TU Receivers Hope To Continue McLain Legacy

The Golden Hurricane held its second scrimmage of preseason camp Saturday morning.

The graduation of McLain High School alum, Shawn Jackson, left a big hole on the TU defense, but a pair of freshman receivers hope to carry on the McLain legacy.

Nigel Carter has been thrust into possibly starting as a freshman.

"With some of the plays I have to get more comfortable with and after the spring I kinda got more confident with the playbook,” Carter said.

It's a good thing he did, with Keyarris Garrett sidelined for the moment with shoulder injury, Carter is one of the TU freshmen that's starting to get more playing time.

"You see his self-confidence is really grown and then just then just a matter of his athletic ability has really helped him mature,” said TU Wide Receiver Coach, Ban Bitson.

"Biggest thing is just trying to tell them just to slow everything down and to keep it in your mind that this is, not like, I mean, it's still the same game, you know, we're still playing football so I just try to keep that in your mind, get the confidence back," said TU Receiver, Keevan Lucas.

Carter came from McLain High School, which has produced notable TU players and coaches, like Bitson, who used to coach at McLain, former TU Linebacker Shawn Jackson and current teammate Bishop Louie.

"Me and Bishop always talked about going to the same school, we were going to build a legacy. Shawn already had a legacy and he has one, but me and Bishop just want to continue on with that legacy,” Carter said.

"Lot of those Tulsa Public School kids may not have necessarily the best facilities or the best weight room, but again, they have a huge upside, because you know they're going to grow and develop into something really special,” said Bitson.

While Carter has that wide-eyed look sometimes while he's on the practice field with the first-stringers at TU, he's excited that his high school, McLain, is getting exposure and he said he's not only playing for himself, he's playing for his community.

"Being on that side of Tulsa you see a lot of kids that want to be good, but they don't have anybody that can put them under their wing, or something like that. For me, I don't do this for me, I'm doing this for people out on the north side."