July 7, 2025 • 11 mins
UTSA WR De’Corian “JT” Clark announces his retirement.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
It was announced to be the Twitter or X however
you like to refer to it these days, that one
of utsa's best wide receivers ever, the Korey and JT Clark,
is going to no longer play football. He is going
to give his knee another six or seven months to
(00:24):
try to recover and to rehab. It's going on three
years since his injury, and he will try for Pro
Day to see if there's anybody that wants to take
a chance on him, or maybe a spring league that
he can play in to get some reps in the future,
but his UTSA career is coming to an end. It's
(00:45):
kind of a sad situation with JT because in the
UAB game in twenty twenty two, he went out for
just a normal sideline pass and made a terrific catch
from Frank Harris and came down very awkwardly on the
UAB side line. And typically pretty much everywhere you go,
there's a few places where this is a little bit different,
(01:06):
but typically the home side is the press box side
of the stadium. So I never saw the play, and
TV did not give us. He gave us an angle
enough to where we could see that the knee buckled
a little bit, but not nearly as good of a
view if the camera would have been in a different position.
And those who are on the UAB sideline saw it,
(01:28):
and Frank Harris saw it, and Frank I thought was
going to throw up as soon as he saw it,
and then he rushed JT to make sure he was
okay and he wasn't torn. ACL for surgery didn't go
according to plan second one that was a little bit better,
But over the years, I guess that ACL just got
to a point to where it could not recover. There's
(01:50):
no doubt in my mind that JT could have played
in the NFL six foot four, two d and twenty
five pounds Donna's body. He could jump out of the
out of the Alamodome and made some of the most
spectacular catches. Was going to always draw a double team.
But as Jeff Traylor will tell you, there's very few
(02:13):
players that he's ever coached that he's enjoyed a company
and being around more than him. One of the all time,
absolutely unbelievably good human beings. And to have something that tragic,
that bad happened to somebody that good of an athlete,
and that good of a person is part of the
sadness I think that a lot of the UTSA football
(02:34):
community has felt on Twitter and on other social media
platforms when JT announced it over the weekend that he
would not be playing this.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Year, Well, yeah, because, like you mentioned, the original injury
that happened in twenty twenty two. Not that you would
take comfort in it, or at least be okay with
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
More is the fact that it was non contact. You know,
most acls are non contact. Yeah, I remember, And this
goes back to my days at OU, the year before
I moved to San Antonio and still my favorite Ou
football player of all time, it's Jim Holloway. What he
did running the wishbone. There's nobody that ever did it better.
(03:14):
And I don't care if you're a Texas guy back
in the seventies and you think one of your guys
ran the wishbone better, they didn't. And the guy that
basically invented the wishbone to a certain extent was Barry Switzer.
And when Barry Switzer says when Jameel was eighteen years old,
he ran the wishbone better than anybody ever ran it.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
He knew the plays better.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
The offense he ran in high school was not They
didn't run out of the wishbone that they ran the
same basic plays. He understood the reids, He understood everything,
and he led the team to a national championship after
Troy Aikman got hurt in nineteen eighty five, and they
would have won the national championship in eighty six if
it weren't for some team that called Miami that they
could never beat, and neither could anybody else for that matter.
(03:54):
And then against Oklahoma State in nineteen eighty seven, he
just went down the line for just a regular old
everyday option and he faked one way and went the other,
but his acl went another direction and he never recovered
from it. He played the next year, but he was
not nearly as quick. He didn't have nearly the explosiveness
(04:16):
to make the cuts he was.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
He was so good. He wasn't fast.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
He was only about a four six four seven forty guy,
but he could make cuts on a dime, and he
could make you think he was going one place and
be someplace else before.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
You knew what was going on. Understanding of the angles.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And under but he understood the game and the option
game back when the option was a was a regular
offense for a lot of teams, especially in the old
Big Eight.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
And I would put JT in amongst the top.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Players that Utsa's ever had that I enjoyed watching more
than anybody else. And the acrobatic catch he made in
the Army game to win in twenty twenty two or
twenty one, and the catch that he made in the
back of the end against Noia Texas in the regular
season game in twenty twenty one, and I'm sure I
could go down the line and think of a ton more.
