Talent Moving On - Stephen Carr

Football not unlike any sport experiences change all the time. Change occurs for all sorts of reasons and seldom is perfect. Usually there is a one-sided benefit path you can trace from the start of the move to the move itself. But sometimes it occurs by individuals who had it all where a program once seemed so right and yet the obvious wasn't obvious. Today college football faces its biggest challenge. The transfer portal. It's deeply concerning for those of us that love the past and the purity that loyalty and commitment really meant. But things are always changing. Football programs want immediate results and tend to let go of things they once thought recruitable and investing 100's of dollars in their future. Not anymore.

Stephen Carr was a highly recruited high school athlete. He loved everything there was to see and say about his dream to be at the University of Southern California. He entered the program so full of hope and showing all that was anticipated in the early practices and development. His first year he saw the field and everyone was nodding their heads that this was the right person for USC's dream to re-create RBU once again. Not so much re-create it but restart it. Have 3-4 years of sustained proof and not hype.

In 2017 Stephen was an instant splash on the grid iron. He was used as a backup tailback for the majority of his time on the field. He appeared in 10 games although he missed the Notre Dame, Utah, Oregon State and Arizona State games due to a sprained right angle that occurred during the Washington State game. He actually started once against the Cal Bears and finished the season with 363 yards with 3 TD's and a 5.6 yards per carry average. The future looked very promising. He received honorable mention for the 2017 All-Pac 12 roll call.

The seasons moved on and with Graham Harrell installing an all out passing attack the Trojans were de-focusing running the ball. They stopped developing the Offensive Line to push and drive and spent their time on back pedaling which is very challenging when a run play is called. So we saw a stable of good talent at USC wasting away with very little focus on developing their once fine careers.

Then the Transfer Portal raised its ugly head in 2021 and USC was seeing talent coming in that further took away from the time the RB's would see on game-day. Sad that all this loyalty amounted to so little in the way of pay back for all those practices and wondering if USC would ever refocus on running again. Don't hold your breath on that. Stephen Carr saw an opportunity to move on. He entered the TP and quickly announced he was reuniting with his old RB Coach at Indiana. A great move for everyone.

I for one believe USC is very happy that this is happening as it resolves all the potential locker room challenges a team faces when they are unable to keep talent on the field of play.

Indiana now has a powerful running back who when healthy can explode on any play. Is Carr perfect? No, but with the right coaching and development with Indiana he now has the possibility to get back to where he was while also furthering his chances for the next level of the game.

Fight On #7 we wish you well. Always a Trojan to the fans