On3.
BREAKING: Former Texas A&M DL Walter Nolen has Committed to Ole Miss, he tells @on3sports
The 6’5 300 DL is ranked as the No. 1 Player in the Transfer Portal & was the No. 1 Recruit in the ‘22 Class 👀
Will have 2 years of eligibility remaining https://t.co/4pp4VZvAY9 pic.twitter.com/cRFxVu2PNs
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) December 24, 2023
Rebels have been eagerly waiting to hear if the highly-coveted defensive lineman would commit to head coach Lane Kiffin and the Rebels.
Then, at 11:47 am on Christmas Eve morning, defensive coordinator Pete Golding tweeted the shark emoji indicative of a commit.
🦈
— Pete Golding (@CoachGolding) December 24, 2023
Just two minutes later, Walker Jones, Director of the Grove Collective, tweeted the following that suggested the Rebels were reeling in a big one.
— Walker Jones (@walkerj29) December 24, 2023
And, the rest is history. Finally, Ole Miss fans got the news that Nolen is an Ole Miss Rebel.
— Walter Nolen (@WalterNolenIII) December 24, 2023
The work that head coach Lane Kiffin, defensive coordinator Pete Golding, defensive line coach Randall Joyner and Kelvin Bolden, coordinator of recruiting strategy, have done this recruiting cycle is not only phenomenal, it could end up laying the groundwork for what may very well be a playoff run for the ages for the Rebels next season when the College Football Playoffs move to a 12-team format.
Consider what this staff has done. They received a commitment from the No. 1 EDGE in the portal, Princely Umanmielen. Then, they followed that up with a commit from the No. 2 EDGE in the portal in Tennessee’s Tyler Baron.
And, now comes a pledge from Nolen, the No. 1 overall player in the transfer portal. If I’m dreaming, don’t wake me up!
Nolen is a transformative player; he will elevate this transfer portal class into one for the ages. Guess how many defensive linemen are ranked in the top 10 of the transfer portal rankings, according to 247 Sports? Three — Nolen, Umanmielen and Baron — and the Rebels will have them all on the same team next season.
When Nolen, the former A&M standout, entered the portal on December 3, there was much excitement in the college football world — and for good reason. He is the biggest of the big sharks to land in Oxford.
In high school
The 6-foot-4, 285-pound Nolen was the overall number two player in the country coming out of high school and is the number one player in the transfer portal with two years of eligibility remaining.
As a high school freshman and sophomore, Nolen played for Olive Branch (Miss). He helped them finish 9-4 and reach a Mississippi 6A 2nd-round playoff appearance during his sophomore season. He later spent his junior season at Saint Benedict in Memphis before closing out his high school career at Powell in Powell, Tennessee. There, the Tennessee Player of the Year helped lead the Panthers to a 13-2 record along with their first 5A Tennessee State Championship. He tallied 83 tackles, 33 tackles for loss, 17 sacks, 27 quarterback hurries, and six forced fumbles.
In Aggieland
During two seasons at A&M, Nolen tallied 66 tackles (37 solos), five sacks and a forced fumble. This past year he increased his production with totals of 37 tackles and four sacks. Nolen recently visited Oregon — and left without committing.
Building a defensive powerhouse
With the commitment Friday from Florida transfer EDGE Princely Umanmielen and Saturday’s commits from Tennessee transfer EDGE Tyler Baron and Tennessee transfer safety Tamarion McDonald, much less the commitments earlier from Arkansas transfer linebacker Chris Paul and Oklahoma transfer safety Key Lawrence, along with a vaunted 2024 defensive line class coming in, Coach Kiffin, Pete Golding and the Rebels have upped their game.
Oh, and let’s not forget that current defensive linemen JJ Pegues and Jared Ivey announced they are both returning for the 2024 season!
Next season, we may well all look back on this December as the season when Ole Miss football made the jump to the next level.
Ole Miss fans, buckle your seatbelts. The 2024 season is about to be very fun!
Lee Ann Herring-Olvedo
Lee Ann serves as the Director of Recruiting for The Rebel Walk. She sees college football the way championship programs do—from inside the personnel room. Every evaluation, every roster move, every recruiting battle tells a bigger story about identity, culture, and how a program is built to win in December, not just July.
With more than 15 years covering the SEC and the national recruiting landscape, Herring-Olvedo has built a reputation as one of the sport’s most respected personnel-driven voices—blending film evaluation, roster construction, and long-term program vision through a true front-office lens. Her coverage of powerhouse brands like Ole Miss Rebels and Kentucky Wildcatshas consistently gone beyond headlines, focusing instead on the blueprint behind winning programs: development, fit, culture, and recruiting strategy.
That foundation was formed early at Brown University, where she worked in player personnel and recruiting while competing as a student-athlete. Inside those recruiting operations rooms, she learned how elite organizations are truly built—through relentless evaluation, relationship building, projection, and trust in the board. Those experiences shaped the way she studies the game today: part scout, part storyteller, part architect.
Her analysis and reporting have appeared across major platforms including ESPN, NFL coverage spaces, USA Today Sports, and Saturday Down South. She also brought her personnel-minded approach to the airwaves as an on-air analyst for the Wake Up 502 College Football Show on Big X Sports Radio 96.1, where she became known for combining film-room detail with a wider understanding of roster identity and program trajectory.
In 2025, covering the rise of Houston Cougars football under Willie Fritz reignited the part of the sport that first drew her into football—the culture, the edge, the belief that a roster can reshape an entire city. That inspiration led to the launch of Coogs 365 Sports, a platform built to cover Houston athletics through a true scouting and recruiting lens while connecting the emotion of the game to the heartbeat of H-Town.
Now, Herring-Olvedo returns to The Rebel Walk where with an even deeper perspective shaped by years inside recruiting circles, national SEC coverage, and hands-on evaluation experience. Her return brings a familiar voice back to Ole Miss coverage—but with an evolved lens rooted in roster architecture, player development, and the modern realities of building championship-caliber football in the NIL and portal era.
For Herring-Olvedo, recruiting has never been about stars beside a name. It is about identifying competitors, projecting growth, and building a locker room capable of sustaining success. Her philosophy mirrors the best front offices in football: stack traits, trust culture, and never stop building.