(05:07):
But it's really sad to see that his career is
going to come to an end. From what people have
told me, he's starting to accept it. And I think
the fact that you know, Okay, I'm going to go
I'm going to go all out with my rehab for
another six months and come February when it's Pro Day,
I'm going to work out for the scouts and see
if my measurables are any better?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Can I run and jump and cut?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And basically when he tried to come back, it was
the cutting that he couldn't do. And that's the one
thing that the ACL injury tends to prevent if you
could just run fly patterns all day long and jump
up in the air and catch, but at some point
you got to be able to fake out a cornerback
or a safety or whoever's guarding you. And if you
don't have confidence that you can make hard, sharp cuts,
especially on most fields that are not grass, then your
(05:54):
career is going to be limited as to what you
can do. I think he wants to get into coaching.
I think he'll be around the UTSA program until other
opportunities present themselves. And I'm sure if Jeff ever has
an opening there's he's gonna be one of the first
guys that he puts on any staff. There's you know,
the one thing that Jeff always talks about is culture
(06:15):
and character, and there's nobody that has better character than JT.
And so whatever happens in his future, I hope he
does it well, and hopefully as the season unfolds, he's able.
I don't think he's gonna He's obviously not gonna play,
but that doesn't mean he can't still be around the
program and tutor younger players. And I don't know if
(06:38):
he's gonna be a grad assistant or if there's something
like that down the road for him. But I absolutely
hope that that opportunity comes his way.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, and let's just say hypothetically giving him even more
time to recover and let that knee get fully completely
healed or whatever, maybe there's a chance.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Well, I think I think that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I think the chance is is, Okay, you go to
Pro Day and if you can cut a little bit.
I can't imagine an NFL team's going to draft him now.
The draft picks or even the seventh round draft picks
are too valuable to take that big of a chance on.
My guess is he would have been a second or
third round pick if he'd come out in twenty three,
had he had a good twenty two season and had
(07:20):
not gotten hurt in twenty twenty two, and I think
he would have had a long career. The body and
the ability that he had is more than most player.
There's players playing wide receiver in the NFL that are
not as good as he was. But I think the
avenue is to play for an Arena league team or
to play for a spring league team and to get
(07:41):
some tape so that people go, wow, maybe we should
invite him to training camp and see what he can do.
But the first test is going to be can I
run a fifteen yard outer in and make a major
cut on that to get separation from a cornerback and
do it at the speed that I could before? And
that's what he has not been able to do in
the past. He could run straight and I don't know
(08:02):
if his forty time was that much difference, But he's
so big, who cares. Just thought his direction, he's going
to catch the ball. Yeah, but if you can't make
cuts as a player in the NFL or as a
football player, that's going to be a major struggle.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well, the other thing that he could potentially do, you know,
if it's not at wide receiver, you special teams man, kickoff,
you're just running straight. You're running straight towards the guy.
And with these new modified with the new modified rules
now with kickoffs, he's not having to run very very far.
