Tulsa World: Carter making his mark at safety

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Carter making his mark at safety
OU FOOTBALL

By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 3/22/2009 3:34 AM
Last Modified: 3/22/2009 3:39 AM

NORMAN Oklahoma's Quinton Carter spends his spare time watching old game tape of past Sooner safeties. His favorite, without a doubt, is Roy Williams.

"He was like perfect," Carter said. "Every rep he took, he went hard."

Carter tries to emulate what Williams did into his own performance. That shows whenever Carter is standing over another broken ballcarrier.

"He likes it," said safeties coach Bobby Jack Wright. "He likes contact. He likes lightin' those guys up."

That, said the senior from Las Vegas, is his signature.

"I like to hit, so that's where I start off," he said. "That's where I can make a statement."

He did just that in last season's Big 12 championship game, when he took turns busting up Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Maclin and quarterback Chase Daniel. Both suffered the painful end of Carter's explosive nose cone more than once.

Carter began making his mark on OU's secondary when he started making marks on enemy receivers late in the year. Now he replaces half of the graduated safety tandem of Nic Harris and Lendy Holmes, a pair of three-year starters. Free safety and strong safety — virtually interchangeable, according to head coach Bob Stoops — are the only positions at which a starter won't be back in 2009.

The Sooners, now one-third of the way through spring practice, still have question marks, but Carter's position, apparently, won't be among them.

"I'm considering we have 10 (starters) back," said linebacker

Travis Lewis. "Because Q played in that Big 12 game and he was lighting people up. He's one of those guys, if Nic wasn't there, then he would have stepped right up and had the production that Nic had. So if we can replace that one safety, get that right, then the sky's the limit for this defense."

That one safety is currently Sam Proctor, a redshirt freshman in '08. Proctor climbed into the picture last year with a big spring, but as the preseason progressed, Stoops said, he slid back down the depth chart.

"You've got to remember, going into two-a-days last year, Sam was running with the 1s," said linebacker Keenan Clayton. "So I don't really feel like Sam is a young guy any more. He's been here, he's run with the 1s, he knows what to do."

Proctor is not unlike Carter. Several times last spring, Proctor hand-delivered crunching blows to teammates.

"I still believe a big hit can impact the defense, too," Proctor said. "Nothing like a big hit to shift the momentum of a game, or to send a message to the offense."

Still, he has a way to go before he compares to Carter.

"Yeah," Wright remembered, "there were a couple times early in (Carter's) career where we ejected him for doing that to our own guys. We don't necessarily like him lightin' our own guys up, but we like him lightin' those opponents up."

Said Carter, "I actually got kicked out of practice for hitting people."

Carter went into last spring in the starting safety rotation (Holmes was still working a bit at an unsettled cornerback spot), but then pulled a hamstring and missed most of the spring. He finally got healthy and played in all 12 games last season (with two starts the second half of the year) and made 37 tackles. But that's nowhere near the experience level of Harris and Holmes.

"Any time you lose two guys that had the experience and years of playing that Lendy or Nic Harris had, yeah, you kind of feel like you're losing the experience there," Wright said. "But Quinton Carter's been here, he's played a bunch. . . Knock on wood, if he can stay healthy, he has shown us all along that he has a chance to be a really good player."

Joseph Ibiloye is backing up both Carter and Proctor, and Desmond Jackson and freshman Javon Harris are also rotating in. More help will arrive in the fall.

Carter and Proctor know that all eyes will be on them in the Red/White Game on April 11, and they welcome that spotlight. In fact, they've already discussed their roles as OU's starting safety tandem.

"We want to be," Proctor said, "the most physical safety combo in the country."

John E. Hoover 581-8384
john.hoover@tulsaworld.com By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

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	Report Comment trapper john, (3/22/2009 6:58:27 PM) let's not get too full of ourselves just yet..
	Report Comment Rhymeister, Tulsa (3/23/2009 6:56:27 AM) Like Williams I'm sure Carter will get burned going for the big hit instead of following his man.

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