UCLA head coach Jim Mora is clearly determined to get a tight end into the Bruins’ offense next season. The #1 high school tight end prospect in the country, Alize Jones from Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, had been a UCLA commit since November of 2013. Jones, however had been wavering lately, and announced Thursday that he had changed his mind and was going to Notre Dame instead. Mora must have seen it coming, because he took one of the more innovative recruiting approaches in recent memory, in an effort to secure another tight end prospect.
Even with the non-binding, verbal commitment from Jones in his back pocket, Mora recently began to zero in on 4-star recruit Chris Clark, a 6-6, 247 pound tight end from Avon Old Farms High School in Avon, Connecticut. Clark has scholarship offers from 43 schools including Ohio State, USC, Florida State, and 12 SEC schools (everyone except Texas A&M and LSU). In recent weeks, however, it has been widely reported that Clark has narrowed his list to UCLA and Michigan. That’s when Mora decided to put his thoughts in writing… literally.
UCLA bought advertorial space in the current edition of ESPN Magazine; two pages of paid space designed to look like a story on the future of UCLA tight end Chris Clark, all in an effort to convince Clark that his college years would be best spent in Westwood.
The ad predicts that Clark will score a touchdown on his first play, (as QB Brett Hundley did), that he will be a multi-year All American, will win the Mackey Award for the best tight end in the country, and will lead UCLA to a national championship by the end of his third year. It refers to him as “Gronk 2.0” in reference to New England Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski. There is even a picture of a locker with a UCLA jersey with the name Clark on the back. Clark thought enough of the effort to post a copy of the article on his Twitter feed and label it as the, “Coolest recruiting pitch.”
February 4th is the first day high school players can sign their binding national letters of intent.
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