It's hey, we just need you to run ten twenty
(08:36):
yards real quick, and that's it.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
They're always looking for special I think.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I think the special teams guys also have to be
able to play a position somewhere and fifth and six
wide receivers that are on special teams. I know he's
never going to give up the desire, He's never going
to give up the dream.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
But at some.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Point you'll probably see him, if he hasn't already, except
what his future fate is, and see what he can
do to make the best. And I think he wants
to be around younger players and coach younger players and
teach them. And he's got a pretty good guy to
kind of show him how to do that.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
By the way, of course, this boils down to Hatfield's
and McCoy's rivalry here. According to your guy, you know, Barry,
Barry Switzer said that it was Charles spud Cason that
quote unquote invented the wishbone, but it was actually Emery Bellard.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, the offensive coordinator at.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Well, he was the head coach at Houston back in
the day. He was offensive coordinator at Texas too. Yes, yes, sir,
But Barry's the one that revolutionized it. Yeah, because he
went to Chuck Fairbanks in the nineteen sixties and goes,
nobody's running this offense except Emery Bellard. Emery Ballard, who
was a ut offensive coordinator, then became the head coach
(09:51):
at Houston, and it was basically veer concepts, but it
wasn't necessarily lining up.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
In the wishbone, but in the coach Aggie.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
In the twenty years or so that the wishbone was
part of OU's offense, you had Jack Mildrin, Steve Davis,
Thomas Lott who was from San Antonio, J C. Watts,
Dean Blevins, Kelly Phelps, and then you had Troy Yiateman
try to run it. That was a disaster because he
was awkward, It's all good, trying to run down the
sidelines like he was Peyton before Peyton, Well, he was
(10:21):
trying really hard. I remember calling along couple of touchdown
runs that he made, and there was a Danny Bradley
in the mix, and then there was Jameel and Jammel
was the most fun football player to run that offense
that I ever saw. But yeah, that ended in eighty seven.
In October of eighty seven, he went down the line
(10:42):
to the left and he went to the right and
the ACL stayed left and it did not go well.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
For him, and his career was never the same after that.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
You want to know what Troy's longest NFL career rushing
yard was in a game fourteen, no longer twenty six,
twenty five, all right, nineteen eighty nine against the level.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I think i'd have to go back and research this,
but I think I've got I don't even know if
I still have the tapes or not. I think I
got rid of a lot of the college tapes that
I had. But he had a couple of runs against
Texas I think one year that were pretty impressive for
somebody that's six' four and doesn't run that. Fast he
ran faster then than he did when we got to THE.
(11:24):
Nfl but of, course because he was going to make
a living with his arms on his. Legs troy in
his career had one thousand and sixteen yards rushing in
three hundred and twenty seven, attempts nine rushing.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Touchdowns that is. All that is about.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Five hundred more rushing yards THAN i Thought detroit ever.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Had all, right more coming, Up it's The Andy Everette
show on the tickets
It was announced to be the Twitter or X however
you like to refer to it these days, that one
of utsa's best wide receivers ever, the Korey and JT Clark,
is going to no longer play football. He is going
to give his knee another six or seven months to
(00:24):
try to recover and to rehab. It's going on three
years since his injury, and he will try for Pro
Day to see if there's anybody that wants to take
a chance on him, or maybe a spring league that
he can play in to get some reps in the future,
but his UTSA career is coming to an end. It's
(00:45):
kind of a sad situation with JT because in the
UAB game in twenty twenty two, he went out for
just a normal sideline pass and made a terrific catch
from Frank Harris and came down very awkwardly on the
UAB side line. And typically pretty much everywhere you go,
there's a few places where this is a little bit different,
(01:06):
but typically the home side is the press box side
of the stadium. So I never saw the play, and
TV did not give us. He gave us an angle
enough to where we could see that the knee buckled
a little bit, but not nearly as good of a
view if the camera would have been in a different position.
And those who are on the UAB sideline saw it,
(01:28):
and Frank Harris saw it, and Frank I thought was
going to throw up as soon as he saw it,
and then he rushed JT to make sure he was
okay and he wasn't torn. ACL for surgery didn't go
according to plan second one that was a little bit better,
But over the years, I guess that ACL just got
to a point to where it could not recover. There's
(01:50):
no doubt in my mind that JT could have played
in the NFL six foot four, two d and twenty
five pounds Donna's body. He could jump out of the
out of the Alamodome and made some of the most
spectacular catches. Was going to always draw a double team.
