Jadeveon Clowney: He’s got the look

The first day that Jadeveon Clowney walked into the weight room at South Pointe High in the summer of 2007 proved to be a momentous one for Bobby Carroll.

The football coach eyed the young freshman who stood 6-foot-3 and weighed 210 pounds with the same excitement that he would a winning lottery ticket.

“That guy has the look. You knew when you saw him that he was going to be a great player,” Carroll said.

Four years later the Stallions had played in two state championship games, winning one, and the dominating defensive end departed as the nation’s best high school football player to start a collegiate career with South Carolina.

“He had a rock star status when he left South Pointe and walked into that place,” said Carroll, who is now the head coach at York High.

He isn’t surprised that Clowney made an immediate impact as a freshman at USC, where he had 36 tackles and eight sacks on the way to being named to the All-SEC second team as well as the conference freshman of the year.

Now standing 6-6 and weighing 256 pounds, Clowney enters his sophomore season with the potential to be one of college football’s premier players. Carroll said that Clowney still has work to do from a technique standpoint, but he remains amazed at Clowney’s pure talent that can overwhelm the best offensive linemen.

“He can beat them just by his God-given ability,” Carroll said. “That kid has got it. He can get there once the ball moves. The things he does possess that you can’t teach are effort and speed. That’s born in you.”

Carroll said he remembers a player who would run 150-yard gassers with the running backs and defensive backs because he was too fast to run with the defensive linemen. He remembers a player who was so tough that he played eight games as a sophomore with a bone spur in his foot. He remembers a player who would set the tone for an entire team by the way he worked out or practiced.

When Clowney decided to head down I-77 to play in Columbia, he set off a celebration among the USC coaches and fans excited about the biggest name ever to pick the Gamecocks. He followed on the heels of two previous S.C. Mr. Footballs – former high school teammate Stephon Gilmore and Marcus Lattimore – to attend USC. It’s no coincidence that this upgrade in talent helped USC produce the best season in school history with an 11-2 mark capped by a Capital One Bowl victory.

“They’ve got something special going on down there. Carolina has always had tremendous support, even in years when they might not have been a national contender. Williams-Brice Stadium is a special place on Saturday,” Carroll said.

The fact that the Gamecocks have made a leap by convincing home-grown talent to stay home impresses Carroll.

“It says something for our kids to stay instate,” he said. “I’m glad they stayed here and we can go watch them play. And they can get on a national stage. South Carolina football has changed big-time since Coach (Steve) Spurrier got there.”

Big-time players continuing to choose USC serves as a magnet for the next wave of recruits. The Gamecocks added another Mr. Football in Lexington wide receiver Shaq Roland this season. Clowney plans to mentor Roland just as Gilmore and Lattimore eased his own transition.

“They helped me a lot. They told me there’s going to be pressure from guys and media,” Clowney said. “But I was not worried about the pressure. I was here to help the team. Whatever the coaches wanted me to do, I was here to play.”

Carroll saw the same attitude at South Pointe. The two traveled together at times on various trips, and he watched Clowney’s bright personality come through no matter where they went.

“He’s fun to talk to, and he’s funny,” Carroll said. “That makes a recipe for a good person.”

Clowney wants to extend the sunny outlook for USC football as well. He looks at the talent level and loves what he sees.

“It’s going to keep going up and up and up. We’ve got a lot of big recruits coming in,” Clowney said. “We’re winning more games, and as long as we keep going out there, the program is going to keep getting better. It’s on the rise.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2012 at 12:00 PM.