Nickel Ja’Had Carter is no longer on NC State’s Football roster.
Carter transferred to NC State this offseason from Ohio State. He entered the season as the starter at Nickel. After starting the first 4 games, he missed the game against Northern Illinois due to injury.
In his absence Redshirt Freshman Tamarcus Cooley started in his place. When he returned for the game against Wake Forest, Cooley still started, and Carter only played in 20 snaps.
This past Saturday, Carter once again didn’t start, and only played in 2 snaps.
After Cooley was ejected due to a targeting call, Redshirt Sophomore Isaiah Crowell came into the game, rather than Carter.
Truth be told, Cooley earned the starting job over Carter. Cooley boasts the highest PFF grade on the Wolfpack defense (73.4), while Carter has third lowest grade (59.5).
Carter played one season at Ohio State, and 3 at Syracuse. He earned All-ACC Honorable Mention in 2022 as a member of the Orange, and earned Freshman All-American honors in his first season.
Since the 2020 season doesn’t count towards your eligibility due to Covid-19, Carter entered this season as a Senior, with his redshirt year still intact. Technically speaking, Carter played in 5 games for the Wolfpack this season, even though he only played in 2 snaps in his final game. According to the letter of the law, he doesn’t have the ability to redshirt this year now. I’m assuming he might try to appeal that, but not sure how that would be handled.
Heading into this weekends contest, NC State is definitely in a vulnerable position at Nickel with Cooley having to sit out the first half due to being ejected for targeting. Crowell filled the void, but those were his first snaps ever besides Special Teams snaps in the past.
It will be interesting to see how NC State handles the Nickel position this Saturday.