But as Jeff Traylor will tell you, there's very few
(02:13):
players that he's ever coached that he's enjoyed a company
and being around more than him. One of the all time,
absolutely unbelievably good human beings. And to have something that tragic,
that bad happened to somebody that good of an athlete,
and that good of a person is part of the
sadness I think that a lot of the UTSA football
(02:34):
community has felt on Twitter and on other social media
platforms when JT announced it over the weekend that he
would not be playing this.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Year, Well, yeah, because, like you mentioned, the original injury
that happened in twenty twenty two. Not that you would
take comfort in it, or at least be okay with
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
More is the fact that it was non contact. You know,
most acls are non contact. Yeah, I remember, And this
goes back to my days at OU, the year before
I moved to San Antonio and still my favorite Ou
football player of all time, it's Jim Holloway. What he
did running the wishbone. There's nobody that ever did it better.
(03:14):
And I don't care if you're a Texas guy back
in the seventies and you think one of your guys
ran the wishbone better, they didn't. And the guy that
basically invented the wishbone to a certain extent was Barry Switzer.
And when Barry Switzer says when Jameel was eighteen years old,
he ran the wishbone better than anybody ever ran it.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
He knew the plays better.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
The offense he ran in high school was not They
didn't run out of the wishbone that they ran the
same basic plays. He understood the reids, He understood everything,
and he led the team to a national championship after
Troy Aikman got hurt in nineteen eighty five, and they
would have won the national championship in eighty six if
it weren't for some team that called Miami that they
could never beat, and neither could anybody else for that matter.
(03:54):
And then against Oklahoma State in nineteen eighty seven, he
just went down the line for just a regular old
everyday option and he faked one way and went the other,
but his acl went another direction and he never recovered
from it. He played the next year, but he was
not nearly as quick. He didn't have nearly the explosiveness
(04:16):
to make the cuts he was.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
He was so good. He wasn't fast.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
He was only about a four six four seven forty guy,
but he could make cuts on a dime, and he
could make you think he was going one place and
be someplace else before.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
You knew what was going on. Understanding of the angles.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And under but he understood the game and the option
game back when the option was a was a regular
offense for a lot of teams, especially in the old
Big Eight.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
And I would put JT in amongst the top.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Players that Utsa's ever had that I enjoyed watching more
than anybody else. And the acrobatic catch he made in
the Army game to win in twenty twenty two or
twenty one, and the catch that he made in the
back of the end against Noia Texas in the regular
season game in twenty twenty one, and I'm sure I
could go down the line and think of a ton more.
(05:07):
But it's really sad to see that his career is
going to come to an end. From what people have
told me, he's starting to accept it. And I think
the fact that you know, Okay, I'm going to go
I'm going to go all out with my rehab for
another six months and come February when it's Pro Day,
I'm going to work out for the scouts and see
if my measurables are any better?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Can I run and jump and cut?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And basically when he tried to come back, it was
the cutting that he couldn't do. And that's the one
thing that the ACL injury tends to prevent if you
could just run fly patterns all day long and jump
up in the air and catch, but at some point
you got to be able to fake out a cornerback
or a safety or whoever's guarding you. And if you
don't have confidence that you can make hard, sharp cuts,
especially on most fields that are not grass, then your
(05:54):
career is going to be limited as to what you
can do. I think he wants to get into coaching.
I think he'll be around the UTSA program until other
opportunities present themselves. And I'm sure if Jeff ever has
an opening there's he's gonna be one of the first
guys that he puts on any staff. There's you know,
the one thing that Jeff always talks about is culture
(06:15):
and character, and there's nobody that has better character than JT.
And so whatever happens in his future, I hope he
does it well, and hopefully as the season unfolds, he's able.
I don't think he's gonna He's obviously not gonna play,
but that doesn't mean he can't still be around the
program and tutor younger players. And I don't know if
(06:38):
he's gonna be a grad assistant or if there's something
like that down the road for him. But I absolutely
hope that that opportunity comes his way.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, and let's just say hypothetically giving him even more
time to recover and let that knee get fully completely
healed or whatever, maybe there's a chance.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Well, I think I think that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I think the chance is is, Okay, you go to
Pro Day and if you can cut a little bit.
I can't imagine an NFL team's going to draft him now.
The draft picks or even the seventh round draft picks
are too valuable to take that big of a chance on.
