What Chris Carter was doing that game wasn't fair. He was simply too fast and too strong. Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien must still be flinching at shadows and sounds, turning to see if Carter is coming.
He had two sacks that day, but it seemed more like 20. He shot off the line again and again, so hard around the corner you expected him to spin out and slide into the ditch. Carter was in the backfield so much that reporters kept checking their lineup cards. Yep, same guy.
In four games, the Fresno State Bulldogs have 17 tackles for a loss. Carter has one-fourth of them. He has four sacks.
He played so hard for so long against Wisconsin that after two overtimes, in a tunnel under Camp Randall Stadium, Carter collapsed in a full-body cramp. His back and chest and stomach muscles clenched, until they had to get a stretcher and carry him to the stadium's X-ray machine.
The X-ray was, of course, for his left middle finger, which he'd snapped at a diagonal above the second knuckle. He still has photos of the X-rays on his cell phone. It happened on one of the many plays Carter had Tolzien in his hands, first quarter, and Carter latched on with three fingers inside the back of the quarterback's shoulder pads. Tolzien spun and SNAP!
Carter remembers telling the trainer, "It's dislocated. Put it back in." When he tried, though, it was a bratwurst full of glass.
"It's broken, huh?" Carter said, and there was a nod. So they taped it to the next finger and he played the entire game. Carter had surgery on the finger that Wednesday, two days before the Boise State game. He played with a half-inch of foam over a cast. Early on, he reached for a fumble with the club, then palmed it with his right.
He sometimes practices his celebrations at home, but in the moment after a big play he just goes nuts and smacks himself in the helmet. Imagine the look on Dr. Cary Tanner's face when he saw the finger he'd just put back together with two screws being smacked against a helmet.
It's taken far too long for a guy like Carter to come along for Fresno State, a sort of mini-Derrick Thomas. Sure, they've had guys who got sacks, determined men who just kept shoving and spinning and chasing. Guys who got sacks when everyone was covered.
But it's been too long since they had a rusher with Carter's speed, a defensive end who required planning, who could end a play before it began, create his own sacks.
Oddly, it was an injury that helped launch Carter's football career at Kaiser High-Fontana.
"Chris is the success story," says Lonyae Miller, Sr. "He broke his ankle [in high school]. I mean totally broke his ankle. In two. They had to put screws in it."
Miller is the father of the Fresno State running back of the same name. Lonyae Jr. transferred to Kaiser a month or so after Carter was taken off a football field in an ambulance. The older Miller was training his own son in the offseason and after his boot came off, Carter asked for his help, too.
"He was crying," says Lonyae Sr. "He said, 'I'll never be as good as your son. Just work with me.' "
The older Miller is quite a success story himself, leaving the streets and crime behind, and going to school to get a teaching degree. He now coaches and teaches a special class at Kaiser High, the at-risk kids, the toughest cases. He hates the term "special ed," calls them his "exceptionalities."
Miller has since trained so many future college football players and track athletes that they call his program "The Lab," which is ironic since he preaches an anti-steroid message. He makes kids finish their homework before workouts.
Carter credits those workouts for his speed and burst off the line. Carter's parents used to try to pay Miller for all his work with Carter, but he wouldn't take it. Said he did it "out of the goodness God put in my heart."
He does charge a little bit these days. He jokes that he's married now, so he needs the money. Truth is, he always needed it. The kids were just more important.
"I don't even advertise," he says. "I just tell them to turn on the TV and watch Fresno State."
A few rules are needed to help foster a feeling of community. We encourage a free and open exchange of ideas in a climate of mutual respect, but any post that violates someone's right to use and enjoy fresnobee.com is prohibited. Before you post, please read the terms of use and obey these simple guidelines.
Here are the ground rules:
Contents of this site are © Copyright The Fresno Bee. All rights reserved.
E-Mail
Print
@Nyx.CommentBody@