Martels Carter Jr. is making the most of his move from safety to running back

Martels Carter Jr. was recruited to Kentucky to play safety, but Will Stein has a different vision in mind for the Paducah Tilghman (KY) product. That vision came to life during Saturday’s Spring Game at Kroger Field.

Carter has been taking reps at running back since the beginning of spring practice, as CJ Baxter and Jovantae Barnes, who are expected to be at the top of Kentucky’s running back depth chart, are being held out for precautionary health reasons. Carter has been filling in as a backup ball carrier in their place — and doing it effectively. He toted the rock four times for 22 yards with a goal-line touchdown (the first of the day) in the Spring Game. He also caught a pair of passes for 10 more yards.

“I’m very proud of him just for making a change,” Stein said of Carter after the scrimmage. “That’s hard on a young man who is playing safety and because you don’t know what the future really holds. I’ll tell you about this, Martels Carter is about Kentucky, he’s about the team. And what I saw every day from him was improvement. You all saw out there. He’s got natural running back ability. He does. He catches the ball well. He’s got good vision.”

While going from defense to offense is a challenging move for any college player, Carter is at least no stranger to suiting up on offense. He played both sides of the field as a junior and senior in high school. Carter was normally a wide receiver whenever on offense for the Blue Tornado; however, he still logged 17 carries for 214 yards and three touchdowns on the ground as a junior before posting 13 carries for 127 yards and two more scores as a senior, the latter season resulting in a Class 4A state championship.

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Carter only appeared in four games as a true freshman last season, which allowed him to preserve his redshirt. But he was strictly a defensive player in 2025, logging four total tackles for the Wildcats. He took the field against Toledo, Ole Miss, Eastern Michigan, and Tennessee Tech. Three of his tackles came against Eastern Michigan.

It’s yet to be seen what Carter’s role (whether that’s on offense or defense) will look like once Baxter and Barnes are back in the mix, but Stein seems to like what he’s seeing so far this spring. It sounds like the plan — as of right now — is to see if Carter can continue to develop into a real depth piece at running back for the upcoming season.

“I’m excited about the future of him at back,” Stein added. “And we’ll continue to press this summer and fall and get him into a spot to be productive for us this fall.”