Signing Day Profile: CB Marcus Clarke

Dec 18, 2019

Series:

2020 Winter Park (FL) CB Marcus Clarke officially became a Miami Hurricane this morning. He was the 5th signee of the day.

The 5-11 175 pounder is currently a consensus 3-star in the national rankings. According to the 247Sports Composite, Clarke is the #790 player nationally, #62 CB in the country, and the #108 player in the Sunshine State.

Recruiting Story

Clarke received his UM offer in June, but things heated up quickly between him and the Canes. Miami was able to get Clarke to Paradise Camp just before the dead period, and then Clarke followed that up by putting the Canes in his top 5 he released earlier this month. UM finally won him over for good this weekend on his second visit and Clarke chose the Canes over FSU, UGA, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Evaluation

Clarke was a three-way threat for Winter Park, and used his skills to become a playmaker extraordinaire in multiple facets of the game. As a junior, he put up 59 receptions for 1,004 yards and a whopping 21 TD’s for the Wildcats’ offense, while recording 4 INT’s and 2 TD’s on defense, and 3 punt return TD’s to the house on special teams (senior stats unavailable). At the Opening Orlando Regional in February, Clarke recorded a 4.57 40-yard dash, a 4.38 short shuttle, and a 33.50 vertical leap.

Miami likes Clarke at corner, so I’ll focus on his evaluation from that perspective. On film, he has incredible reaction time when breaking on the ball. That type of anticipation has helped him become an interception machine, and his natural ball skills don’t hurt either. Speed demon with great 0 to 60 acceleration. Versatile athlete that is also threat at receiver and returner, and is explosive with the ball in his hands. Average technique as a tackler and could be a liability in the run game at this point.

Clarke is much more polished as a receiver at this point and his corner technique needs development, but based on his film, he oozes athletic potential and reminds me of former Miami DB Corn Elder coming out of high school. He’s going to have an interesting learning curve at the next level.

The Team

The Canes won’t lose any corners to graduation in the 2019 off-season and will bring all their core contributors back. Trajan Bandy will in his third year starting at one corner spot, while Al Blades and DJ Ivey split the season acting as UM’s #2 corner. Last season’s true freshmen Christian Williams and Te’Cory Couch both saw a decent amount of playing time and will look to push for a larger role in 2020.

Redshirt Probability: 8/10

Clarke is currently the only corner in the class, and he comes to a Miami roster without a ton of numbers at the spot. With all 5 corners returning from last year, though, and Clarke being more of a developmental corner, it will likely take some injuries for him to see real playing time. He does add speed to the group, though, and I wouldn't rule out him developing a nickel role as the season goes on.

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C
Calvin

Dec 19, 2019

FrancisSaywer said:
Brown signed with UCF and although I love Clarke's speed, athleticism and potential at CB, Rumph has been an unmitigated disaster on the trail. How do we, being right in the middle of the most fertile recruiting ground in the country for fast, quick, explosive and twitchy athletes manage to only have 1 CB on board at this point? Why are we constantly whiffing on our top CB targets? Rumph is a good teacher of the position but as a recruiter he is incompetence personified. Rumph's ridiculous record of futility recruiting the CB position at a school like Miami is quite frankly unfathomable. It's like someone starving to death in a supermarket.

I think you should stop being emotional and look at the facts, we're a lil low on numbers, malek young, this would've been his senior year, and bethel dipped out, so in that regard, we havent made up for those 2 just yet. But when it comes to recruiting, coach rumph has gotten real good athlete's and have them playing at a high level. You dont know who's a top target/player until they actually play in games. Most people are still acting girly cause 2 guys chose to go to the security & exchange commission conference. Go and see how they doing compared to our db's, i said it back than, i like the guys we got who cares who dont come here.

Go and see how those 2 guys played against Lsu last year compared to our guys last year, same competition. Also im glad they didnt come here, cause if they were playing here like they are playing there, guys that think like you would still be blaming coach rumph, saying, he's under coaching them. Coach rumph is a True Cane, his coaching acumen is clear and his value to the defensive staff is clear. If brown wanted to go to Ucf that's his decision, we'll get somebody else to replace em. We only want True Canes at heart here. God Willing we stay healthy, trajan stays, our db room can compete with anybody in the country.

