Carter Barfield, who spent seven season as running backs coach and two seasons as co-recruiting coordinator at Mercer University, serves as the special teams analyst for the Georgia Southern football squad.
As the running backs coach, Barfield led a stable of running backs that included senior standout Tee Mitchell break Mercer's all-time rushing record with 2,660 career yards & gain 100-plus yards in four games before a season-ending injury. He developed Tyray Devezin into one of the SoCon's best backs while he earned HERO Sports FCS Sophomore All-American honors. Devezin finished season with 926 rushing yards and averaged 24 carries & 117.0 yards over last four weeks after Mitchell went down with injury
As the co-recruiting coordinator, Barfield played key role in landing a 22-man 2019 recruiting class that ranked among nation's best at the FCS level.
Barfield came to Mercer from the University of Kentucky, where he served as an offensive quality control coach and graduate assistant for two seasons. He worked heavily with the quarterbacks and running backs.
Before his time at Kentucky, Barfield spent three years at the University of Tennessee-Martin, working in several different capacities with the team. He started his coaching tenure at UT-Martin as a defensive graduate assistant before moving to the other side of the ball as an offensive graduate assistant coach, where he coached wide receivers for one year. Barfield spent his last year at UT-Martin as the quarterbacks coach, helping create and develop the team’s passing game, while also assisting in recruiting.
Barfield played collegiate football for five years under head coach Bobby Lamb at Furman University as a wide receiver. During his playing years, the team drew top-12 national rankings in four of the five years, including a Southern Conference Championship in 2004.
A graduate of Furman, he received with a bachelor’s degree in history in December 2006. Barfield is a native of Merritt Island, Florida, where he attended Melbourne Central Catholic High School.
He is married to the former Jenny Watson. The couple has two daughters, Hannah and Sarah James.
