Derek Carter is a safety who has not played this season; the last season with a stat line was 2025, at West Virginia.
Carter moves between deep coverage and the slot. The first one came in 2023: All-Conference USA. One game to point at: 8 tackles and 2 tackles for loss against Utah — Week 5, 2025.
Play style
Moves between deep coverage and the slot — the modern positionless DB.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
31 tackles. 4 passes defended. 1 interception. 2 TFL.
Counts only, never a rate — splash-event sample sizes this small (interceptions, pass breakups, TFL) are noise as a rate and signal only as a tally.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
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| Season | Team | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | West Virginia | 31 | 21 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 4 | 1 |
| 2024 | Jacksonville State | 31 | 21 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2023 | Jacksonville State | 44 | 26 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 8 | -- |
| Career | 106 | 68 | 5.5 | 0.0 | 13 | 2 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 9 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 2 | L 10-17@ Ohio | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | L 10-41@ Kansas | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 5 | L 14-48vs Utah | 8 | 7 | 2.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 8 tackles |
| Wk 6 | L 24-38@ No. 23 BYU | 4 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | L 13-45@ UCF | 3 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 9 | L 17-23vs TCU | 7 | 3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 2 | |
| Wk 10 | W 45-35@ No. 22 Houston | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Wk 11 | W 29-22vs Colorado | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 12 | L 23-25@ Arizona State | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 31 | 21 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 1 | 4 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
PD rate
13%4 pass breakupsInterceptions
1interceptionsTackle volume
31tackles this seasonTFL rate
6%2 TFL31 tackles · 2 for loss · 4 pass breakups · 1 interception.
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 9 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home3g | 5.7 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| Road6g | 2.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-74g | 4.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Rich Rodriguez
Pass share
38.7%
327 pass / 517 run
Plays / game
70.3
12 games
Team sack rate
7.9%
369 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-heavy.
Player standing · 2025
About as many tackles a game as a typical FBS defensive back who plays every week.
Recognition
Production · CFB Zeitgeist Score
2026 outlook
Outside shot for All-Big 12
Based on 2025: #22 of 40 Big 12 Ss
A base rate for the rank, not a forecast of this player: 15% of returning players who ranked #21 or lower at their position in their conference made an all-conference team the next season (95% confidence interval 13–17%).
Honored in a first season.
Trophy case · Confirmed honors
What the selectors said
ALL-CONFERENCE USA · 2ND TEAM
All-Conference USA 2nd team (2023)
Coaching lineage · 2023–2025
1 coachPlayed for 1 head coach at 2 schools: Rich Rodriguez.
