New RB Nathan Carter delivers in debut, with room to grow for Michigan State run game

EAST LANSING – It wasn’t a 75-yard touchdown run around the edge on the road, but Nathan Carter’s debut for Michigan State football immediately evoked memories of Kenneth Walker III.

A transfer running back taking the first handoff on the first play of a Friday night game for a big gain, eliciting a seismic roar from Spartan fans. Only Carter burst through the middle of Central Michigan’s defense for 31 yards to begin the season and his MSU career.

“I knew the first play we were gonna run …, and I knew that cut was gonna be there,” Carter recalled later Friday night. “The offensive line did a great job executing. And when I saw the hole, I just ran for it.”

Yet to compare anyone to what Walker did in his one season after transferring to MSU from Wake Forest isn’t quite fair, particularly his 264-yard, four-touchdown breakout opener at Northwestern to begin a magical 2021 season.

Carter’s debut had a few rough moments, including getting stopped twice for no gain on fourth-and-1 in the first half. But the sophomore transfer from Connecticut, for the most part, lived up to his advanced billing, showing power and vision in rushing 18 times for 113 yards and a touchdown during the Spartans' 31-7 victory over the Chippewas at Spartan Stadium.

“It was breathtaking, I will say that,” said Carter, who is the third consecutive transfer running back to start and rush for more than 100 yards in MSU’s season opener. “I definitely got emotional running out there in that tunnel and seeing 75,000 people there. It was a blessing.”

The 5-foot-10, 200-pound native of Rochester, New York, supplanted last year’s starter Jalen Berger, who ran for 120 yards on 16 carries in his Spartan debut against Western Michigan to open the 2022 season. The 6-1, 215-pound Berger assumed No. 2 duty Friday and finished with 24 yards on eight carries, including a 12-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, while adding four catches for 30 yards.

Coach Mel Tucker on Monday said he felt the Spartans’ receivers, particularly Antonio Gates Jr. and Jaron Glover, provided strong blocking outside the formations. He felt his tight ends were “solid” but pointed to them needing work on that aspect.

“Some of those plays that were not efficient, the tight ends didn't get the job done,” Tucker said. “And then inside (on the offensive line), just better technique overall, communication, pad level. But I saw guys finishing, playing through the whistle, being aggressive, finishing on top, finishing forward. The backs were running hard. The quarterback was getting us in and out of the right plays. It was a solid start for us. …

“We knew it was gonna be a challenge, but the guys played hard. I thought that as the game went on, our conditioning showed up and guys were able to play hard and finish and continue to build momentum throughout the game.”

The Spartans used three backups behind the starting offensive line of left tackle Brandon Baldwin, left guard J.D. Duplain, center Dallas Fincher, right guard Geno VanDeMark and right tackle Spencer Brown. Fincher started over returning starter Nick Samac, a fifth-year senior who entered Friday listed as questionable but played in a reserve role along with Keyshawn Blackstock at left tackle and Ethan Boyd at right tackle.

Of CMU’s two sacks, one was due to a scoring rule on an intentional grounding penalty on new starting quarterback Noah Kim, and the other with younger depth linemen up front on the final drive protecting redshirt freshman backup QB Katin Houser.

Though MSU’s 127 team rushing yards were only 14 more than their 113.0-per-game average from a year ago, which ranked 110th out of 130 Football Bowl Subdivision programs, the Spartans did so against a CMU defense that is strong and experienced on all three levels. Still, CMU stuffed nine of MSU's 48 rushing plays (22%) and held the Spartans to just six rushing first downs, including another 31-yard jaunt by Carter in the fourth quarter.

The Spartans had a 208-89 advantage in total yards in the second half, with 74 of those coming on the ground.

“It goes back to execution,” Carter said. “We started off slow, and I think everyone could tell that we started off a little slow offensively. And then at halftime, we came in and it was like, ‘Hey, we know what we gotta do. We have the players, we got the plays, we know we got to do. We just gotta go out there and execute.’ And that's what we did in the second half.”

Outside of those two explosive runs and the two fourth-down stops, Carter's other 14 carries went for between 2 and 8 yards. An efficient and productive first outing for him and the rest of the run game, with plenty of room for growth as the Spartans prepare to host Richmond on Saturday (3:30 p.m./BTN).

“The seams are gonna be there,” Kim said. “And Coach Tuck has been showing us videos – as a running back, you only need 18 inches of daylight. So just hit the hole, run it hard and don't let one guy tackle you.

“I think all our running backs can do that, and they will do that. And they'll show that throughout the season.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football: New RB Nathan Carter delivers in debut