Let's not act as if bandy, Blades, ivey, couch and williams were chop liver recruits! Do we neec more db's, most definitely, the people that were crying about the 2 guys that went elsewhere, with all hat crying, i kept asking, even if they signed with us back then, they wasnt coming in taking nobody's spot, #28 wasnt going nowhere and neither was bandy, and than last year we had the #1 pass defense in the nation, so its always ridiculous to try and get overly critical of coach rumph or coach banda.

Even now, people complaining about coach banda, lol, this man got gurvan hall, carter, keontra smith and just signed harrell, Washington and balom and people still tripping, lol.

This year, we were #22 in the nation in passing yards allowed and #32 in pass efficiency defense, and that's with 3 new starters, and a suspect d-co who primarily kept running zone coverages behind blitzes, thus the 4th and 17 completion. Having said that we have a suspect d-co, our national total defensive ranking came in at #13. That's nowhere near UM standards, but let's see what coach diaz decides to do on that side of the ball, but obviously coach rumph and coach banda are not the problem and if coach diaz foolishly gets rid of one of them, he wont be to far behind them 2 as well.

S
skeeter

Dec 19, 2019

Calvin said:
I think you should stop being emotional and look at the facts, we're a lil low on numbers, malek young, this would've been his senior year, and bethel dipped out, so in that regard, we havent made up for those 2 just yet. But when it comes to recruiting, coach rumph has gotten real good athlete's and have them playing at a high level. You dont know who's a top target/player until they actually play in games. Most people are still acting girly cause 2 guys chose to go to the security & exchange commission conference. Go and see how they doing compared to our db's, i said it back than, i like the guys we got who cares who dont come here.

Go and see how those 2 guys played against Lsu last year compared to our guys last year, same competition. Also im glad they didnt come here, cause if they were playing here like they are playing there, guys that think like you would still be blaming coach rumph, saying, he's under coaching them. Coach rumph is a True Cane, his coaching acumen is clear and his value to the defensive staff is clear. If brown wanted to go to Ucf that's his decision, we'll get somebody else to replace em. We only want True Canes at heart here. God Willing we stay healthy, trajan stays, our db room can compete with anybody in the country.

Let's not act as if bandy, Blades, ivey, couch and williams were chop liver recruits! Do we neec more db's, most definitely, the people that were crying about the 2 guys that went elsewhere, with all hat crying, i kept asking, even if they signed with us back then, they wasnt coming in taking nobody's spot, #28 wasnt going nowhere and neither was bandy, and than last year we had the #1 pass defense in the nation, so its always ridiculous to try and get overly critical of coach rumph or coach banda.

Even now, people complaining about coach banda, lol, this man got gurvan hall, carter, keontra smith and just signed harrell, Washington and balom and people still tripping, lol.

This year, we were #22 in the nation in passing yards allowed and #32 in pass efficiency defense, and that's with 3 new starters, and a suspect d-co who primarily kept running zone coverages behind blitzes, thus the 4th and 17 completion. Having said that we have a suspect d-co, our national total defensive ranking came in at #13. That's nowhere near UM standards, but let's see what coach diaz decides to do on that side of the ball, but obviously coach rumph and coach banda are not the problem and if coach diaz foolishly gets rid of one of them, he wont be to far behind them 2 as well.

So much wrong with this post top to bottom

malek young

We are still reallly mentioning him? We had 2 cycles and now this was the third since Young's injury.

and bethel dipped out, so in that regard, we havent made up for those 2 just yet.

Lol..."just yet???" UMMM, what were these last 4 months for? Let me know when Rumph's ready to replace mighty Bethel, make sure you tell him he can take his time though, got a couple more seasons if he needs it.

Even now, people complaining about coach banda, lol, this man got gurvan hall, carter, keontra smith and just signed harrell, Washington and balom and people still tripping, lol

Ya I mean that definitely isn't good enough, Carter is average (he can pop and gives effort)...Hall was average, but has time/loved him has a recruit, so let's hope he continues to improve...Smith has done nothing. The kids you are giving him credit for landing is basically a decent but not spectacular job and he has whiffed SOOOO MUCH...Being a better recruiter than Rumph doesn't make you a good recruiter. Not to mention safety play was just bad this year. And to top it all of no one could beat out Bobby Knowles as safety 4...And that kid deflected 1 pass in 4 years here

his year, we were #22 in the nation in passing yards allowed and #32 in pass efficiency defense, and that's with 3 new starters

We played a brutal slate of offenses, some with no semblance of a passing game...

Do we neec more db's, most definitely

Oh this is just a minor thing though? If you are saying we need more dbs, you see the problem then? We aren't we getting "more dbs" hey've had long enough to establish themselves and are in the db capital of the world. Thanks for your effort, time to move on.

grover

Dec 19, 2019

Clarke is a baller, Hopefully we bring in a transfer CB to support the other guys at the position, and Clarke can develop in the role before being thrown out on the field. But we should use him on STs regardless. I don't want him to redshirt.

C
Calvin

Dec 19, 2019

skeeter said:
So much wrong with this post top to bottom

We are still reallly mentioning him? We had 2 cycles and now this was the third since Young's injury.

Lol..."just yet???" UMMM, what were these last 4 months for? Let me know when Rumph's ready to replace mighty Bethel, make sure you tell him he can take his time though, got a couple more seasons if he needs it.

Ya I mean that definitely isn't good enough, Carter is average (he can pop and gives effort)...Hall was average, but has time/loved him has a recruit, so let's hope he continues to improve...Smith has done nothing. The kids you are giving him credit for landing is basically a decent but not spectacular job and he has whiffed SOOOO MUCH...Being a better recruiter than Rumph doesn't make you a good recruiter. Not to mention safety play was just bad this year. And to top it all of no one could beat out Bobby Knowles as safety 4...And that kid deflected 1 pass in 4 years here

We played a brutal slate of offenses, some with no semblance of a passing game...

Oh this is just a minor thing though? If you are saying we need more dbs, you see the problem then? We aren't we getting "more dbs" hey've had long enough to establish themselves and are in the db capital of the world. Thanks for your effort, time to move on.

Appreciate your attempted and unemotional rebuttal, but you like most on here complaining about coach banda and coach rumph recruiting, we had people crying last year as well, as for me, all i worry about is production, and i dont care what league you're in, when you got the #1 pass defense in the nation, somebody/s know WTF they doing. Numbers wise are we where we need to be, this whole roster hasnt been full in at least 4 years, we still playing catch up, so its not just on coach rumph. God Willing and with coach feely in the fold, we'd only be hurting numbers wise if somebody gets banged up, but talent wise, we got a real solid 4 or 5 guys, especially if bandy stays. This year could've been more of a problem, but now, we got guys like couch and williams going into their 2nd year, got good game experience, more time in the S&C program, we know couch for sure will start pushing somebody for more reps, the competition in the db room bout to go up at least 50 degrees.

So again, alot of negative nancy's floating around on this board, worried about stars and recruiting class rankings, means nothing, what happens in actual games is all that matters most, complaining about the competition we played is comical, you sound like the people that use to say that about us when we were in the big east, non UM fans complaining saying "Miami doesnt play anybody" but looked foolish cause they couldnt explain why when we did play "somebody" outside of the big east, in bowl or Championship games they got dominated too, so you should be careful of your criticism of the competition. I've never been into the conference bragging **** myself, but let's look at the facts, since 2013, the ACC conference has won 3 of the last 6 national titles with a chance to get a 4th this year, what teams have they been playing to get prepared for that stage. Many on here keep grasping for straws and making useless points. If UM allof a sudden gets to the CFP's come next year, are those same people going to say something similar to this too:

"We played a brutal slate of offenses, some with no semblance of a passing game..."

Cause right now, clemsons defensive rankings have come from playing opponents from the same league.

T
twes.305

Dec 19, 2019

Calvin said:
Appreciate your attempted and unemotional rebuttal, but you like most on here complaining about coach banda and coach rumph recruiting, we had people crying last year as well, as for me, all i worry about is production, and i dont care what league you're in, when you got the #1 pass defense in the nation, somebody/s know WTF they doing. Numbers wise are we where we need to be, this whole roster hasnt been full in at least 4 years, we still playing catch up, so its not just on coach rumph. God Willing and with coach feely in the fold, we'd only be hurting numbers wise if somebody gets banged up, but talent wise, we got a real solid 4 or 5 guys, especially if bandy stays. This year could've been more of a problem, but now, we got guys like couch and williams going into their 2nd year, got good game experience, more time in the S&C program, we know couch for sure will start pushing somebody for more reps, the competition in the db room bout to go up at least 50 degrees.

