There is one play from last year that stands out in the mind of Utah receivers coach Guy Holliday as the difference between a great season and a good one. It is a clear, autumn afternoon. It starts with play action and it ends spectacularly near the back pylon. In between is a 21-year-old named Darren Carrington II.
This play — a game-winning touchdown catch for the Oregon Ducks — is the first thing former Utes wideout Tim Patrick reminds his coach of during a conversation this summer after Patrick told his old coach he had a friend who needed help.
“That’s the first thing Tim said, and I was like, ‘Oh hell no.’ It hurt,’” Holliday says with a laugh. “But you take the good with the bad.”
After running afoul with the law and his university too many times during three seasons at Oregon, Carrington, the talented but troubled wide receiver, has been given another chance. And, again, it will be up to him to decide how it ends.
PART II • On Thursday night, this time with Utah fans cheering him, Carrington walked past the same corner of the end zone in Rice-Eccles Stadium, where last November he contorted his body and stamped one foot down, killing Utah’s Pac-12 title hopes for the year.
“It meant a lot to be out there again, to get a second chance ,” he said.
In his debut as a Ute, the graduate transfer showed his speed, precise route-running and hands, pulling in a game-high 10 catches for 127 yards — more than any Utah receiver had in a game last season — and a touchdown.
“He’s as advertised,” Utes coach Kyle Whittingham said.
That’s why programs were lining up for a chance to lure Carrington this summer, and what Utah expects on the field from the wideout, arguably the best to wear red and white in years, during his lone season in Salt Lake City.
Of course, playing football never has been Carrington’s problem. Those have come outside the lines. In three seasons at Oregon, he earned All-Pac 12 second-team honors and racked up nearly 2,000 total yards to go with 15 touchdowns. He also missed a bowl game after failing a drug test, was cited for having an open container of alcohol, was accused of assaulting an Oregon fan in a case of mistaken identity and, most recently, charged with DUI after crashing into a pole at a McDonald’s drive-thru.
That was Carrington’s final strike in Eugene, where new coach Willie Taggart already had to dismiss an assistant for a DUI offense.
IMPRESSIVE START <br>In his first game as a Ute, Darren Carrington II caught 10 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown. It was more receiving yardage than any Utah player had in a game last season. <br>Here are Utah's top receiving games of 2016 <br>Player • Opponent • Statistics <br>Tim Patrick • San Jose State • 121 yards, 6 catches 1 TD <br>Raelon Singleton • Arizona State • 116 yards, 4 catches, 3 TDs <br>Tim Patrick • Southern Utah • 105 yards, 5 catches, 2 TDs <br>Tim Patrick • USC • 100 yards, 6 catches, 1 TD
“It’s always tough because you always want to help young people,” Taggart said at the conference’s media days this summer. “You know, you don’t ever want to throw them out or kick them to the curb. You want to help them reach their dreams, goals and aspirations, but in the same sense we have rules. And the rules, you have to abide by the rules, and when you break the rules, there are consequences.
“Unfortunately, the consequences for Darren were for us both to move on. I wish him nothing but the best. He’s a great football player, and I hope things get right for him.”
Carrington’s family hopes for the same. That is a major reason why they felt Utah was the best fit for the wide receiver when he examined his choices for transferring from Oregon.
“Football was going to take care of itself,” Darren Carrington Sr. said. “Darren, he’s competitive. I think God has given him talent. The one thing I was looking for, especially right now with where he is in his life, I wanted someone or a program that was going to invest in him beyond football. Even though I know it’s a short-term thing — it’s a business decision, it’s five to six months — I wanted someone that’s going to invest in him more than football.”
PART III • Darren Carrington Sr. spent eight years in the NFL, half of them with the San Diego Chargers. His work now, however, centers on faith and relationships. So the associate pastor of marriage and parenting at the Rock Church in California gave his son a brief lesson.
“My whole thing was we have to make sure you understand that this was the reason why you’re going through this — because of a bad decision that you made,” the elder Carrington said.
The next step was finding a new home.
Patrick was the first person to reach out to Holliday on Carrington’s behalf. Meanwhile, Carrington got in touch with Utes quarterback Troy Williams, whom he knew from their days as prep standouts in southern California. Soon Utah offensive coordinator Troy Taylor was talking with the family.
The day after Carrington’s dismissal from Oregon was announced, Taylor was in discussions with Whittingham and athletics director Chris Hill about bringing in the transfer. Two days after that, the Carringtons were on a plane to Utah.
The wideout had interest from schools around the Pac-12, but ultimately only took one visit before making his decision.
“My question was answered when coach Holliday picked me up,” Carrington Sr. said.
Holliday is well liked among his players. He tries to be an inspirational leader as much as a coach. And he sees some of his own story in Carrington.
