Clay cuts list to five

Jeffersonville (Ga.) Twiggs County linebacker Antonio Clay has exploded onto the recruiting scene and has picked up offers from most every major program in the South and some from outside the region.

“I have gotten offers from Georgia and LSU in the past couple of weeks, and that is most every school I wanted one from now,” he said. “I got an offer from Miami and Oklahoma, too, but I got those a while back. Right now I would say that my top five schools are Clemson, Georgia, Miami, Oklahoma and LSU.”

The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Clay ran the 40-yard dash in 4.69 seconds at the Atlanta NIKE camp with a pulled groin. He also ran the shuttle in 4.44 seconds.

“I recently attended camp at Alabama, but right before I camped there, I took an unofficial visit to Miami,” Clay said. “They had a camp going on down there to, but I didn’t participate, I just visited down there. I got to talk to the coaches and see everything down there. It was great, right now I would say that Miami is my leader.”

Last season he began turning heads when he was stopping ball-carriers cold in their tracks, registering 101 tackles, 12 sacks and one interception. On offense he collected 10 catches for 235 yards and three touchdowns.

“I still want to make an early commitment, but I feel like I need to take some official visits first,” Clay said. “I will probably take those the first couple of weeks of the season and then decide. I know Miami and Oklahoma will get visits for sure and probably LSU. I have seen all five of my favorites except for LSU and Oklahoma and I want to visit both of those before I decide.”

Clay has a 315-pound bench press and a 475-pound squat. He did 21 reps on the bench press and has a 35-inch vertical jump.