Corey Clement’s relationship with time is a funny thing. Recruited out of Glassboro, N.J., the now-junior running back didn’t commit to Wisconsin until November of his senior year in high school. Once he sorted through offers from 15 schools and arrived in Madison in 2013, Clement found himself sealed at the bottom of a log jammed depth chart. Operating in the shadows of James White and Melvin Gordon, Clement has shown sparks of the back he can become in his limited time on the field.
Now, after two long years of biding his time on the sidelines, it’s Clement’s show in the Wisconsin backfield, and it’s like someone has hit the fast forward button on a remote.
“It’s starting to feel very real, it’s creeping up on us very fast,” Clement said at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago. “It was just spring time, it was just winter. Time is really creeping up on us, you know Sept. 5 is going to be here for us before we know it... time is really against us, I would say.”
Clement’s perception of time speeding up is in sharp contrast with his plodding rise to the starting running back position for the Badgers. And that’s why it’s not a stretch to believe he is poised to join the fraternity of successful backs in what has been dubbed “Running Back U.”
Clement knew coming out of high school that he wouldn’t walk into a starting role at Wisconsin, but he was still eager to find the field as a freshman. Those expectations were quickly tapered when he caught sight of how White and Gordon practiced.
“It was 110 miles an hour, it’s ridiculous,” Clement said. “As a freshman I had to keep up with that. And I was like, ‘maybe I’m not really fit for this game right now. Maybe I’ve just got to chill out and reset my mind and actually go out there and say ‘I’m going to compete no matter what.’”
While it was frustrating waiting behind two backs who clearly possessed next-level talent, Clement learned to draw positives from his less-than-ideal slot on the depth chart. That learning process involved closely watching the idiosyncrasies which made White and Gordon two of the best backs in the nation. White’s work ethic in practice and Gordon’s 3 a.m. workouts resonated with Clement and opened his eyes in a way that couldn’t have been taught through coaching. With the exception of the witching hour workouts — Clement prefers to hit the practice facility a few hours later — he mirrors Gordon’s preparation habits.
“There’s a lot that goes into it, there’s a lot that Melvin did behind the scenes that nobody saw, but I saw because I was next to him,” Clement said. “He performed the way he did because of what he did when nobody thought he was doing it.”
Clement put on 3 pounds in the offseason and “can’t shed it for nothing,” but his gains extend beyond bicep girth and bench press reps. He’s now the face of the Wisconsin football program and, as such, has had to learn the intricacies of handling the media, embracing the growth of his teammates and catalyzing a frustratingly inconsistent offense, all while honing his arsenal of talent that put him in that spot in the first place.
The transition thus far has been smooth, in part because he’s long foreseen himself in this position, starting when he caught word that the athletic department locked up a series with Alabama.
“I knew from the first day on campus, they had announced just previously before I got here that we were playing Alabama in 2015,” Clement said at fall camp. “I couldn’t worry about that yet. I was like ‘damn, that’s my junior year, I feel like I should be the man that year,’ and it’s here. Very surreal and I’m happy to be in the position I pictured.”
As Wisconsin’s date with the Crimson Tide drawing near, the fact remains that following in the footsteps of some of the greatest running backs in program history has been taxing. While Clement handled himself with elegant composure, it was clear when asked repeatedly to draw comparisons between himself and the Wisconsin running backs of old at Big Ten Media Days that such parallels have grown stale. Clement doesn’t want to be defined as the replacement for a Wisconsin football legend; he wants to make his own mark.
“My coaches are allowing for me to excel at and perfect my craft and there’s a lot of things I can do on a daily basis,” Clement said. “[When] I’m not working out, I’m in the film room and I’m just trying to be the best I can be. I’m not going to be Melvin Gordon, I’m going to be Corey Clement.”
