Norcross (Ga.) High defensive end Lorenzo Carter is participating in the Opening this week in Oregon. To say Carter impressed on Monday is an understatement.
“I had a 39.7 inch vertical jump, I threw the Powerball 41 feet and ran a 4.63 in the forty,” Carter said. “I made it to the SPARQ championship tonight so I was resting my legs a little during the end of practice.”
For the 6-foot-5, 235-pound Carter, he feels very blessed to be a part of such a big event like The Opening.
“I’m just coming out here and having fun. I’m blessed to be a part of this,” Carter said. “Not many high school athletes have been able to do this. I’m just lucky to be here and Nike takes cares of us here too.”
Florida’s coaches have been in hot pursuit for Carter for over a year now and two weeks ago Carter and his family visited Florida and the Gators rose on his board following the visit.
“It was a real good trip,” Carter said. “I felt like they made a big move with me and my parents. We really wanted to get down there for a while and when we did, we saw a lot that we didn’t expect coming in. Coach (Will) Muschamp is a great coach and he’s a defensive minded coach. There aren’t that many of those out there and I really like that about Florida.”
Will Muschamp being both the defensive minded coach and the head coach he is, is something that is in Florida’s favor for Carter.
“That’s great to have that,” Carter said. “With coach Muschamp I’m good and they also have coach (Brad) Lawing there as well.”
There were some reports stating that Carter had narrowed his list to a top three, but on Monday he said that wasn’t the case.
“I’m down to about eight schools,” Carter said. “I know that Florida, Georgia and Alabama are in there.”
Carter said he will visit Gainesville this fall for a regular season game.