But for the moment, just know that this Air Force veteran and economics professor is one of those behind-the-scenes guys who makes UC Davis athletics the shining national example it has become in its Division I era.
"I have a whole slew of academic-policy work in the education world," explains Carrell. "It's what really drives my passion, why I do the athletics work.
"I fully believe that athletics is a pathway for education for kids who would probably not otherwise go to UC Davis — or may not go to college at all."
Carrell came to Davis by way of the Air Force Academy, University of Florida, the White House and Dartmouth.
After graduating from the Colorado service academy, Lt. Col. Carrell retired from the Air Force in 2015. He did post-doctoral work at both Florida (where he met his wife, Susie) and at Dartmouth, where he also taught.
While in a return stint at the Air Force Academy, Carrell was whisked away by Greg Mankiw — chair of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers — to spend the summer of 2004 as the interim senior economist for labor and public finance at the White House.
His list of degrees is an embarrassment of experience. His current responsibilities would implode any Google calendar:
• Co-faculty director of the California Education Lab (UCD School of Education).
But Carrell, a man I've known since he arrived in Davis more than a decade ago, took some time out of his daunting schedule to have a coffee and chat.
"Most of those positions are parts of my life that people in athletics have no clue about," says the native of Keokuk, Iowa.
Take the California Eduction Lab ... In concert with Michal Kurlaender, Paco Martorell and Executive Director Sherrie Reed, Carrell has helped raise $10 million in grants for important research over the past six or seven years.
Benefitting California schools from kindergarten to post-secondary, Carrell's work with the lab aims to find ways to keep people in school, raise the bar without precluding participants and discover what the state has been missing in its approach to public education.
"We're the only people in the world that have done this," Carrell told me. "Taking all the California Department of Education data — test scores, demographics, course-taking — then merging it with college-going records ... from state colleges, the UCs and the entire California community-college system.
"Look up the Ed Lab website (
ucdavis.edu/california-education-lab). We have policy reports there, designed to help (administrators) and educators."
Beyond the lab, his study of labor economics and his efforts on behalf of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Carrell also is locked into teaching economics and focusing on student-athletes' needs and program compliance.
But Carrell looks back at his early days as a heavily recruited prep footballer that started him on his life's mission.
"My recruitment as a football player out of high school opened my eyes to the world and led me on a journey that landed me at the Air Force Academy," explains the Aggie faculty representative to athletics.
"From there, it was my education research that motivated me to work with athletics."
It was while studying at Dartmouth that Carrell went on a nationwide search for just the right teaching position.
"I never heard of Davis. Someone had to convince me to apply to UC Davis. They told me what a great town it was — because I'm a small-town guy — and how good the economics department was. My choices were Florida State, Syracuse and Davis."
The Carrells picked Davis ...
"What I love about it here is that it truly is a world-class university," says the Aggie Renaissance man. "Yes, there are a lot of great universities out there, but (UC Davis) is a place where you can get a phenomenal education and compete at the Division I level.
"It's not the Power 5. It's the Big West and Big Sky. It's highly competitive Division I athletics."
Carrell says Aggie student-athletes can excel on the field and in the classroom. And therein lies the man's primary charge.
Protecting the academic integrity of UC Davis as it pertains to athletics is what Carrell champions. He addresses waiver requests, ensures eligibility and monitors (along with compliance director
Katherine Zedonis) all sports programs so there are no violations of the ever-changing NCAA rules.
Zedonis and Carrell meet monthly to that end.
"My other charge?" the former Air Force lineman repeats a question. "Very broad and undefined, but it's to oversee student-athlete welfare. Make sure (the student-athlete) has the resources to compete, in both the classroom and on the playing field."
Also, Carrell has been a part of almost every UC Davis coaching hire in the past decade, either on the selection committee or as part of a new Aggie's orientation to campus.
When current Athletic Director
Kevin Blue was brought from Stanford to UC Davis, Carrell was the chair of the search committee.
"And what
Kevin Blue opened my eyes to ... was not only did he have a vision for having students graduate, but he had a vision for setting them up for life after sports."
Aggie EVO — a career-launch program that Blue pioneered for student-athletes — is "second to none," Carrell believes. He credits its director, Mike Lorenzen, and the outcomes advisers who work to ensure that student-athletes not only graduate, but have internships along the way, know how to seek out the correct career position and, in some cases, have jobs lined up upon graduation.
"(We support them in) whatever they want to do, whether it's play pro sports, go to graduate school or get the job they want to get," adds the labor economist who studies education. "And that's what is exciting to me."
So what does the future hold in Aggie Nation?
Carrell noted that EVO is being studied as a campus-wide effort, not limited just to sports. It was Blue who approached university Provost Ralph Hexter with the idea in 2018.
"I'm extremely happy with the job
Kevin Blue has done. What I see, that the rest of the world doesn't necessarily see, is how good the morale is in the department," offers Carrell.
"Kevin is an incredibly smart guy. He can intellectually stand toe-to-toe with any professor on campus. And that's what is so nice about Davis. It's not a traditional Division I school."
Carrell says UC Davis has come a long way since convincing folks that Division I athletic competition was the wave of the future:
"We're not trying to be Oregon. Not trying to have Lamborghini chairs in the conference room, but we need some things.
"The student-athlete performance center is step one. Some of our facilities don't have lights. There's a need there for soccer, softball, baseball."
But Carrell goes on to point to Chancellor Gary May's understanding of how important athletics are to the spirit (and financial well-being) of a university.
"The chancellor supports athletics, understands the value of athletics and, as he has said, athletics 'are the front porch of the university.' "
Notes: Scott and Susie (who is a counselor in the Davis Joint Unified School District) have two sons. Zach will be a pitcher for coach Matt Vaughn's baseball crew and Luke — a junior at Davis High — just guided the Blue Devil football team to its first Delta League title in 25 years.... Carrells remain close to Davis High sports. Scott videotaped all the Devils football games and both he and Susie support the DHS Football Backers. As his kids were growing up, Scott coached them as Davis Junior Blue Devils. ...Keokuk, Iowa — 11,000 population when Carrell lived there — was the 1855-56 home to Mark Twain and his brother Orion, who owned a printing business.
One of the most well-known and respected sports writers in the industry, former Davis Enterprise sports and managing editor Bruce Gallaudet joined the UC Davis Athletics staff as its feature writer in the summer of 2018. Since then, visitors to UCDavisAggies.com have enjoyed his unique perspective on campus student-athletes, coaches, teams, individuals, programs, events and projects that represent the fifth-ranked public school in the nation.
