Colleges

Receiver's talent packs a wallop

USF's Carlton Mitchell has a devoted fan in former light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver.

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published August 26, 2007

TAMPA - Antonio Tarver, former light heavyweight champion of the world, is raving about a 19-year-old you've probably never heard of, with a level of high praise many boxers would reserve for themselves.

Carlton Mitchell isn't a boxer, though, and when Tarver met him, he wasn't even a football player yet. Next week, the 6-foot-4 Mitchell makes his debut as a USF receiver, and count Tarver as someone in his corner.

"I'm a fan," Tarver said after a two-hour workout at a north Tampa gym. "He has incredible upside. We really don't know how good and great he can be. Sometime this year it's going to click, and he's going to be that phenomenal athlete that his coaches and everybody around him feel he can be."

Yes, Tarver's part of the everybody around him, though Mitchell has enjoyed it being the other way around. When Tarver handed Roy Jones his first knockout in Las Vegas in 2004, Mitchell was in the ring celebrating with him, but now it's Tarver excited about a young man who reminds him of himself in many ways.

"For me to be in this conversation, it's flattering," said Tarver, who plans to attend a game or two at Raymond James Stadium this season. "I can't take any credit for where he's at. It's through his hard work and following his own dreams."

If there's one person responsible for helping Mitchell get to where he is, Tarver said it has to be Angela Mitchell, a single mother who cultivated her son's love of sports and introduced him to Tarver. She and Tarver dated for a few years, and now, she's literally in Tarver's corner, a pioneer of sorts as a cutwoman in professional boxing.

"Carlton's had a lot of positive people who have been very supportive of him," said Angela, an anesthesiologist who works at Memorial Hospital of Tampa. "I've tried to instill in him how important it is to be humble, to just pray and to work hard."

Mitchell has athletes in his own family. His father, Carl, is 6 feet 8 and played pro basketball in Europe for 12 years, and his half-brother, Carl Jr., known as "Skeet," is 6-10 and playing in the Dominican Republic. Carl and Angela divorced in 1996, and he lives in Dothan, Ala., where he'll be able to see his son's second game at Auburn in two weeks. The way Angela raised Carlton and his sister, Jasmine, continues to inspire him.

"She's my main motivation," said Mitchell, who talks and text-messages with his mom several times a day. "She's making history right now."

Starting Saturday, when the Bulls open their season against Elon, Mitchell has a chance to do that himself. He has known Tarver since he was 12, becoming good friends with his son, Antonio Jr., now a freshman point guard at Daytona Beach Community College. The two played in summer pickup basketball games, and years of seeing Tarver and his work ethic has given Mitchell a perspective most redshirt freshmen don't have.

"He's like a stepfather to me," said Mitchell, who moved to Tampa when was 7. "We're still real close. He helps me a lot with everything. He's a cool guy to be around."

Cool, for instance, to be in Vegas in the fifth row ringside when Tarver knocked out Jones. It's one thing to have a brush with celebrity, another to be confused with one.

"People kept running up to me: 'Tarver! Tarver! Tarver!' " Mitchell said. "It happened so many times, one time I just said, 'Yeah, that's me.' I signed something for somebody."

Mitchell has had other run-ins with famous athletes. Look at pictures from his baseball days and you'll notice a high leg kick in his pitching delivery, much like former Yankees star Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. Mitchell was a youth-league teammate of Hernandez's godson and got to watch the 1999 World Series as his guest.

Wanting to stay close to his mother was a major reason Mitchell picked USF. He had visited West Virginia, whose coaches even courted him at his basketball games. But while he was at a football camp there, his cell phone didn't work, and he realized how hard it would be to be away from home.

He visited Miami, but it didn't feel right. And even as a Gainesville native, Mitchell declined invitations from Florida to attend Gator home games.

He liked USF, and much of that was liking being close to his mother.

As much as coaches love his athleticism, they say his personality is what stands out: a big, ever-present smile, a positive attitude and very little awareness of how good he can be.

"He's one of the nicest kids I've had the opportunity to coach," Gaither High coach Mark Kantor said. "He's got a great personality that supersedes the talent he has."

When Mitchell signed his scholarship papers at Gaither, his mother let him get his first tattoo: a simple "C" and "M" on each arm.

He later added one with his mother's name, another with his sister's. When he told his mother he had gotten another tattoo, she had but just one question: "Where is it?"

He showed his mother the top of his back, with the word "BLESSED" stretched from shoulder to shoulder, with angel wings, and she had to smile.

"Mom," he said, "you always tell me I'm blessed."

"Yes," she replied, "but I didn't mean to put it across your back."

For Mitchell, being blessed isn't about being 6-4 with track-star speed. It's about his mother, his coaches, Tarver and all the people he has had the luck to meet who have prepared him for the spotlight that awaits him in the fall.

The bell rings Saturday.

Greg Auman can be reached at 813 226-3346 or auman@sptimes.com Check his blog at blogs.tampabay.com/usf.

It's a fast number

Carlton Mitchell wore No. 83 while he redshirted last year but was happy to switch to No. 2 at the end of the season. He has had the number since his freshman year at Gaither High, where he had picked No. 4 for himself.

"One of my first coaches told me, 'Why'd you get No. 4? That's a slow number,' " Mitchell said. "He's like getting mad at me: 'You need No. 2. You need a fast number.' So I switched numbers, and ever since, I've been No. 2."

Not to argue, but senior cornerback Mike Jenkins, one of the fastest players on USF's roster, wears No. 4.

Lover, not a fighter

Despite his friendship with Antonio Tarver, Mitchell said he has never boxed ("I'd have a nice reach") but has enjoyed watching the sport, especially Tarver's fights.

"It's different being there in person than watching on TV," he said. "You can't really see the hits, they're so fast. The people in front wear these little plastic things because blood's flying all around on them."

Mitchell sat in the fifth row ringside when Tarver fought Roy Jones for a second time in Las Vegas in 2004, handing the former champion his first career knockout.

"When he knocked Roy Jones out, I ran in the ring," he said. "You could see me on TV, jumping up and down."

Greg Auman, Times staff writer

[Last modified August 25, 2007, 22:55:19]