by Rob Moseley

Editor, GoDucks.com

SAN ANTONIO — Somehow, it both breaks and warms the heart to know that teammates who can relate will be there to help Darren Carrington grieve the loss of his best friend.

It's heartbreaking that others have experienced the grief Carrington is enduring in the wake of a car wreck that claimed his friend and high school teammate, Markel Byrd. Yet it's somehow heartwarming, too, to know that others will be there to help Carrington navigate the grieving process, and prepare for Saturday's Alamo Bowl game.

“I know it's going to be hard for him, and I know how he feels,” said UO quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., Carrington's roommate for the bowl trip, who lost his childhood friend Austin Lacy to cancer in 2011. “I'm going to be there for him, whatever he needs.”

Byrd, 20, died Tuesday while driving from New Mexico — where he was a safety on the football team — to Phoenix, where he reportedly had family. Carrington said the best friends since seventh grade planned to celebrate Christmas together at home in San Diego, for the first time since they were in high school.

The two last spoke the morning of the crash, Carrington said, before Byrd began the drive west.

“I was just like, 'I love you, bro, make it safe,'” Carrington recalled Sunday. “He was like, 'For sure, bro, love you too. I'm gonna call you when I get closer.' And he never called.”

Oregon safety Tyree Robinson also knew Byrd, the two having grown up together in the same San Diego neighborhood. Byrd opted to attend high school elsewhere, at Horizon Christian Academy with Carrington, but the two stayed in touch.

It was Robinson who first heard news of the accident, and called to see if Carrington knew anything. That was the first Carrington had heard of Byrd's passing.

“I just didn't know how to tell Darren,” Robinson said. “When I gave him the phone call, he didn't want to believe it. I tried to call him back, and next thing you know he was crying. The only thing I wanted to do was just be there for Darren, because that was his best, best friend. He was my good friend, but that was his best friend.”

Carrington said he and Byrd grew up playing against each other in Pop Warner football, and first became teammates on a basketball club team in the summer after sixth grade. Carrington tried to persuade Byrd to enroll in the same junior high school, and though that didn't come to pass, they became best friends as seventh-graders.

The two played basketball, football, baseball and volleyball together. If they weren't hanging out at one of their houses, they were most likely at the other. For high school, they finally enrolled together, with Byrd playing quarterback and Carrington at receiver for the football team.

“I was closer to him, honestly, than anybody in my family,” Carrington said. “I have two sisters, so for me to have a brother that was (also) my quarterback, it was a dream come true.”

On Sunday, Carrington was back on the football field, able to smile and joke with the rest of the Ducks. His grief may not lift any time soon, but there are respites.

“I feel like being back at practice will help me a lot,” he said. “… I lost a brother, but it feels good to be around these guys I love.”

In the Alamo Bowl, Carrington will honor his friend's memory by wearing jersey No. 22, Byrd's number at New Mexico. Robinson said he and Carrington intend to honor Byrd through their play, as well.

“We're just going to live for Markel,” Robinson said. “So you can expect me and Darren having that extra motor out there on the field”

Robinson can relate even further to Carrington's grief, having himself lost a high school teammate too soon, Demeatrice Hayes in 2013 while Robinson was redshirting with the Ducks. And Adams will be there for Carrington this week as well, having endured the loss of his friend Lacy in 2011.

“It's so hard,” Adams said. “That's your best friend. That's your brother. There's nothing you can really say.

“We all know he's in a better place, but it hurts. It hurts.”