It is 4:30 on a Friday morning in the fall and Cartrell Young’s alarm clock is going off. By the time he leaves his Houston-area home, the sun has not yet risen. For the next eight hours, he drives his lumber truck to and from construction sites where new homes are being built. On a normal evening, his workday ends around 4 or 5 p.m. But Fridays in the fall are not normal for Young.

On these Fridays, Young heads home a little early. But it is a short stay because as soon as he and his wife Kimberly are home, they get right back into the car. For the next 15-plus hours, Cartrell and Kimberly drive north up to Interstate 57 through four states, passing Little Rock, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn., on their way to Champaign. They arrive sometime around 8 a.m. on Saturday. Cartrell is weary and exhausted, but there is no time to rest because kickoff is in a few hours and the Illinois starting running back needs his biggest fan.

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Donovonn Young didn’t want to go to school so far from home. It took Cartrell to persuade him to attend Illinois, the only BCS conference school to extend him a scholarship offer.

“I told him I wouldn’t miss a game,” Cartrell said. “So we took a visit, and he decided he’d go.”

And Cartrell hasn’t missed a game. He hasn’t missed a game since his son was 5 years old. The ride from Houston the Champaign is a regular occurrence during football season, and for a man who already spends 40 hours per week in a truck, it can be taxing.

“It gets grueling,” Cartrell said. “After you’ve worked all day, you have to get back in the car and drive all night. By the end of the season, me and my wife are worn out.”

Kimberly, Donovonn’s stepmother, attends every game with Cartrell. The Young’s drive cross-country to every game with just a few exceptions. Last season, when Illinois played in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco — a drive of some 30 hours from Houston — the two elected to fly. This year, the Youngs have enjoyed the luxury of an airplane twice, on trips to Tempe, Ariz., and Columbus, Ohio. 

But for Cartrell and Kimberly, it is rare for them not to be in the car on a Friday night during football season. Cartrell says he shares driving duties with Kimberly during the night, but for the most part, he is the one carrying the load. And no matter what campus he finds himself on in the morning, Cartrell can always be spotted wearing his white Illinois jersey with the No. 5 and “Young” lettered across the back, as well as a Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl patch on the chest.

When asked about his father’s jersey, Donovonn is just as curious as the next person. 

“I don’t know where he got it from,” he said. “I never sat down and asked him because every time I see him it’s always short, ‘Hi’ and ‘Bye’ types of things, so I don’t really worry about material things, but it’s a really nice jersey.”

Cartrell — who will concede that he had the jersey custom made with the name and number from Gameday Spirit — never stays after the game for very long. And despite this Saturday’s matchup against Minnesota, highlighting Dad’s Weekend in Champaign, his plan is the same. After watching Donovonn play, he and Kimberly will meet up with him and hang out or maybe grab a bite to eat. But then it is right back into the car for another 15-plus hours because the lumber truck beckons Monday morning.

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These days, the father wears the son’s jersey. But not long ago, it was the other way around. When he was in high school, Cartrell, now 46, played running back for Katy High School in Katy, Texas, and was tutored by running backs coach Gary Joseph. Years later, when Donovonn moved in with Cartrell prior to his junior year in high school, Cartrell suggested that he transfer to Katy. Donovonn did transfer from Humble High School in nearby Humble, Texas, and he quickly became a star under a head coach who had never moved past Katy in Gary Joseph. As a tribute, Donovonn wore the No. 22 on his back, like his father did so many years before. 

At Katy, Donovonn regularly played in front of crowds of 11,000 people or more. In his final high school game, Katy lost its regional final matchup to Pearland High School in front of more than 41,000 people at Rice Stadium, a crowd that would rival an Illini home game. Despite the attention, Donovonn only received three major scholarship offers: Illinois, North Texas and McNeese State. The lack of national recognition was largely attributed to a broken foot he suffered in his junior year, scaring away recruiters. The injury didn’t slow Donovonn down for long, though, because as a senior, he ran for 2,332 yards, 36 touchdowns and averaged 9 yards per carry while helping Katy to a 13-1 season.

“Donovonn has always been a hard worker from the day he picked up a football,” Cartrell says. “He wanted to play football when he was 3 years old, and by the time he was 5, he almost knew more about football than I did.”

Donovonn committed to former Illini head coach Ron Zook and received a significant amount of hype coming into his freshman season in 2011. In his first year, he ran for 451 yards and six touchdowns, playing behind two senior running backs in Jason Ford and Troy Pollard. But one year and one head coach later, Donovonn has not been handed the ball as consistently as he would have liked. 

On Oct. 2, three days after carrying the ball just six times in a 35-7 loss to Penn State, Donovonn let his thoughts be heard.

“As a playmaker, you want the ball in your hands,’’ he told the media. “You can’t run the ball when you don’t have the ball.”

There have been times when Donovonn has carried the ball a lot (21 carries and 124 yards against Indiana on Oct. 27) and times when he hasn’t (four carries for 5 yards against Wisconsin on Oct. 6). To see his son not get the touches he wants is what pains Cartrell the most.

“It makes it hard for me to drive that far and see them not use my son like he should be used,” Cartrell said. “I mean, last year I could understand it, he was a freshman. But this year he’s the starting running back, and he’s getting the ball five or six times a game.”

Cartrell declined to talk about Tim Beckman and the new Illinois coaching staff. Even though Donovonn has received more carries in recent weeks, it is hard for him to be content when his team has lost six straight games and seven of nine overall. 

“You can’t be too satisfied because we’re not winning,” Donovonn said. “We came into this thing together, and we’ll leave it together.”

Together — like Cartrell and Kimberly will be when they leave Champaign after Saturday’s game: on the road for another long drive home. No matter what time Donovonn falls asleep Saturday night, Cartrell and Kimberly will still be behind the wheel, heading back down I-57 in the dark.

For Donovonn, that type of dedication from his family is unrivaled.

“It’s good to know when I go to sleep at night that I’m loved,” he said. 

And he certainly is.

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @sean_hammond.