Ohio State Recruiting Forum

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Recruiting Rewind - Frank Clark and OSU?

-3 HS
Stellar's picture
April 23, 2019 at 10:44pm
37 Comments

The big NFL news of the day is the Kansas City Chiefs trading 1st and 2nd round draft picks to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for defensive end Frank Clark and then signing him to a five year $105.5 million deal that includes $63.5 million guaranteed.  With that type of investment it's clear that Clark is considered one of the best DEs in the NFL.  I read an article on SI.com that said "Clark’s get-off and pliability are unparalleled—on his best snaps, he is the quickest defensive lineman in football."

So given all this I decided to look up Clark's recruiting profile and was surprised to see that he came out of Cleveland Glenville.  A player that good coming from that school immediately begs the question "Why wan't he a Buckeye?"  For those of you who may not remember Glenville to Ohio State was long one of the best recruiting pipelines anywhere in the country.  That school produced a ton a talent and the strong relationship between head coach Ted Ginn Sr and Jim Tressel helped ensure that most of their top stars came to Columbus.  So how did Clark slip through the Buckeyes grasp.

Clark came out of high school in the 2011 recruiting class when Jim Tressel was still running the ship in Columbus - but he didn't even get an Ohio State offer.  Clark was only rated a 3 star recruit, the #42 athlete and #692 player in the country - that would have made him the lowest rated player in OSU's class that year.  But as we all know recruiting rankings aren't everything, and Clark is having a better pro career than almost all the Buckeyes in that class.  Considering where he went to school there's no way the Buckeyes weren't aware of him in recruiting.  Clark ended up signing with That Team Up North and had a solid playing career but was eventually kicked out due to a domestic violence arrest his senior year.

Does anybody know the story of what happened between Frank Clark and Ohio State?  Did the Buckeyes drop the ball on this one?  Were there character or academic concerns in high school that kept OSU away?  Or is this just a case of a player developing late and exceeding expectations?

Here is Frank Clark's recruiting profile for your reference: https://247sports.com/Player/Frank-Clark-7072/high-school-12668/

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