UCA sophomore running back Carlos Blackman has more touchdowns and more rushing yards than any other player on the team four games into the 2017 season.
Blackman has scored three touchdowns and has rushed an average of 64 yards this season.
This is Blackman’s second season with the Bears as a running back.
“[Carlos] is a very humble kid that’s a very violent runner, and he loves the game of football,” UCA running backs
coach Larry Warner said.
Warner said that off the field, Blackman looks out for the rest of his teammates and loves them like an older brother.
Blackman said his motto for football is to “play the next play.”
“Everybody is going to mess up, you aren’t going to be perfect all of the time, so when you mess up just play the next play,” Blackman said.
Blackman has been playing football since he was 7 years old.
He graduated from Gosnell High School, a public school in Gosnell, Arkansas, where he was a running back as a Gosnell Pirate.
As a Pirate, Blackman was all-conference in 2014 and all-state in 2015 and 2016.
Blackman’s role model in football is former San Diego Chargers running back Ladainian Tomlinson.
He said he has always related to Tomlinson because they are both running backs and Blackman spent the
first six years of his life in San Diego, California before moving to Arkansas.
Blackman majors in business management and said he aspires to open a drive-in movie theater in
Arkansas because they are fun and, unlike in California, there aren’t many drive-in movie theaters in the state.
Blackman’s biggest inspiration is former cornerback for the University of Tennessee Inquoris “Inky” Johnson.
He said Johnson inspires him because after Johnson suffered severe nerve damage to his right arm from a tackle in 2006, he was told he would never play football again, but he developed an optimistic attitude toward
life and became a motivational speaker.
UCA senior running back Jarvis Cooper said Blackman is down-to-earth, caring for his family and football brothers and strives in the classroom as well as on the field.
A UCA football player must maintain at least a 2.25 cumulative GPA in order to play.
Blackman said juggling both football and school is very hard, but the coaches are good about
instructing the players them to do school work during their free time.
He said he strives daily to become a better athlete and student for his family because he didn’t have much growing up, so if there’s a chance to give his family the opportunity not to struggle by being successful, in school or in football, he will take it.
