Freshmen don’t typically walk on to campus at places like Stanford and Texas and see the field their first year, let alone start football games.
But Alex Carter and Quandre Diggs, two cornerbacks drafted by the Detroit Lions last weekend, weren’t ordinary freshman when they got to college.
Both players grew up immersed in football having prominent NFL influences in their lives. It’s not a huge surprise they were more ready than most freshman to step on the field and contribute right away.
Carter, whose father Tom played at Notre Dame and then nine seasons in the NFL, took over as a starter midway through his freshman season at Stanford in 2012.