Class Impact: Jakai Clark to Miami

Class Impact: Jakai Clark to Miami

Stefan Adams
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.


 

Comments (38)

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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.




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We got a dude from Miami Central picking BC over Miami

And a dude from Carol City picking UCF over Miami.

Wow how things have changed
 
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Why is it that centers are usually the weakest physically on the line even though they tend to lineup over the strongest, physically, defensive player at defensive tackle? Always befuddles me.
Well yes but not really. If the defense is in a 4-3 front, the center is often left uncovered and is responsible for blitzes, stunts, and double teams. When playing a 3-4 with a true nose then yes he does go against a big strong guy but will usually get help.
 
Liked what I saw of him, but losing Maurice Smith hurts in my mind. I liked Smith the best of the three, but he also probably needed to add the most strength.

Kingsley would be next for me, as I liked his tenacity.

This kid can certainly play here and I’m a big fan of interior OL who look for work. His activity is probably his biggest strength, but I’d Iike to watch a full game of him to see how he adjusts to how the DL attacks him.

We need OL and this kid checks a lot of positive boxes. If we flipped him from Auburn rather than Illinois I think the optics would be better for our fans.
 
Dude is a beast, no wonder Auburn wants him.. After seeing one pancake block after another I don't know how he's rated so low, he should be at least a low 4*
 
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Liked what I saw of him, but losing Maurice Smith hurts in my mind. I liked Smith the best of the three, but he also probably needed to add the most strength.

Kingsley would be next for me, as I liked his tenacity.

This kid can certainly play here and I’m a big fan of interior OL who look for work. His activity is probably his biggest strength, but I’d Iike to watch a full game of him to see how he adjusts to how the DL attacks him.

We need OL and this kid checks a lot of positive boxes. If we flipped him from Auburn rather than Illinois I think the optics would be better for our fans.

Has the Smith ship definitely sailed?
 
One things for certain, for an o-lineman, he already has a great low center of gravity, but the main thing he said, which is why coach richt has been hard on perry, this guy is already talking about "he'll know his assignments" how any player expects to be great at something without studying it, lets go perry, next year should be yo show now, no excuses, it starts now, and let everybody know what's coming next year during this bowl game, why be mediocre, no matter what, rosier can will always be a UM qb that help lead us to 10 straight wins, and when you are the qb and we beat Fsu, notre shame and V-tech all in the same year, you've earned my respect. Now what you gotta do, to match that, dont play like doo soo against V-tech!
 
One things for certain, for an o-lineman, he already has a great low center of gravity, but the main thing he said, which is why coach richt has been hard on perry, this guy is already talking about "he'll know his assignments" how any player expects to be great at something without studying it, lets go perry, next year should be yo show now, no excuses, it starts now, and let everybody know what's coming next year during this bowl game, why be mediocre, no matter what, rosier can will always be a UM qb that help lead us to 10 straight wins, and when you are the qb and we beat Fsu, notre shame and V-tech all in the same year, you've earned my respect. Now what you gotta do, to match that, dont play like doo soo against V-tech!

Apollogies, dont play like doo-doo against the gaytors come next year and help lead this team to a victory, that'll help cement your respect here for helping to beat those scared cowards that took us off their schedule.
 
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He has got some upside I like seeing but ultimately we have missed out on our main targets and that hurts. Let's hope a kid like this emerges as a sleeper.
 
Coach Searels, to me his recruiting style is he is going to show you that he knows his stuff and that he knows how to get you to the next level and that's what he showed me while I was out there. He’s done this before, he knows what he’s talking about. He has plenty of guys to show off that are in the NFL or have been in the NFL. He just shows you his experience.”
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Oh yeah, i forgot to tell yall (the negative nancies and worry warts community) coach searels says too: lick his ballz, there will be more on the way!
 
Coach Searels, to me his recruiting style is he is going to show you that he knows his stuff and that he knows how to get you to the next level and that's what he showed me while I was out there. He’s done this before, he knows what he’s talking about. He has plenty of guys to show off that are in the NFL or have been in the NFL. He just shows you his experience.”
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Oh yeah, i forgot to tell yall (the negative nancies and worry warts community) coach searels says too: lick his ballz, there will be more on the way!

I can't stop laughing at this!! The only thing Corch Searels should be doing is pumping sh*tters out in Alachua county. He sucks. Second worst corch on staff behind Jr. Thanks for the laughs Calvin.
 
I can't stop laughing at this!! The only thing Corch Searels should be doing is pumping sh*tters out in Alachua county. He sucks. Second worst corch on staff behind Jr. Thanks for the laughs Calvin.

Coach searels is not the problem, you will soon see, in fact you already saw it but just dont know it yet!
 
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