Scooby Carter will go the JUCO route before returning to Alabama football.
Maybe Scooby Carter will rejoin Alabama football in 2021, but he’s heading to junior college.
Carter was a blue-chip prospect by the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2019 recruiting class. According to the 247Sports Composite, the Mansfield, Texas native was the No. 9 cornerback in the country, the No. 15 player from Texas in his class and the No. 91 overall prospect. Carter committed on Dec. 8, 2018, signed on Dec. 19, 2019 and early-enrolled on Jan. 7, 2019.
“I talked to everybody yesterday,” Carter told 247Sports, “They’re really supportive about everything. They talked to the coaches at Gulf Coast and were helping to get everything ready. Me and Coach (Nick) Saban were getting on the right page…If I go there and do everything I’m supposed to and all that, we’ll go from there.”
While Carter heads to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College for the upcoming 2020 NCAA season, his former head coach Nick Saban hasn’t ruled out a return for his former prized cornerback recruit to the Tuscaloosa campus. Carter has all the talent in the world, but has some growing up to do if he wants to ever play for the Crimson Tide again.
“Scooby can have another opportunity to be on the team, and if he wants to start with the team next semester in school, we’ll give him another opportunity at that time,” said Saban.
“He did OK in school, and we’re trying to be supportive and helpful to get him to do the things that he needs to do to have a chance to be successful as a person, as a student and as a player, and we’ll give him an opportunity to come back next semester, if he wants to do that.”
Will Scooby Carter return to Alabama in 2021 after spending a year in JUCO?
Carter had his name in and out of the transfer portal all offseason. He spent more time portal-ing than he did on the football field for the Crimson Tide as a true freshman. Since he only appeared in three games for Alabama last season, he still has four years of eligibility. However, his first year of eligibility will be exhausted at the junior college level than with the Crimson Tide.
From what Saban said about his former player, it seems that the academics weren’t the issue for him last season. Although, Carter was suspended by the team ahead of the SEC West rivalry game vs. the Mississippi State Bulldogs for missing a class. Carter had been arrested back on March 11 for a third-degree domestic violence charge, but his case has been dismissed.
If Carter had struggled in the classroom and wasn’t a top-100 recruit in his class, then that might have slammed shut the door on him possibly rejoining the Crimson Tide football program. However, a year away from the Tuscaloosa campus where he can focus on academia and football may end up serving him more than we all think. Let’s hope Carter finds himself in junior college.
While a return to Tuscaloosa can still happen, Carter needs to put in the work now at Gulf Coast.
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