Chris McClellan’s recruitment defied all conventional logic.
The Gators were 5-6 and were only a couple of days removed from Dan Mullen’s firing. Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham had been fired several weeks before that, and defensive line coach David Turner seemed unlikely to be retained by the next head coach, which turned out to be Billy Napier.
Plus, McClellan is from Oklahoma, so it’s not like he grew up wanting to play for the Gators regardless of the circumstances.
As a highly ranked four-star defensive lineman, he could’ve gone to pretty much any college he wanted to, including several that were in much more stable situations than Florida.
And yet, he committed to UF during Thanksgiving week. He is currently enrolled at the school and going through the early stages of the strength and conditioning program. He will wear jersey No. 7 this spring.
It’s up!!!☀️🌴😎🐊 pic.twitter.com/dyn0bnP3CS
— Chris McClellan 7️⃣🦍 (@ChrisDMac10) December 16, 2021
So, how did McClellan end up committed to a program without a coach?
To answer that question, you have to go back to the spring of his junior year at Edison High School in Tulsa. At that point, he had some offers from lower-level Power Five programs such as Kansas State, Minnesota, Arkansas and Louisville. Then, Oregon offered. Two weeks later, Florida followed.
His father, Kenny McClellan, who played for Sylvester Croom at Mississippi State, said that the old UF staff initially thought that they had no shot at outdueling Oklahoma for a recruit from the Sooner State, so they didn’t offer him at first. Eventually, former quarterbacks coach Garrick McGee, who’s from Tulsa, convinced the other coaches to look at his film.
“If it weren’t for Coach McGee, Chris probably wouldn’t even have a Florida offer,” Kenny McClellan said. “Coach McGee is from our hometown. He watched Chris’ film before he was even a position coach, and he kind of presented it to the staff, and they liked him. And he didn’t tell them that he was from Tulsa, from Oklahoma, because sometimes people have a perception if you say a kid’s from Oklahoma. He just told them ‘Watch this kid,’ and they thought he was from somewhere in the South or something. And they were like, ‘Well, why haven’t we offered him?’”
That offer from UF opened up the floodgates, with USC, Michigan, LSU, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Auburn, Texas A&M and Oklahoma offering him in the following months.
Because Florida got the train rolling, that always kept them near the top.
However, as could be expected, a bunch of people tried to pressure him into staying in state and playing for the Sooners. It wasn’t just the Oklahoma staff, either.
“That’s what everybody was trying to pressure him to do,” his dad said. “I mean everybody, from teachers to people in the community to the staff to the OU players. I mean all the way up until the end, all the way to signing day. Even the new staff.”
Some guys in his position might’ve given in to the pressure and signed with Oklahoma, only to regret it down the road when things don’t work out for whatever reason.
Fortunately, McClellan was able to lean on his father for advice. Kenny McClellan had been through the recruiting process before, so he knew what the important things were for his son to prioritize.
“When I made my decision, I kind of made my decision based off of what people were telling me,” he said. “I kind of told Chris the ends and outs and the dos and don’ts, the pros and cons. Just look at the pros and cons of every program. You don’t pick a coach; you pick a school. Pick where you feel comfortable.”
He doesn’t like cold weather, which took Ohio State and Michigan out of the running. The old staff was able to sell him on Florida being the best fit for him even without football, which led to his unusually timed commitment. Ironically, a couple of his other top schools, Oklahoma and USC, experienced coaching changes just a few days later.
“That’s where he felt comfortable,” Kenny McClellan said. “I said you pick a school where you can go when it’s not football season and still be comfortable.
“They don’t recruit as good as the current staff. But they sold Florida, though. They didn’t sell them.”
The same cannot be said for the current staff. Shortly after he accepted the UF job, Napier and running backs coach Jabbar Juluke visited McClellan at his home. His father was impressed by the vision that Napier has for the program and the plan that he has to get there.
“He just laid out the program, the direction that he was aiming for the program, the way he runs stuff and the process,” he said. “It’s about the process. It’s a day-by-day thing. Of course, they say #UFuture, but #UFuture only happens day by day, winning the day. I felt that. I understood that. You don’t want to look forward and skip a step. I liked his message.
