After Nolan Hauser’s record-breaking 56-yard field goal walked off Saturday night’s ACC Championship, Clemson senior linebacker Barrett Carter walked onto the field, hoisting a sign.
“Us Against The World” it read, a symbol of the Tigers’ togetherness and mentality during what’s been an up-and-down 2024 campaign.
On Tuesday, Carter made an appearance on ESPN’s College Football Live, where he was asked about the team’s season and mindset heading into the College Football Playoff.
“In one of our team meetings in the last week or two, Coach Swinney said ‘it’s us against the world’,” Carter said. “It kind of just resonated with me. After the game, our kicker made the kick and I’m like ‘I got to write something on the white board’ and it just came to my mind. ‘Us against the world’, and that’s just our team’s mindset.”
Much of the narrative from the national media has written Clemson off, following the lopsided season-opening defeat to Georgia in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“We’re battle tested,” Carter said. “Everyone has given up on us, ever since week one, and us having three losses. They didn’t think that we would be here, they didn’t want us to be here. God opened the door for us and it’s up to us to walk through it now. This team has something special brewing, and it’s up to us to go and show that to the world. We can compete with anybody at the highest stage.”
Former linebacker Sam Acho asked Carter about his early days on the gridiron, including his time before playing linebacker. “Growing up I was always a running back and a receiver,” he said. “They just put me at linebacker because I was always the biggest kid on the field. I was the same size [as I am] right now that I was in the second grade. In my freshman year of high school I was all running back, all receiver. Then one day in the spring, they moved me to linebacker and I was devastated. I literally almost quit football. It was such a sad time, but I’m pretty sure the next day I got my first scholarship offer for linebacker, and the rest was history. It’s crazy how God works things out. If you were to tell me that when I was that young, that I would be a division one linebacker I would have thought you were crazy, so it’s just crazy how it’s all worked out for me.
Carter and the Tigers look to upend the Texas Longhorns in the opening round of the College Football Playoff on Saturday afternoon. Kickoff inside Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is set for 4:00 p.m. on TNT.