My guess is he would have been a second or
third round pick if he'd come out in twenty three,
had he had a good twenty two season and had
(07:20):
not gotten hurt in twenty twenty two, and I think
he would have had a long career. The body and
the ability that he had is more than most player.
There's players playing wide receiver in the NFL that are
not as good as he was. But I think the
avenue is to play for an Arena league team or
to play for a spring league team and to get
(07:41):
some tape so that people go, wow, maybe we should
invite him to training camp and see what he can do.
But the first test is going to be can I
run a fifteen yard outer in and make a major
cut on that to get separation from a cornerback and
do it at the speed that I could before? And
that's what he has not been able to do in
the past. He could run straight and I don't know
(08:02):
if his forty time was that much difference, But he's
so big, who cares. Just thought his direction, he's going
to catch the ball. Yeah, but if you can't make
cuts as a player in the NFL or as a
football player, that's going to be a major struggle.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well, the other thing that he could potentially do, you know,
if it's not at wide receiver, you special teams man, kickoff,
you're just running straight. You're running straight towards the guy.
And with these new modified with the new modified rules
now with kickoffs, he's not having to run very very far.
It's hey, we just need you to run ten twenty
(08:36):
yards real quick, and that's it.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
They're always looking for special I think.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I think the special teams guys also have to be
able to play a position somewhere and fifth and six
wide receivers that are on special teams. I know he's
never going to give up the desire, He's never going
to give up the dream.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
But at some.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Point you'll probably see him, if he hasn't already, except
what his future fate is, and see what he can
do to make the best. And I think he wants
to be around younger players and coach younger players and
teach them. And he's got a pretty good guy to
kind of show him how to do that.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
By the way, of course, this boils down to Hatfield's
and McCoy's rivalry here. According to your guy, you know, Barry,
Barry Switzer said that it was Charles spud Cason that
quote unquote invented the wishbone, but it was actually Emery Bellard.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, the offensive coordinator at.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Well, he was the head coach at Houston back in
the day. He was offensive coordinator at Texas too. Yes, yes, sir,
But Barry's the one that revolutionized it. Yeah, because he
went to Chuck Fairbanks in the nineteen sixties and goes,
nobody's running this offense except Emery Bellard. Emery Ballard, who
was a ut offensive coordinator, then became the head coach
(09:51):
at Houston, and it was basically veer concepts, but it
wasn't necessarily lining up.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
In the wishbone, but in the coach Aggie.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
In the twenty years or so that the wishbone was
part of OU's offense, you had Jack Mildrin, Steve Davis,
Thomas Lott who was from San Antonio, J C. Watts,
Dean Blevins, Kelly Phelps, and then you had Troy Yiateman
try to run it. That was a disaster because he
was awkward, It's all good, trying to run down the
sidelines like he was Peyton before Peyton, Well, he was
(10:21):
trying really hard. I remember calling along couple of touchdown
runs that he made, and there was a Danny Bradley
in the mix, and then there was Jameel and Jammel
was the most fun football player to run that offense
that I ever saw. But yeah, that ended in eighty seven.
In October of eighty seven, he went down the line
(10:42):
to the left and he went to the right and
the ACL stayed left and it did not go well.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
For him, and his career was never the same after that.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
You want to know what Troy's longest NFL career rushing
yard was in a game fourteen, no longer twenty six,
twenty five, all right, nineteen eighty nine against the level.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I think i'd have to go back and research this,
but I think I've got I don't even know if
I still have the tapes or not. I think I
got rid of a lot of the college tapes that
I had. But he had a couple of runs against
Texas I think one year that were pretty impressive for
somebody that's six' four and doesn't run that. Fast he
ran faster then than he did when we got to THE.
(11:24):
Nfl but of, course because he was going to make
a living with his arms on his. Legs troy in
his career had one thousand and sixteen yards rushing in
three hundred and twenty seven, attempts nine rushing.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Touchdowns that is. All that is about.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Five hundred more rushing yards THAN i Thought detroit ever.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Had all, right more coming, Up it's The Andy Everette
show on the tickets
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