“Overall, Coach Nape sounded like he’s a cool dude. He has a plan, and that’s all you can do is have a plan at the end of the day. I respect the umbrella that he comes from. He kind of reminds me of a new age Nick Saban, if that makes any sense.”
While Chris McClellan is the son of a college football player, it wasn’t always a given that he would follow in his father’s footsteps. He didn’t really get serious about playing the sport until he was in the eighth grade.
He set a goal to be a starter on the varsity team as a freshman. He certainly had the raw physical abilities to do so, as he’s currently listed at 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds. He also moves well for somebody his size.
However, his skills weren’t very refined, which meant that he had to put in a lot of work to meet that goal.
He eventually did start as a freshman, but the work didn’t stop there. He kept striving to get better throughout his career, which resulted in that slew of late offers.
“You know how you start on Madden, and you make a big guy already? Like, playing [NBA] 2K, you’ve got to kind of grind? That’s how he was,” his dad said. “Every year, it was a transition. His junior year, he was doing a lot of feet work, and I had him doing running back stuff, receiver stuff. He played 7-on-7. He was the only D-Lineman playing 7-on-7, making catches, getting in the end zone because I didn’t want him to do linemen stuff because his equilibrium was off because he was so big. I had him do yoga, different stuff. He did a lot of self-training.”
McClellan transferred to nearby Owasso High School for his senior season. Owasso plays in the highest classification in Oklahoma and has a lot more resources than Edison High School. Their head coach is Bill Blankenship, who was the head coach at the University of Tulsa for four years. Their defensive coordinator, Antonio Graham, was on Blankenship’s staff at Tulsa.
Owasso lists 12 assistant coaches on their staff directory, which is two more than college programs are allowed to have.
As one might expect, McClellan improved a lot during his time at a high school with a college-like infrastructure.
“Like a lot of kids that go to the next level, he’ll be a little bit green,” Blankenship said. “But I think this year gave him a head start. He’s still got a huge upside. He’s only been in the weight room with us for like eight months, and he took great strides during that time.”
While McClellan is pleased with the progress he’s made so far, his dad has reminded him that college isn’t the ultimate goal. It’s just the next step.
“He just bought in to want to be great, and, at the end of the day, he fulfilled that, and he’s living out his little dreams,” Kenny McClellan said. “I told him that’s just the beginning right now. It’s a transition to get to the next level, at the end of the day. We only plan on being there 3-4 years.”
For that to happen, he’s going to have to improve in several areas. While his size is good right now, he wants to shed some body fat and tack on some muscle to become a more buff 300-pounder. He also needs to work on his technique and master the playbook.
“I think there’ll be a learning curve of just the speed and strength, and ‘Everybody else is my size,’” Blankenship said. “Once that happens, again, he has all the tools, and he’s got a good work ethic on the field.
“He’s coachable. He doesn’t think he’s figured it all out. He wants to learn more about football. He’s not a prima donna. There was a big difference in the guy that was going through recruiting – he’d get all caught up in all that stuff – but when he walked on the field or walked in the weight room, it was business, and he wanted people to help take him to another level.”
If he maintains that humility at UF, there is playing time there for the taking in the fall. Princely Umanmielen is the only returning strongside end with significant experience. There figures to be a pretty wide-open competition for the other spots in the rotation.
McClellan can also play at defensive tackle, where the Gators must replace both starters. Blankenship thinks that McClellan’s future will be at this position after he bulks up in his first couple of years in college.
More than anything, though, his first season at Florida will be about him adapting an aggressive mindset. Because Oklahoma isn’t a recruiting hotbed, he was usually the most talented player on the field and could get away with playing at 90 percent effort every now and then. That certainly won’t be the case in the SEC.
“He’s not going to out-talent people, but he has enough to hold his own,” Blankenship said. “I just think that whenever that switch goes off, that switch gets flipped, he’s going to be a beast. But he’s such a great kid [that] I haven’t seen that dog come out a lot because it hasn’t had to. So, I’m anxious to see if that will develop for him.”
Chris McClellan may have taken a bizarre path to UF, but he’s here now and ready to make an impact.