South Carolina remains very much in play with DT Noah Clark (6-3 290) of Durham, NC, coming off his official visit weekend. Clark has set July 2nd, his birthday, for his commitment announcement. He’s not talking about favorites right now. However, South Carolina gave Clark a number of reasons for ultimately becoming a Gamecock.
“I would just say it was a great environment,” Clark said. “Just seeing everything, how the players react, and how the coaching staff is, it’s just a family environment. South Carolina showing how much of a family they are. They are not faking it all, not putting on a show. This is how they act.”
Defensive line coach Travian Robertson has been handling the day-to-day recruitment of Clark for USC. This weekend, he laid out for him how he uses his people, and how he would fit in on the defensive line.
“The defensive line never stays in one spot. They are always moving and always trying to make plays,” Clark said. “Coach T-Rob preaches how they don’t want to be people eaters, they want to go make plays, move around, go get sacks. TFLs get paid is what he says. He wants them to move around and have fun while you’re doing it. That’s really what’s important about that defense.”
Clark also met up with head coach Shane Beamer and heard from him the reasons why he should ultimately pick the Gamecocks.
“He talked about how I fit in personality-wise and obviously player-wise,” Clark said. “He talked about how me as a person could fit into the system and get along. and be the best for the team, help them win. He talked about the good people, and me and my family being great people.”
Along with all the football talk, Clark was exposed to campus life and the academic side of things. He plans to major in mass communications.
“They took me to see their headquarters and classrooms,” Clark said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get to talk to a professor, but I got to talk to a former student who talked very well about the program, talked about how many connections she had through the program. Talking to her and learning more about it was really fun and very interesting at the same time.”
Clark has also taken official visits to Virginia and Duke. He will take a mid-week official visit this week to Florida. He will visit Virginia Tech this coming weekend, and then will take his final official visit to NC State on June 20th.
Last season, Clark had 78 tackles with 18.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks.