TE Devonaire Clarington to pick between four schools at 2015 US Army All-American Bowl
Two schools may be standing above the rest for the nation’s No. 4 tight end.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- One of the highly rated prospects who will make an announcement at Saturday's US Army All-American Bowl is Miami (Fla.) Booker T. Washington tight end Devonaire Clarington.
“My dad and I talked about it and I decided that I want to decide at the game,” he told SB Nation Recruiting on Monday. “I thought that I had it back in August and that’s when I decided to break it down and just see how the season was going to go.”
When the 6’5, 222-pounder makes his decision, he will have Florida, LSU, Miami, and Texas hats on the table.
Through much of his recruitment, Clarington was considered a lean towards the hometown Hurricanes. And, in fact, he may have been close to committing to head coach Al Golden and his program back in August when he thought he had his decision made.
Since then, Miami may not have helped itself much.
“I’m still seriously considering Miami, but they didn’t hit me up for a while,” he said.
Still, the history of tight ends at Miami is something that plays well with the nation's No. 4 player at the position, with New Orleans Saints star Jimmy Graham one of the players that Clarington cited.
Texas has been in close contact with the versatile tight end, as has LSU, but Florida has not been as active since the coaching changes, which could leave the Gators a distant fourth in his recruitment with only a few days until his decision.
Clarington said that he enjoyed the city of Austin when he took his official visit to Texas in November and that the coaching staff told him that they would use him in a variety of different ways offensively -- as an H-back in the back field, as an inside receiver, and at a more traditional tight end position, the same way his coaches are utilizing him at the Army Bowl.
That selling point for the Longhorns is something that Clarington found appealing.
An official visit to LSU is in the works for the middle of January and he hasn’t visited Baton Rouge yet, so it would seem unlikely that he would pledge to the Tigers sight unseen. If he doesn’t, it’s quite possible that the coaching staff to which he commits tries to convince him not to take that visit.
Based on the lack of contact from Florida recently and the lack of a trip to LSU, his recruitment may be coming down to a battle between Texas and Miami. If that’s the case, the Longhorns have the advantage, at least according to the recent movement in his 247Sports Crystal Ball, which has been trending towards Texas since the middle of December and now stands at 52 percent Miami and 48 percent Texas, with no picks for the Hurricanes since late September.
