Tennessee’s Arion Carter is a good candidate for the Vols’ next breakout player.
The rising second-year linebacker was a highly touted prospect in the 2023 class as a four-star recruit from Smyrna, TN.
Carter was believed to be on the fast track to success during his freshman season with the Vols. The 6-foot-1 freshman manned the reserve linebacker role with more on-field reps with special teams coverage. Carter had tallied 17 tackles, one tackle for loss, and one pass breakup through eight games but fell to injury against Kentucky late in the season. Carter received shoulder surgery in Oct. 2023 and began the road to recovery soon after.
While just a limited participant during spring ball, Carter has been given the green light during fall camp. Carter is back on the field and flying around as he gets his legs back underneath him.
While reviewing his freshman season tape, newly appointed linebackers coach William Inge saw a youthful player with boundless potential. There are screws to tighten, of course, but Inge knew he had a young, talented playmaker despite him not being fully ready to go during the offseason.
“Yeah, I think last year as a freshman, he was very youthful,” Inge said of Carter on Saturday. “He was trying to put things together but sometimes may not have understood the whole concept of something. And I think that’s kind of what my mission was coming in, was to show him not just his job, but what the people around him were doing. And I think that that’s something that he’s kind of really been intentional about.”
Carter’s attention to detail is something that Inge not only noticed but took note of this offseason.
“Sometimes when you leave the parking lot, how you say, ‘well gosh, there’s a car sitting over there. I wonder is this car broken?’ So I would send a text message, ‘Hey, AC (Arion Carter) man is your car, are you okay? Is your car good? No, coach, I’m just here in the linebacker room watching a film.’ And this at 10:30, 11 o’clock at night. And that’s, to me, that’s what it’s all about.”
Carter says that a big part of his film study – something that Inge has challenged of the whole linebacker’s room – is to understand what their teammates’ responsibilities are for each play. Carter says that many of those late nights spent in the film room are with his teammates of other positions so that they can all learn from each other.
“I don’t want to get in trouble,” Carter said with a laugh when asked the latest he’s been in the film room at night. “No, on a serious note, the latest I’ve been here is probably 12 (midnight), 12:30. And it’s just because of the simple fact of when a coach gives me a proposition or gives me an assignment, I want to know it, I want to master it, and I want to be able to reciprocate it to him in the best way possible. At the end of the day, it’s a hold myself accountable, it’s a pride thing for me – knowing what all 11 and myself are supposed to do at all times.”
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The late-night film studies are fueling Carter’s mental strength to combine with the natural athleticism he has on the field – some of which you can’t learn from a film study or a coach.
“The element that he has, something that you can’t coach, is his speed and his quickness,” Inge said of Carter. “He is elusive when he’s on the football field, almost like a cheetah. So it’s great to have a linebacker that can move like that, but have the body that he has from a physical nature. So he’s someone we’re going to be able to really utilize in the days, years, and games to come.”
As previously mentioned, the Vols’ second-year linebacker was limited during spring ball, saving his true potential for Inge for the fall practice field. But even after just a few times lacing up the cleats, Inge has already spotted surprises – or, maybe just things he knew but couldn’t see – out of Carter’s game in the fall compared to the spring.
“Well, in the spring you couldn’t see the elements of contact because he was limited to that,” Inge said. “There were some times in the spring I didn’t know that there was a problem, seeing him move and, and, and do things like that. He just couldn’t have any contact. So I knew from the element of him being able to move him, being able to run, him being able to change the direction, we were going to get something that was going to be elite or on the top end of everything, from a linebacker play standpoint. Now you put together some of the physicality, him being able to make the plays on at the point of attack from a contact standpoint, you can see he’s going to be one of the elite linebackers that you all will be talking about in the days to come in, years to come.”
With Tennessee’s two leading tacklers (both linebackers) from 2023 departing this offseason, Carter will be expected to shoulder more of the load than he did in eight games as a freshman. But if there’s any clear takeaway from the first week of training camp, it’s that Carter has the willpower and maturity to make a big sophomore jump also while returning from injury. It’ll be a lot to ask of the Vols’ 19-year-old linebacker, but a challenge that Arion Carter looks ready to attack.
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