A little over a week ago, Josh McCarter looked down at his phone only to see a recent Twitter follower: Antonio Pierce. Within no time, the 6-foot-6, the 215-pound tight end was on the phone with ASU’s co-defensive coordinator.
McCarter Facetimed Pierce and the ASU coach spoke with the 2022 Cedar Hill (Tex.) recruit about his own playing career -- the Super Bowl and all that -- and explained what he was trying to build with coach Herm Edwards in Tempe.
But Pierce made the Facetime like a tour. It only lasted about 15-20 minutes but he took the phone around Arizona State’s complex, showing McCarter other Sun Devil coaches and the 2020 squad participating in some offseason workouts.
“It was definitely cool,” McCarter said.
And it ended with McCarter nabbing his second of what has since become three offers (Kansas and Liberty are the others). But in the days since Pierce extended a Sun Devil offer, the Pac-12 announced it would postpone its football season to, at best, spring 2021.
For 2022 recruits like McCarter, the announcement shouldn’t change much. Hopefully, by then, college football’s uncertainties will have been ironed out. But, if conferences like the Big 12, ACC and SEC do play in 2020; there’s a thought that they could earn extra notoriety and grab key recruits from the conferences that decided to opt-out.
McCarter won’t be one of those. He admitted he wouldn’t hold the Pac-12’s decision against Arizona State, instead choosing to base his recruitment on where he feels most involved in the program as a priority. And, though it’s early, the Sun Devils have caught McCarter’s attention in that respect.
“I feel like coach Pierce did a great job. We had a great conversation,” McCarter said, before speaking about ASU’s ‘Pro Model’ coaching staff, “That was one of the things me and coach Pierce talked about. It’s definitely a big thing.
“It’s exciting to know that if I went there, I would be around people built to get others to the next level.”
Though McCarter has ties all over the South -- he was born in Kansas, grew up in Tulsa, Okla. and moved to Cedar Hill a year ago to be closer to family -- he said hasn’t put too much thought into moving far away, but “I’m just trying to get to the next level, no matter where it is.”
McCarter has only been playing football since eighth grade, the same year he grew four inches. When he moved to Texas last August, his inexperience became more evident. He was used as mostly a blocking tight end but realized he needed to improve his speed and get better at tracking the ball.
He’s gone to training sessions and worked hard during the offseason to boost his skill-set, but three college coaches were enamored enough with his athletic 6-foot-6 frame to offer him before his junior year.
“My biggest thing is being physical. Being 6-foot-6, 215, just being physical with guys (is my biggest thing),” McCarter said. “(Coaches like) my size and athletic ability.”
Cedar Hill is expected to resume football activities in September and play its first game in early October, a chance to avenge its stunning state championship loss to Denton Guyer. It’ll be a chance for McCarter to showcase his talents for the schools that weren’t yet ready to pull the trigger.
And as more and more programs join his recruitment, McCarter will still hold close the things important to him.
“I want it to feel like home. I want that relationship (with the coaches). And I just want to be involved in everything really,” McCarter said.
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