His other half
The first sentence is the same.
Delone Carter? ‘Oh, that’s like my little brother,’ said Northwestern senior running back Tyrell Sutton
Tyrell Sutton? ‘Tyrell’s like my brother,’ said Syracuse sophomore running back Delone Carter.
Family comes easy for Carter and Sutton. So does symmetry. They’ve spent enough time together – and have enough in common – for both. Both grew up in Akron, Ohio. Both look similar (5-foot-10, 214 pounds for Carter; 5-foot 9, 205 pounds for Sutton) and run similar. Both struggled with injuries last year.
And they have the same high school hardware: Sutton won Ohio’s Mr. Football in 2004. Carter won it the next year.
‘I always told him that, you know, you can tell me about anything,’ Sutton said. ‘Because anything that you’ve done, I’ve already done it.’
They played together for two years at Archbishop Hoban High School before Carter transferred to nearby Copley High School. They’ll be together again Saturday as the Orange open its season on the road against the Wildcats at 12 p.m. It will be the first time they’ve shared the field since Carter transferred.
They’ve stayed close since then. So close that when asked about each other, the first sentence is basically the same. The second isn’t far off.
‘We stay in contact all the time,’ Sutton said.
‘Any time we’re home, we’re together,’ Carter said.
Of course, it wasn’t always like that. Six years ago, Sutton was a high school sophomore, fresh off a sterling year as Hoban’s starting varsity tailback. But the freshman players kept talking about this other kid, Delone, the freshman who was going to steal his job. Carter never said much to Sutton about it – one difference: Carter’s quiet, Sutton isn’t – but the freshman kept chirping.
‘That didn’t bother me too much, but at the same time it did,’ Sutton said. ‘I wanted to make sure (Carter) knew what he was getting himself into.’
He found out soon.
The season came and as Sutton figured, he still starred as the tailback. His freshman counterpart didn’t make the splash that his teammates predicted, but he worked his way onto the varsity squad by the end of the season. By that time, the sophomore had embraced the freshman. They ran together. They lifted together, pushed each other. Their work ethic was similar – and so were their running skills.
Carter started at cornerback and returned kicks as a sophomore. He got a few carries, but the offense still focused on Sutton.
‘Their styles are not drastically different,’ said Hoban head coach Ralph Orsini. ‘They run a lot the same way. Delone runs with power. He has a lot of shiftiness. Tyrell’s the same way. They’re individuals that if you don’t hit them properly on defense, they’ll run you over.’
Orsini wanted to expand his offense to include both of them. He studied how Wake Forest, for one, used multiple backs, and hoped to shift to a double slot formation at times. He wanted both available as weapons. Sutton would still be the bellwether. Carter would be a dangerous understudy.
But Orsini never got the chance. He walked into his office one day in the winter after Carter’s sophomore year and Robert White, Carter’s step-father, was there.
Carter’s family had decided to move. It was a difficult time for their son, one that still frustrates his parents, White and April Carter-White, five years later. White shakes his head when he talks about it.
Other Hoban students would spit slurs at him, White said. They tried to draw him in to fights, tried to bring him down, he said. So his parents decided it was best for their son to transfer to Copley High.
‘It was a growing experience,’ Carter said. ‘Just realizing what’s in the real world, and knowing I’d have to deal with certain things and overcome obstacles.’
Sutton understood. And Carter now had a chance to make his mark somewhere else. His own mark, not one always compared to the back who ran before him.
On his own for the first time, Carter gashed defenses for 2,503 yards and 28 touchdowns. But Sutton topped him, winning Mr. Football and ending his career as Ohio’s all-time leading rusher.
Carter did his best to catch up the next season, ringing up 2,788 yards, 49 touchdowns, and yes, a Mr. Football trophy to match his old teammate. Sutton might not have been able to top that, but his 1,474 yards and 16 touchdowns as a freshman in the Big Ten was nothing to sneeze at. They would call each other on Saturday nights to brag about their stats, tossing mind-boggling numbers back and forth with ease.
Then things slowed down. The numbers got smaller. Sutton couldn’t out-do his freshman year, hitting 1,000 yards on the nose. Carter led the 4-8 Orange in rushing as a freshman in 2006, but only scored four touchdowns – all of them against Wyoming.
The next year brought little relief. Sutton sprained his ankle in the 2007 season-opener and limped through half a season. And Carter? He dislocated his right hip and missed the whole season.
So now each finds himself at a career crossroads. Both need this season to prove something, as Carter returns from a potentially career-threatening injury and Sutton tries to prove his worth to NFL scouts.
The road back starts Saturday – against each other.
‘When it comes to game time, we’re definitely going to speak and talk,’ Sutton said. ‘But we both know it’s business.’
Published on August 26, 2008 at 12:00 pm
