Knights corner the market
UCF has one of most seasoned secondary units in college football
Nevelle Clarke had a decision to make: Take his shot at playing in the NFL or return to UCF for his senior season.
“It was tough for me, man,” the cornerback admits. But Clarke’s final choice became easier once he thought more and more about whom he would be leaving behind.
“Not saying I wasn’t ready [for the pros], but I wanted to end it off right with my teammates,” Clarke said.
With Clarke back in the fold, the Knights are set to field one of the most seasoned secondaries in college football. The presumed starting four — Clarke, redshirt junior cornerback Brandon Moore, junior safety Antwan Collier and redshirt junior safety Richie Grant — all are heading into their third year of playing together. They have 108 games of experience between them, including 53 starts. Collier was the only one of the quartet who didn’t start every game in 2018.
“It’s just a blessing,” Grant said of the familiarity, “because being
able to be back there with guys that you know, that you’ve actually given signals to before, sometimes I won’t even have to give a signal because we already know where we’re going to be at.”
Grant is the featured attraction after a breakout season in which he paced UCF in solo tackles and total tackles, and ranked third in the nation with six interceptions. That led to a bunch of national attention this summer for the Fort Walton Beach native, who is on four preseason-award watch lists, including the Walter Camp Award, which is presented annually to the sport’s best player.
However, Grant is being pushed every day for that mantle of top player from inside the secondary.
“Listen, we are all going to uplift each other, but at the end, I’m going to be on top,” said Clarke with a wide grin.
Before that can happen, Clarke knows he must improve some facets of his game. Namely, he has been working on coming out of his breaks quicker this offseason.
“Everything that I messed up was mental errors, so I feel like me just having my head straight in the game, I’ll be fine,” he said.
Clarke was a first-team all-American Athletic Conference selection last season. He broke up 13 passes, fourth-most in the conference, and his return to UCF “has been tremendous for us,” according to defensive coordinator Randy Shannon.
Moore was an all-conference honorable mention who broke up 10 passes last year. His top highlight from the 2018 season was probably a 93-yard interception return for a touchdown in the Fiesta Bowl versus LSU. For 2019, Moore thinks this team should aim for the highest achievement possible in college football, even if it recent history says it doesn’t seem plausible for the Knights.
“Playoffs,” Moore said bluntly. “We want nothing less. Why do all that grinding just to go to a normal bowl game?”
UCF fans will remember Collier from one of those “normal” bowl games; he clinched the Peach Bowl victory over Auburn with an interception in the waning seconds. He played in every game last season but spent much of the year backing up senior safety Kyle Gibson. Still, he recorded 26 solo tackles in that limited time, fifthmost among returning players.
There will be other defensive backs involved: Shannon lauded redshirt junior cornerback Aaron Robinson last week for what he has displayed in practices this summer, and coach Josh Heupel singled out cornerback James Tarver on Monday for his competitiveness and maturity as a freshman. But with UCF dealing with a lot of new faces up front, this defense may be only as good as its battle-tested backfield allows.
“We’ve just got that bond with each other that we know how everything is going to play out,” Moore said. “…We’ve been with each other the past three years and we’ve only gotten better. We’re all so comfortable with each other and we can just feel something real big this year for us.”