So again, alot of negative nancy's floating around on this board, worried about stars and recruiting class rankings, means nothing, what happens in actual games is all that matters most, complaining about the competition we played is comical, you sound like the people that use to say that about us when we were in the big east, non UM fans complaining saying "Miami doesnt play anybody" but looked foolish cause they couldnt explain why when we did play "somebody" outside of the big east, in bowl or Championship games they got dominated too, so you should be careful of your criticism of the competition. I've never been into the conference bragging **** myself, but let's look at the facts, since 2013, the ACC conference has won 3 of the last 6 national titles with a chance to get a 4th this year, what teams have they been playing to get prepared for that stage. Many on here keep grasping for straws and making useless points. If UM allof a sudden gets to the CFP's come next year, are those same people going to say something similar to this too:

"We played a brutal slate of offenses, some with no semblance of a passing game..."

Cause right now, clemsons defensive rankings have come from playing opponents from the same league.

Please stop talking the only blind emotional dude is you, Rumph is on his 3rd recruiting cycle and has not done ****. Stop bringing up Malek, Rumph has had plenty of time to bring in more numbers to take care of the Mlaek situation and Bethel was added late af because Rumph knew he needed more numbers even if Bethel was still at UM he would not be a contributor. If he couldn't figure that he needed more CBs # by now than he sucks. How tf you gonna say it doesn't matter what conference you play in, your just making you argument flawed af. If you play teams that are not good at passing your pass defense will look good; which is one of the reasons are pass defense this year was so bad. If Rumph and Banda were so good there should not have been that much of a drop off. Rumph had been here for 4 years and there ar only 2 CBs on the roster they can rely on same with Banda.

L
lauderdaleballer

Dec 19, 2019

raytiller said:
think we should switch him to offense and keep restrepro on D

I think Professor X can stay offense. Haha can we use that as a nickname? I personally see him doing damage in the slot and special teams. As for Clarke, I like him. However, I don’t know about DB yet. He’s definitely a redshirt candidate. However I think he’s a beast on offense. He makes plays with the ball in his hands.

L
lauderdaleballer

Dec 19, 2019

CountDookoo said:
So they're going to spend 1-2 years wasting Clark's talent on defense. Reminds me of Roscoe Parrish.

I think Roscoe was quicker but I agree that this kid is an offensive player. He can do same age for use on offense.

3
305407cane

Dec 19, 2019

This is the type of kid who will take it to the house when he gets a pick. Our guys now are lost when they have the ball

J
jw410

Dec 19, 2019

raytiller said:
watch their film.... clarke isn't an Defensive player and will be switched over to O or should be... reminds me a lot of nigel bethel out of hs bethel was a wr with speed and we tried to turn him into a CB which is why he left lol

And what's nigel Bethel doing now

lmao

chilltill

Dec 19, 2019

jw410 said:
And what's nigel Bethel doing now lmao

he sat out cuz he transfered during camp lol

chilltill

Dec 19, 2019

lauderdaleballer said:
I think Professor X can stay offense. Haha can we use that as a nickname? I personally see him doing damage in the slot and special teams. As for Clarke, I like him. However, I don’t know about DB yet. He’s definitely a redshirt candidate. However I think he’s a beast on offense. He makes plays with the ball in his hands.

professor x is a good name but yeah i dont think he's(Clarke) a db he's not physical enough or doesn't have any techniques he's best skills suit him for that slot /return man.

L
lauderdaleballer

Dec 19, 2019

raytiller said:
professor x is a good name but yeah i dont think he's(Clarke) a db he's not physical enough or doesn't have any techniques he's best skills suit him for that slot /return man.

