The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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Clark flashed his potential against Ohio State last year, notching four tackles, two stops behind the line of scrimmage, one sack and one fumble recovery. photo by lon horwedel do something great in life, who could come back and help her out. That's what I wanted to do." Clark's mother contacted his father, whom the young man hadn't known to that point in his life. She arranged to put the 12-yearold on a plane to Ohio, to start a new and hopefully safer life. Clark, who loves his mother, didn't argue. "She basically said, 'This is what you need to do — go do it,'" he recalled. "And I listened. I'm good at listening. When somebody older is telling me this is something I need to do, I'm like, 'Okay.'" That dynamic surfaced again, a few years down the road. A strong hand of direction, at just the right time, changed the course of Clark's life. He certainly demonstrated the sort of football ability that produces options, while his early teen years rolled into later ones. His play at Cleveland's Glenville High brought offers from Michigan State, North Carolina, Minnesota and a number of other schools. Those did not include an invitation from the home-state's most-prominent institution, eventually helping earn Miller a headache. By the time Clark committed to Michigan and the Buckeyes began a tardy attempt at recruitment, it was too late. Glenville head coach Ted Ginn Sr. has sent any number of talented performers to Columbus, including his own son. This time, the veteran offered some dramatically different advice. "He and Coach [Brady] Hoke have a really great bond, a great relationship," Clark said. "Coach Hoke coached some of his players at Ball State. "It all caught me by storm. I'm getting all these offers from out of nowhere. I'm like, 'Coach, what should I do? Where should I go?' I was sold on North Carolina. That's where I wanted to go. "I talked to my coach and he said, 'You need to go to Michigan.' I said, 'Michigan? Why would I go to Michigan?' He looked at me and said, 'You really don't know. You need to go to Michigan. You're going to go to Michigan.'" The memory still strikes Clark as funny. Ginn's bluntness set him back momentarily, but the young prospect didn't argue. Clark recounted: "I said, 'I'm going to go 140 ■ The Wolverine 2013 Football Preview to Michigan?' He said, 'You're going to go to Michigan.' "Okay, I'm going to go to Michigan. That's someone I looked up to as a father figure in my life. Him telling me what I was going to do, it wasn't a, 'No, I'm not.' It was more like, 'Okay, this is what I'm going to do. I'm listening to what you're telling me.' "I'm glad I didn't debate it, because if I would have, I'd have been the one looking stupid at the end. He knew this was going to happen, before it even happened. The older ones know best, I guess." Clark finds himself steaming toward older-one status among the Wolverines. He's played 25 games in two years for Hoke's crew, making a key interception in the Sugar Bowl as a true freshman and becoming more of a force last year, with a pair of sacks among 25 tackles. He insists, though, he's not about the highlight reel. He's looking to be counted on as an everyday player, someone who gives Michigan a huge boost off the end of the defensive line. "I want to become a more complete player this season," Clark stressed. "I don't want to become, as I call it, a part-time player. I don't want to be known as 'Old Frank Clark, he makes a few plays,' or 'He tends to make a big play every few games.' "No, I want to be the Frank Clark who my coaches and my teammates can look at and say, 'Oh, we can rely on him to have a good game, every game. We can rely on Frank to do what he has to do to help the team out, every game.'" Right now, Clark noted, Michigan's coaches are placing great trust in him. He remembers looking up to former line mauler Mike Martin as a true freshman, and wanting to emulate him. Now, he insists, the older performers on the Michigan team — like Taylor Lewan, Jibreel Black, Quinton Washington and, yes, Frank Clark — need to step it up. For him, it involves the aforementioned consistency, but also an attitude of helpfulness toward those up and down the roster. Michigan has plenty of talent, he said, but that talent needs to blend into a team. "I don't want to be a player where I'm not helping the man behind me," he said. "I don't want to be that player. I want to be a player where, if I come off that field and I've made a mistake, I'm telling the next person — whether it's Mario [Ojemudia] or Taco [Charlton] — that I messed up and how not to do the same mistake. If I do that, we'll have a good bond and do what we have to do." Michigan will feature good defensive pursuit, Clark vows. That's a given, in his mind.