How new Missouri football running back Marcus Carroll went from bruised to bruiser

Was this kid ever going to have a good day?

Andrew Ramsey really didn’t hold out much hope for Marcus Carroll.

When Ramsey first met the running back, then a rising freshman at Hapeville Charter Academy in Georgia and now a transfer portal pickup for Missouri football, the high school running backs coach couldn’t get the rookie to stop pouting.

“He was a baby. A baby. He cried, complained,” Ramsey said. “To the point where you think, like, ‘What is wrong with this kid?’”

Wasn’t getting enough reps? I’m quitting. His teammates pulled a prank on him, like stealing the laces from his cleats? I’m going home.

But something told the coach to have patience, to have faith. That something, at least in part, was circumstance. Hapeville’s senior running back and incumbent starter went down with a torn ACL during a walkthrough. So, against Ramsey’s better judgment, he let Carroll run.

And whaddaya know?

“Marcus Carroll,” Ramsey said, “took us all the way through the playoffs as a freshman.”

Missouri football has similar ambitions for 2024. The Tigers team that went 11-2 and beat Ohio State to win the Cotton Bowl has to replace several key parts, nowhere more so than the position Carroll, a Georgia State transfer with one year of eligibility remaining, figures to fit into the lineup.

But the running back has risen to the occasion before. All those freshman tears quickly turned to touchdowns.

Was this kid ever going to have a good day?

Quite a few, actually.

“Every time that kid touched the ball, he was scoring,” Ramsey said. … “If you saw his highlight tape, it's nothing but touchdowns.”

Here’s how Marcus Carroll fought to the top, and why he might be exactly what Mizzou needs:

Missouri football running back Marcus Carroll’s challenge

Ramsey joked that Hapeville’s head coach, Winston Gordon, could have fired him for what he was about to do. Even now he’s not sure what he was thinking.

He was about to toss a freshman running back into the game.

Ramsey did not get fired. Marcus Carroll took his first carry to the house.

And didn’t that change the running back’s demeanor …

“He's excited. Now you can see he’s starting to come out a little bit,” Ramsey said. “Like, ‘OK, so this kid does smile.’”

But Ramsey wasn’t about to make that a habit … at least not immediately. He knew, now down his starter, he needed to mold a player who could take the reins of the Hapeville backfield for the next three years, and a player who could do it with the right mien. So, back went Carroll to the bench, and with it came Ramsey’s challenge: Buy in, and you’ll play for me.

“I told him, ‘This is what you're gonna do (and) how you’re gonna do it.’ I got to talk to his mother. And his mother gave me all hands on. She said, 'You can do whatever you want, however you want to do it,’” Ramsey said. … “I told him, ‘You’re gonna buy in, or you won’t play at Hapeville Charter.’”

First, Carroll threatened to go to the junior varsity squad to get his playing time. Ramsey said he’d show up at those games just to make sure he didn’t take a single snap. He saw the running back’s potential. He had bigger fish to fry than junior varsity games.

Second, and out of options, Carroll went to work.

And by the time the playoffs rolled around, Ramsey was sold, and it was the running back’s time.

First game: 200 yards, two touchdowns.

Second game: same again.

Third game: “Who (am I) giving the ball to?” Ramsey asked. “Marcus Carroll. (I gave) it to him again, and he shows out again for us.”

That took the Hornets to the state semifinals against Fitzgerald High, against which Carroll and Hapeville met their match.

Carroll got his mouthpiece knocked out, Ramsey said. When the running back tried to cut, he was fooling nobody. The eventual state champions were running straight through him.

“They tore him up,” Ramsey said. … “They almost broke his back.”

Carroll approached Ramsey at the end of the game, as Hapeville’s season ended.

That was enough.

“After that game, we lost, but Marcus came up to me after that game and said, ‘Coach, I need to get stronger,’” Ramsey said. “I knew he’d bought in. I knew he had the right mindset, and I knew what he wanted to do.

“And from that day forward, when I tell you that kid — his work ethic is crazy. It's crazy.”

Replacing Cody Schrader

Speaking of work ethic …

Missouri returns most of the revived offense that took the team to an 11-2 season and a Cotton Bowl trophy. Most, save for one special part.

Cody Schrader, the Division-II transfer who set the Tigers’ single-season rushing yards record in 2023 en route to a top-10 finish in Heisman Trophy voting, is off to the NFL. That leaves an opening in Columbia.

Nate Noel has joined MU from Appalachian State, and from the coaching staff’s words, appears to have made the most of his opportunities in the spring. Underclassmen Jamal Roberts and Tavorus Jones currently seem to be down the pecking order, but likely have bright futures.

And there’s Marcus Carroll, the Georgia State transfer who was a Doak Walker Award semifinalist after posting 1,350 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns over 10 games last season.