I agree. I don’t see DB at all. Maybe safety but like you said I don’t really see the physicality there but he is a player. I’m glad he’s here. He’s a balla.

chilltill

Dec 19, 2019

lauderdaleballer said:
I agree. I don’t see DB at all. Maybe safety but like you said I don’t really see the physicality there but he is a player. I’m glad he’s here. He’s a balla.

that's all im saying the kid can def play but when you watch his film he looks like two different players.... his stats at wr his jr year
he put up 1000 yards and avg 17.8 ypc 21 tds

L
lauderdaleballer

Dec 19, 2019

raytiller said:
that's all im saying the kid can def play but when you watch his film he looks like two different players.... his stats at wr his jr year
he put up 1000 yards and avg 17.8 ypc 21 tds

I didn’t know he put up those numbers. Yea I don’t think we should rule out offense.

C
Calvin

Dec 19, 2019

twes.305 said:
Please stop talking the only blind emotional dude is you, Rumph is on his 3rd recruiting cycle and has not done ****. Stop bringing up Malek, Rumph has had plenty of time to bring in more numbers to take care of the Mlaek situation and Bethel was added late af because Rumph knew he needed more numbers even if Bethel was still at UM he would not be a contributor. If he couldn't figure that he needed more CBs # by now than he sucks. How tf you gonna say it doesn't matter what conference you play in, your just making you argument flawed af. If you play teams that are not good at passing your pass defense will look good; which is one of the reasons are pass defense this year was so bad. If Rumph and Banda were so good there should not have been that much of a drop off. Rumph had been here for 4 years and there ar only 2 CBs on the roster they can rely on same with Banda.

Ok, when we were not in a conference because teams were scared to play us, and when we joined the big east, how many national powerhouse teams were over their, we only played V-Tech once a year. Besides Clemson, what other ACC team can win the national title game this year. Dont be foolish, as long as we play Miami style football, that conference **** dont matter. Yall trying to have it both ways, last year, Miami had the #1 pass defense, the negative nancies said: "we didnt play anybody" Clemson basically plays the same 5 in conference games we play, they won the national championship, we came nowhere near close, i didnt hear yall saying, "Clemson didnt play anybody" you guys are comical, lol. If you want to be taken seriously, have real legitimate football knowledge, not emotional rants and outburst as if the world id coming down. The facts just dont agree with your emotions!

T
twes.305

Dec 19, 2019

Calvin said:
Ok, when we were not in a conference because teams were scared to play us, and when we joined the big east, how many national powerhouse teams were over their, we only played V-Tech once a year. Besides Clemson, what other ACC team can win the national title game this year. Dont be foolish, as long as we play Miami style football, that conference **** dont matter. Yall trying to have it both ways, last year, Miami had the #1 pass defense, the negative nancies said: "we didnt play anybody" Clemson basically plays the same 5 in conference games we play, they won the national championship, we came nowhere near close, i didnt hear yall saying, "Clemson didnt play anybody" you guys are comical, lol. If you want to be taken seriously, have real legitimate football knowledge, not emotional rants and outburst as if the world id coming down. The facts just dont agree with your emotions!

Stop bringing up the past, it is irrelevant to this topic. Dont bring up that Clemson bs, learn some football. Clemson defens held Alabama's offense under 20 points, UM defense would ge ******* smoke. People that just look at stats, but dont provide context. Clemson would not be as good as they are if there defense was not as good or better than UMs. Everybody said Clemson did not play anybody, and then they shut everybody up by wooping Alabama's ***. You think that your points are good, but they are quite ******. All you do is spout bs and say stop being emotional.

J
jsy

Dec 19, 2019

Did you guys hear dmoney new podcast?
If not skip to the end and listen to the discussion about our one cb recruit. It is bleak as fk.
Most likely Ivey and blades leave next year so this colossal fk up will haunt us for years

Memnon

Dec 19, 2019

jsy said:
Did you guys hear dmoney new podcast?
If not skip to the end and listen to the discussion about our one cb recruit. It is bleak as fk.
Most likely Ivey and blades leave next year so this colossal fk up will haunt us for years

Thank God we have an ELITE recruiter to keep us stocked & loaded with depth at CB.

TC@ne

Dec 19, 2019

jsy said:
Did you guys hear dmoney new podcast?
If not skip to the end and listen to the discussion about our one cb recruit. It is bleak as fk.
Most likely Ivey and blades leave next year so this colossal fk up will haunt us for years

Where are Ivey and Blades going after next year, XFL?