Demon Clowney just picked up what he believes to be his first scholarship offer from UGA.
Clowney, the second cousin of former SEC great Jadeveon Clowney, is a 6-foot-5 defensive end prospect from Maryland in the 2020 class.
While it is tempting to focus on that last name, there’s also the first name attached to the offer.
His mother did name him Demon. As in pass-rushing demon. Or sack demon. Maybe even a demonic terror in the backfield.
What’s the genesis of that?
“To be honest, I’m not sure that I really know,” he said. “It is my actual name. My mom named me that as soon as I came out of the womb. I tried to ask her where she got it from, but she wouldn’t tell me.”
Was it became he kicked too much during the final trimester? It seems like that will have to remain a mystery.
“To be honest, I’m not even sure,” he said.
Clowney said he speaks to Clowney, but those two aren’t close enough for him to be training together yet.
Georgia saw what it liked out of Clowney on film. Not on a roster.
He said he talks to a lot of coaches, but this offer was the first he chose to publicize.
“It is like it is (his first offer) but I don’t know if it is or it isn’t,” Clowney said. “I talk to a lot of coaches and they talk about offers. But to be honest, I’m not even sure.”
But he’s sure about this one. He said he spoke to first-year Georgia OLBs coach Dan Lanning on Tuesday.
That means he will likely be seen as a weak-side DE or an OLB on Saturdays.
“I really just like to hit people,” he said.
There’s also the game to focus on. Clowney fits into a size-14 cleat and is still growing at 205 pounds.
Will UGA have a chance with Demon Clowney?
The rangy sophomore felt that Lanning made it clear he had an offer from UGA.
“He said that they had an offer for me from the university,” he said. “He said, ‘We would love for you to play here’ and ‘I would love for you to play here’ when we spoke.”
It seems like the new defensive assistant really impressed him.
“He seemed like a very honest guy,” Clowney said. “From what I can tell, I like him. He wants me to come so I will come down. He asked me to come down in the near future.”
He knows he needs to gain some more weight and get bigger and stronger. Clowney said he paid attention to Georgia’s defense last fall.
“I watched their defensive ends a lot last year,” he said.
He said that he was “wide open” and wasn’t going to feel a certain type of way about South Carolina, for instance, just because his NFL cousin played there.
Michigan visits his school a lot. That’s St. Frances in Maryland. He transferred there for his sophomore season. Clowney also listed Ohio State as a dream school.
He felt that the Bulldogs will have a good chance recruiting him going forward. He was always going to remember this offer as his first offer.
“I’m the type that is an early-catches-the-worm-type of guy,” he said. “I want to visit the school and get a feel for the school.”
He said that his friends call him “Clowney” and “Demon” at times. Others try to put a little too much flair into it when pronouncing his first name.
“People pronounce my name different ways but it doesn’t really offend me or anything,” he said.