Senior Spotlight: James Carmon

It's July, which means it's basically football season, right? Well, we're certainly close. With that in mind, the BulldogBlitz.com Senior Spotlight continues today. Every day, until there are none left, we will profile one of Mississippi State's seniors entering their last year in Starkville.

No. 77 James Carmon, offensive tackle, 6-7, 345-pounds

How did he get here? Carmon's career began back in his native Baltimore, Md., where he was named all-state, all-metro and all-county as an offensive lineman at City College High School. He was also a standout center on the basketball team. From there Carmon went on to become the nation's top defensive tackle at Gulf Coast (Miss.) Community College. The former four-star prospect was rated the No. 8 junior college recruit in the country with offers from Coastal Carolina, Memphis, Ole Miss, South Florida, Southern Miss and Tennessee.

What did he do last year? Carmon saw action in all 13 games for the Bulldogs last season drawing three starts at defensive tackle. He finished the season with eight tackles (two solo, six assists) and one pass deflection. Carmon's best outings came against Auburn and Ole Miss where he recorded a pair of stops.

What does he need to do in 2011? Carmon began making the transition to left tackle last fall during Gator Bowl practice and continued through spring practice. He and redshirt freshman Blaine Clausell exited the spring deadlocked in competition for the starting nod to replace Derek Sherrod.

Carmon no doubt has the talent and the tools to be a dominant left tackle in the SEC. The only question is can he learn the new position by Sept. 1? He moves extremely well for a man his size but his blocking skills are still very raw.

Carmon will need to take advantage of every single practice and scrimmage because not playing offensive line for three years there is still plenty of rust to knock off. If he can continue his evolution through fall camp he should be MSU's anchor on the left side in the opener against Memphis.

Coach's quote: "The thing with James he that he has only had 14 days of really being at that spot. So it is a change coming from where we was, which was playing about 15 to 20 plays a game to playing 75 plays a game. There is no longer a rotation like he had at defensive tackle and now you get in there and keep rolling." - John Hevesy, offensive line coach