[Tuck4Bama]

STARKVILLE — The first time Wesley Carroll's mother realized her son might have a future in football, he was on a peewee team in Cooperstown, N.Y.

He couldn't have been more than 10 years old. The ball came to a wide receiver, and Carroll, a safety, punished him so hard that he was punished, too.

"He had two penalties called on him," Denise Carroll remembers. "He knocked him down so hard, the referee, it was all he could do, he called unsportsmanlike conduct and something else."

So maybe it wasn't the most technically sound thing Carroll has ever done, but the message had been sent. He was going to be a college football player, a mission he's taken for most of the seven moves his family has made across the country.

That mission has taken him here, this week, at this school 912 miles from his Parkland, Fla., home, fighting for the starting quarterback role on a 3-1 Mississippi State team that plays South Carolina on Saturday.

MSU coach Sylvester Croom has said both Carroll, the true freshman, and Josh Riddell, a junior, will play.

Who will start? That's up for grabs this week in practice.

It's been up for debate, too.

MSU Football: All the right moves