June 27, 2009

Barton Simmons
Rivals High Recruiting Analyst

The first time any football player straps on the pads prior to his first game, there is a certain level of anxiety that follows. For most players, that feeling occurs at a young age in pee wee football or middle school.

For Checotah (Okla.) High School running back Chris Carr, that feeling didn't hit him until his junior year in high school.

When Carr finally did suit up, however, the lights, crowd and opposing team spurred a lot more excitement than anxiety. After all, his stomach had already survived much more than a few butterflies.

Carr's decision not to play football until late in his high school career wasn't out of a lack of desire. The 5-foot-11, 185-pounder had dealt with serious intestinal issues since birth that had limited what he was able to do athletically.

"When I was a baby, I came out very sick," Carr said. "I had a lot of problems, and every other year since I was a baby I've had to get surgeries, and my stomach is all messed up. I was always afraid of getting hit in the stomach. I've had 12 surgeries from being sick when I was a baby. If I had gotten hit in the stomach, I probably would've died."

Carr's medical condition limited his ability to play contact sports like football, but it didn't limit his athleticism. Walking the halls at Checotah High School, Carr's potential on the gridiron was evident. Despite his success elsewhere in athletics, Carr had an itch to see what he could do on the football field. Eventually, he made the decision not to let his childhood sickness affect him any longer.

"I just wanted to play a different sport because all of the other sports were getting old to me," he said. "I wanted to go out for football and see what I could do. I just decided to go ahead and try it."

That decision almost proved extremely costly. In the spring before his sophomore season, Carr decided to kick off his football career and suited up for spring practice. Checotah coach Brandon Turley was thrilled to have the talent out on the field, but things almost ended before they really got going.

"We were in an Oklahoma drill and he fell on the ball and actually ruptured something and had to go in and do emergency surgery," Turley said. "I didn't think he would play football again. It wasn't football threatening. It was life threatening.

"You get those phone calls late at night and they are never good, and that one wasn't good. It quickly went from football to, 'Is he going to live?' That didn't last too long once he got up to the hospital, but then you're just worried about him living a healthy and happy life. Did I envision that a year later he'd be sitting in this position? I didn't."

The position Carr sits in is one of a running back who is returning for his senior season after rushing for close to 1,500 yards and 27 touchdowns as a junior ? his first year playing the game. Carr took his sophomore season off, worked hard to recover not only from his surgery but also to prepare himself for a return to the gridiron.

Despite his serious injury, Carr had no intention of heading back to the stands.

"To me that just shows a tremendous amount of character and work ethic," Turley said. "I think he lost 20 to 30 pounds. He actually still weighs less right now than he did going into his sophomore year. He's finally getting back to where he was. It was scary seeing him like that."

Where most people would shy away from the game after such a serious injury, Carr was reinvigorated by it.

"To his credit, he said he wanted to play and he got a taste for it the little bit that he was around it, and now he's football 24-7-365. He fell in love with the game. Still when you talk to him about playing at the next level his face lights up like a 5 year old in a candy store."

To Carr, the serious injury was just a bump in the road, a part of his past that he will carry with him but not one that he will allow to weigh him down.

"That's in the back of my mind," Carr said of the injury. "I just have to look forward to what's happening now. I can't worry about getting hurt all of the time. It's kind of hard, but I just have to stick with what I do and stick with what I gotta do."

The simple fact that it was Carr's first year playing football made his junior season a shocking success story. The return from such a serious injury made things even more improbable. Even the nature in which Carr found success on the field seems to add to the fairy tale.

"He's got great vision," Turley said. "That's one of those things that's hard to teach. We even saw that in the spring when he was a sophomore. He has a natural feel for where the holes are going to open up. Knowing when that stuff is going to open up is key."

Even after the big season in 2008, Carr was a bit of an unknown commodity to college coaches. His recruiting attention has consisted of primarily the University of Central Oklahoma and Coffeyville Community College. That might soon change.

Recently, Carr competed at the University of Oklahoma's padded summer camp. It didn't take long in that setting for the buzz to pick up about his ability and athleticism. Carr not only held his own, he dominated. Josh McCuistion of SoonerScoop.com saw firsthand the kind of impression the previously anonymous back was making.

"Every year there is an in-state guy who seems to come out of nowhere, and in Oklahoma's 2009 summer camp [Carr] was undoubtedly the guy," McCuistion said. "For a player that has played so little football, he really looked comfortable going through rope drills and, more importantly, working on pass receiving. ... His good feet, nice acceleration and signs of being a good receiver out of the backfield make him a guy that could really elevate his status once his film hits recruiting circles."

Carr's performance was good enough to draw a notable audience.

"He is a well-developed guy who looks like he should have been starring in the game all along," McCuistion said. "It was clear that we weren't the only ones who noticed him as Oklahoma running backs coach Cale Gundy and even head coach Bob Stoops were giving him a long look during the camp."

A performance like that ? at an elite camp like Oklahoma's ? may reverberate to schools well outside the Oklahoma border. At this point, recruiting attention is well past due.

"More and more schools are starting to pop up," Turley said. "When I first sent his tape out I don't know if schools thought that it was just a one-year deal or a flash in the pan, I don't know. But I do know that when you watch this kid on tape and just watch him play, he can really go."

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