MSU Running Back Wins Prestigious Award
Michigan State Spartan and running back Nate Carter, along with Cookie Baugh, are the first winners of the PNC bank and Michigan State-partnered award: PNC Achievers Student-Athletes of the Month, per Michigan State Athletics.
Carter, in his second season with the Spartans, has 418 yards rushing this season, along with 89 receiving yards. Carter has been a dominant player since coming to Michigan State in 2023. So far in his Michigan State career, he has 1,216 rushing yards with seven touchdowns after rushing the ball.
So far this season, Carter has contributed greatly to the team, even when they come up on the short end of the stick against their opponents. In October, he had a total of 178 rushing yards. The downside for Michigan State is it dropped two of three games it had last month, one against its main rivals, the Michigan Wolverines.
The only man with more rushing yards this season has been Kay'Ron Lynch-Adams. The duo has been outstanding for the Spartans team, leading them to four wins this season.
A key performance for Carter that elevated him to winning this award was the game against the University of Michigan. In that game, Carter had 19 carries and had118 receiving yards.
In a game where the star shined on him, Carter was humble when addressing the opportunities his teammates and coaches had given him to succeed.
"I'm just blessed to have the opportunity to be able to come out here and play," Carter said after the game. "The offensive line did a great job opening up holes for me. They just came through with execution, which started with the O-line, so I give all my props to them for how they handled those guys up front."
Carter himself sees himself as an experienced guy in the locker room and knows how his actions speak louder than words in motivating the rest of the squad.
"First focus is on me and what I can do as a leader, and what I can do as a captain to help push this team to be greater," Carter said. "It goes on to looking at myself in the mirror, then looking at the running back room; how can we grow and get better. That is probably the formula for how this works."
The newly awarded PNC Student-Athlete of the Month and the rest of the Spartans football crew look ahead to Nov. 16 and taking down Illinois.
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Dominic Minchella holds a communications degree from Eastern Michigan University. He is a former MLB writer and joins our team ad an NFL/College team reporter on Sports Illustrated