Up in the stands, Carr’s dad, Evan, looked on nervously. He had watched his son in lead acting roles and playing the piano for high school talent shows, but this was different. He had told Carr the performance would end one of two ways: You will flop or you will do great. No gray area.

The star running back stood near midfield, microphone in hand, during Benicia (Calif.) High School’s homecoming game Oct. 14, 2011. Sporting his navy No. 3 jersey fastened over full pads, Carr sang the national anthem in front of a packed house.

Long before he dominated the Big Ten at Northwestern and joined the New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent, Austin Carr prepared for a different type of debut on the football field.


As Carr belted out the final words, an enthusiastic ovation ensued. It was clear he had dominated the performance.

He followed it with a worthy encore, recording 194 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns in Benicia’s 41-6 victory over Vallejo High School.

“There was a sense of people feeling touched from a kid standing up with that type of courage,” Evan said. “There were people going, ‘Man, this guy is making other people feel good.’ That stadium was his world.”

That clear Friday night epitomized Carr, who is known mostly for his football talents, yet hardly defined by them.

Ultimately, his football performance will decide his future with the Patriots. The former Northwestern standout wasn’t invited to the NFL Combine, then went undrafted, despite leading the Big Ten in receiving yards in 2016.

Carr faces an uphill climb to make the Patriots 53-man roster, but that’s nothing new to the 6-foot-1-inch, 195-pounder.

BENICIA HIGH SCHOOL

Benicia coach Craig Holden rarely included sophomores on the varsity squad, and Carr was no exception. After two seasons of playing on junior varsity, Carr knew he needed to improve his speed in order to flourish at the next level.


So Carr dedicated the summer after his sophomore season to training three times per week in the California heat. Tim McDowell, a member of Carr’s church and a former Vallejo player, focused on teaching Carr proper running mechanics.

A couple of months later, playing against faster and stronger competition, Carr saw the results.

“He got faster that summer and his 11th grade year was phenomenal,” Evan said. “He came home and told me, ‘I love how speed works. They can’t catch me.’ That’s when I knew he gets it.”

At running back, Carr combined for 1,067 rushing and receiving yards with 16 touchdowns. One year later, he broke the Benicia High School rushing record and was named co-offensive player of the year for the conference.

But Carr’s talents and interests went beyond the field.

As a kid, he gained an affinity for the arts after watching “The Lion King” in San Francisco. His mom, Janine, was a classically trained pianist. His dad, Evan, played the drums in a heavy metal band in the early ’90s.

Once Carr entered high school, he immersed himself in many forms of creative arts, from the piano to poetry. He advanced to the 2012 California state finals in Poetry out Loud, a competition in which contestants recite their poems through dramatization. He also played the lead role in “Beauty and the Beast” during his senior year.


“The arts are tons of fun,” Carr said. “With the piano, I like songwriting and much of that is improvising. But on top of that, it is kind of an escape, and something that relaxes me.”

Between football and the arts, Carr served as vice president of the school. He was universally liked and was named homecoming king.

“The thing about Austin is he is not just an athlete,” Holden said. “He populates with all those kids. There isn’t anybody who has more friends than Austin on a school campus because he gets along with everyone.”

Carr used his time economically, balancing football with the rest of his extracurricular activities.

After football practices, Carr ran up the hills beside Benicia’s football field, dragging a tire behind him. Holden remembers one practice in which Carr played running back on the scout team to prepare the first-team defense. No entitlement, no complacency.

Even after Holden approached Carr and warned him of the injury risks, the star running back was unyielding.

“He said, ‘Coach that’s the only thing that will make us better, is if somebody good is running against them,’ ” Holden said. “So there he is, running every play of scout offense, running every play of regular offense. Just an unbelievable, unselfish player.”

While several small Division 1 California schools expressed interest, the prominent national programs stayed away, assuming that he wasn’t tall enough to be a college receiver. Other schools claimed he was too tall for a running back.

Holden, who grew frustrated with these reasons, contacted Northwestern about Carr walking onto the squad. After reviewing his tape, Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald extended the running back a roster spot as a safety.


It was the only opportunity Carr needed.

NORTHWESTERN

Early into Carr’s freshman year, Fitzgerald’s phone rang with some bad news. He was told his walk-on receiver would need an MRI because he had split open his pinkie with a butter knife.

Fitzgerald was warned that Carr might need surgery, not to preserve his football career, but to protect his piano-playing talent.

