Savion Byrd jolted out of bed to someone banging on his door at 3 a.m.

He was not in the mood for this.

Byrd, then a middle school student from Atlanta, Georgia’s West End neighborhood, had gotten into a fight the previous day and was suspended from school. He already suffered the wrath of his mother. Now what?

He answered the door to the frantic girlfriend of his older brother, Jerrel Clark.

“Hey, you have to help. He’s been shot.”

Wait… shot? What? Why?

Panic ensued.

Jerrel hadn’t just been shot one time either. Nor two, or three or four times. He’d been shot 12 times, including one to the back of the head.

Fortunately, Savion’s mother is a nurse, so she arrived on the scene and was able to assist in keeping Clark alive. Every second mattered.

“We didn’t know who [the shooter] was, if they were going to come back,” Byrd said. “So I had to stay with my older sister for a while. I didn’t know he was alive until two days after. He would die and then come back, he would die and then come back. They wouldn’t let us see him.”

Clark lived and the person that shot him ended up shooting himself in Clark’s attempt to survive, flipped his car while fleeing and was found unconscious. But the scars of that moment were enough for Byrd’s mother and stepdad to scoop up he and his sister and head to Texas in search of a better life.

“The reason we moved from Texas is because it was, it was tough down there, you could say,” said Byrd, who was in eighth grade when they moved. “Nothing is handed to you down there. It’s definitely a rough environment. You definitely have to stay to yourself. You can go to events, but you’re not supposed to go to events, you know? There’s a lot of hate down there.

“We came down to Texas and still had things that followed us from Georgia.”

They ended up staying with his step-brother for the next year in Glenn Heights, which is situated just south of DeSoto. Byrd slept on the floor.

To this point, Byrd had never played organized football. But he quickly blossomed from a “short and fat” kid into an intimidating figure. He and Duncanville coach Reginald Samples crossed paths and Samples soon took on a mentorship role that has helped shape Byrd into not only a terrific young man who is a year away from being the first of his five siblings to graduate high school, but also one of the nation’s most coveted recruits.

“The biggest thing about Savion is he’s such a great kid,” Samples said. “He has character and conducts himself like a model citizen. So it wasn’t really hard to get him on the right track and get him moving in the right direction. He’s got all the qualities of a successful human being.”

Byrd, who is now 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, started off as a defensive end before Samples convinced him that moving to offensive tackle was in his best long-term interest.

“He told me it was the right thing to do, showed me the way,” Byrd said. “It showed me that he cared. I have to say it was the smartest decision of my life, to move to offense.”

Byrd was a first-team all-district selection as an offensive lineman as a sophomore in 2018. But his coaches thought that his skillset would be better served as an interior defensive lineman in 2019.

He didn’t hesitate in making the move.

“A lot of times kids would be upset or stop the change, but he was that type of kid that when I asked him to do it he told me, ‘Coach whatever it takes to help us win,’” Samples said. “It speaks to his character and that’s why I feel obligated to move him back [to OT as a senior in 2020] because I know he loves offensive tackle.

“For him to make that type of commitment, to me as a coach I felt obligated to reciprocate that commitment and put him back where he wanted to be.”

Showcasing that versatility on the state’s biggest stage – Duncanville made it to the state championship at AT&T Stadium in 2018 and 2019 – was a huge boost for his recruitment.

“Byrd is an interesting prospect,” said Greg Powers, President of Next Level Athlete and the senior recruiting analyst for TexasFootball.com. “He emerged onto the scene in 2018 with a dominating sophomore season playing offensive tackle on a team that advanced to the state title game, and offers from all of the national powers poured in.

“In 2019, Duncanville used him predominantly as a defensive lineman where he used his size and athleticism to cause havoc. He has experience playing on both sides of the ball, but he has earned a spot on the 2020 Whataburger Super Team as an offensive tackle, where he has the potential and upside to develop into an All-American at the next level.” 

The Under Armour All-American currently holds offers from [inhale] Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Colorado, Florida State, Georgia, Illinois, LSU, Miami, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Virginia Tech [exhale].

Samples said it isn’t surprising to see the national interest in Byrd.

“Not at all,” he said. “He’s very dedicated to whatever he does. He gives you 100 percent. All of those are traits of a successful person, be it art, business, computers. He just has those qualities that lend itself to be successful. And it helps that he’s 6-4, 6-5.”

Those offers from LSU, Oklahoma State, Missouri, TCU, Colorado, Alabama, and Arkansas all came within a four-day span in Jan. 2019. Florida State, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma all followed suit by months end.

“I’m just a player, a trench player,” said Byrd, a four-star ranked as the No. 3 offensive tackle and No. 7 player in the state for 2021 on TexasFootball.com. “I like offensive line but honestly it doesn’t matter. It’s about playing.”

Byrd is using a wait-and-see approach to his recruitment. He’s in no rush to ease the minds of one fanbase, while collectively crushing the hopes of many others. He’s enjoying the process, as he should.

“I would definitely like to go to LSU, Texas A&M, Florida State and Georgia,” he said when asked about what official visits he’d like to take this season.

Could he see himself going back to play for Georgia?

“Oh, yeah,” he said.

Who else is standing out?

“LSU with Coach [James] Cregg, Oklahoma and Coach [Lincoln] Riley, Texas, SMU,” he said. “The main ones that talk to me are A&M and Coach [Josh] Henson, Arkansas is back in the picture. Coach [Zarnell] Fitch from TCU, I went to a camp there my freshman year and he’s the one that actually told me to play offense.”

Clearly, Byrd has options on where he’ll continue his academic and athletic career. For a young man from Dallas, by way of Atlanta, who will be the first of his siblings to graduate high school and attend college, that’s all that matters right now.