Middle Tennessee Field Via College Football Tour

There’s hardly anything strange about a college football kicker starting his time in any program without a scholarship. With 85 scholarships to be given out, often times the specialists are the last to get a free-ride.

However, the story of Middle Tennessee State kicker Cody Clark is anything but normal. That’s because he went from paying his own way to on scholarship and right back off it in just two seasons’ time. It’s all led him a position of having to leave the program to pursue other scholarship opportunities to kick at the collegiate level.

Clark was a walk-on to the program in 2012, and ended up redshirting. Still a walk-on in 2013, he became the starting kicker and had a successful first campaign with the Blue Raiders. Clark hit on 12 of 16 field goal attempts that season, a mark that was good enough to earn him a scholarship for his redshirt sophomore season in 2014.

“My redshirt sophomore year [MTSU head coach Rick Stockstill] gave me a scholarship and, really, it was one of the best days of my life,” Clark explained. “It was everything that I had been working for, and it helped my parents out with the cost of school.”

However, Clark would go on to connect on just nine of 15 field goal attempts. He would lead the team with 73 points, but apparently the numbers game on the field and in the locker room caught up with Clark and the program.

Instead of staying on scholarship like he thought, Clark did not have his one-year deal renewed at the end of the season. Head coach Rick Stockstill claims that the kicker knew exactly what he was getting in to when he was put on scholarship for the 2014 school year though.

“I explained to him that it was a one-year deal, and that’s all it is,” Stockstill said. “He signed the [NCAA paper]. He knew when that scholarship expired. He signed it. He knew when it was over.”

Clark alleges he didn’t find out about his loss of scholarship until the next fall semester was to begin and he got a letter from the school, even though he acknowledges signing some papers prior to accepting the scholarship he did receiver.

“I signed something in spring or summer before this past year, but he said it was for my scholarship and that everyone had to sign it,” Clark said. “He never made me aware that I wouldn’t be on scholarship. He said there was a ‘slight’ chance I wouldn’t, but he didn’t make me feel very worried about it, otherwise I would’ve looked at playing somewhere else.”

Despite the loss of scholarship, Clark went on as a the primary kicker for MTSU this past season and hit 12 of 16 field goals including a 46-yard game winner. However, it was becoming apparent the coaching staff didn’t trust him enough to give him his scholarship back.

Instead, Clark was granted his release from the program and incoming freshman Crews Holt took a scholarship offer from the Blue Raiders.

No doubt this is a strange case of numbers in a college football program, confidence in a specific player and coaching decisions. It also serves as a highlight as to the differences between those in Power 5 conferences and the so-called “Group of 5,” where scholarships aren’t a guaranteed thing as of now.

Clark is likely to wind up a division down at the FCS level, as he already has a scholarship offer from The Citadel.

[MTSU Sidelines]

About Andrew Coppens

Andy is a contributor to The Comeback as well as Publisher of Big Ten site talking10. He also is a member of the FWAA and has been covering college sports since 2011. Andy is an avid soccer fan and runs the Celtic FC site The Celtic Bhoys. If he's not writing about sports, you can find him enjoying them in front of the TV with a good beer!