How Tennessee football commit Ethan Utley honors brother's memory. 'I'm living both our dreams out'

The ink coils around Ethan Utley’s wrist like a snake.

It reminds him of the person he cherishes most in this world, and also of the one who is no longer physically in it.

“This is a bracelet,” Utley says, pointing to a green tattoo. “It’s my brother's name and my mom’s name. That’s her basketball number and his football number — No. 50 and No. 17. It’s an infinity chain, because my brother and my mom are with me wherever I go.”

Utley smiles as he explains all the tattoos on his left arm, many of which are odes to his late older brother, Edgar “EJ” Utley, who was shot and killed on his father’s front porch in 2021 during what police say was a planned robbery. He was 15.

Ethan and his mom, Tracy Walls, have been each other’s foundation ever since.

Ethan developed into a coveted high school football recruit, as many people who saw him play in eighth grade believed he would. The 6-foot-4, 265-pound Ensworth defensive lineman and Tennessee commitment is No. 2 in The Tennessean's 2024 Dandy Dozen, a collection of the top college football prospects for the Class of 2025 from the Nashville area.

He is a four-star prospect ranked as the No. 2 recruit in the state overall from the 2025 class, according to the 247Sports Composite, and the No. 18 defensive lineman nationally.

EJ was likely bound for Power 5 football too , according to his coaches at Hillsboro. He was 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds as a high school freshman. Ethan and EJ were a little more than a year apart, and many thought they were twins. They talked about playing college football together one day.

But everything changed on Feb. 4, 2021.

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“Ever since then, I don’t want to say my life changed, even though it did,” Ethan said. “But I don’t look at my life differently. I couldn’t allow things out of my control that are in God’s hands stop me from reaching my goal. I know my brother better than anybody, and he wouldn’t want me to sit around and fall into a slump just because he's not physically here with me anymore.

“He’s watching over me, and I’m living both our dreams out.”

How Tennessee commitment Ethan Utley’s emerged as top recruit

Tracy was a Whites Creek basketball star in high school and went on to play at Georgia, but she made her sons try a handful of sports growing up.

Ethan and EJ weren’t allowed to play tackle football at first, so as not to confine themselves to “what society says they should be as tall, African American boys,” said Tracy, a former college professor who works in Metro Nashville Public Schools. She signed them up for flag football, coached them in baseball and basketball, and put them on swim teams. Once, Ethan and EJ won an AAU basketball tournament in Huntsville, Alabama, during the morning, then returned to Nashville that night to compete in a swim meet, which they also won.

Tracy thought Ethan would be the one to follow in her basketball footsteps. She and Ethan moved from Nashville to Atlanta when he was in sixth grade, after Tracy and her husband divorced, and Ethan was asked to try out for Chris Paul’s AAU team. Tracy later found out Ethan and friend Dylan Lewis — also a Tennessee football class of 2025 commitment — had been sneaking away to practice football with former New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs’ North Atlanta Giants youth program.

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When sports resumed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ethan went to his first football evaluation camp. College coaches soon started calling. “The phone rang one day, and it continued to ring,” Tracy said. “Forty-six offers later, here we are.”

Ethan saw playing time as an Ensworth freshman under former Tigers coach Roc Batten after he and Tracy moved back to Nashville from Atlanta. Ethan’s first scholarship offer, from Eastern Kentucky, arrived that same year.

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“You throw a freshman into the fire in Division II-AAA in Tennessee, and he’s playing against offensive linemen who now are playing on Saturdays on Power 5 teams — and they’re all trying to tee off on him. But I saw him rise up against those teams,” Batten said. “He’s going to continue to get stronger. He’s so nimble and athletic, he bends well. He’s gotten so much better at using his hands and striking.”

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In 2023, Ethan recorded 35 tackles with seven for a loss, six QB hurries and four forced fumbles for the Tigers while also playing his first full season on the offensive line.

He narrowed his college choices down to two and was strongly considering Texas. But the pieces fit together at Tennessee, where former Georgia defensive line coach Rodney Garner had been with Volunteers since 2021. Tracy and Garner maintain a friendship stemming from their days in Athens.

In March, Ethan announced he would attend Tennessee. In his commitment video posted to social media, he thanked EJ, while his brother’s yellow Hillsboro No. 17 jersey hung on the wall in the background.

Tennessee football commitment Ethan Utley and mom support each other

Ethan pokes at another tattoo on his skin, this one's of EJ's birthday. There's also one for the day his brother died.

Then there's a tattooed No. 5.

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"EJ was the fifth generation (of his name). That's why I wear 55,” Utley said. “When I get to Tennessee, I'm hoping to earn my number and get the No. 5. I've talked to coach (Josh) Heupel about it, so that may be a possibility."

Ethan’s favorite Bible verse, Joshua 1:9, is also etched into his arm, reading, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

“Coming into high school, I was eager to find something,” Ethan said. “It was always a dream, two brothers playing football together one day. Me living me and my brother’s dream for us and ourselves, that gave me a spark. I came into high school with a fuse. I play fiery, I never scare from competition, because that’s how me and my brother were raised.”

Ethan, still just 13 years old at the time, wanted to attend basketball practice the same day Tracy and Batten told him about EJ’s death. “I said, ‘Son, no, you’re going to come home with me,’” Tracy said.

But Ethan went to practice.

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"I wanted him to stay with me," Tracy said. "But he said it: 'Mom, my brother would have wanted me to show up,' which I think is a very mature response. I wish I could’ve been that responsive, because I was off for days, months — still am off now and again."

The family received some closure in January when the murder trial ended. Wilton Alexander and Trameisha Farris were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the killing. The jury took less than three hours to convict them.

Tracy and Ethan have looked after each other since the winter of 2021. Tracy walked each step of the recruiting process with Ethan, researching graduation rates at schools, learning which players were committed to which schools, and which coaching staffs were regarded highly.

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Ethan likes finding recipes online to cook for his mom; he prefers Mexican dishes. “My mom is my everything,” Ethan says, to which Tracy counters, “Ethan is my superhero.”

They make sure to take vacations with just the two of them. They shoot pool and prank each other. They play 1-on-1 basketball, ride jet skis and watch movies. “We make time for fun,” Tracy said. “We have to.”

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Both are awed by the other’s resilience, but there are still difficult days. If Tracy struggles to get out of bed, Ethan pulls out his signature line, rooted in Joshua 1:9.

“Mom,” he says, “You’ve gotta fight back.”

Reach sports writer Tyler Palmateer at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Tennessee football commit Ethan Utley honors brother's memory. 'I'm living both our dreams out'