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Jalen Carter responds to Todd McShay’s comments about ‘character issues’ from NFL personnel

Sydney Hunte

By Sydney Hunte

Published:

Jalen Carter is one of Georgia’s most important players on either side of the ball, and it’s almost a given that the dominant defensive lineman will opt to forego his remaining collegiate eligibility once the Bulldogs’ College Football Playoff run ends. If he has his way, that run will come to a close on Jan. 9 and with his team celebrating a 2nd straight national championship.

While Carter will certainly be a 1st-round draft choice, some comments Todd McShay said on a recent ESPN broadcast raised some eyebrows.

“With Carter, there are some character issues, does he get along with everybody? What’s he like to deal with in the locker room? Those sorts of issues,” McShay said.

Those comments were met with swift criticism from Carter’s teammates. Carter himself was asked about them during Thursday’s Peach Bowl media session.

“It really didn’t affect me,” he said. “I’m always a positive guy. I look at the positive side. I never look at the negative. I try to stay away from that, and when it came out, I didn’t really pay no mind to it. I just talked to my team and told them, ‘Let’s keep going’.”

While those kinds of comments would have eaten at a number of student-athletes, that wasn’t the case for Carter.

“I didn’t take a minute to let go of [it]. I really let it go as soon as I first heard it, and I just kept moving on. I told my teammates, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s just go to the (Playoff) and ball out’,” he said.

Sydney Hunte

Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.

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