The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, September 02, 2003, Image 9

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The Battalion Page IB • Tuesday, September 2. 2003
road less traveled
After a year in anonymity, A&M A-back Carter is finally starting to see the field
By True Brown
THE BATTALION
t he pain shows in Jason Carter’s
eyes when he talks about last sea
son.
I While the Texas A&M football team
struggled to a 6-6 record in 2002,
»rter spent most of the season in the
sf idows, trying to decide what his
Hture in football would be.
I The junior from Caldwell, now a
pi nt returner and A-back for the
■ggies, entered last season vying for
playing time at quarterback, a position
■here the Aggies had a surplus of tal-
Bit. However, Carter’s name wasn’t at
Be top of a list that included the expe-
rit nee of then-senior Mark Farris or the
h' iie of then-freshman Reggie McNeal.
I As a partial qualifier. Carter couldn’t
play in 2001, but he earned offensive
semit team MVP honors during the sea-
Kn. As 2002 rolled around, a large
question mark loomed over A&M’s
(Iiarterback job. Former coach R.C.
Slocum started Farris in the season
Opener against the University of
Lmisiana-Lafayette, but Farris soon
giive way to Dustin Long and Reggie
McNeal.
I Carter finally saw action on the
Aggies’ last drive of the game, and,
ck spite leading the team in rushing dur
ing the game with 42 yards on three
Brries, he found himself stuck as the
ifurth man in A&M’s QB rotation.
I As the season progressed, Carter
saw sporadic action returning kicks and
punts but wasn’t on the field with
A&M’s offense.
I It was a tough pill to swallow for a
player ranked as the No. 1 run-pass
quarterback in Texas his.senior y^4T. in
high school.
B “I felt I was very prepared last year,
bin I just didn’t play,” Carter said. “It’s
JP Beato III • THE BATTALION
Junior Jason Carter signs autographs after Saturday's 26-11 win against Arkansas State. After spending most of 2002 on the bench,
the junior quafterback-turned-A-back from Caldwell will now be counted on to provide a spark in Texas A&M's offense.
frustrating not to play. I really thought I
should have gotten the chance to play
all season, but the coaches thought the
other two guys (Long and McNeal)
should have played more.
“Of course, the other guys did a
pretty good job,” he said, his voice trail
ing off.
With each passing week. Carter said,
the frustration and desperation to play'
continued to build. He even considered
transferring.
“I thought about it every second of
every minute of every hour of every day
last year,” he said. “It was hard not to be
out there on the field because I knew I
could change the game. It got to a point
where I was wondering if football was
for me, and was it ever going to get any
better.”
Carter wasn’t the only one who
thought he could change the game. His
mother. Laquita, also had faith. The two
talked on the phone every day, and
Laquita said she could tell how strenu
ous the situation had become for Jason.
Laquita, whose father is a Baptist min
ister, used her faith to urge Jason to wait
for his chance.
“I always tried to use the Bible to
tell him about things, and 1 told him to
hold on and things would work out for
him,” she said. “If you are patient and
wait for God to work on his time, then
everything would work out.”
As the Aggies made their way
through their Big 12 schedule, Carter
still didn’t see much of the field. Losses
to Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma
State and Missouri were even tougher
to handle from the sidelines. As her son
continued his search for answers,
Laquita said she also struggled with the
situation.
“It was very, very hard on him,” she
said. “It was hard on me too because I
would be at all the games, and I could
look at him and see his face and see him
hurting, and that hurt me too. 1 couldn’t
really enjoy the games because I could
tell how he was feeling. But I knew that
since he wasn’t going to play, I had to
be there to support him anyway.”
Carter took to prayer to try and find
an answer for what was happening.
“I kept praying about it and asking
God to show me something,” he said.
And then, finally, a sign.
Before A&M’s season finale loss
against the University of Texas, A&M
coaches told Carter he would probably
play early in the game. The first quarter
went by and he stayed on the sidelines.
Then the second quarter, and then the
third.
Finally, halfway through the fourth
quarter. Carter found himself on the
field after Long went down with an
injury.
After getting sacked on his first play,
he scrambled left on fourth down and
completed a 15-yard touchdown run
with a dramatic head-first leap over a
Longhorn defender. A touchdown that
meant little to the result of the 50-20
final score meant the world to Carter.
“When I finally got in, I thought to
myself. This is when I’ll show them
what I can do,”’ he said. “The first play,
I’m not going to lie - I was nervous.
Then the second play, I realized this was
the same stuff I’ve done since high
school. (UT) blitzed off the edge (on the
second play), and I knew exactly what I
was going to do. It came naturally. I
See Carter on page 2B
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