MU running backs coach Curtis Luper said he hasn’t decided on a starter yet but did hint after MU’s spring game that Carroll and Noel both will feature early in the fall.

There’s plenty working in Carroll’s favor. His size — 5 foot 10, 210 pounds — lends to his greatest strength: running downhill. When Ramsey first got his hands on Carroll, the coach said he was a great “rec-ball runner” and could sweep right, sweep left. He was always a tough running back.

But Ramsey wanted to teach him how to jump cut and read defenses.

He learned.

“He developed that inside zone and mastered it,” Ramsey said. “He mastered it. I taught him how to read it from the (defensive tackle) to the safety (and) back to the linebacker. When I say he learned that perfect, he learned it perfect.”

Schrader thrived under the zone runs in Missouri offensive coordinator Kirby Moore’s scheme. Mizzou’s offensive line staged a remarkable turnaround in 2023, going from a weakness the year before to a Joe Moore Award semifinalist the next. The Tigers return three starters along the line and have added Oklahoma transfer Cayden Green to replace the experienced Javon Foster at the open left tackle spot.

Now, it could be Carroll’s turn.

“He understands he’s got a great opportunity at hand to do things that can set himself up for life and his family for life,” Ramsey said. … “I'm excited for him because I want to see him at this top level. The SEC is one of the top levels in college football. He wants to prove to himself that he can play at that level.”

More: Will Missouri football running backs go by committee? Coach compares transfers to former duo

‘He bought in’

Hapeville head coach Winston Gordon was trying to run down the clock. He had a kicker he trusted, and if he could burn some time and buy a few insurance yards, why not throw him out there with a chance to reach the 2017 Georgia Class AA title game?

“We were inside the 30,” Gordon said, “I was just going to get a couple of more yards.”

So, the call was easy enough. Put it in Marucs Carroll’s hands. He’s a big bustling back who only fumbled two times over four seasons in high school. Make him run downhill; fall forward; send the kicker out; game.

Good plan. A smart plan.

But sometimes the best laid plans in theory … well, they get even better in practice.

“Marcus rank the ball inside zone, jump cut, got up field, made a guy miss and dragged that guy into the end zone,” Ramsey said. “Oh my god, just went (off) to end this game. … I’m just like, ‘Did y’all just see what this kid did as a 10th grader? As a 10th grader?’ Oh yeah. He’s him. He’s that guy.”

Hapeville went on to win that title. Carroll’s work had paid off.

In some ways, he helped himself. Ramsey almost couldn’t believe it was the same person.

The kid who couldn’t stop quitting was phoning him at 5 a.m. asking the coach where he was?

Carroll was waiting outside the gym. Ramsey was still in bed.

Soon, Ramsey’s phone consistently started blowing up.

‘Coach, I just ran three miles.’

‘Coach, I’m going to the gym.’

‘Coach, I’m still outside.’

“It’s getting to the point where I’m tired,” Ramsey said. “‘I know I told you to call me, but stop calling me.’ … When I say he decided to buy into this sport, he went all the way in.”

In other ways — like the players against whom he was cutting his teeth — Carroll couldn’t help but get better.

“In 2017 (Carroll’s sophomore season), my entire defense line went Division I,” Gordon said. “Kingsley Enagbare is at the Green Bay Packers; he's the most notable one. Caleb Kelly went to Stanford. Dennis Jackson went to Eastern Michigan and then to Campbell.”

To avoid getting cracked, Carroll went to work.

Ramsey had a half-mile-long strip by his gym. He also had a tractor tire. He remembers Carroll flipping it all the way down and all the way back.

“His lips are dry, white,” Ramsey said.

Carroll rose to the challenge. Ramsey has all the videos still up on his Instagram account. He can’t think of a single highlight of Carroll’s that wasn’t taken to the house. He recalls multiple occasions when the back tallied single-digit carries but managed 100-yard-plus games.

“He has great vision, and I think there's no wasted motion,” Gordon said. “You know, a lot of running backs, a lot of times, have a lot of wasted motion, and I think he's decisive. He’s one of the most decisive runners you're going to see in the country.”

It got to the point where, during his junior and senior seasons that were “highlight reels,” Ramsey said the team had to stop giving him the ball because they had aspiring Division-I wide receivers who needed touches.

It was a long way from the player who threatened to quit as a freshman; who Ramsey wasn’t ever sure would have a good day.

“He wanted to be great,” Ramsey said. “He always felt like he was the underdog. He always felt like nobody wanted to give him a chance and this and that, and I just told him, ‘If you ride with me, I swear I’m gonna make you the best back I can.’ … And he bought in.”

More: ‘Not normal’: Darris Smith brings size, speed to Missouri football defensive end room

More: Broken lamps and smashed records: The story of Missouri gymnastics star Jocelyn Moore

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How new Missouri football tailback Marcus Carroll went from bruised to bruiser