Earlier this spring, Mississippi State football coach Joe Moorhead and assistant Brad Peterson made a stop at the Noxapater field house.
It didn’t take Moorhead long to ask the question that any visiting football coach might ask when entering the Noxapater weight room.
“Who is that kid?” Moorhead asked, just like many others who have followed him.
That kid was Kyler Carter.
And it’s easy to understand why Carter turns heads at 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds. He’s also a muscular figure and one of the strongest players in Class 1A football.
He’s also the newest member of the Winston County Journal’s Eleven To Watch for 2019. Previously honored were Jy’Kevious Hibbler and Kristian Hopkins of Louisville, Raheem Hathorn of Noxapater, Shia Moore of Nanih Waiya, and Jody McCorkle of Winston Academy.
“He’s a kid that you are going to walk into the weight room and pick him out immediately,” Noxapater coach Casey Orr said. “He’s 6-foot-3 and weighs 250 pounds and the strongest kid that we have. He checks all the boxes. He’s just a special kid and he’s going to play hard and get after it. I think the potential for that kid is sky high.”
Not only is Carter a standout on the football fields, he’s a standout in the classroom with a 3.77 GPA and has already made a 23 on the ACT.
“I think he has a chance to be really special,” Orr said. “He’s already made a 23 on his AT and will be right at the top of his class so he’s a sure-fire qualifier. He’s just a good kid, a high character kid that you don’t have to worry about what he is doing or where he is going to be because he’s going to be doing the right thing.”
So far, Carter has received offers from Gulf Coast, East Central, Hinds and Coahoma. He has received interest from Southern Miss and Orr said Central Arkansas “really liked him.”
“Central Arkansas sat right here in my office and wanted to offer him as an offensive lineman but he is bent to play defensive line,” Orr said. “I think that’s one thing that has held him back as far as offers are concerned. He’s bound and determined to play defensive line but I think he would make somebody a really good offensive tackle. I think if you get him on a college campus where his is getting three or four meals a day, he could easily add 30 or 40 pounds. I think once you get him in a program where there are people around him that can push him as far as competitiveness, it’s going to be really interesting to see what he blooms into.”
Even though Carter prefers defense, Orr said opponents will figure out quickly where the ball is coming when the Tigers line up on offense.
“We are going to line up and run the football behind him,” Orr said. “We are going to put him at right tackle and run behind him until somebody proves that they can stop us. We had really good success doing that last year and in the spring. Defensively, we are going to move him to the interior. But we will move him around and put him where we think the other team is trying to run the football.”
Carter is a physically imposing figure, especially in the weight room. Carter won the Class 1A state championship in powerlifting in his weight class. In the weight room, Carter maxes out at 395 on bench, 475 on squat, 275 on power clean and 600 on deadlift.
Because of his grades, Orr said the big question for Carter is where he would got to college.
“The biggest thing, I have had a lot of junior colleges ask me if I think he would go that route,” Orr said. “Kyler has gotten a lot of attention from Air Force and Navy because of his ACT and I think they will offer him pretty quick. Either one of them may offer him any day. Of course, he thinks he could go the junior college route and end up at a lot bigger school in two years. I do believe that. With his grades, body size and work ethic, I believe if he goes and has two good years in juco, he could get that big-time offer. I don’t know if it would ever be an SEC school, but I could see him at Memphis or somewhere like that.”
Orr said there are plenty of things that make Carter special, but the most important one is his character.
“I went to his church a month ago and watched him get baptized,” Orr said. “That’s what makes this year fun for us. A lot of times, your best players aren’t your best kids. This year, my best players are my best kids. Kyler hasn’t missed a summer workout all year and isn’t going to miss. And we have three kids like that. When you have three kids that are studs and do things the right way, everybody feeds off of that.”
Carter said he doesn’t know where he will go in college but said he thinks he would like to be a coach one day.
“I haven’t thought about where I want to go yet,” Carter said. “I’m just going to play my senior year and see what happens after that. Whenever you are getting some interest, you are going to have to work that much harder because everybody is looking at you. You can’t slack off, you just have to work that much harder to show them how you are supposed to do it.”
Carter finished last year with 35 tackles and four sacks as a junior. The rising senior said it’s going to be the attention to detail that makes the difference this year for the Tigers on the field.
“We have got to make sure we are doing all the small things right,” Carter said. “We never have trouble playing hard. Whenever you play something that’s really good, playing hard isn’t enough. You have to do the little things right to win those games. Just trying to win every play of the game and not taking any plays off. Not getting behind the sticks or turning the football over. That’s what gets you beat against good football teams.”
