Why Did Lovasea Carroll Move to Cornerback?

Running back Lovasea Carroll is one of coach Kriby Smart’s top grabs from the 2021 recruiting class, but right now, he is not lining up in the backfield. 

Carroll has been moved to cornerback, and Smart calls it a “spring experiment.”

"It's experimental. We recruited him as a running back, but we're really deep at the running back position,” said Smart.

Georgia has one of the deepest backfields in the country, if not the deepest. Zamir White, James Cook, Kendall Milton and Kenny McIntosh will all be around for at least one more season. Carroll, a four-star, was a Top 10 running back in his class, but he is not projected to make much of a dent into the other talented players’ workload. 

Questions were raised when the players’ jersey numbers were released on Georgia’s roster, and Carroll’s uniform number was 12, which is the same as fellow freshman quarterback Brock Vandagriff. Carroll is still listed as a running back on the roster, but having the same number as another offensive player was clearly a sign of a change. 

This switch should not come as the biggest surprise, as a handful of players have been moved to one side of the ball or the other once they arrived in Athens. Namely, Mark Webb and Tae Crowder. Webb was recruited as a wide receiver and was then moved to the secondary. Crowder was also a running back recruit, but he ended up as a productive linebacker for the Bulldogs. 

Their success can help hinder the shock of making a talented running back play a position that he does not know. 

“He's embraced the position, he's made some good plays, he's had some bad plays,” said Smart. “He hasn't played this position so to put him out there with some experienced wideouts and some guys who have played a lot of football is probably not fair to him, but that's how you grow and how you get better: by failing.”

Smart points to the longevity of different positions as to why changes have been made at times. 

“I've been around a lot of good running backs, I've had running backs that I've signed that have texted me and said, 'man, I wish I would have played corner,' just based on what these guys are getting paid in the NFL,” said Smart. “The shelf life of a corner is much longer than a back and there's a lot more corners active in the NFL than backs.” 

Clearly, this is something that young players think about when trying to reach the NFL. With this notion, Carroll may have even gone to Smart and talked about switching to the secondary. After all, the running back room is crowded in Athens, per usual, and Carroll was most likely not going to receive many touches. 

Again, this is still labeled as an experiment. Something to remember is that Georgia is depleted at corner, and that is likely another reason why this change is being flirted with. 

Tyson Campbell, Eric Stokes and DJ Daniel are gone. Georgia does not have a lot of players in the secondary. If Carroll succeeds at his new position, this will look like a brilliant decision a couple of years down the road.