PEMBROKE — When J.R. Walker, Carlo Thompson and Darius Edmundson run onto the field Saturday at Grace P. Johnson Stadium for UNC Pembroke’s season opener against Wingate, they won’t be enveloped by throngs from every direction on quite the same level as they have in the past.

All three do expect a good atmosphere from Brave Nation on Saturday night, though, even if its not the tens of thousands that they’re used to playing in front of — as veterans of the ACC.

Walker joined the Braves program from Virginia Tech, Thompson from Virginia and Edmundson from N.C. State, the three pillars of a strong transfer class for UNCP over the offseason.

“I think if you just go out there and ignore the crowd, it won’t be no big difference,” Edmundson said. “When you come running out the tunnel (at N.C. State), you’ve got a right side, left side full of people that’s supporting you and stuff like that, but I know UNCP, they’re going to come through for us with some love for sure.”

While UNCP, at the Division-II level, provides a far different campus atmosphere than the three large flagship universities from which they came, each of them says they’ve enjoyed their time so far in Pembroke and felt welcome.

“The time so far, it’s been an easy transition,” Walker said. “Especially with guys that I’ve already known on the team, and then them just helping me get with guys that’s on the team already and transferred in, so it’s been an easy decision.”

All three are expected to make a big impact on the Braves defense this fall; Braves coach Mark Hall thinks all three have potential to be in the mix for Mountain East Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors.

“I think they bring, obviously, the D-1 size and athleticism,” Hall said. “When you’re bringing a kid in from N.C. State, Virginia Tech, Virginia, it just automatically kind of brings a spotlight to your team. But they’re great kids, they fit into our program.”

Walker, from Elizabeth City and Clayton High School, graduated from Virginia Tech and took off the 2023 season. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound linebacker recorded 18 tackles in eight games for the Hokies in 2022.

“Coach (Brian Frierson) and Coach (John) Wheeler, I knew them from my hometown, and they hit me up and said they had something building here at UNCP,” Walker said. “I came on a visit, I saw that and I wanted to be a part of it.”

“He’s so instinctual; you can tell he’s played a lot of football,” Hall said. “Obviously he’s one of those guys that’s actually played in a lot of games for Virginia Tech. … He’s always in the right spot, he’s a hard guy to trick him and get him out of position, so he’s the real deal.”

Thompson and Edmundson both join the Braves’ secondary as defensive backs.

Thompson is a 6-foot, 180-pound redshirt-sophomore from Richmond, Virginia; he did not appear in a game in 2022 or 2023 for Virginia. He was recruited out of high school by Hall and his coaching staff when they were at Chowan, so those relationships already existed when Thompson was looking for a new home this offseason.

“The coaching staff reached out to me prior to them being at UNC Pembroke, so it was nothing to get back in touch with them,” Thompson said. “Once I got here and I was able to strap some shoulder pads up, it was nice and smooth.”

“Carlo is just a ballplayer,” Hall said. “He’s all over the field, he’s not afraid to hit, he takes the ball out of the air in the post for us. … I think he’s going to be a real difference maker.”

Edmundson, at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, appeared in five games for N.C. State last season after playing junior-college ball at Louisburg College. The Middlesex native attended Southern Nash High School.

“It was tough leaving (N.C. State); that was home, that was somewhere I committed to for a long time, and staying up there and then playing, it was just really tough leaving that and then coming down here, it was tough,” Edmundson said. “Then one of my former coaches I had at junior college was going to be my corners coach, was another reason why, Coach (Stephen) Palmer. I found out he was coming down here, so I knew it was a quick decision for me to come down here.”

“He’s athletic, he’s long,” Hall said. “He’s a guy that can play man coverage, we play a lot of man coverage so he fits our boundary corner position very well.”

The players say they feel more of a tight-knit community feel in Pembroke than on their previous larger campuses.

“I truly feel, on a personal level, I feel a lot more connection here,” Thompson said. “Everybody’s nice and friendly, nice and family. I feel a real unity here.”

Getting these high-level transfers to come to UNCP can cause a chain reaction resulting in more such talent coming to the Braves, something that Hall says is already happening. And the evidence is on the Braves roster: in addition to these three from the ACC, five more Division-I transfers from the Football Championship Subdivision level are part of the 2024 UNCP transfer class.

“It’s been good, and once we got one, it kind of led to two, and word kind of got out that UNCP might be a good place for these kids, and I think word spread and it’s kind of snowballed into what it’s been,” Hall said. “The best thing is that these guys have bought into us. None of them have come in here and been big time or tried to be prima donnas, and I couldn’t ask for anything more out of them.”