Salters steps up in relief
Thursday, October 29, 2009
FAYETTEVILLE — Receivers younger and bigger and/or faster on one side and bigger and more game-seasoned on the other flanked Carlton Salters to his musical chairs spot on the bench much of this Razorback season.
However, if granted an opportunity, there was always a sneaking suspicion the 5-foot-11, 200-pound, clever University of Arkansas fourth-year junior from Tallahassee Fla., would creep into the limelight.
Salters did that last year. He book-ended Arkansas’ 2008 with key catches in theseason-opening, 28-24 escape of underdog Western Illinois and two catches for 29 yards in the season-closing 31-30 SEC upset over LSU.
However with sophomores Joe Adams, Greg Childs and Jarius Wright blossom-ing this year and seniors Lucas Miller, 10 catches for 201 yards against Mississippi State, and London Crawford, the TD-catching game winner against LSU last year, healing from early-season injuries, Salters’ 2008 mothballed like an obsolete battleship.
For Arkansas’ first six games, Salters only logged four appearances and no catches.
Now he not only has another game but a catch.A big catch.
Unfortunately it wasn’t caught in victory like his catches against Western Illinois and LSU among his six catches for 66 yards last year.
But Ryan Mallett’s 58-yard touchdown pass Salters caught on a rebound deflection from Childs versus two defenders was a shining bright spot in Arkansas’ otherwise drab, 30-17 SEC loss to Ole Miss last Saturday in Oxford, Miss.
“I was happy for him,” Lucas Miller said. “He gave us a boost. We’ve got to build on that in games. He made a great play.”
Snaring a 58-yard TD pass on the rebound wasn’t just a great play but a psychic one.
“What’s funny,” Lucas Miller said, “is he came back to the sideline saying, ‘I knew that was going to happen! I knew that was going to happen!’ He’s a smart player and knows the offense.”
How did Salters “know that was going to happen?
“I just had a feeling,” Salters said. “I knew the safety was back there and going up with Greg and thought neither one of them might a have a chance. I just kept goingafter it. I outhustled them. The guy that was covering me thought the play was going to be over and when it got tipped he stopped and I kept playing hard and it fell in my hands.”
Kind of a backwards touchdown, it seemed.
“I had a feeling that Greg wouldn’t be able to go up and catch it over two guys,” Salters said. “So I just hustled over there and just tried to get in position that he could just tip the ball up in the air backwards to me and that’s exactly how it happened.”
With Adams still recovering from the mild strokesidelining him since just before the Oct. 10 victory over Auburn, and Miller re-injured versus Ole Miss though now practicing again, Salters seems to have an increased role awaiting in Arkansas’ 6 p.m. homecoming game in Fayetteville against the 0-7 Eastern Michigan University Eagles on Saturday.
“Wherever the coaches put me,” Salters said, “I accept my role and just keep my confidence going as a receiver.”
Intangibly, Salters’ season-long attitude has impressed offensive coordinator/receivers coachPaul Petrino as much as Salters’ tangible touchdown on the rebound.
“A great kid,” Paul Petrino said of Salters’ spirits those pre-Ole Miss weeks the two-year letterman seldom saw game action.
Did Salters ever feel down those weeks his playing time didn’t go up?
“You want to,” Salters said, “but you can’t because if you do it will start affecting other areas of your life. So I just go out here every day and keep working hard. And if you do, the opportunity will present itself, and when it does, you have to keep taking advantage of it.”
Sports, Pages 7 on 10/29/2009
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