Jalen Carter named top defensive tackle in College Football
Georgia has been well represented in the On3 Sports rundown of the most impactful players in the country, releasing a new position’s top 10 each day. The latest position to be put out is defensive tackle with Jalen Carter coming in at No. 1.
Carter, a former five-star in the Class of 2020, has played in all 25 games since he stepped foot on campus in Athens from Apopka, Fla. Named to the All-SEC Second-Team by the league’s 14 head coaches in 2021, Carter finished the season with 37 tackles and 33 quarterback pressures, good for second best on the team. He also had 3.0 quarterback sacks, 8.5 tackles for loss – third among all Bulldogs – and blocked two kicks, one of 20 players in the entire country to do so. Carter was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week after Georgia’s ranked win over Kentucky, a game in which he had a career-high six tackles including 2.5 for loss and a blocked PAT. Just one week before that, he had a career-high eight quarterback pressures on the road against Auburn.
Carter is expected to take on an even bigger role in Georgia’s defense in 2022 following the departure of Jordan Davis, Travon Walker and Devonte Wyatt. All three of them were first round picks in the 2022 NFL Draft, however they are on the record saying that he could be the best player to come out of the group. It’s big shoes to fill, but Carter certainly appeared ready to do so this spring when he spoke with the media.
“Those guys motivated me to do more because they told me I could be a top-10 pick and all of that,” Carter said. “I’ve done a lot that I didn’t do during my freshman year. I’ve just been working hard.”
“Those guys taught me a lot about how everything goes coming here, what I needed to learn, what I needed to do, the technique, how Coach Scott coaches,” he added. “… It gives me motivation knowing that those guys look at me and think, ‘He’s going to be better than me.’”
Carter was included on the preseason watch list for the Lott IMPACT Trophy, has been named a First-Team Preseason All-American by Phil Steele and the No. 4 prospect in the 2023 NFL Draft by ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper.
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