A running back at Texas A&M from 2013-15, Tra Carson joined Monday's edition of TexAgs Live to catch up on life and look back on his favorite memories in Aggieland, including surpassing 1,000 yards in his senior season. Carson also shared his expectations for the Aggies in 2025.
Key notes from Tra Carson interview
- Right now, I’m the offensive coordinator at New Boston High School. I’m a dad and a father living life.
- I wanted to be close to home, and Oregon was too far. Kevin Sumlin was coming, and A&M was going to the SEC. I wanted to be part of that, and I feel like it was the best decision for me to go to A&M. The family aspect felt like home. Clarence McKinney and Kliff Kingsbury at the time. The players welcomed me with open arms.
- Kids look at college football like a business to the point where they don’t think about what school they follow after college when they’ve transferred three or four times. I think the difference is finding a place that will welcome you back. It’s hard to explain the feeling.
- Luckily, I grew up in the YouTube era, so you can search my name to find highlights. It’s not barbershop talk like when I was a kid. If you heard that I played, you can see it for yourself.
- My favorite on-field memory at A&M would probably be the moment I eclipsed 1,000 yards against LSU. No running back had done it in the SEC at that point. Johnny Manziel had, but he was a quarterback. Coming from a small town like Texarkana with a bunch of five stars from big cities, that was my special moment.
- The Manziel year was the hardest year of my life. Being on the scout team, pushing those guys, working on my game and perfecting my craft molded me to be who I ended up being. Mike Evans, Christine Michael, Ben Malena, etc. Competitions every day at a high level mold you into who you become.
- The Florida game was when we knew we had something special, even though we lost. The explosiveness of the team. It was burning me up on the sidelines. I wanted to play bad. You see those guys every day at practice, but you don’t know how special they are until you play against the other team’s best players.
- I think that team would have had a chance to win it all today. There’s nobody to cover Evans, Manizel is Manziel, the offensive line we had, Damontre Moore on the defensive line and others.
- Going into the Liberty Bowl game practice, Sumlin told me I was the guy until I tap out. They had been rotating backs, but we’re letting one guy take the load for the first time. I was excited and told some family. I knew I was ready for more than I was getting. I was ready to put on a show.
- There are so many talented guys in the room, so you can’t be mad if they are rotating backs, but at the same time, other schools are letting one guy take the load. You just have to wait for your turn. In this era, if a guy transfers out, you’ll get another guy. You have to wait your turn or compete and beat them out. I would love to see one guy take it by the horns, rush for 1,300 yards. Let Marcel Reed do his own thing and will us to some wins. We've got some talented guys.
- Kyle Field is something where you have to experience it. Go to a game, and you’ll fall in love. I remember the season they were renovating and had extra space. It’s super special there. I can’t wait to take my son to some games and show him the Aggie Spirit. Everyone should go to a game at least once.
- As an offensive coordinator, I’m explosive. I want to score a lot of points. We’ll run the ball, but we’re going to have a vertical and spring game. We’ll have shifts and motions, but I want a lot of plus 20-yard plays.
- I got out of the NFL in 2020, took a year off, and was missing the game. Nothing was scratching my competitive itch. So I got into coaching to help with that, but also to guide kids and lead. Helping kids be better young men. A lot of kids need a male figure in their lives, and some kids just need a coach. But I want to teach kids what I’ve learned. I love coaching, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.
- The NFL is a business. Initially, you think this and that will make you play. But it’s tricky. Some things are out of your control. I had a talented room in Cincinnati with Joe Mixon, Rex Burkhead and others. Kyle Caskey, who was an Aggie, was my running back coach. I’m learning how to be a professional the whole time. I enjoyed my time for sure.
- I’m excited about this year for A&M football. I’m going to watch every game. I like what Mike Elko is doing. I saw Reed’s interview last night. I think he’s ready to lead the guys. I’m excited to see the product on Saturdays. I want to see that competitive edge that it takes to win. Don’t just compete.
- With Le’Veon Moss and Rueben Owens II coming back... I want to see those guys go get it. Let the best man win. Somebody could lead the SEC in rushing and lead us to some victories. Why not A&M?
- Hopefully, we turn it around this year. I don’t know why we can’t be consistent. We have some of the best players, and we recruit well. It doesn’t all click on Saturday sometimes. Teams we’re supposed to beat, sometimes we don’t beat them. Hopefully, we can turn the page.
- We had just gotten into the SEC when I played, so we didn’t really have any rivals. We would beat ranked teams, so it felt like a rivalry, but we didn’t have any true rivals. In my area, you either like A&M, Arkansas or Texas. I want to beat Texas. I don’t like them.
- For the kids playing college football, I tell them that it’s a business. It’s a child’s game, but it’s not little boy stuff. We have a running back committed to Texas Tech, Ashton Rowden, and I tell him it’s a business every day, and we have to treat it as such. If he wants to take his career to the NFL, he has to approach it like a pro every day.
- Tyreek Hill’s comments about Achane were an issue. When you mention your teammate to the media, it needs to be positive. I thought it was weird to say something negative like that. Even if that’s how you truly feel, everyone knows Achane is not the biggest back, and you might need to go with a bigger back, but I’m not going to say that if it’s my teammate. You saw what Achane tweeted in response. It seemed to matter to him.
