Carolina high on rookie

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – It isn’t often Steve Smith says anything positive about a rookie, yet he’s been heaping praise on Mike Goodson.

So what in the heck happened to the running back at Texas A&M, where his numbers declined each year before he declared early for the draft?

“I wanted to do a lot more in college,” Goodson said. “But that’s thinking in the past. … I’m going to try to make up here what I didn’t do there.”

The Panthers had the top rushing duo in the NFL last year in DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart. But with their extra fourth-round pick they received from San Francisco in a draft-weekend trade, the Panthers took the 6-foot, 212-pound back.

“When we drafted him somebody told me to go on YouTube and look at him. I watched it and I was like, ‘Wow.’ He was phenomenal,” said Smith, Carolina’s four-time Pro Bowl receiver. “I think he’s explosive, he’s smart, he makes a lot of moves.”

It just didn’t translate into success at Texas A&M. After rushing for a team-best 847 yards as a freshman, he dipped to 711 yards a year later. Last season, in which he was slowed for a while with a sore knee, he managed only 406 yards rushing under new coach Mike Sherman.

There wouldn’t be a second year together. Facing family financial problems – his father, Mike Sr., is in prison after a mortgage fraud conviction – Goodson decided to turn pro.