senseless drive-by shooting<\/a> that took her life.\n<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cShe was my best friend, mom and everything, all in one,\u201d Tate told BTN\u2019s The Journey in November 2024.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n\tDontrell Jackson, Tate\u2019s high school receiving coach at Chicago\u2019s Marist High School, where Tate played his first two years at the prep level alongside Baudo, recounted a story to Merrill where he picked up Tate to go throw and catch some footballs. Jackson wanted to use a turf field near Tate\u2019s house.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t“Coach, we can’t go right there,” Tate told him. “People just drive by and shoot at us for no reason.”\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen faced with violence, obstacles or the loss of loved ones \u2013 Tate, of course, faced all three \u2013 the hard truth is that a young person either matures quickly or drowns from stress, grief and self-loathing. By the very nature of his story, achievements and the place he\u2019s arrived at to be the top receiver prospect in the 2026 NFL draft, Tate is among the most mature 20 or 21-year-olds in the country. He had to be. It\u2019s one of the things that makes him such an elite prospect.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tTate\u2019s route-running precision and refined catching skills led him to rack up 51 receptions for 875 yards and nine touchdowns in just 11 games despite playing alongside Jeremiah Smith in 2025. He landed first-team All-Big Ten and second-team All-American honors.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt was easy to see he’s got himself in great shape and how fast he’s moving,\u201d Ryan Day said at Ohio State\u2019s pro day on March 25. \u201cHow fluid he is and effortless he is, moving in and out of breaks, catching the ball, and that was on film. So he’s a guy who is gonna be a number one wide receiver for some organization and somebody that has done it at a high level. And he’s smooth, he’s physical, and he’s gonna be a guy that certainly can have an impact day one walking into a team.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n\tTate has a lot of family on hand in Pittsburgh to celebrate his accomplishments. His father, his father\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, two aunts, grandmother, two best friends, his mentor and former Ohio State wide receivers coach Brian Hartline will all be surrounding Tate when he hears his name called, likely in the first 10 picks.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tGreat obstacles force young people to mature quickly if they are to survive. Carnell Tate chose to thrive in all areas of his life. And, frankly, it doesn\u2019t take a lot of words to express that. His actions have shouted it from the mountaintops. And even the few words he chose on Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt’s a lot,\u201d Tate said. \u201cIt’s every emotion in my body that I’ve been through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carnell Tate isn\u2019t a verbose character. Many players keep their deepest thoughts and emotions hidden from the media.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-602159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}