Todd Traub/Special to the Arkansas State Athletic Department
Sometimes it is the littlest blocker that wears out Alex Carrington the most.
Carrington, Arkansas State’s senior defensive end, enters fall camp as the Sun Belt Conference preseason defensive player of the year and is projected as a first-day NFL draft pick, possibly a first-rounder, in April.
However, despite Carrington’s 6-5, 285-pound frame and fearsome ability that have pro scouts drooling, there is a certain little rough-houser who can lay Carrington low during unguarded moments.
“If I’m trying to rest or something, he ain’t going for that,” Carrington said of his 4-year-old son Khalil. “He’ll just run over there and jump on me. We wrestle a lot, all the time, man. We wrestle all the time.”
As a single father, Carrington has had his hands full the past four years, more so than many college football players. Yet he holds a better than 3.0 GPA in psychology and is on course to graduate in December, after which NFL teams will be lining up to claim him early in the draft next spring.
“Eight months away, my dream is finally here,” Carrington said. “But I’ve got to realize that I do still have a job here at A-State and that kind of helps keep me focused. Because that last season can make or break you, you know? I just continue to do what I do and play my game.”
College has been a sometimes-wearying experience, but if not for Khalil, Carrington said, he might not be about to fulfill his NFL dream.
“I thank God for my son because he’s what got me here,” Carrington said. “It puts you in a different light. It puts you in a different mind frame that you’ve got this mouth to feed. This life is in your hands. Having that kind of duty as a father, it’s a big-time motivator, to go ahead and get that extra rep in and get that extra sprint in, go ahead and work hard while you’ve got the chance.”
Though they aren’t a couple, Carrington and Khalil’s mother are friendly, and Khalil will sometimes stay with her or Carrington’s parents in his hometown of Tupelo, Miss., where Carrington was an all-region selection in high school and recorded 84 tackles, 6 sacks and forced 3 fumbles his senior year.
But Carrington keeps Khalil with him as much as possible, and Khalil may start kindergarten under Carrington’s watch in Jonesboro this fall. That’s fine with Carrington, who was drawn to Arkansas State partially because he sensed a family environment among the players and coaches.
It was that, and the pursuit of his degree, that kept Carrington from entering the draft after last season, when he posted 10.5 sacks and was named the Sun Belt’s defensive player of the year.
“First of all my degree, I finish up in December,” Carrington said. “Another thing is, I wanted to finish out here, my senior year at A-State. I love this place, I’m glad I came here. You only get a few chances to play college football. Not everybody gets that kind of chance. I love this sport man, I know I’m going to miss it once it’s gone and I wanted to get as much as I could out of it.”
So far, he has. Carrington enters 2009 touted in numerous preseason magazines after he bulldozed his way through the Sun Belt last year. He was a sack short of the conference record and tied for 14th in the nation in the category and was seventh nationally with an average 1.58 tackles for loss per game.
Carrington was the first defensive lineman to win the Sun Belt postseason honor since Middle Tennessee’s Jeff Littlejohn in 2005 and only the fourth to win the honor all time.
“He has all the things that you look for from a character standpoint and from a talent and physical standpoint,” Red Wolves Coach Steve Roberts said. “He’s got great size, just over 6-5, 280 pounds. He ran a 4.71 for the pro scouts, which they typically time very stringently. He’s got a great burst off the ball.”
Carrington said he has always had NFL dreams, and as he spoke he sat on a plush sofa in the football complex recruiting room, which is ringed at the top by paintings of NFL helmets under which are posted the names of the Arkansas State players to make the next level.
The list includes recent draft picks like tight end David Johnson (Pittsburgh in 2009) and Tyrell Johnson, the all-Sun Belt safety who went to Minnesota in the second round of 2008, making him Arkansas State’s highest pick since Bill Bergey went to Cincinnati in the second round in 1968.
Clearly things have worked out for Carrington, who has a chance to go even higher, but despite the NFL products, Arkansas State is no USC. So why did he pick Jonesboro?
The answer lies in a little scouting project Carrington undertook after his recruiting visit.
Carrington’s host was defensive back Khayyam Burns, who would wind up among the Sun Belt’s all-time leading tacklers, just behind Tyrell Johnson, and would sign a free agent deal with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2008. Burns told Carrington that Arkansas State was turning the corner as a program, and it would prove it by winning the 2005 Sun Belt title, but as Carrington read up on his fellow recruits, he started thinking further into the future.
Carrington saw Little Rock McClellan running back Reggie Arnold, now poised to become the eighth NCAA player to rush for 1,000 yards four straight years. He saw Covington (La.) High School quarterback Corey Leonard, now set to become Arkansas State’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns, and Carrington saw Mountain Home safety Evan Van Dolah, now coming off a career year in which he had 52 tackles, 1 interception and 4 breakups.
“I went home after my recruiting visit bragging about people, man. … I was in awe,” Carrington said. “I was picturing stuff in my head, winning titles, and then my freshman year we won the Sun Belt Conference. That was real big. And just building off that. We’ve had other chances to win and we didn’t get it done, but the hope is still there.”
So Carrington will spend one more year trying to win a championship with the Red Wolves, and he will fill his free time with his son, watching “Sponge Bob Square Pants,” playing catch and, of course, wrestling.
And if his days ever get too full, if he just feels tuckered out, all Carrington has to do is remember the good life he has worked for is just around the corner.
“It’s times like that, man, where I go to scripture,” Carrington said. “And I look at things and I say to myself ‘There’s somebody that has it a lot worse than I do.’ I’ve got to keep on pushing. One thing my parents taught me is going through tough stuff will make you a stronger and better person.”
