The elusive Jalen Carter was front and center Thursday.
Made available for a dedicated interview only one other time during his illustrious college football career, Carter was set up at the defensive starters’ table on the east side of the simulated football field at the College Football Hall of Fame on Thursday. It was Media Day for the Georgia Bulldogs at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
As a unanimous, first-team All-American from whom no one has heard all season, Carter was swarmed by media as soon as the proverbial starting whistle was blown to start the day’s session.
Carter’s eyes widened seeing the coming onslaught of phones and video recorders. He smiled throughout the 45-minute session.
“Media’s cool; I’m cool with media,” said Carter, flanked by Leland Barrow of UGA sports communications and Jonas Jennings, UGA’s director of player personnel. “I like media a lot. I actually like talking. I just have to open up, loosen up, get used to seeing new faces. But I don’t have a problem with media.”
Nobody could blame Carter if he did have a problem with the media, at least a few select members. A couple of weeks ago, ESPN’s NFL draft analyst Todd McShay created a firestorm when, citing unnamed sources, said he was told that Carter has “character issues.” McShay did not elaborate.
Carter’s teammates quickly and passionately came to his defense on social media. In a nutshell, they said McShay’s report was wildly off-base.
Carter, not much of a social-media buff himself, said he heard about the tweet. But he said he wasn’t upset by it and wouldn’t confront McShay about it even if he were standing in front of him.
“If he came up to me, I’d just introduce myself and wouldn’t say nothing about the comment,” Carter said.
Projected as a top-five pick in April’s NFL draft, Carter likely will get that chance.
“It didn’t affect me,” he continued. “I’m always a positive guy, always look at the positive side of things. When it came out, I really didn’t pay no mind to it. I talked to my team and said, ‘Let’s move on from it and go to the playoffs and ball out.’”
While Carter hadn’t publicly spoken before Thursday, his play on the field has done the talking for him. His impact on Georgia’s defense has been massive, even if his participation has been limited to a half-season.
Carter was injured on his first defensive snap of the season, twisting his ankle when he stood up an Oregon offensive lineman and tried to spin to one side. He played the whole game, but the ankle swelled after the game and required physical therapy over the next several weeks.
Carter would play only a snap or two the next few games.
Finally, in the fifth game of the season on the road at Missouri, Carter entered the game in the second quarter. This time he injured his left knee when he was the victim of an uncalled chop block by the Tigers’ right guard and tackle.
It was a Grade 2 sprain of the medial collateral ligament. He would be sidelined for four more weeks.
“I’m physically feeling good right now; I’m 100%. When the incident happened, it was a very odd moment because I’d really never got ‘hurt’ hurt for real. So, I just had to get a lot of treatment. It never really changed my mindset of ‘let’s get better.’”
Carter did. He returned for Game 8 against Florida, but only to play on third downs. The next week, he proved once again to be an unstoppable force against No. 1 Tennessee. His sack-and-strip of quarterback Hendon Hooker on third down should have been called a safety, but it forced the Volunteers to punt from their 1-yard line and eventually led to a Georgia touchdown.
Carter’s most iconic play of the season came when he sacked Jayden Daniels in the SEC Championship game, hoisting LSU’s quarterback in the air with his left arm and holding up the No. 1 with his right index finger at the same time.
That photo, well-captured by photojournalists covering the game, went viral.
“It just happened in the moment,” Carter said with a laugh. “I was just going with the crowd and the team flow. Everybody was juiced up on third down, and I was just ready to play. A couple of teammates came up to me afterward and said, ‘Whoa, man!’ That’s when it hit me that, yeah, I just did that.”
Not far away from where Carter was stationed Thursday was coach Kirby Smart’s perch for the interview session. So he had a good view of the media fuss brewing around Carter.
Smart was asked if he had deliberately kept Carter from media or if it was something Carter requested.
“It was a little bit of a combination,” Smart said. “He’s a kid that’s a little bit shy. He’s been injured some throughout his career. That position is not one that lends itself to the limelight. Somebody like Jordan Davis had a much bigger personality when it comes to stuff like that. So, it wasn’t something Jalen was intrigued by and, to be honest with you, we cater to our kids.”
Also not far away was fellow defensive lineman Nazir Stackhouse. If ever there was an opposite personality type to Carter, it’s Stackhouse. He has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok and uploads entertaining videos on his account weekly.
“Jalen’s a character, and I love him,” Stackhouse said. “Jalen is very cautious about saying the wrong thing. That’s all it is. He’s a great guy, and we all love him. When it comes to media, Jalen really doesn’t pay attention to it and doesn’t care about it. But when it comes to football, he’s consistent about going on and performing at a high level every day.”
