Before playing a single snap for Pitt, Kam Carter will enter the 2017 season as one of the most well-known Panthers.
After his one-season stint as a major player for East Mississippi Community College, now synonymous with the critically acclaimed “Last Chance U” documentary series on Netflix that follows it, Carter is something of a national name. College football fans from all over the country got to follow his junior-college experience over the course of eight hour-long episodes.
Upon completing the not-so-arduous task of watching the show in its entirety, here’s some of what you see from Pitt’s newest defensive tackle as Netflix cameras film his every move:
1. Carter often had a rocky relationship with seemingly just about everyone at EMCC, from teammate/roommate Chauncey Rivers to defensive line coach Davern Williams to academic counselor Brittany Wagner. The very nature of the series is to present an unbridled look at these players’ and coaches’ lives, so let’s just get this out of the way: There’s an abundance of vulgar language, both from Carter and others. It’s real life, not a scrubbed-for-TV reality show.
But the show focused as much on Carter’s on-field and off-field battles as anyone, save for maybe talented but frustrating running back Isaiah Wright. In the second episode, he eats his roommate’s snacks and wears his tanktop. You might be picturing some pipsqueak punter bearing the brunt of this, but no, Rivers is a hulking defensive end and a transfer kicked off Georgia’s team for the same reason Penn State booted Carter, marijuana.
2. Things between Carter and Williams got so testy that the D-line coach flat-out tells a recruiter that Carter is not the type of player he wants. The tension between Carter and Williams — a no-nonsense former NFL player who at 37 is trying to ascend the ranks of the coaching world — first starts when a teacher kicks Carter out of class for swearing. Carter apologizes to the teacher at Wagner’s behest, but Williams punishes him by making him roll over and over the length of the football field.
A couple episodes later, Carter and Williams butt heads again when Carter apparently calls the team’s female managers a derogatory term for women, which must have happened off-screen. Williams “rolls” him again after practice, even longer this time. Their disputes come to a head in the penultimate episode, when Carter tells Williams he dropped a class and Williams erupts. Player and coach nearly come to blows, shouting at each other chest-to-chest before others separate them. In the ensuing scene, a coach from Division II Delta State asks Williams which player he was yelling at, and Williams replies, “Somebody you don’t want. … Kam Carter, you do not want him.” Later, in Wagner’s office, Carter’s teammate Jay Johnson looks right into the camera while sitting next to him and proclaims that Carter won’t go anywhere because of his attitude. Carter responds, “I belong at ‘Bama.”
3. Carter has the type of backstory that makes “Last Chance U” so compelling. Many people on the show reference Carter’s upbringing and other aspects of his life as potential explanations for his various clashes throughout the season. In one episode, the filmmakers go in-depth on Carter, interviewing his biological mother, Latoya Carter, who says she and Carter’s father had him when they were 14 and 15. Unsure how to proceed, she raised Carter until he was 7, then sent him to live with her uncle, Aaron Carter, for a steady home life in Germantown, Md. Kam calls his uncle and his uncle’s wife “dad” and “mom” but Latoyia Carter gets emotional talking about the difficult decision she made to move to Georgia so that Kam wasn’t shuttling back and forth from one home to the other.
Latoya Carter goes on to say Kam has battled depression and “self-medicated” with the drug that got him dismissed from Penn State. That harkens back to an earlier episode in which Kam discusses his struggles with ADHD and the medication he takes for it. He tells the camera that’s why he smoked weed, because it helped him more than the pills do, but says he understands now he can’t do so.
4. No one at EMCC was a bigger proponent of Carter than Buddy Stephens, the show’s controversial but successful head coach. Wagner, the academic counselor, tries often to help Carter and empathizes with him, but grows increasingly frustrated. Williams all but says he’s given up on his biggest lineman as their relationship continues to deteriorate on-screen. But Stephens, often loud and brash in his love-it-or-hate-it way, pays Carter some of his nicest compliments. “Kam is a puzzle, but the one thing about him is if Kam really thinks you care about him, and knows you care about him, he’ll bend over backwards for you,” Stephens says. “But you have to stay on him. … Kam’s a good kid.”
Following the aforementioned dust-up between Carter and Williams late in the series, Stephens and offensive coordinator Marcus Wood discuss the incident at practice the next day, turning off their Netflix mics to do so. Stephens then calls over Carter to ask what happened, and tells his player he needs to control his emotions better. He also orders him to sit down with Williams and discuss their argument. “You fix that situation, you understand me?” Stephens says. “You fix it today. I love you, man. Just fix it.”
5. Few fans of the show came out of Season 2 as fans of Carter. Twitter has spoken, and it’s not hard to find tweets from viewers criticizing him based on what they saw on screen. Many were stunned to learn Carter is headed to Pitt, which the show included in the finale just before the credits, as it does with the future plans of several players featured. “In a January tweet, Kam Carter thanked ‘all the haters.’ He accepted a scholarship to play for the University of Pittsburgh,” the subtitle reads.
I want #OkState to beat Pitt anyway, but even more so now that Kam Carter from #LastChanceU is on their team. Hate his attitude.
— Tyler (@OSUfreak82) July 27, 2017
Kam Carter, hands down has the WORST attitude I have ever seen on #LastChanceU idk how he went somewhere
— D2 (@D2_BearDown) July 27, 2017
Just finished S2 of @LastChanceU. Pulling for LB Dakota Allen and QB De’Andre Johnson. Also, DT Kam Carter to Pitt? Would NOT want this guy
— Rodd Baxley (@RoddBaxley) July 27, 2017
“Aw crap.” - Pat Narduzzi watching season two of Last Chance U.
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) July 26, 2017
But some on social media have defended Carter, arguing the show is heavily edited and certain story lines are followed more than others in order to build a narrative. The show did portray Carter as a talented, competitive member of the team, but plenty who watched are wondering what Pitt’s coaching staff must think of it all. Carter did come to his own defense Tuesday night, tweeting, “What they aint show on last chance u is that i got deans list 3.75 …”
What they aint show on last chance u is that i got deans list 3.75 ...
— ★$☆ KAM CARTER ☆ $★ (@PipeUpKAM5) July 26, 2017
The show is certainly worth watching, whether or not you’re a Pitt fan. And regardless of your thoughts on Carter’s involvement, it should be noted the events all took place last year. He’s expected to challenge for playing time this season on Pitt’s defensive line, and it’ll be interesting to monitor his progress throughout training camp, which begins Tuesday.
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: July 27, 2017, 6:22 p.m.