Recruiting on the Plains: 2018 OL Clayton Franks Player Profile

Player: Clayton Franks
Position: Offensive Line
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 270
School: Mansfield Legacy (Mansfield, Texas)
Class: 2018
Offers: New Mexico, New Mexico State, North Texas, Texas Tech
Recruiting Services: Rivals | 24/7 Sports | Scout | ESPN
Cumulative Ranking: 0.7943

🔴⚫️Committed ⚫️🔴 #Gunsblazin18 #WreckEm #GunsUp pic.twitter.com/UHwCjYWRaC

— Clayton Franks (@ClaytonFranks8) June 18, 2017

I think that Franks set off the flurry of commitments on Sunday, pulling the trigger and the interesting part here is that Franks apparently was also talking with Baylor, but the Bears never formally offered. Via RedRaiderSports’ Matt Clare:

“For me, it came down to Texas Tech and Baylor,” Franks said. “I was supposed to camp with Baylor and they were talking about offering, but they had already come by the school three times in the spring and I didn’t know what else they wanted to see from me. This whole past week, it’s been on my conscience and I just feel that Tech is where God wants me to be.

“With Coach (Brandon) Jones, I still remember that he didn’t even know who I was until Coach (Eric) Morris had told him about me. But even then, he said that it only took two series before he knew that he wanted to offer me. When I visited, Coach Jones and Coach (Manny) Ramirez both made me feel at home. I felt very comfortable with them being my coaches on the next level.”

Franks is apparently going to play on the inside and that makes sense. He’s not big enough to play the tackle, but he is playing that at Legacy. Franks needs to be more quick than fast and I think that’s true. It’s always tough to see explosiveness at the tackle position. Not a ton of highlights as far as pass protection is concerned. Franks is solid, not spectacular. I don’t see huge athleticism and I think that Franks is going to have to be great from a strength standpoint. I think that needs work from what I can tell, his Hudl profile says that he only benches 265 and squats 385. For a tall tackle, that’s probably fine, but he’s going to need some work this summer and next year.