Jakai Clark on Thursday: The more reps we get, the better the offensive line will do in the run game
Early in fall camp, it wasn’t a certainty that Miami Hurricanes returning starting center Jakai Clark would again be the main guy in the middle for UM. After all, he doesn’t wow you with his size or physicality. But he does get the job done with leverage, technique and smarts.
Still, the team brought in some competition with Oregon transfer Jon Denis and also has a young guy trying to push up in Laurence Seymore (Ryan Rodriguez is out for the season due to injury).
As of now? It appears Clark will again be the guy manning the middle of the offensive line when the season kicks off.
Clark is on the Rimington Trophy Watch List and says he found out that news from his parents.
“It wasn’t something I was expecting,” Clark said. “At the end fo the day it’s a watch list. I want to go out and prove it. I’m not really focused on that, I’m focused on my game on the field. It was `That’s cool, but what am I going to do now?’”
Clark’s started 19 games the last two seasons, the fourth-year junior graded out at 57.7 overall pre Pro Football Focus last year, with 70 considered a solid number. His pass blocking was especially strong at 74.3, but he had a 51.5 run-blocking grade. And in Josh Gattis’ system, strong run blocking is a must.
That’s been an issue for UM in the full pads practices so far.
“I think the more reps we get the more our run game will develop,” Clark said. “We just continue to hone in, be physical, aggressive, get good hat placement, good technique. Every day in individual we focus on perfecting our technique and carrying that over to team (drills). It’s starting to show the more practices we have.”
With scrimmage No. 2 coming up Saturday, Clark reflected on the first one and says he thinks the O line “did okay, I don’t think it was to what our standard is, but still a pretty good scrimmage up front.”
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Looking ahead to Saturday?
“What we need to fix, I’d say just being consistent with our energy level, our conditioning, being locked into our technique, our assignment,” Clark said.
On Mario Cristobal and Alex Mirabal’s line, they want physical guys that are people movers. While Clark may not have the major strength numbers, he’s a consistent performer who gets the job done more often than not.
He’s made strides in Josh Gattis’ offense this fall, as have his teammates.
Clark says under Gattis “it’s a little bit of everything – a lot of gap scheme, lot of zone, get out into space on the edge.”
“I feel like (in the scheme with run blocking) we get more guys into space, but also we are more physical,” Clark said. “It gives our offensive linemen the opportunity to set the tone, kind of show what this offense is all about. In my opinion I feel the offensive line is taking advantage of that.
“We each have to do our individual job.”
