Clark is sucking at middle linebacker but he can run

He’s athletic as they come but he needs to be benched

He was chasing a TE. Thats why he caught him.

I would send him to the transfer portal, though I dont know if he would be good enough to start anywhere else. Maybe learn a trade or something.

thats like saying a short stop is great at everything but fielding

Put him at WDE and Baskerville takes his spot

Pretty simple to me

I’m hoping Josh White takes over on the inside and Clark may find a home on the outside

I've been saying since the MSST game Clark is fine physically. And that he's anything but slow. However...

A) he's play keeps making me want to reconsider those statements; "don't trust your lying eyes" type situation.

B) consider that he's a "practice pete" and performance isn't translating to the game.

So I keep mulling over that IF A and/or B isn't true, why?

It's the reads, more specifically LB keys, inherent to a 4-3 system.

In Aranda's system (or 3-4 in general) we all know DL [most often] are supposed to eat, or more accurately, re-direct blockers freeing up LBs for gap control. So in a 3-4 the LBs have to key on the ball or eligible personnel because if it works right you can't read blocks or flow (because your DL is disrupting it).

In a 4-3 the DL has gap control. They are supposed to defeat blocks so the blocking flow isn't disrupted, just defeated. Commonly LBs are supposed to read this blocking flow and cover their gaps (or more commonly their LoS zones which is multiple gaps based on proper angles). So the LBs are reading what the blocking itself is doing first.

So three things.....
1. Clark having been with Aranda's 3-4 since he arrived at LSU is struggling to transition to a new key system. He's been trained since the beginning to read his DL then attack his gaps, and no one elses. Now he's being asked to read their OL, diagnose his gaps, then go to the ball.

2. That difference in key types also changes your first step. To an OL blocking a LB angles are everything, because they move faster than you do. This won't make sense to some, but if you've ever had to do it, it will... A LB that takes first step up, like a LB in a 3-4 assigned a gap will, shortens your angle and if he's on the wrong side of you as an OL it might be harder to get a good angle on him. There's ways to do it, but it just makes your life more difficult as an OL AND they are reacting faster so you have less time to do it. For a LB in a 4-3 their first step might be lateral. And if it happens to be to the side that allows you to get your head on the angle-side of your block that LB just made your life easier. In a 4-3, where the LB is keying on the flow of blocking and can be fooled by eye candy and misdirection they often make that first step laterally in the wrong direction, get out of position, AND generate better angles for the OL.

3. If you as a LB in a 4-3 who is relying on DL for primary gap control and you get out of position that means someone else, usually the LB next to you or the S, is now by inherent design also out of position. And so it dominos.

I think Clark is having major issues with his keys, making a first wrong step laterally, and it is affecting the others around him. And that's why he looks slow.

ETA: and I should add that often a "wrong first step" isn't made with feet. You can make it with your eyes... or... not making a step at all can be the "wrong step". Standing flatfooted watching the wrong thing or eye candy is a OL's dream. Our DBs are also doing this.

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Put him at WDE and Baskerville takes his spot

Pretty simple to me

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EVERYTHING is simple to a simpleton. A lot of posters in this thread are going to be eating crow.

Suck is being nice!

He’s had plenty of time
N the program under great Lbers. Idk something’s not processing right. If he doesn’t get it together it will be tough to turn the season around. He’s not attacking w physicality he’s late to the ball had angles never seems to be a “qb” of the D lining ppl up. Maybe he should be a situational pass rusher and get someone who can process a litttle quicker