Boise State Roster Countdown 2021: Day 41, Jaylen Clark

41 days?! Does that make this Ian Johnson Day on the countdown? I don’t know about all that, but it’s Jaylen Clark Day at the very least.

#41, Jaylen Clark, RS Freshman, DB

Stats

Height: 6’ 2”

Weight: 195 lbs

High School: Lincoln High School, Tacoma, WA

How’d he get to the Blue™?

Mr. Clark was a late addition to the 2020 class. So late that he was even added after the traditional signing day, having inked his LOI on May 1st.

Clark was a three star recruit as rated by 247Sports. He was the no. 12 rated recruit by the same website. He was a two-way player for Lincoln HS netting 52 passes for 776 yards with 11 touchdowns at wide receiver. On defense he had 19 tackles (10 solo) and four INTs. He was first-team All-Pierce County League at both WR and CB. Kid is talented.

Clark was recruited by all the usual suspects in the Pac-12: Washington, Washington State, Utah, and Oregon (but no offers from any of those schools). He was offered by Arizona and Colorado. Boise State and Montana round out the other offers he had. The kid chose good.

Nickname

“JC”

I’m not going to complicate this one.

Look-a-like

Vanessa’s boyfriend Tyrone on The Cosby Show

Career Highlights

Played in 4 games for the Broncos in 2020. Returned blocked punt for TD against Wyoming but was robbed by MWC refs by phantom blocking penalty. Being a really new freshman has some drawbacks. As in nothing on the field yet for the new school. BUT he’s done some really good stuff at the high school ranks (as noted above) so it’s really only a matter of time before we are filling this part out.

2021 Prospectus

Now the lone Clark on the Boise State roster (Donovan entered the transfer portal...perhaps not of his own free will), Jaylen looks to improve on a solid true freshman campaign that actually saw him compete in 4 of the Broncos 7 contests. His one shining moment (a scoop and score TD off a blocked punt against Wyoming) was rudely taken away from him on a phantom call, but I think we saw the kind of special teams demon he can be as just a true frosh and he should AT LEAST be that much and more in 2021.

Officially listed at CB, the lanky (for the position) Clark could definitely factor into that hotly-contested positional race and find the field on defense this fall. We’ve previously discussed that only Markel Reed seems to be a consensus for one of the starting CB gigs and depending on how fall camp goes (and injuries etc) it’s anyone’s guess where the other guys will land. Playing at all as a true freshman shows a certain level of gumption, and I expect that Clark will play early and often in ‘21, so expect that statline to grow. Hey, maybe he’ll have another scoop and score that actually counts this year!

Is he on Twitter?

Yep, and he’s a fan of the “kits” as the Brits might say.

Completely made up fact

Ever had a Clark Bar™? Well, you can thank Jaylen for that. No, he didn’t invent them. Heck, he doesn’t even like them...but the supply of Clark Bars remains high because of Jaylen shunning the chocolatey treat. Thanks, Jaylen!