2019 Grayson (GA) offensive center Jakai Clark committed to Miami today coming off his UM official visit this weekend, flipping his pledge from Illinois.
The 6-3 305 pounder is a consensus 3-star prospect right now. According to the 247Composite, Clark is the #1,457 player overall, the #14 ranked center in the country, and the 136th best player in the Peach State. His commitment moves Miami’s 2019 class ranking to #29 on 247Sports and #33 on Rivals.
The Player
Clark is a player who comes from a football powerhouse in Grayson, a school in which UM has attempted to really break into this season by offering multiple of their top players. Miami was close with DE Kevin Harris earlier in the cycle, but hit paydirt with Clark and now the Canes have their center of the future. In 2017, Clark was the only junior OL to make first-team all-state in Class 7A in Georgia.
Miami got involved with Clark after losing Kingsley Eguakun to the Gators last week, offering the O-Lineman mere days ago, but have actually been tracking his progress since he was committed to Auburn in the spring. Clark has been all over the map during the recruiting process, as this is his third commitment (Auburn, Illinois), but he’ll finally shut things down and sign with Miami next week.
On film, Clark is a physical roadgrader that relishes the idea of knocking his opponent off their feet. Clark drives his feet through contact and uses a strong punch to get the defender off-balance. He’s the type of heady player that you want running the show on the offensive line; Clark shows the ability to alter his assignment based on the flow of the defense and handles stunts and twists with great awareness. I also like that he looks for someone to hit when he’s uncovered. Clark has a lot of potential in the run game, but carries some bad weight and doesn’t have the best footwork at the moment. He’ll be a liability in pass protection early in his Miami career without some improvement in those areas.
The Class
Clark is the 15th commit overall in the 2019 class, the first offensive lineman, and the first center. The Canes are likely done at center, and this also likely closes the book on Maurice Smith’s chances to join the class. The center from Miami Central was offered a visit this weekend, but turned Miami down to go to BC instead. Smith had his shot, but just didn’t show enough interest to make UM feel comfortable waiting on him, so they took the “sure thing” with Clark instead.
The Team
Miami has struggled with their play up front for years, and now they’ll be losing a two year starter at center heading into the 2019 season. Tyler Gauthier leaves a hole to fill in the middle, and although he was solid overall, Gauthier’s play was far from perfect and he’s certainly not irreplaceable. Miami has been grooming Corey Gaynor as their center of the future for two years now, so he will absolutely get the first shot at replacing Gauthier, with Hayden Mahoney also providing competition there as well.
While Clark will undoubtedly be third in line at the position to start 2019, there is plenty of opportunity to earn playing time as a freshman on a UM offensive line that hasn’t proved much in 3 years under Mark Richt and Stacy Searels. He’s not enrolling early, though, and I think Clark will benefit greatly from a redshirt year to develop his body; that’s what will likely happen barring injury.
The 6-3 305 pounder is a consensus 3-star prospect right now. According to the 247Composite, Clark is the #1,457 player overall, the #14 ranked center in the country, and the 136th best player in the Peach State. His commitment moves Miami’s 2019 class ranking to #29 on 247Sports and #33 on Rivals.
The Player
Clark is a player who comes from a football powerhouse in Grayson, a school in which UM has attempted to really break into this season by offering multiple of their top players. Miami was close with DE Kevin Harris earlier in the cycle, but hit paydirt with Clark and now the Canes have their center of the future. In 2017, Clark was the only junior OL to make first-team all-state in Class 7A in Georgia.
Miami got involved with Clark after losing Kingsley Eguakun to the Gators last week, offering the O-Lineman mere days ago, but have actually been tracking his progress since he was committed to Auburn in the spring. Clark has been all over the map during the recruiting process, as this is his third commitment (Auburn, Illinois), but he’ll finally shut things down and sign with Miami next week.
On film, Clark is a physical roadgrader that relishes the idea of knocking his opponent off their feet. Clark drives his feet through contact and uses a strong punch to get the defender off-balance. He’s the type of heady player that you want running the show on the offensive line; Clark shows the ability to alter his assignment based on the flow of the defense and handles stunts and twists with great awareness. I also like that he looks for someone to hit when he’s uncovered. Clark has a lot of potential in the run game, but carries some bad weight and doesn’t have the best footwork at the moment. He’ll be a liability in pass protection early in his Miami career without some improvement in those areas.
The Class
Clark is the 15th commit overall in the 2019 class, the first offensive lineman, and the first center. The Canes are likely done at center, and this also likely closes the book on Maurice Smith’s chances to join the class. The center from Miami Central was offered a visit this weekend, but turned Miami down to go to BC instead. Smith had his shot, but just didn’t show enough interest to make UM feel comfortable waiting on him, so they took the “sure thing” with Clark instead.
The Team
Miami has struggled with their play up front for years, and now they’ll be losing a two year starter at center heading into the 2019 season. Tyler Gauthier leaves a hole to fill in the middle, and although he was solid overall, Gauthier’s play was far from perfect and he’s certainly not irreplaceable. Miami has been grooming Corey Gaynor as their center of the future for two years now, so he will absolutely get the first shot at replacing Gauthier, with Hayden Mahoney also providing competition there as well.
While Clark will undoubtedly be third in line at the position to start 2019, there is plenty of opportunity to earn playing time as a freshman on a UM offensive line that hasn’t proved much in 3 years under Mark Richt and Stacy Searels. He’s not enrolling early, though, and I think Clark will benefit greatly from a redshirt year to develop his body; that’s what will likely happen barring injury.
