Report: UVA Football Hosting Top Available Edge Rusher in Transfer Portal

Walls is listed as a linebacker on FIU's roster, but was a defensive lineman at Bethune-Cookman, where he spent the first three seasons of his college football career. Originally from Fort Myers, Florida, Walls played three games and redshirted his freshman season before racking up 32 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, and a blocked field goal in just eight games as a sophomore in 2022.

The following season, Walls started all 11 games for Bethune-Cookman and delivered a monster junior campaign, recording 45 tackles, 17 solo stops, 14.5 tackles for loss for a total of 48 yards, four sacks, five quarterback hurries, one fumble recovery, and another blocked field goal. Walls hit the portal after that strong 2023 season and transferred to Florida International, where he was named an All-Conference USA Preseason Fourth Team selection by Phil Steele.

In 11 games as a Panther, Walls totaled 30 tackles, 15 of them solo tackles, and registered five sacks, six tackles for loss, one pass defended, one forced fumble, and yet another blocked field goal. His best game of the season came against Jacksonville State, as Walls posted two sacks for a loss of 19 yards.

The 6'4", 247-pound linebacker/edge rusher entered the transfer portal on April 15th and has so far taken visits to Tulsa and Houston. A host of other schools have expressed their interest in Walls, including Miami, Baylor, SMU, Texas Tech, Cal, and Memphis, but it appears that Virginia has risen among those contenders as the Cavaliers will reportedly be next to host Eddie Walls III.

Whether he is playing as an edge rusher on the defensive line or as a linebacker, the front seven in general isn't exactly a position of need for Virginia at this point. Up front, the Cavaliers return Jahmeer Carter, Jason Hammond, Anthony Britton, and Terrell Jones and they added a solid group of transfers in the winter window in Hunter Osborne, Mitchell Melton, Cazeem Moore, and Fisher Camac. At linebacker, Virginia returns James Jackson, Kam Robinson, and Trey McDonald and the Hoos added Maddox Marcellus in the portal.

With that said, given the production Eddie Walls III has had over the last two seasons, especially in rushing the passer, he would certainly be a significant and valuable pickup for a Virginia defense that has ranked near the bottom of the ACC in sacks in each of the last two seasons.

Virginia has picked up three transfer commitments so far in the spring window: New Mexico and Kentucky offensive lineman Wallace Unamba, Colorado running back Isaiah Augustave, and Cincinnati cornerback Jordan Robinson.