Carpenter is a three-year starter for Trotwood-Madison, leader of a 9-2 team and Indiana University recruit.
His journey began with B Sweep, a simple bootleg. He followed lots of blockers, scored lots of touchdowns and won a lot of games.
“Once I started playing quarterback the more I started to fall in love with it,” he said. “Watching NFL guys and college guys just made me fall in love with the game even more.”
On the journey to senior year and to Friday night’s second-round Division III home playoff game against Celina, Carpenter built relationships that have helped the Rams succeed.
He knows head coach Jeff Graham better than anyone else on the team because Graham doubles as quarterback coach. Graham played receiver at Ohio State from 1988-90 and for five teams in 11 NFL seasons.
“Best coach I ever had,” Carpenter said. “He just knows so much of the game when you sit down and watch film with him.”
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
The relationship goes beyond the field and film study. It extends into community service work in the summer and lots of time to talk about how to prepare for the next levels.
“He’s been through everything that I want to go through,” Carpenter said.
Graham enjoys being around Carpenter.
“Very personable, great kid and he tells you these animated stories,” Graham said and laughed. “He’s always got something to say.”
Carpenter says his most important relationship is with God. He expresses that faith at the start of every interview. He wants football to be a platform for sharing his beliefs.
“I’m a believer in God and without him I wouldn’t be here right now, I wouldn’t be playing football,” he said. “We take stuff for granted like just waking up every day and just breathing, let alone playing football. Being able to use football to spread his word is one thing that’s big in my life.”
That spills over into his relationship with many of his teammates. He estimates about 35 of them attend church every Sunday at Phillips Temple on Shiloh Springs Road. Team bonding also began on the field during the 2021 season. The Rams were young with one senior starter. Carpenter, in an obvious leadership role, didn’t have a big senior class to look up to. So being leaders means a lot to the senior class.
“We know what it feels like not having a leader, and we don’t want the younger guys going through what we had to go through,” Carpenter said. “If you lead by example and do what you’re supposed to do and they follow it, they’ll more than likely do what they’re supposed to do.”
Carpenter, who stands 6-foot-4, completed 66% of his passes this season for 1,473 yards and 19 touchdowns. He threw only one interception. He rushed for 369 yards and six touchdowns. He was labeled raw as a sophomore, so he worked more than ever this past summer with a quarterback trainer to refine his mechanics and increase velocity.
Experience has also taught him how to handle the game’s stressful moments.
“When I was younger I used to get rattled a lot,” he said. “But now it just comes with maturity and just just playing the position for so long. You realize you just got to control what you can control and just have an even keel.”
Helping rebuild the Rams into a strong program has been important to Carpenter and his classmates. As sophomores they were 4-5 before losing a first-round playoff game to Bellbrook by 30 points. As juniors they were 6-4, won a close playoff game at Chaminade-Julienne, then lost by 29 at Tippecanoe.
This year’s losses came to Division II teams Cincinnati Winton Woods (8-3) and Cincinnati Withrow (10-1). They earned a home game as the No. 3 seed and opened with a 42-0 win over Oakwood.
Carpenter’s numbers are good but not huge. Graham said his quarterback has learned what they all must learn.
“The potential really is showing because of what he has demonstrated this year of not being selfish,” Graham said. “He might not throw for 3,000 or 4,000 yards, but his percentage as far as turnovers, touchdowns is at the top. You have your personal goals, but then you got to have your team goals. People will follow a leader, and that’s the one thing I could say this year he’s really become.”
Carpenter watches college football and likes the way Washington’s Michael Penix, a former IU starter, and Oregon’s Bo Nix play quarterback. On Sundays, he watches Joe Burrow lead the Bengals.
“He’s just so calm,” Carpenter said. “Never lets the moment get too big, and he does what he has to do.”
Carpenter plans to keep playing that way as he learns the college game. He also wants to finish college ready to be an entrepreneur.
“If I’m making millions of dollars and I’m one person, I don’t need millions of dollars as one person — I can help give back to the community,” he said. “You never know what somebody’s going through. Just because of mistakes they made in their life, maybe me helping them can help them get back on track. And later on down the road they’ll look back and be like, man, if he never helped me, I would never have got back on my feet.”
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