How Doylestown’s Michael Carroll went from late bloomer to nationally ranked offensive lineman

For a while, Michael Carroll aspired to be a college lacrosse player. He and his younger brother Liam even made a pact to play Division I lacrosse at Johns Hopkins together. But then “I kind of got too big,” said the now 6-foot-7, 310-pound offensive lineman.

“There was just one lacrosse practice, where I was feeling tired, when I kept having to run around the whole football field,” said Carroll, who lives in Doylestown. “I kept growing, too, I was like, ‘I’m done with this — I’m just sticking to football.’”

He outgrew the sport by his freshman year at La Salle College High School and decided to try another, one that seemed most fitting for his size. It was the first time since sixth grade that Carroll suited up in pads and a helmet, but he thrived.

The senior, who played this season at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., is one of the top players in the nation, ranked at No. 13 by 247Sports and a five-star recruit. With more than 40 scholarship offers to choose from, Carroll signed with Alabama and will leave for Tuscaloosa in January on an early enrollment.

He may be considered a late bloomer to the game, but his parents, Letitia and Mike Carroll, say he’s a natural athlete — it runs in the family. The elder Mike played linebacker at Penn State, while his mother was a basketball standout at Michigan State.

Coaches noticed early on that their son could have played any sport and been successful. His potential in football, though, is special.

“He’s a bit of a savant,” said his former Central Bucks East offensive line coach Mike Moosbrugger, who still trains Carroll. “If I show him something and tell him something, he will pick it up almost instantly. ... I’ve seen multiple videos of him just grabbing a basketball, jumping up, and dunking it without any problem. It didn’t matter whether it was going to be football, whatever sport that man chose, he was going to be good at.

“But in football, he’s every bit of almost 6-foot-8 and has the ability to bend and get down, that’s what makes him so different — even though he’s an enormous human, he’s able to play and move like someone who’s 50, 60, 70 pounds smaller.”

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Carroll spent two years at La Salle before transferring to his local public school, Central Bucks East, for his junior year. With La Salle, he had the chance to watch and learn from players like current Penn State star Abdul Carter, while also opening the door for Carroll to be looked at by college coaches.

At the end of his sophomore year, however, he held only one scholarship offer, from Temple. Carroll felt as if he needed to take matters into his own hands.

“I just started working out a lot by myself,” he said. “I would just always go to Tohickon Middle School, which is right by my house, every single day and do offensive line drills, running drills, push-ups, sit-ups, hill sprints. I would just go until I couldn’t.”

Before joining CB East, Carroll met with Moosbrugger, who played at Wake Forest and in the CFL for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The coach said it took 30 seconds to realize that everything he had heard about the offensive lineman’s athleticism and potential was true. But the area he saw for improvement was in Carroll’s confidence.

The first thing Moosbrugger told him was: “If you do the things I ask you to do, you are going to be an All-American and you’re going to be a top guy in the country.”

“What I saw was a young man who had absolutely no clue how talented he was,” the coach added.

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Moosbrugger made good on those promises. Carroll started to believe it as well after his junior season, when coaches from Penn State, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, and Georgia would fly into town on their private jets to meet Carroll and watch him practice.

During one private workout in front of a Georgia coach, Moosbrugger tasked Carroll with doing pass sets and kick slides as an offensive tackle, which he’ll likely play in college. Although Carroll spent most of his high school career playing guard, he picked it up flawlessly with only an hour to learn the new workout.

The Georgia coach left saying, “That was the best workout I’ve seen all year,” Moosbrugger recalled.

In April, Carroll visited Alabama, where he met with former coach Nick Saban and Eagles guard Landon Dickerson. Knowing the program’s success in winning 18 national championships and preparing many to reach the NFL level stuck with him, Carroll said. In June, he announced his commitment to the Crimson Tide.

“[Dickerson] was telling me to go to Alabama,” Carroll said. “He was like, ‘They’re going to develop you the best out of anywhere.’ He was also telling me that it’s going to take a lot of hard work, it’s not going to be easy at all.”

That has never stopped him before. Carroll wanted to be as prepared as possible for the next level, so his family decided to send him and Liam, a standout sophomore receiver, to IMG Academy in Florida this past year, where the two were roommates.

“You can’t say Michael without saying Liam, you can’t say Liam without saying Michael,” Letitia Carroll said. “They’ve always done this sports journey together. Being at IMG together I think gave [Michael] a great transition from IMG into the college life. It gave them both a confidant and trusted partner.”

He also was able to adjust to a schedule similar to college and play against national competition, but outside of his development, Carroll says, he has matured, and hopes to show off those qualities next fall.

“I got to start from zero again and work my way up, but I want to play when I get there,” he said. “I want to get a little stronger, bigger, and faster.”