Jadeveon Clowney Deserves Some Time To Grow at South Carolina

You’ve probably heard by now that defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, the consensus No. 1 football recruit in the country, announced his decision to sign with the South Carolina Gamecocks earlier today. Clowney, a South Carolina native, opted to stay close to home, choosing the Gamecocks over recruiting mega power Alabama and the late pushing Clemson.

Now that Clowney has settled on a school and finally put an end to the months of speculation and hearsay that surrounded his recruitment, it’s time to look towards what type of impact he’ll have at South Carolina in his first season with the program.

If you listen to the recruiting analysts, who live for this kind of stuff, Clowney is being talked about as a once in a decade type recruit, the likes of which we haven’t seen in years. Heck, he’s already made the cover of ESPN the Magazine and he hasn’t even graduated high school yet.

That’s what will happen when you have a size to speed ratio that is, “off the charts” and back it up by racking up 56 sacks in your final two seasons of high school ball.

As we’ve come to realize over the years, though, when it comes to college football recruiting, the hype means nothing the second you actually step foot on campus. All that’s left are the mighty big expectations you have to live up to.

Take the case of Ronald Powell, last year’s “it” recruit. Like Clowney, Powell was a defensive end who had college recruiters and analysts foaming at the mouth over his unreal athleticism. There were some that even said he’d be an All-American by the end of his first season.

The only problem was that once Powell got down to Florida, he came to the realization that he was now the hunted because of all the publicity he received in high school. It wasn’t going to be as easy and simple as they all made it seem. Surprisingly, the older Gator players didn’t just lay down for him and ask for his autograph.

Powell would go on to finish with a modest, yet respectable, 25 tackles and 1 sack, a far cry from the All-American expectations some had set for him.

So, maybe we should take the case of Powell and other former No.1 recruits who failed to make a big impact in their first go around and put it all into perspective before anointing Clowney as college football’s next big thing.

Does the South Pointe star have the potential to be a great one? Oh yeah, but so did a lot of other products of the recruiting hype machine who flamed out because they just couldn’t handle the pressure.

Speaking of which, what's Darrell Scott up to these days?

The reasonable thing to do would be to let Jadeveon ease into this transition and let him grow and mature at a reasonable pace. To expect him to walk in on day one and dominate right from the get-go seems a bit extreme.

Just look at defensive end Da’Quan Bowers, the top recruit from the 2008 class. Bowers arrived at Clemson amid great fanfare, but he could only muster up four sacks in his first two seasons. There were those who were ready to write him off as an underachiever. But he progressed, learned how to harness his skills and exploded as a junior, leading the country with 15 sacks.

Remember, the college game is a huge step up from high school. Clowney won’t be going up against any 5’11’’ 205 lb. offensive linemen in the SEC, I can promise you that. You always hear coaches preach that it takes time to get used to the speed and physicality of the college game and it’s true.

Besides, the Gamecocks already have two stud defensive linemen in DE Devin Taylor and DT Melvin Ingram, who combined for 16.5 sacks in 2010. It’s not as if Coach Steve Spurrier and South Carolina need Clowney to come in and be “the man” in his first season.

Remember, being a college freshman is hard enough; doing it under the spotlight Clowney is going to have to endure this year is almost unfathomable.

So, South Carolina fans, I urge you to be patient. Jadeveon does have the makings of something special, but there’s no need to rush things and put unneeded pressure on him too soon. He's already going to be dealing with enough as it is.

Slow it down with the Jadeveon Clowney for Heisman Facebook pages and just let the kid develop.

Clowney could be great one day, but that day doesn’t necessarily have to be tomorrow.

Give him time.