Stanford junior Alex Carter will weigh 2015 entry to NFL

Recommended Video:

If you’re an NFL scout, there’s a lot to love about Stanford junior Alex Carter. He has the size, the speed, the technique, even the bloodlines of an NFL cornerback.

His father, Tom, was a first-round draft pick by Washington from Notre Dame in 1993. He also played for the Bears and Bengals in a nine-year pro career. He now works for the NFL Players Association.

Tom Carter left college after his junior year although he later went back to get his degree. So he’s in a great position to advise his son, who faces the stay-or-go decision after Tuesday night’s Foster Farms Bowl. Stanford will play Maryland, a school that’s about a 45-minute drive from Carter’s home in Ashburn, Va., and was one of the many schools that tried to land him.

Alex Carter recovered from an offseason hip injury to have a superb season for the Cardinal, helping them become the nation’s No. 2 team in scoring defense, giving up 16.0 points per game.

They were seventh in passing defense and allowed only 12 touchdown passes, easily the low in the pass-happy Pac-12, a conference loaded with gifted quarterbacks. Only eight teams in the country allowed fewer TD passes.

A 3-yard touchdown pass from Arizona State’s Mike Bercovici to NFL-bound Jaelen Strong was one of the few allowed by Carter all year. Carter grabbed one of the two interceptions thrown this season by Oregon’s Marcus Mariota, the Heisman Trophy winner.

BERKELEY, CA-NOVEMBER 22, 2014- The Stanford CardinaL retain the Axe against the California Golden Bears winning the 117th Big Game 38-17 at Memorial Stadium on the University of California campus. BERKELEY, CA-NOVEMBER 22, 2014- The Stanford CardinaL retain the Axe against the California Golden Bears winning the 117th Big Game 38-17 at Memorial Stadium on the University of California campus. Photo: Don Feria / Don Feria/isiphotos.com Photo: Don Feria / Don Feria/isiphotos.com Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Stanford junior Alex Carter will weigh 2015 entry to NFL 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Yet Carter (who’s 6-foot, 202 pounds) acknowledges he played at 80 to 85 percent effectiveness as a lingering result of the torn labrum he suffered late in the 2013 season. After surgery, he missed all of spring practice and was able to practice only once a day during two-a-days at training camp in August.

He says he has been helped immeasurably by the addition to the staff of former Texas defensive backfield coach Duane Akina.

“The past couple of years, I feel I’ve been an athlete on the field,” he said, “but Coach Akina came in and really taught us how to play, how to see everything. That’s helped me a lot. I know what to look for. I know how to study. I know the game of football better. That makes me feel better going forward.”

Going forward might mean entering the next NFL draft, but Carter won’t indicate which way he’s leaning. Akina says he shares many of the qualities that made his former Texas pupils Michael Huff, Aaron Ross, Earl Thomas, Quentin Jammer and Kenny Vaccaro first-round draft picks. So was Chris McAlister, another Akina protege, at Arizona.

“If he comes back, he’s going to be more comfortable,” Akina said. “He’ll have a chance to work on fundamentals and technique — just know the game better. There’s no doubt that can help you. But sometimes you’re ready to go. ... He’s a good prospect, there’s no doubt.”

When Carter arrived on the Farm in 2012, after being Gatorade Player of the Year in Virginia the previous fall, he was still shaken by a family tragedy. His 14-year-old sister, Madison, had died earlier that year of diabetes.

As relatives and friends gathered that day at the Carter home, he met Ariana Alston, whose sister had played soccer against Carter’s sister. Over the following months, Alex and Ariana struck up a friendship and attended the Briar Woods High School prom together.

In one of those strange twists in which wonderful things can sometimes arise from profoundly sorrowful events, they’ll marry in July.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald

Foster Farms Bowl

Who: Maryland (7-5) vs. Stanford (7-5)

Where: Levi’s Stadium

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday