Most college athletes recruited to a nationally prominent university join the team expecting to wait their turn for a start.
Senior running back Shyrone Carey did the exact opposite. He will finish out his senior year fighting for more playing time than he did his first two years.
In 2002, Carey became an active Tiger after sitting out his redshirt freshman year to gain eligibility for leaving Tennessee – the school where he originally signed to play .
With the injury of former running back LaBrandon Toefield, Carey got the opportunity to get some playing time as a freshman.
Carey rushed for 97 yards and recorded 41 receiving yards on the year.
In his sophomore year, Carey shared playing time with running back Joseph Addai but had a promising start, including 73 yards and a touchdown against Georgia.
“Georgia was a big game,” Carey said. “It was the first big game of that year. I just wanted to step up in that game.”
He scored at least one touchdown in LSU’s first six games before suffering a knee injury against Mississippi State. The injury kept him on the sidelines for four games.
While Carey recovered, Addai and Justin Vincent gained more playing time and national spotlight. Since the injury, Carey has not seen the field as much. Despite the setback, Carey said he will still make plays when called on.
“The coaches know what’s best,” Carey said. “I’m just here to play on the team and follow the rules.”
After five years at the University, Carey has matured as a player and a person. He admits to obeying coaches but that was not always the case. Carey sold his Sugar Bowl tickets for profit and was suspended not only for the championship game but also the first two games of the 2004 season.
The coaching staff has changed since, but either way Carey said the only reason for lack of playing time now is because of the knee injury.
“[It] seemed like everything went downhill after I got that injury,” Carey said. “You always want to be on the field making plays whenever you know that you can make plays, but when we’re winning that cures a lot of the frustration.”
Although Carey is not on the field most of the time when the Tigers are winning, he still understands the coach’s decision and remains happy with the position players he competes against.
“You got to hang in there. There’s nothing you can do,” Carey said. “You can’t do anything to the guy who is doing good. Skyler is doing real, real good [at punt return]. I just wait for my opportunity. When I get my opportunity I am going to run with it.”
That opportunity came two weeks ago against North Texas. Carey scored his first touchdown of the season and added another 44 rushing yards. On the season, Carey has accumulated 148 yards on 40 carries.
“I told Shyrone right before the game, ‘your time is going to come’,” Bowe said. “When he scored his touchdown he came right to me and I said ‘I told you, just keep working hard.’ When he scored I said ‘OK you got to go out there and make another one just like he told me.'”
In addition to Carey, Vincent, who has not seen as much playing time since 2003 has been given more carries as well in the past two games. Vincent said he understands Carey’s frustration because he has experienced it since 2003 when he was named the Sugar Bowl MVP.
“Everybody here was the man in high school,” Vincent said. “So it’s not going to be hard to replace you.”
The large scoring deficit against the Mean Green may have played a big factor, but Miles said Addai suffered a minor injury early in the game.
“We wanted to see how they carried the football for the majority of the time,” said coach Les Miles. “I think that was the right decision for the team to see who they will turn to.”
Contact Tabby Soignier at [email protected]