“Boys, I am not sure this kid is going to play a whole lot of football,” Fitzgerald said to his coaching staff. “That’s why you never rush to judgment at this level on anybody. Obviously, when I made that statement I was darn wrong because he will go down as one of the best receivers in our program history and Big Ten history.”

Once his finger healed, Carr returned to the keyboard. In late February of his freshman year, Carr sang a mashup of Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” with John Legend’s “Ordinary People,” while playing the piano in a talent show. His five-minute performance earned first place.

But opportunities for success were scarce on the football field. His finger injury sidelined him for 2½ months, causing him to redshirt, and he played minimally the following three seasons. Carr worked tirelessly, devoting daily hours to weight training and film study. He earned a football scholarship in September of 2015.


Throughout those four years, his dad relayed a simple message: When your number is called, answer the phone. Don’t let it ring.

Carr listened to the advice, then asserted himself during his redshirt senior season as the best receiver in the conference, while captaining Northwestern. He led the Big Ten with 90 receptions, 1,247 receiving yards, and 12 receiving touchdowns. Among his long list of dominant games was an eight-catch, 158-yard performance at Ohio State, a team which boasted two cornerbacks drafted in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft.

He capped his fifth year with an undergraduate degree in philosophy and master’s in management studies.

“It’s a matter of resilience and building trust with your teammates,” Carr said. “And seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, which you always have to look for.”

Carr dominated the competition through deceiving quickness and sound route-running. Holden can’t remember Carr dropping a pass in his four years at Benicia, and he carried that efficiency with him at Northwestern. As a result of his stellar 2016 season, Pro Football Focus graded Carr as the top receiver in the nation.

Somehow, scouts overlooked Carr, just as they had five years prior. He wasn’t invited to the NFL Combine, although both his unofficial 40-yard dash (4.54 seconds) and three-cone (6.72) times would have placed him in the top-five of the receivers invited to the combine.

But Carr found a lifeline once Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels called him to offer a spot on the preliminary 90-man roster. He signed with New England May 5.

PATRIOTS

Carr wasted no time acclimating himself to his new team. During the first Patriots training camp practice July 27, Carr, sporting No. 84, ran a back-shoulder fade toward the right corner of the end zone. Backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo lofted the ball, and Carr snagged it over rookie cornerback Will Likely, drawing one of the loudest cheers of the day.

Carr’s touchdown catch highlighted a quick start to training camp, where he consistently connected with Garoppolo on the second-team unit. As camp wore on, Carr experienced some typical rookie struggles, running a couple of wrong routes during 11-on-11 drills.

But his dependable hands and work ethic have impressed his cohorts.

“He catches the ball well, runs good routes, [and is a] strong kid,” said Patriots receiver Danny Amendola. “We love having him in the room. He’s really receptive.”

Carr is one of 90 players fighting for a spot on the 53-man travel roster or the 10-man practice squad. He faces heavy competition from many established receivers, including Julian Edelman, Brandin Cooks, Chris Hogan, and Amendola.

This is nothing new to Carr, who compares his current situation to walking on at Northwestern.

“[It’s an] uphill battle all my life,” Carr said. “And you know what, that is fine. I will have it no other way. Earn every single inch.”

On the opposite side of the country, his dad can’t help but sit back and smile.

Evan told both his sons growing up that they needed to pick two favorite NFL teams, one from each conference. Carr’s AFC team of choice was the Patriots. In the eighth grade, Evan bought a Tom Brady jersey, and he became Carr’s favorite player.

“I realize this is the Cadillac, the Ferrari of the NFL,” Evan said about the Patriots. “This is where anybody wants to be. The city [of Benicia] is pulling for him, following every single blurb coming out of the New England camp.”

The swiftness of Carr’s offseason hasn’t allowed the receiver much time to decompress. Between signing an NFL contract and reporting for various team activities, Carr married his long-time girlfriend, Erica, on July 9. During the wedding, Carr played a song on the piano he had written for Erica. Evan accompanied his son on the drums.

Carr is also learning how to play guitar, but he’s devoting as much time as possible to memorizing the Patriots playbook, a complex language in its own right. The Patriots’s first preseason game is Thursday. They are required to cut their rosters to 53 players by Sept. 2.

Until then, the multitalented Carr will continue an uphill climb all too familiar.

“He is going to give everything he has got with his heart and soul,” Fitzgerald said. “I feel honored and privileged to have had him in my life and to be his coach.”

Brad Almquist can be reached at brad.almquist@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bquist13.