Five years for Folger's day but well worth the wait

The life of a walk-on is thankless.

There is rarely any recognition and the prospect of playing is slim. The job entails just as much time and dedication as a scholarship player, but without nearly the same upside — just a few chances to maybe see the field in a career. Some never even get that.

Charles Folger is one of those guys.

In five years at Tennessee, the redshirt senior defensive tackle has played in all of three games. He could have gone to a smaller school and played. He chose to walk-on at Tennessee instead.

“I took my first recruiting visit up here my junior year of high school … and it has even been head and shoulders better than what I thought it'd be,” Folger said Wednesday.

“I'm really excited to be here and you have no idea what it's like sitting up here for the first time talking about my last time going through the 'T'.”

Folger's excitement was apparent through the 12 minutes he spoke. It's also a big reason his teammates appreciate him the way they do — that much was apparent when they swarmed him after he made a tackle-for-loss against Tennessee Tech two weeks ago.

Carson-Newman pursued him during the recruiting process as well as other lower-level programs, but Folger knew he wanted to play at Tennessee.

There were tough times, though. He wasn't always sure he wanted to stick it out at Tennessee, but the values of never quitting taught to him by his parents kept him in Knoxville.

“My dad always told me you never want to quit,” Folger said. “If you don't feel like doing anything, you've got to make it through. After that first year I was not excited, to be honest.

“Then, it was a continuous process to continue growing and growing and redshirt freshman year getting to dress the first year. So many things to look forward to as a non-scholarship guy. It's incredibly difficult to keep going, but seeing scholarship guys excited for you, other non-scholarship guys, family … helps you get going and helps you keep going.”

He made the most of his time. He graduated in August with a degree in special education. He's currently enrolled in masters classes to get an advanced degree in deaf education. He wants to be a teacher and a coach.

In his five years, Folger has become close with other walk-ons and non-scholarship players. With his experience he has also become somewhat of a leader to the group.

“Some guys will never get the opportunity to play. Some guys will fight five, six, seven days for the Vol Walk to do it six times a year, “Folger said, “fight and scratch 360 days for five or six opportunities to walk in front of fans, to walk down the street.

“Are we all-world athletes? No. Not in the slightest. Some guys are better athletes than I am and ever will be. But the non-travel, non-scholarship guys are the best guys on the team in my mind because they know what it's like to fight. They know what it's like to fight every day.”

So when Folger makes the Vol Walk ahead of Saturday's game against Missouri, when he gets to go through the 'T' one last time, he isn't holding anything back.

“I am going to cry like a baby,” he said. “It’s going to be so emotional seeing my family – my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister – down on the field. The five of us being together one last time before we all get going.

“It’s been the best thing ever.”