Kaelin Clay, WR From Long Beach Poly, Commits to Cal
by Avinash Kunnath on Jan 24, 2010 9:10 PM PST
in California Golden Bears Recruiting
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Here's the Bear Insider article on his commitment. He was ranked the 53rd best receiver by Rivals, according to Okanes (HT Berkelium). drub12 found this quote from ESPN.
“I had a great time on the visit and when they decided to offer me a scholarship, I basically committed almost on the spot. I told myself before the visit that if Cal offered and I was comfortable there, I would go ahead and jump on it and that’s what happened. I talked with Coach (Jeff) Tedford and he’s a real good guy. They have some big plans for me and I’m excited to be a Bear,” he said.
Clay caught 24 passes for 459 yards and four touchdowns while also rushing for 548 yards and six more scores this fall.
Clay is an under-the-radar prospect with a nice blend of speed, quickness and acceleration. He possesses below average size and bulk at this stage, but is a smooth, fluid player with the ability to stretch the field vertically. He plays in a conservative scheme where he does not get many…
Shadwhand said that Clay isn't a desperate back-up plan and could be part of our rotation soon enough.
Supposedly we were targeting him even before Harper’s decommit. His highlights don’t look bad at all. He’s not necessarily a immediate impact player, but if he can be developed/coached, etc., I’m sure he’ll be a fine contributer.
Welcome to Cal, Kaelin!
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I like the way he runs
He keeps moving his feet after contact, which helps him break tackles…Hopefully that can translate to YAC once he starts getting playing time at Cal.
Of course…all the YAC in high school could be due to how bad high school defense can be…but he keeps churning those legs so that’s a plus.
ATH?
It’s interesting that he considers himself/he has been told he’s a WR, because he looked more dynamic carrying the ball out of the backfield than he did running a bunch of go routes.
Oh well, I guess the staff will have an entire year to coach him up on route running.
He looks very dangerous returning kicks, also
by calbeers05753 on Jan 24, 2010 9:37 PM PST reply actions
yeah, thinking the same thing. I guess the staff wants more than just possession receivers and figure they can get YAC with Clay if they coach him the position more
by EchoOfSilence on Jan 24, 2010 9:45 PM PST up reply actions
actually...
in his junior year he was a wide receiver and a wide receiver only, but this year Long Beach Poly was really bad and their QB completed at a 40% rate….they wanted to get the ball in Clay’s hands so they moved him to RB this past year.
The guy looks like he has some great burst and and 1.5 gears. He accelerates real smoothly, so that’ very good to see. The one thing I think he doesn’t have are the most flexible hips though – he seems slightly stiff on some of his cuts. Otherwise, I think its a fair assessment to say that this guy brings with him a lot of speed that we haven’t seen out of the WR position in a while.
For the hips ref., consider how smooth Marvin Jones always looks in his cuts. This guy, despite being smaller, doesn’t seem to have that smoothness, but that might just be the limited tape.
On top of that, with Tevin carter, we definitely have some speed coming into this class. Regardless of what people have said about us not having great WR recruits, i like what we’re bringing in. Its something we’ve been lacking – great speed/hands kids.
our two wide receiver commits
are both sub-10.8 sprinters and among the top three fastest players on the team. Kaelin Clay sports a 10.75 PR in the 100m dash, which would make him the third fastest player on roster behind another Cal commit Tevin Carter (10.56) and Shane Vereen (10.61).
hopefully he has managed to keep his hands fresh after (i’m guessin) a year off from football.
by totallyawesome on Jan 25, 2010 11:08 AM PST up reply actions
if u guys remember j ross was a high school rb and wide out and after the catch ross is the best on the team, i think Clay’s game will translate just like his, im actually really excited to see JRoss next year
You’d be surprised how hard it is to catch a fucking ball roy, they get very very slippery…
Undefeated in Southern California since Oct. 2009...
by CruzinBears on Jan 25, 2010 11:55 AM PST up reply actions
Thanks for the link! He seems like a good kid, carries himself well. I really like that the first thing out of his mouth was about getting a good education.
by atomsareenough on Jan 25, 2010 7:15 AM PST up reply actions
could be a special special teams player
looks like a real good threat as a KR/PR but he got caught from behind/ran out of gas on a few of those plays in the youtube video…
Know that you don’t play at Long Beach Poly if you’re slow. I’ve watched a few LB Poly games and if you liked Robert Jordan, you’ll like Clay. To me, this is a step in the direction of faster, but smaller, wide receivers. I think the big receiver experiment has been a bust, so I welcome it.
by BlackandOldGold on Jan 25, 2010 7:49 AM PST reply actions
I agree that Kaelin Clay has talent but why is Cal his only Pac-10 offer? It’s not like LPB is a rural HS program.
FS?
NOOOOOOOOOOO!
"I am the God of Hellfire, and I bring you... Fire!"
by Maisbikkja on Jan 25, 2010 2:44 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Well, he was playing wide receiver for a team that didn’t pass. He didn’t gather very good numbers. He seems to have physical tools which is good, and in his interview admitted he might need some time to develop. In any case, Cal has actually had a large amount of success with non-highly touted players. Mitchell Schwartz, Tyson Alualu, Cameron Jordan, Mike Mohamed, Alex Mack, Jeremy Ross, were all under-the-radar players and worked out fairly well. In fact I did a study a while back and found out 2/3 of unrated and lowly rated players become significant contributors within 3 years.
And 60% of the 5* recruits end up rotting away on the U$C depth chart?
Undefeated in Southern California since Oct. 2009...
by CruzinBears on Jan 25, 2010 11:56 AM PST up reply actions
From a Long Beach Poly Fan on Kaelin Clay
CAL got a great kid, a great athlete, and an exceptional football player. Clay took on Running Back duties his senior year due to injuries off and on to the Poly tailbacks. Also, Poly just wanted/needed to get Clay more touches.
Clay is just one of those kids who whenever he touches the ball you just hold your breath for a second wondering if this will be another 64 yard Punt Return, or 83 yard Kick Off Return, or 40+ yard run from the back field, or a catch over the middle as he gets drilled and hangs on to the ball. Yes, just high school and the kids in college are bigger and faster. Still, he made big play after big play against some of the best high school teams in California.
CAL – you just might have stumbled in the backdoor and picked up a better recruit than you thought. Seriously, great kid and great football player. Coach him up and turn him loose.
Hey, think another Poly WR/Return Specialist you had a few years ago that wasn’t too bad….but with an attitude your coaches will love.
by PolyPapi on Jan 25, 2010 7:31 PM PST reply actions 2 recs
TwistNHook:
I’m a USC ’81 Grad with a freshman son at USC – he got accepted to CAL but chose SC :) Go figure!
Love SC but I’m a closet CAL fan and with Kaelin Clay going NoCal on us I’ll be a watching Bear Football more closely. Just can’t tell you how much I respect that kid. But I guess you figured it out.
Also, my younger son is still in high school, loves Rugby so we obviously follow CAL.
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