Hello: Jeremy Clark Comment Count

Tim

Michigan has accepted a greyshirt commitment from KY S Jeremy Clark. Clark impressed the coaches at camp, but not enough to earn an immediate offer. Should he pick up a number of mid-level scholarship offers, I wouldn't expect this one to stick.

JeremyClark-mug.jpg

GURU RATINGS

Scout Rivals ESPN 24/7 Sports
2*, NR S NR S NR S NR S

Since Jeremy is effectively a member of the 2013 recruiting class (pending a decision from OH S Jarrod Wilson) and also very under-the-radar, this section should be brief. HOWEVA, with Brian unavailable, why not profile a guy who's basically a preferred walk-on at this point?

As you can see, the recruiting sites aren't so high on Clark. Scout is the only site with a ranking for him, and even that is a lowly 2-star. The sites are in accord there, and also on his size: He's a consensus 6-4 (ESPN says 6-2), with two votes for 205 pounds and two votes for 185 pounds. I'll go with 195 then.

Since there's nothing out there on the free webs, a paid article from Scout:

This 6-4, 175-lb. safety was the surprises of the day. He flashed good speed and EXCELLENT ball skills. He is a bit of a sleeper on the national scale because he grew four inches since last fall. Just as impressive was the fact that he soaked up the coaching like a sponge and just seemed to really be relishing the overall experience.  

Of course it's in their best interests to talk kids up as sleepers, so take it as a grain of salt. It's sleeper bluster, but in the parlance of sleeper bluster, height, ball skills and coachability are nice compliments for any system.

JeremyClark-OMGshirtless.jpgClark aso drew "plenty of attention" from Ohio State's staff at their camp ($, info in header), but apparently they didn't see enough to offer him. He is pictured OMG SHIRTLESS at right.

OFFERS

Most of Clark's full scholarship offers came from the MAC. Akron, Ball State, Central Michigan, Ohio, and Toledo were his offers from the Big Ten's JV league. NC State was his only other BCS-level scholarship offer.

STATS

His Rivals profile has junior year stats: 75 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 8 pass breakups. That's not a ringing endorsement of Scout's "ballhawk" characterization, but it's certainly not bad either.

FAKE 40 TIME

Rivals says 4.47. That is very fast. A kid with Clark's size is not an unranked prospect at this point in the recruiting cycle if he's actually that fast. I'm going to have to go with 4 FAKEs out of five.

VIDEO

Junior highlights:

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

This guy is a greyshirt prospect for a reason. At one step ahead of preferred walk-on, it's tough to see him accomplishing much until very late in his career, as is usually the case for these guys. He'll greyshirt the fall of his first year (pay his own way and, if I'm not mistaken, not practice with the team), then join the squad as a redshirt freshman in the spring.

I see him being a special teams contributor as a redshirt junior and senior, and the type of guy who gets a few plays in the secondary, but not much more.

Of course, if he is the level of sleeper that Scout's recap above seems to imply, he could also blow up once he gets into college, and absorb all the coaching (and weight training, etc.) available to him, becoming a contributor by the time he leaves campus.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

As a greyshirt, he doesn't affect much about this class. The needs are still offensive line, defensive tackle, wideout, and - with lesser emphasis - quarterback/running back.

Comments

mejunglechop

June 27th, 2011 at 12:41 PM ^

Tim was unfair in 1) calling him "basically a preferred walkon" which is grossly inaccurate 2) in dismissing the Scout blurb for the most cynical of reasons (scout has no reason to talk up Clark instead of other recruits; the tidbit of him growing 4 inches is a good reason to consider him a sleeper). 3) for ignoring the very plausible narrative that the extra four inches and his performance at Michigan's camp foreshadow a breakout senior year.

mejunglechop

June 27th, 2011 at 12:26 PM ^

I do think Tim was unfair to Clark. But I object to you calling it dickish because that implies that it's personal and it's not. This was seriously shoddy analysis, and it did seem like Tim went out of his way more than usual to squash reasons for optimism, like the scout blurb. But if we had every reason to believe a commit was unlikely to ever play a meaningful down for Michigan I'd have no problem with Tim (or anyone else) saying so. This blog is for us.

Charlie Chunk

June 25th, 2011 at 12:07 PM ^

I'm glad to read you want to be a part of our team.  It does my heart good to see you chase your dream.  I think you made the right decision, because you made it with your heart and you can't go wrong thinking that way!  Life is short and you only get opportunities like this once.  Make the best of it, my man.  I'll be pulling for you!  Go BLUE!!!

BMF-GoBlue

June 25th, 2011 at 9:14 PM ^

Im 100% behind you Jeremy! Great choice, go prove the sites wrong. You just have that much more motivation. And plus your helmet has wings!! Go Blue!!