John Clay is a freak of nature.

Coming out of high school, the Badgers running back sprinted a 4.5 second 40-yard dash. Former NIU running back Garrett Wolfe ran the same length in 4.4 seconds.
But Clay’s speed is far more dangerous than Wolfe’s.

With a 180-pound frame, the former Huskie had to be elusive against defenders to be successful. But Clay, with his 222-pound frame in high school, wasn’t worried about getting hit: his opponents were.

And the bad news for NIU is that the Racine, Wis. native has only added more weight, nearing 250 pounds, while maintaining his speed.

With the ability to hurdle over opponents like he was a track star – which he was in high school – Clay can burn opponents by bouncing the rush from a crowded box to the outside.
But if the sophomore wants to, he can put his head down and run straight through the crowd, usually dragging them along for the ride.

“It’s just odd going in there size-wise with John Clay, because we just don’t run up against many tailbacks who are at 250 pounds,” said NIU defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys. “We’ll try not to give him vertical cuts and try to keep him moving lateral. That will make it a bit easier to tackle.”

Clay rushed for 884 yards and nine touchdowns on 155 attempts last season. And that was with 35.5 percent of the tailback carries, as he was backing up former Badger P.J. Hill.

Despite the limited touches, Clay produced the fourth-best rushing season by a freshman in Wisconsin history. And, with another 692 yards, he’ll enter into the top 20 rushing yards of all time for Wisconsin. No wonder ESPN.com, Lindy’s, Athlon and Phil Steele all named Clay a preseason first-team All-Big Ten member.

But, that doesn’t make the Huskie defense afraid of the Doak Walker Award Preseason Watch List member.

“A couple years back, in 2007, we played against P.J. Hill and he was the same type of running back,” said NIU linebacker Cory Hanson. “Just like you attack any running back, [to bring them down] you hit as hard as you can.”

But Hill was 20 pounds lighter than Clay. NIU’s defensive line will need to prevent Clay from getting speed if its linebackers will have a chance to bring him down.

“Pretty much the defensive tackles have to concentrate on getting penetration on the field,” said NIU defensive tackle Brian Lawson. “Our linebackers then have to make the tackles.”

All comments are moderated before being published. We will not edit your comments, but we also will not approve those that are abusive, off-topic, attack another poster or contain information we know to be libelous or false.

During peak weekday viewing times, most comments will be reviewed within six hours. For more detailed information, click here.

After submitting your comment, check below for a confirmation message.

• Your name:
• Enter text from image:
  

• Your comment:

* 300-character count. HTML formatting will not display.