ASU's Carrethers ready to hear his name called

Ryan Carrethers' Arkansas State career ended about as gloriously as it could for a defensive tackle.

In the closing seconds of the GoDaddy Bowl, Carrethers lifted his right hand in the air to block a Ball State field goal, preserving the Red Wolves' 23-20 victory in Mobile, Ala., which led to a swarm of teammates celebrating with him on the artificial turf at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

What happened earlier in his final game for the Red Wolves, though, he thought may have hindered his football future.

Carrethers doesn't remember when, but at some point in that game he went to tackle a ball carrier, fell on his knee funny and sprained the posterior cruciate ligament.

"I played through the pain," Carrethers said earlier this week. "It wasn't too severe."

It was enough, though, to prevent him from taking part in a few January rituals deemed valuable for low-profile players trying to put their names into the heads of scouts. Carrethers turned down invitations to play in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl and the prestigious Senior Bowl because of the injury.

It wasn't serious enough to require surgery or even keep him from his daily workouts, but when he's trying to impress scouts who haven't seen him as much as other players, any sort of possible bad impression was too big of a risk to take. Billy Conaty, Carrether's agent from Maryland-based Eastern Athletic Services, had a hard time of convincing him of that at first.

"In college, you play through an injury. In the NFL, you play through an injury," Conaty said. "But when you're on the street, you don't limp through a workout. You're going to hurt your chances of making it to the next level. So, if you're in an all-star game, and you play through that, you're actually hurting yourself."

Conaty said he doesn't think Carrethers' absence from workouts in January will end up hurting him when the NFL Draft resumes tonight through Saturday. Carrethers was fully recovered by the NFL Combine in February, where he weighed in at a stout 337 pounds and bench pressed 225 pounds 32 times, third most among defensive linemen.

That showing, along with a pro day in January in Jonesboro and 13 games of film from the 2013 season in which he accumulated 93 tackles, 8 which went for a loss, and 4 sacks while earning first-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors, should be enough, Conaty said.

"The teams will always go back to those games," he said.

If that's not enough, Carrethers has something else working in his favor. For four years he anchored ASU's defensive line, which usually fronted a 4-3 or 4-2-5 alignment. Carrethers is viewed in the NFL as what Conaty called a "pure nose guard," meaning, an anchor up front for teams that operate out of a base 3-4 defense, or other three-man-front alignments.

Carrethers called that label his "ace in the hole."

Conaty cited Carrethers' stocky frame -- 6-1, 337 pounds -- and strength as obvious reasons that he fits such a mold. He also was a high school wrestling champion in Nashville, Tenn., so he can use his leverage to quickly move down the line of scrimmage to chase down ball carriers, as evidenced by his 16 tackles made last season against Louisiana-Lafayette.

"You don't make 16 tackles in one game without chasing a guy down the line," Conaty said. "There's a lot of strong guys that you might not be able to move, but they're not going to make the tackle. He definitely has the skill-set, and every team we've talked to likes him and they really think he has a future in the NFL."

Neither Carrethers nor Conaty would speculate on which team is most likely to draft him, nor would they say which teams they've talked to most, saying the draft is "totally unpredictable." Carrethers said best case scenario is in the top 100 picks, which would be in the top three rounds, and USA Today earlier this week ranked him the 199th best player in the draft, which would put him in the sixth round.

What Canoty said can't be disputed, though, is his solid film, good workouts after recovering from the injury and a label that makes him desirable to half of the teams in the NFL that run a 3-4 defense.

That package makes Carrethers ASU's best chance to have a player drafted for the eighth consecutive year. Will it happen?

"I think I've done all I can do to wait for this moment," Carrethers said. "So, now, I'm just waiting for the results."

Sports on 05/09/2014

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