JD Duplain raving about Nathan Carter giving Kenneth Walker flashbacks

JD Duplain spoke about new Michigan State running back Nathan Carter this week and the reviews give Kenneth Walker pre-2021 vibes.

Folks, it’s officially hype season. This is the time of the offseason in which we, as Michigan State football fans, buy into the hype surrounding certain players or the team in general.

Right now, Nathan Carter is the subject of most of the hype.

The UConn running back transfer has been getting some glowing praise from teammates and coaches and it just has a familiar feel to it.

Flash it back to the spring of 2021. A little-known running back named Kenneth Walker III just transferred in to the program from Wake Forest and was garnering a ton of praise from teammates and coaches. They were all saying how he was twitchy, tough to tackle, and how he made the offense look better.

Remember those good times?

Now let’s get back to the present. Carter is drawing some similar praise from teammates such as JD Duplain who said that he makes the offensive line look good.

Redshirt senior o-lineman JD Duplain on transfer RB Nathan Carter… ??

'Really good player and makes us look good'

More (On3+): https://t.co/ii9hQLHOgG pic.twitter.com/wUtFhwtp0i

— SpartanMag.com (@TheSpartanMag) March 29, 2023

Let’s get one thing straight: I am not comparing Carter to Walker. That would be incredibly unfair because there won’t be another Walker. I am, however, saying that the feel to this running back addition is exciting. It feels like the backfield will be a threat again.

I liked what I saw in the latter stages of the 2022 season from Jalen Berger and I think he’s going to be a really good complementary piece, but Carter is starting to sound like the RB1.

And that’s intriguing.

Is Nathan Carter going to come right in and rush for 1,500 yards and win the Doak Walker Award? As much as I’d love that, the answer is no. But is he going to come in and immediately improve the backfield and rush for somewhere around 1,000 yards? It feels like that’s the case.

All I’m saying is that the praise for the running back position wasn’t really there last offseason with the two new guys and it was there for Walker and is again for Carter.

Carter is going to be a breakout star in this offense.