South Carolina signee Julian Walker closes out as five-star in Rivals rankings

It’s been a big couple of months for Columbia (S.C.) Dutch Fork standout and South Carolina signee Julian Walker.

He flipped his commitment from Michigan to the hometown Gamecocks the day after National Signing Day. He and his teammates won a state championship a few days later. He was then universally considered one of the top performers at the U.S. Navy All-American Game before enrolling at South Carolina earlier this month.

And now he’ll finish the recruiting cycle as a five-star in the Rivals rankings.

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Rivals released its final set of rankings on Tuesday morning, completing a consistent rise for the 6-foot-6, 255-pounder.

Walker finishes ranked the No. 15 overall prospect in the 2026 class, the No. 4 EDGE, and the top prospect in the Palmetto State. That’s a jump from 26th overall in the prior set of rankings.

Rivals’ Cody Bellaire had the following evaluation of Walker as a prospect:

Prototypical edge frame and build with elite growth potential. Rare movement skills and bend for player of his stature with room to add significant mass while maintaining fluidity and explosiveness. Strong hands and excellent hand placement in run game. Sheds blockers with ease and is violent at the point of attack. Needs to develop counter move in pass rush but has deadly long arm and converts speed to power well. Has chance to develop into a dominant three-down defender at the next level and beyond.

As a reminder, these are Rivals’ in-house rankings, created by Charles Power and his team of scouts.

As a senior this past season, Walker totaled 75 tackles, including 19.0 tackles-for-loss.

Legendary Dutch Fork head coach Tom Knotts had high praise for his star player.

“Today’s young people sorely miss leaders, and Julian’s been a great leader for us,” Knotts said after Walker’s decision on National Signing Day. “Anytime I need to talk to somebody, or I need somebody to stand up and say something, Julian is the guy. He’s just a great student-athlete, a great leader, a great person to be around. I don’t know anybody who’s ever seen anything negative about him. So South Carolina is getting a great product, and he’ll do well there.”

Walker has already enrolled at South Carolina and will go through spring practice with the Gamecocks.

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