Inside Marcus Clarke’s transition from electric wide receiver to starting corner at Miami
The jokes started to fly from one Winter Park coach to another when Marcus Clarke was part of the most unusual touchdown in the Miami Hurricanes’ loss to the Virginia Cavaliers last month. It wasn’t because they were poking fun at his near-interception-turned-Virginia-touchdown. They just couldn’t believe it happened.
For most of the strange play in Miami Gardens, Clarke did everything those coaches were used to seeing. The cornerback dropped deep into coverage and sniffed out Virginia’s long throw. He broke away from his zone, flew through the air and got his hand on the ball.
He did everything but actually catch the interception. The pass went through his hands and into Dontayvion Wicks’ for a wild Cavalier touchdown.
“We all kind of got a laugh a little bit,” Wildcats defensive backs coach Chris Hoats said Thursday, “because that is such a not-Marcus play. He could catch the ball with two fingers. His hands are phenomenal, so we all joked they turned him into a DB and he left his hands at the school.”
Still, the play was indicative of why the Hurricanes trust have come to trust Clarke, who made his first career start Saturday and broke up a pass in the end zone in a 31-30 upset of the then-No. 18 North Carolina State Wolfpack at Hard Rock Stadium. Until the last few weeks, Clarke was a seldom-used cornerback, stuck near the bottom of the depth chart behind a slew of more experienced veterans, and still he already has one interception and one impressive pass break-up. The converted wide receiver is starting to provide exactly the dimension Miami (3-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) hoped he would when he signed with the Hurricanes in their Class of 2020
With injuries and illnesses piling up for the Hurricanes, Clarke’s role has grown in the last few weeks and he’s now listed as a co-starter on Miami’s weekly depth chart. There’s a chance he could make his second straight start Saturday when the Hurricanes face the No. 17 Pittsburgh Panthers at noon at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.
“They called my name. I was just ready to go,” said Clarke, who replaced Te’Cory Couch in the starting lineup as the cornerback was limited because of an illness. “Anytime that they need me, I’m there.”
It’s an attitude he has had since he was a high school star in Central Florida. At Winter Park, Clarke was one of the best wide receivers in the state, catching 59 passes for 1,004 yards and 21 touchdowns as a junior.
He was never just a receiver, though. He was the true definition of an athlete.
As a junior, he played probably less than 20 total snaps on defense, Hoats said, and still had three interceptions and returned two for touchdowns.
“He was going to play defense whether he liked it or not,” Hoats joked. “He was such a good athlete.”
Offers started to trickle in for Clarke, who also returned two punts for touchdowns, because of how dynamic he was with the ball in his hands, although his 5-foot-10 frame made him a tough sell as a wideout. An assistant coach from the Troy Trojans was the first to suggest he think about playing defensive back at the next level. He opened up his mind to the possibility.
“It’s something he just hadn’t thought about,” Hoats said.
Clarke, who was never more than a three-star recruit in the 247Sports.com composite rankings, started to reel in offers after his junior season, mostly as a corner. The Florida State Seminoles, Georgia Bulldogs and more offered him scholarships before he committed to Miami.
As a senior, Clarke was still mostly an offensive player — he had another 600 receiving yards and ran for 384 yards on just nine carries — but his role expanded on defense. He frequently played in the Wildcats’ nickel packages, broke up four passes, grabbed another interception, forced a fumble and logged 15 solo tackles.
Winter Park mostly kept his responsibilities simple. When Clarke was a junior, Hoats usually asked him to either just play man-to-man or drop into a deep zone and hunt interceptions. While Clarke’s responsibilities expanded as a senior, they mostly still boiled down to simple zone or man assignments.
As a freshman with the Hurricanes, Clarke took most of the season to learn — his biggest struggle was learning all the pre-snap checks, Hoats recalled Clarke saying in an offseason conversation — before he was pressed into action against the Duke Blue Devils in the penultimate game of the regular season. The Hurricanes were missing more than a dozen players because of COVID-19 and Clarke grabbed a late interception in Miami’s blowout win.
Now the job is even bigger. The Panthers (6-1, 3-0) have one of the best offenses in the country, led by superstar quarterback Kenny Pickett. It’ll be the toughest test yet for the Hurricanes’ secondary and, just in time, Clarke is giving it a boost.
“When I first got on the job here, we were going through cut-ups and he had an elite interception against Duke,” first-year senior defensive analyst Bob Shoop said Monday. “I’ve always been a Marcus Clarke fan.”