“I’m from a challenging background. I‘ve made a lot of mistakes,” Holliday said. “If I lived in this time, I might not be here because I would have been one of those kids [people] wouldn’t want to take a second chance on.”
Whittingham and his staff checked references before making their decision. They talked to Carrington’s high school coaches and coaches from both Mark Helfrich’s and Taggart’s staffs at Oregon.
“When … we had a chance to sit down with the family and know that since he’s been in college, he’s had some tragedy in his own life,” Holliday said. “Sometimes we expect young people to deal with things the way we would. But when we heard all that, we were like, wow, he has a story to tell. We understand this, and let’s take a chance.”
Carrington: I want to take full advantage of every opportunity I get to step back on this field 'cause you never know when it could be gone. pic.twitter.com/lndJjZRju1
— Aaron Falk (@aaronfalk) September 1, 2017
PART IV • Quarterbacks and wide receivers can form special bonds. For Carrington, no bond is stronger than the one he formed with his high school quarterback and best friend, Markel Byrd.
The pair first played together in Pop Warner, then at San Diego’s Horizon Christian Academy. When Markel didn’t have a ride to school, Darren made the 45-minute drive to pick him up on the south side of San Diego. When Markel’s parents demanded he do chores before going to games or practice, Darren helped.
When the two went different ways for college, Carrington to Oregon and Byrd to New Mexico, they still stayed close, talking regularly on the phone.
“That’s the guy he opened up with,” Carrington Sr. said.
Carrington II and Byrd last spoke in December 2015, shortly before Byrd started a drive from New Mexico back to suburban San Diego. He had planned to go with the Carringtons to Oregon’s bowl game. The single-car crash that killed Byrd left Carrington hurting badly.
Carrington Sr. said the death should not excuse his son’s mistakes, but it might help explain them.
“It took some time to really work through that because he’s not necessarily a guy who necessarily opens up,” the father said. “He didn’t have a lot of people to talk to and converse with. Sometimes idle time is not the best thing for you when you have different thoughts and emotions.”
Dijonai Carrington recalls her brother calling her from school, sometimes at 3 or 4 in the morning, unable to sleep.
“He didn’t know how to cope,” she said.
Too often, the sister said, he turned to alcohol.
“That was my brother. I love my family, but he was closer to me than any of my family members,” Carrington II said. “… It’s definitely impacted my life, but I make my own decisions and I own up to all of them.”
Carrington II wore Byrd’s No. 22 in his first game following the crash and still wears remembrances of him.
“Every time I step on this field, I know he’s watching,” Carrington II said.
He also has recorded multiple songs and videos commemorating his friend’s life. In one of them, Carrington points to a poster of Byrd on a wall. On it, there is a quotation: “Not sure what God has planned for my future but I know it will work out in the end.”
PART V • People often mistake Dijonai Carrington and her older brother for twins. They are, in fact, three years apart in age, but they are extremely close.
After her brother’s arrest, Dijonai said he avoided her.
“I think he was nervous and ashamed because I look up to him so much,” she said. “I know that broke his heart.”
Now, Dijonai says her brother calls often and sometimes late, but to tell her he got back from running or using the jugs machine at Utah’s practice field.
“We’re all so grateful they decided to give him a second chance and a fresh start,” she said. “Now I want him to be who we know he is. I just want the world to see the real Darren.”
How Carrington’s time at Utah ends remains to be seen. But team officials said they believe they have set him up for success.
The wide receiver unquestionably will fit in Taylor’s pass-heavy offense. Those around the wideout point to the success L.A. Rams receiver Cooper Kupp had under Taylor at Eastern Washington.
“I really feel like people have seen maybe 60 to 70 percent of what he can actually do,” Carrington Sr. said about his son.
Off the field, Carrington is required to meet regularly with counselors and pastors, and to steer clear of trouble in Salt Lake.
“You bring a guy in that has some history and you need a support system,” Whittingham said. “You don’t just bring him in and cross your fingers and hope.”
Carrington Sr. believes his son’s dismissal from Oregon already has changed him for the better.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Because when you have a dream and you see a decision that you made has almost derailed your dream, it’s one of those things where you have to wake up.”
Whittingham said Carrington has been “perfect” thus far since arriving on campus. Holliday said the wideout had been “nothing but great.”
“Now, he may break my heart, but I’m never gonna turn away a chance to help a good person who’s made a mistake,” Holliday said. “… Obviously he realizes this is his last opportunity. He’s got great talent and he can either waste that talent or fulfill it.”
Standing on the turf at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Thursday night, Carrington II was asked about the heartbreak he caused the Utes last fall with his touchdown catch, and the heartbreak he could cause them again if he fails to make good on his second chance.
“I just want to take full advantage of every opportunity I get to step back on this field,” he said, “because you never know when it could be gone.”