|
|
|
|
GET IN THE GAME
Click here to submit your photos, story ideas or comments. |
|
What a difference a year makes |
|
Wednesday, 23 July 2008 |
 Bill Simmonds/For the SDN Mississippi State University quarterback Wesley Carroll led the Bulldogs to an 8-5 record and a bowl win as a true-freshman. Carroll will accompany head coach Sylvester Croom today at SEC Media Days.
A year ago, quarterback Wesley Carroll came to Mississippi State with a few basic thoughts.
“I was just hoping to make the third team and travel with the team to be there for all the games,” Carroll said. “I just wanted to learn the system, get accustomed to Mississippi and get to know everybody.
“The way things panned out wasn’t what I had pictured, but I can’t complain.”
Carroll sat down Tuesday just before leaving for the SEC Media Days in Birmingham, Ala. with the most obvious reminder of last season’s success glistening on one of his fingers.
But even the quarterback admitted that the success he found at MSU wasn’t expected so quickly, and he hadn’t expected to be placing a bowl ring on one of his fingers like he currently has.
When he joined Sylvester Croom’s program from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. last July, Carroll said he didn’t expect much, but after both the first and second-string quarterbacks - Mike Henig and Josh Riddell respectively - went down to injury, Carroll took control of the team.
A year later he will be one of MSU’s two player representatives at the SEC Media Days, and he will go there with his Liberty Bowl ring on his right hand.
“I wear it a pretty good amount,” Carroll said of the ring. “It really helps me as an incentive. Coach Croom said he’s not wearing his ever again until he gets an SEC championship ring, and that’s completely fine.
“I understand where he’s coming from, but I’m going to wear mine.”
The quarterback said he has had to balance recalling last season’s 8-5 finish.
It helps, he said, to have the coaching staff the Bulldogs do. Egos are kept in check, even after a team goes and wins a bowl game after three straight three-win seasons.
“Coach Croom’s rule is that after each game you have 24 hours to celebrate it and then that’s it, so I would imagine we don’t get too much time to celebrate a whole season,” Carroll said.
So instead of relaxing after a successful freshman season - a year in which Carroll only threw seven interceptions in nine games started - the young player has had to adapt and grow.
“I expect leadership from the guy,” Croom said. “You don’t have to be a senior for us to expect that of you.
“He’s played enough and he just knows about the position, he is respected by the players and he has earned his spot by preparing and playing well on the field.”
That doesn’t mean that Carroll doesn’t battle with how exactly he has to perform his leadership responsibilities.
“It’s definitely something that is in the back of my mind. An underclassman isn’t really ever asked to step in front of a senior and yell at them because they’ve been through more than I have,” Carroll said.
Players have said that it was Carroll who organized individual drills and 7-on-7 drills over the summer.
The kid who wasn’t expecting to play just a year ago, has now seemingly taken the reigns of the offense - even above seniors who he respects.
“He’s doing exactly what the coaches want, because the coaches want him to be a leader so that everybody can follow behind him,” senior wide receiver Jamayel Smith said. “He’s taking on that role, and he understands that he’s the quarterback and he’s really going to have to lead.”
Smith said that things have changed since Carroll came to Starkville as a bit of a starry-eyed freshman.
“It’s been a big change because when he first stepped out on the field nobody expected him to be where he is right now,” Smith said. “He was just in Mike Henig’s shadow, but right now he’s ready.
“I’m pretty sure everybody was surprised (by Carroll’s performance last year), and I’d even say he was surprised.”
But when it comes down to it, Carroll isn’t interested in what he’s done from a self-centered standpoint.
“With last year being coach Croom’s first winning season, and when he became the first black SEC coach to win a bowl game, man, I hope my grand kids - and the rest of the team and their families - just look back and see how important and historical that was,” Carroll said. “Coach Croom told us (Monday) that everyday we go out and play, we’re making history.”
|
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 July 2008 )
|
|
|
|
